Camel through the eye of the needle

Mt 19:24 And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel (gamal) to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of Alahym.

There have been many interpretations concerning the camel going through the eye of the needle. Traditionalists interpret this stating in Yerusalem there was a gate named ‘Eye of the needle’ through which at night (since the main gate was closed) the camels were made to pass through it. Yet others teach that the Greek word ‘kamelos’ is a mistake of translators when copying the word, they say it should have been copied as ‘gamla’ which means rope in Aramaic. They say it makes more sense to remove the rope thread by thread to make it pass through the eye of the needle. They say it spiritually means the rich man would have to dismantle his riches one by one as each thread to pass through the eye of the needle.

This may look like a difficult passage to handle and that’s if we look at it in Greek/Aramaic, but we must see whom Yahusha was addressing to see truth. We know that the scriptures are spiritual and hence the spiritual is hidden in the letter.

Yahusha was addressing a rich man who was a Yahudi. Yahudi's were rich in the covenant

Rom 9:4 who are the sons of Yasharal, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Turah and the temple service and the promises,
Rom 9:5 whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh the Mashiyach came, who is over all Alahym blessed forever. Aman

One thing we must keep in mind is that Yahusha is speaking to a Yahudi observing the law and hence he would have definitely spoken to him in Hebrew and not in Greek/Aramaic. The translation in the Greek is poor and the essence of what Mashiyach was saying is lost completely. 

Let’s view the passages and then see what the Hebrew words are: 

Mt 19:16 ¶ And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, Alahim: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. 18 He saith unto him, Which? Yahusha said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,19 Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 20 The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?

Here was a rich man, a Jew who was seeking eternal life by observing the Turah. Yahusha quotes to him 6 commandments out of the Ten Commandments summarizing the commandment related to ‘neighbor’ as ‘Thou shall love thy neighbor as thy self’.

The question one would have is here why did Mashiak not quote all the Ten Commandments? Let’s list all the other commandments which Mashiak did not quote directly:

1)     De 5:6 ¶ I am Yahuah Alahim, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.7 Thou shalt have none other gods before me. 

2)   De 5:8 Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth: 

3)  De 5:11 Thou shalt not take the name of Yahuah in vain: for Yahuah will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. 

4)  De 5:12 Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as Yahuah thy Alahim hath commanded thee.

Mark & Luke only records 5 commandments listed by Mashiak.

Does this mean that this young man was observing the others which Mashiak did not list? That’s not what it means.

Yahusha did quote to him all the Ten Commandments and here is where he quoted them. We need to see an exegesis of the passage to understand this:

When the young man addressed Mashiak as ‘Good Master’ he told him

Mt 19:17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, Alahim: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

Doing first 4 commandments would be a result of understanding who Alahim is and that he is ‘GOOD’ and his goodness revealed through the Turah which the rich man was far away from seeing it. We see this goodness of Alahim in the words ‘camel going through the eye of the needle’.

Wiwad ahnay ahmar lakam nakal lagamal libar banakab hamachat

The Hebrew words for camel going through the eye of the needle is ‘lagamal banaqab hamachat’.

 ‘Gamal’ is the 3^rd Alphabet of Hebrew and in Paleo Hebrew is portrayed with a pictograph of a ‘camel’. ‘Gamal’ is a rich man running after a poor man to do to him charity.

In Numbers 5:8, Lev 25:26 & Ruth 3:9 ‘gamal’ letter is used for kinsman redeemer. The word is 'ga'al'

Nu 5:8 But if the man have no kinsman (ga'al) to recompense the trespass unto, let the trespass be recompensed unto Yahuah, even to the priest; beside the ram of the atonement, whereby an atonement shall be made for him.

Le 25:25 If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold. 26 And if the man have none to redeem (ga'al) it, and himself be able to redeem it;

Usage of Gamal in Lev 25:25:

The word is wa Ga Ah la. The waw is a connector,connecting the kins man to the brother.The usage of letter Ga is the pictograph of a camel.Ga (camel) ah (Aleph the leader ) and la ( lamed which means yoked).The waw connects to the brother i.e haqarob elayu: One near to him. Hence its a picture of Mashiak

Ru 3:8 And it came to pass at midnight, that the man (Boaz) was afraid, and turned himself: and, behold, a woman lay at his feet. 9 And he said, Who art thou? And she answered, I am Ruth thine handmaid: spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid; for thou art a near kinsman (ga'al).

It’s a beautiful picture of Alahim who is the ‘gamal’ chasing after man to do him charity i.e. save him in the person of Yahusha. Yahuah has become our Yahusha.

Job 19:25 For I know that my redeemer (ga'al) liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:

The one who will stand at the latter day upon the earth is the Son of Alahim and he is the 'ga'al' that liveth.

The Gematria value of Gamal is ‘3’, Aleph’s Gematrial value is ‘1’ and Bet’s Gematrial value is 2 , hence Gamal is spiritually Aleph + Bet = Ahba which means ‘Father’. The Father who is transcendent pierced into time, space and matter to redeem his creation in relating everything back to him through his Son.

Ga 4:6 And because ye are sons, Alahim hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

We see the Ruach of the Father hovering over the waters to pierce into them to fish out unto him a people whom he loves.

Ge 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of Alahim moved upon the face of the waters.

We saw in our study ‘Ab and the Aleph Bet’ on the same blog that The 'Aleph-Bet' together spells out the 'Language' without which mankind wouldn't be able to connect to HIM. In fact the first letter in the Bible begins with a 'Bet' and not the Aleph.

The beginning of creation is related to him through the ‘Bara’ in the ‘Barashaiyth’. ‘Bara’ means to create and ‘bara’ comprises of Bet, Resh & Aleph and ‘shaiyth’ comprises of Shin, Yod & Tav.

The Hebrew word “barashaiyth” is comprised of the Hebrew letters BET (the equivalent of our letter “B”, pictured in the ancient Hebrew as a House or Tent, and meaning house, as in “the house of David”)
RESH (R)(pictured as a man’s head, meaning the first or highest person.
ALEPH (A) (pictured as an ox head, meaning Alahim is my strength).
SHIN (Sh) (pictured as two teeth, meaning to consume or destroy).
YOD (Y) (pictured as an arm from the fist to the elbow, meaning my hand).
TAV (T) (pictured as two crossed sticks, meaning a mark or covenant).

Put together we see the Yod family i.e. the Father and the Son creating everything in perspective of the Son relating to the Father. This doesn’t mean that the Son pre-existed as some 2^nd person besides the Father but through the word ‘Barashaiyth’, Alahim is showing his plan which he had ‘In the beginning’ to create man into his image and likeness and the image and likeness would be of the Son.

Ro 8:29 ¶ For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Coming back to ‘Gamal’, the Father has pierced his creation by his Ruach in becoming the kinsman redeemer of his creation when he divided asunder his Ruach from his Soul to give his creation his Son by whom he made all things.

Col 1:15 Who is the image of the invisible Alahim, the firstborn of every creature: 16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:

‘Camel’ was considered to be a beast of burden and we see the burden of our sin and our yoke taken upon himself by Yahusha.

Mt 11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

2Co 8:9 For ye know the grace of our Yahuah Yahusha Mashiak, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.

The yoke which is easy and the burden which is light is the riches of the kingdom that the Son gives to all those who come to him.

If one would know who the ‘kinsman redeemer’ is and what he has done for us and that he has been working right from ‘in the beginning’ in saving his creation would one understand the first 4 commandments which speak of ‘Alahim, his deliverance, his image, his name and his rest’

The young man who was a Jew was far from understanding who Alahim was. In his uncertain riches he couldn’t see the richest person of the universe was standing right before him having become poor unloading all his riches unto his own people.

Hence the word used in Matthew 19:24  ‘la gammal’ would mean ‘the kinsman redeemer with our yoke’.

The ‘yokes’ were exchanged between Mashiak and us. What a beautiful Savior we have.

Now that we have seen ‘gammal’ let’s see the next word ‘banaqab’:

The word ‘naqab’ in primitive use was ‘to puncture’ or ‘to pierce’ or ‘to express’ or ‘strike through’

Hence we see with the two words ‘gammal ba naqab’ the rich man piercing through the house.

Hab 3:14 Thou didst strike through (naqab) with his staves the head of his villages: they came out as a whirlwind to scatter me: their rejoicing was as to devour the poor secretly.

Isa 36:6 Lo, thou trustest in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt; whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it (naqab): so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all that trust in him.

Ba naqab: Bet nun quph Bet.

Bet means Tent or house

Nun means life as in life of the Son

Quph means time

Bet again means Tent or house

It spiritually means the life of the Son was expressed into time in the house.

Hence ‘Gammal Banaqab’ means ‘The life of the Father was emptied and expressed into time in the house by the Son’

Now let’s view the last word ‘ha machat’:

Ha means ‘behold’

‘Machat’ means ‘to pierce’, ‘to smite’, ‘to wound’: ha machat means ‘ behold the smitten’

‘Gammal Banaqab hamachat’ would mean ‘The life of the Father was emptied and expressed/pierced into time in the house by the Son’, behold the life is smitten’

This is what ‘camel going through the eye of the needle means’.

Mt 19:25 When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved? 26 But Yahusha beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with Alahim all things are possible.

We see the disciples amazed and asking Mashiak who then can be saved? 

Mashiak tells them, with men this is impossible but with Alahim all things are possible. Alahim began the emptying with himself piercing into time bestowing his riches on to us and taking our sin our shame and our poverty on to himself.

For us who trust in him we are called to walk in his footsteps:

1Pe 2:21 For even hereunto were ye called: because Messiah also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:

‘la gamal ba naqab ha machat’ for us means ‘ A yoked walk with the Son beholding the expression of his life, being smitten with him’

Heb 13:13 Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his (Yahusha’s) reproach.

Ga 2:20 I am crucified with Messiah: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Messiah liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of Alahim, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

There are many things which Mashiak spoke in Hebrew which is translated poorly in Greek. For example:

Mt 23:24 Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.

The Hebrew word for 'gnat' is 'ken' and for 'camel' is 'gammal'

YLT Exodus 8:16-19 Then Yahuah said to Moses, "Tell Aaron, 'Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the ground,' and throughout the land of Egypt the dust will become gnats." They did this, and when Aaron stretched out his hand with the staff and struck the dust of the ground, gnats came on people and animals. All the dust throughout the land of Egypt became gnats. But when the magicians tried to produce gnats by their secret arts, they could not.

Mashiak was calling Pharasees hypocrites because they by their tradition were straining out the 'ken' (gnat) physically unclean things out but were swallowing the righteous things/walk denoted by the 'gammal'.