Hyperbole in the New Testament
By John A. Tvedtnes

[Supplement to Gospel Doctrine New Testament lesson 21]

Christians visiting Jerusalem are sometimes surprised to see that portions of the outer wall of Herod’s temple are still standing. Indeed, there are remnants of all four corners and some parts of the wall still have three-quarters of their original height. But didn’t Jesus say of the temple that “There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down” (Matthew 24:2)? How, then, can they still be standing?

The answer is hyperbole, a rhetorical device by which one exaggerates something in order to stress a point (in this case, to denote the utter destruction of the temple). Some might find it strange that Jesus should say something that is, from a modern, logical perspective, untrue. But we have other examples of hyperbole from the Savior’s mouth.

For example, in Matthew 7:3-5, he said:

The Greek term rendered “mote” denotes a small piece of chaff or twig, while the one rendered “beam” denotes just that — a wooden beam.

Does anyone really take literally the Savior’s teaching, “But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth” (Matthew 6:3)? Hands have no reasoning power. Is Jesus to be taken literally when he said, “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26)? How can the person who taught us to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44) tell us to hate members of our family?

Perhaps the most well-known example of New Testament hyperbole is Jesus’ statement that “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:23). In an effort to explain the passage in terms that would not have Jesus making an incorrect statement, various suggestions have been made.

Some have turned to the Greek text and suggested that the text should read kamilos (“rope”), rather than kamelos (“camel”), while others suggest that the confusion is between the Aramaic terms for camel and rope. 

The most widely-known idea is the suggestion that there was, anciently, a small door built into larger city gate, through which one could enter after the large gate was closed for the night.  Supposedly called "the eye of the needle,” a camel could pass through this door only if unburdened of his packs, just as a wealthy man must divest himself of his riches (or, at least, his sins) in order to pass through the gate of heaven. 

There is no evidence for such a door in the time when Christ used that expression, and there are no examples of this kind of door until the Crusader era, more than a millennium after New Testament times. The “needle’s eye” concept was proposed in some nineteenth-century Protestant Bible commentaries, which is where James E. Talmage got the idea. [1]

Had Jesus been referring to such a gate through which camels could really pass if divested of their burdens, the next two verses would not have added:

Had the apostles been aware of camels going through gates called “eye of the needle,” they would not have been “exceedingly amazed,” and Jesus would not have said, “with men this is impossible.”

In reality, there is no need to understand the words “camel” and “the eye of a needle” in any other than their normal sense. The Babylonian Talmud uses a nearly identical expression, speaking of an elephant going through the eye of a needle (Berachot 55b; Baba Metsia 38b). [2]

Jesus was less hyperbolic than the rabbis whose teachings were cited in the Talmud. Even if there were something to the rope and gate explanations, we are still left with another of Jesus’ hyperbolic statements, when he spoke of those who “strain at a gnat and swallow a camel” (Matthew 23:24).

The Savior would not have really expected the Pharisees to swallow either a rope or a camel. The exaggeration was intentional and is comparable to a modern parent telling a child, “If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times...”

An especially heavy rainfall will prompt an English speaker to declare that “It’s raining cats and dogs” rather than raindrops. A famished person might hyperbolically say, “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.” Such statements are not lies, but exaggeration to stress a point.

For additional material relating to this lesson, see:

· I Have a Question: “Jesus once said, ‘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.’ (Matt. 19:24.)  Can you give me some background on this statement?”  Ensign, March 1985

For an introduction to the books of the New Testament and in-depth discussions of each verse in the New Testament, see Kevin L. Barney (ed.), John H. Jenkins, and John A. Tvedtnes, “Footnotes to the New Testament for Latter-day Saints,” go to: http://feastupontheword.org/Site:NTFootnotes