Many fundamentalists seek to explain away the obvious hostility
to wealth in the saying attributed to Jesus, "It is easier for a
camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to
enter the kingdom of God" (Matthew 19:24). Fundamentalists today
constantly tell each other that the "eye of the needle" was a
narrow gate into Jerusalem through which a camel could just
barely squeeze, implying that even rich people can get
into Heaven, provided that they walk a straight and narrow path.
While believing this no doubt lowers the cognitive dissonance
they suffer between the resentment against wealth that
is integral to the Christian religion they revere, and their own
desire to achieve, it is nonetheless a silly legend, like the
alligators in the sewers. The Jerome Biblical
Commentary is a
standard reference work found in many libraries, written by
Catholic scholars. Its commentary
on Matthew 19:24 states
bluntly, "the figure of the camel and the eye of the needle means
exactly what is said; it does not refer to a cable or a small
gate of Jerusalem." The Abingdon Interpreter's
Bible is a major
reference work compiled by Protestant scholars, and its analysis
of this passage is in full agreement. Unfortunately for the
fundamentalists, the concensus of New Testament scholars is that
Matthew's passage barring rich people from heaven means exactly
what it says. It remains to be seen how many of them are willing
to give up all their wealth in accordance with
the ideals they claim to profess.