Is the Holy Bible from Ancient Eastern Manuscripts a trustworthy translation of the Bible?
Because it is translated from Aramaic, I would assume that it is closer to the original thought forms of Jesus Christ than any other language since it is the language that He spoke.
I’d love to hear your perspectives!
First off, I think it is true that the gospel of Matthew, being the first to be written, was composed in aramaic. At places the gospel really gives the impression of being translated from aramaic. However I do not think this goes for the rest of the books of the Bible.
The gospel of Matthew would likely have been composed while the church was still largely based in Israel, and the language of choice at that time and place was aramaic and / or greek.
On the “eye of needle” issue, I have heard that in the wall of Jerusalem there were small openings for guests who came after the city gates had been shut for the night. A guest who thus came with a camel would have to sit down the camel on its knees and drag it in through the small opening. And such a small opening was called “eye of needle”.
The eye of the needle as a gate that a camel could actually pass through isn’t borne out by Matthew 19:23-26. When Jesus said it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, the disciples asked, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus answered that things that are impossible for human beings are not impossible for God.
The dialog indicates that the parable was about something impossible. Jesus didn’t answer the disciples by saying, “No, dummies! I’m talking about that gate! A camel could do it, and a rich man could too.” And the disciples didn’t say, “Oh, you mean the gate. We could do that. It would be like doing the limbo.”
Also, from what I found online (and I don’t know how to copy things on my phone, which I am using right now), the gate explanation didn’t appear till hundreds of years later, and I read that St. Jerome’s commentary said that the Gospel meant an actual needle.
The gate story strikes me as another example of trying to show that Jesus didn’t mean what His words sounded like. Take up your cross? Can’t we just put it on the camel and let the camel bring it through the narrow gate (Matthew 7, Luke 13) for us?
Thank you all for the insightful replies.
This is the kind of info I was looking for.
Cheers!