3 ms·
Maybe, at least in "modern" writing. The problem I have with that claim is that the phrasing "eye of a needle" appears in Talmudic writings that predate the NT
by Zancarius 3y ago
Maybe, at least in "modern" writing.
The problem I have with that claim is that the phrasing "eye of a needle" appears in Talmudic writings that predate the NT, so the idea itself likely predates that, and other creatures (elephants) have been used instead of camels.
Granted, this is just hair-splitting, but I would strongly suspect its use dates much earlier.
- angiosperm 3y agoThere are no Talmudic manuscripts that predate the NT. There is a reasonable inference that much of what is in them does, but there is no guessing which bits those are.
- Zancarius 3y agoAh interesting, thanks! I didn't realize the only surviving manuscripts for which we have evidence date approximately to the time range of the MT. Whereas the Sinaiticus majuscule is easily 2-4 centuries earlier. Still, I would expect the idiom was well-established by the first century.