Jesus did say its harder for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God....but did you know he was talking about the needlegate?"

  I was at a small group recently and we were talking about the doctrine of salvation.  One fellow was saying that riches were particularly a tough thing for him to deal with in his life.  That it was tough for him not to pursue wealth and to live for his own desires rather than God's.  We all shared how pursuing wealth was tough for us not to seek after. 

One guy brought up the verse in Matthew 19:24  "Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."  we all spoke about this verse for a while until one guy said, "Yes Jesus did say that but did you know that he was talking about a gate called the needle gate that after dark that is how you had to enter.  your camel would have to get down on its knees to enter the city.  So what Jesus was saying was rich people can get in no problem as long as they are on their knees."

While I appreciated the guys message, he was continuing a myth in christian culture and its completely untrue.  Also it is doctrinally false! 

First there simply was no needle gate or needles eye in Jerusalem at this time.  Simply it is false historically, it is propagated among people in the church all the time, i have heard it personally many times.

Secondly its 100% wrong doctrinally.  Jesus is very clear in Matthew 19:26 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”  so the idea that a camel could actually squeeze through a needle gate on its own is possible. not impossible!

This is called eisegesis, it is people reading their own meaning into the text.  The plain meaning of the text is that this is an impossible image...it would be shocking to hear.  To tell people that Jesus was actually referring to the needle gate is plain false and it changes the teaching to mean that with hard work you can squeeze into the kingdom of heaven