Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
👉Sign up for Dr. Bart Ehrman’s course!
historyvalley--ehrman.thrivecart.com/eye-of-needle
The Camel and the Needle
Some devout followers of Jesus insist he was at heart a capitalist. Others, equally devout, insist he was a socialist. Some read his instruction to the rich man literally: “Sell everything and give to the poor.” Others argue he meant it metaphorically, noting that his elaboration, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven,” describes a flat impossibility. To which others reply: Jesus himself says it is impossible.
What did Jesus actually say? And what, just as important, did he mean?
In this course we will examine Jesus’s teachings on wealth in their proper historical, cultural, and religious context. We will place his words alongside other moral teachers of his day, Greek, Roman, and Jewish, and consider how an apocalyptic Jew from rural Galilee understood money, poverty, and the obligations of those with more than they needed to survive. And we will ask whether any of it can have relevance for the very different economic systems of our own time.
👉Sign up for Dr. Bart Ehrman’s course!
historyvalley--ehrman.thrivecart.com/eye-of-needle
The Camel and the Needle
Some devout followers of Jesus insist he was at heart a capitalist. Others, equally devout, insist he was a socialist. Some read his instruction to the rich man literally: “Sell everything and give to the poor.” Others argue he meant it metaphorically, noting that his elaboration, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven,” describes a flat impossibility. To which others reply: Jesus himself says it is impossible.
What did Jesus actually say? And what, just as important, did he mean?
In this course we will examine Jesus’s teachings on wealth in their proper historical, cultural, and religious context. We will place his words alongside other moral teachers of his day, Greek, Roman, and Jewish, and consider how an apocalyptic Jew from rural Galilee understood money, poverty, and the obligations of those with more than they needed to survive. And we will ask whether any of it can have relevance for the very different economic systems of our own time.
