Finally! The Truth Behind Peter, "The Rock"!

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NotWorthy

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OK, I’ve read so many threads on what Jesus meant by telling Peter, “You are Rock…”, and I’ve come to the conclusion you are all wrong!

Have you ever considered that Jesus had a sense of humor, and he was referring to Peter’s ability (or lack thereof) of walking on water? “You are Rock…”

I’m sorry, I just thought a little levity might remind us that we need to lighten up sometimes.

Maybe my sense of humor is also,

NotWorthy
 
That is pretty funny, Jesus did have a sense of humor.

For example in Aramaic, the word for gnat is galma, while the word for camel is gamla. So you strain out a galma but swallow a gamla. Its a good pun.
 
I like this topic. Does anyone else have any examples of Jesus’ using humor when he spoke?
 
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NotWorthy:
Maybe my sense of humor is also,

NotWorthy
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:rotfl:

I love the way you end your posts.

Alan
 
…could it really be that puns are the highest and most divine sense of humor? Seems a bit funny to me…

RyanL
 
I’ve always heard,

He who laughs last didn’t get the joke.
 
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NotWorthy:
OK, I’ve read so many threads on what Jesus meant by telling Peter, “You are Rock…”, and I’ve come to the conclusion you are all wrong!

Have you ever considered that Jesus had a sense of humor, and he was referring to Peter’s ability (or lack thereof) of walking on water? “You are Rock…”

I’m sorry, I just thought a little levity might remind us that we need to lighten up sometimes.

Maybe my sense of humor is also,

NotWorthy
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**I understand there was a manuscript of chapter 2 of Acts in St. Luke’s handwriting found which has Peter saying at the end of his sermon at the first Pentecost, “… if you smellllllllllllllllllllllll, what THE ROCK, isssssssssssssssssssss cookin!” :ehh: ← (St. Peter giving the crowd the people’s eyebrow.) **
**Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. 😃 **
 
Swiss Guard said:
**I understand there was a manuscript of chapter 2 of Acts in St. Luke’s handwriting found which has Peter saying at the end of his sermon at the first Pentecost, “… if you smellllllllllllllllllllllll, what THE ROCK, isssssssssssssssssssss cookin!” :ehh: ← (St. Peter giving the crowd the people’s eyebrow.) **

**Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. 😃 **
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Thanks for the milk spray that occurred while reading this post. Thank goodness my wife was not sitting across the table.

I guess you can now imagine him (the Rock) at the baptismal font, asking someone, “What’s your name son…IT DON’T MATTER WHAT YOUR NAME IS!!! I now baptize you in the name of…”
 
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Jayson:
That is pretty funny, Jesus did have a sense of humor.

For example in Aramaic, the word for gnat is galma, while the word for camel is gamla. So you strain out a galma but swallow a gamla. Its a good pun.
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Thanks for sharing that, Jayson. The more that we learn of the original languages, the more we can truly appreciate the text. It must be very difficult for the translators to retain as much of the original meaning as they managed to. It’s too bad that God didn’t speak English 😉

Reading your post reminded me of a passage dealing with the same word -

“In Aramaic (the language allegedly spoken by Jesus) the word camel and the word rope are spelled exactly the same, “gamla.” I wasn’t there, so I can’t say for sure, but I’ll bet in Matthew 19:24 Jesus says, “It’s easier for a rope (not camel) to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” Duh!” - “The Chicken Qabalah of Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford” by Lon Mulo Duquette

The translators of the King James Version made at least one very interesting change in addition to the more innocent mistranslations. I’ve started another thread called “Unicorns in the King James Version” if anyone’s interested.
  • Greg
 
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Greg72:
Reading your post reminded me of a passage dealing with the same word -

"In Aramaic (the language allegedly spoken by Jesus) the word camel and the word rope are spelled exactly the same, “gamla.” I wasn’t there, so I can’t say for sure, but I’ll bet in Matthew 19:24 Jesus says, “It’s easier for a rope (not camel) to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”
  • Greg
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I’m not so sure that’s correct. The “Eye of the Needle” was a gate that allowed entry into Jerusalem. It was designed so that a camel could only pass through if all of it’s good were unloaded from it’s back. This allowed the guards at the gate to inspect the goods for contraband.

So just as the camel had to discard all it’s worldly goods to pass through the “eye of the needle”, so should the rich man (if this is where his heart is).

It’s amazing how much of our teachings are lost, just because we’ve lost knowledge of the ancient worlds.

NotWorthy
 
Actually, this doesn’t hold, as one of the gates of the wall around Jerusalem was called “The Eye of the Needle”…the gate sloped downward and then back upward, and for a camel to get through the gate, they had to unpack it, and it actually had to get down on it’s front ‘knees’ and crawl through, then back knees…etc…then repacked…

When Christ made this statement, he was referring to that particular gate and how hard it was for a camel to get through. So the speculation is fine, I suppose…but it had nothing to do with a rope.
 
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NotWorthy:
I’m not so sure that’s correct. The “Eye of the Needle” was a gate that allowed entry into Jerusalem. It was designed so that a camel could only pass through if all of it’s good were unloaded from it’s back. This allowed the guards at the gate to inspect the goods for contraband.

So just as the camel had to discard all it’s worldly goods to pass through the “eye of the needle”, so should the rich man (if this is where his heart is).

It’s amazing how much of our teachings are lost, just because we’ve lost knowledge of the ancient worlds.

NotWorthy
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Our retired pastor used to say the camels sometimes had to get on their knees to get through, a trick it was sometimes difficult to convince the camels to do.

Alan
 
Maybe we could find components of humor in Jesus’ teachings.

For example, George Carlin once said that humor is all about having some exaggeration. Jesus often said things that went way beyond what was commonly thought to be astronomical limits, such as forgiving 70 times 7. Shock value is there, and it’s an exaggeration, but not exactly a yuk yuk joke maybe.

It’s like you ask him a question and get a totally unexpected answer, not only unexpected in detail, but in order of magnitude of significance, often taking sublety or obviousness to the extremes.

Another thing was when he was asked a seemingly easy question, his answer was absurdly opposite that expected. For example, at the Last Supper when they balked about eating and drinking His flesh and blood, instead of breaking it to them gently he hammered them over the head. Not only do they have to do this foul thing (you just didn’t go around drinking blood those days I guess) but if they don’t they have no life within them!

That may not be ha ha funny, but it’s funny maybe along the lines of the Three Stooges. Jesus could be the spiritual equivalent of Moe, knocking their heads together when they do something stupid. Of course, Moe did stupid things too so the comparison is not intended to be about divinity or virtue, but style of getting their attention.

This is how I felt the first time I stopped reading the Bible by verses on topics like a Protestant (and thank God for Protestants who got me to open a Bible for the first time) and read one or more chapters a day of John during Lent. Every time I thought I was getting the message, the disciples of somebody would ask Jesus a question and He would be like, no, that’s just exactly opposite wrong.

Alan
 
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NotWorthy:
I’m not so sure that’s correct. The “Eye of the Needle” was a gate that allowed entry into Jerusalem. It was designed so that a camel could only pass through if all of it’s good were unloaded from it’s back. This allowed the guards at the gate to inspect the goods for contraband.

So just as the camel had to discard all it’s worldly goods to pass through the “eye of the needle”, so should the rich man (if this is where his heart is).

It’s amazing how much of our teachings are lost, just because we’ve lost knowledge of the ancient worlds.
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It certainly is. Language, History and Geography are all showing their necessity. If I’m not mistaken (again :o ) the main reason that the Catholic Church discouraged Bible study in the old days was that without the additional background information, people could get very different ideas from the text.

I stand corrected, and thank you (and Gracie2004 and Alan) for setting me straight. This is a truly wonderful forum.
  • Greg
 
The rope is a missplelling, I believe by 1 letter.

ο καμιλος = the rope (very rare) ο καμηλος = the camel, (from young camel, perhaps…).

The difference shows up in Greek, I believe, because of a copyist error – historically around the 8-9th century.
All early Greek manuscripts are uniform in claiming “camel” not rope.

But, apparently in Aramaic the word for large rope and camel are the same. (Just adds to the confusion, for what was meant).
But the rope described as camel was too big to fit through an actual surgeons needle.

The word for needle, is a common sewing needle. It is different in different Gospels, Luke’s being a surgeon’s needle. So that would suggest that the Gate interpretation is possibly wrong. But a rope would not fit through either kind of needle.

But if the needle refers to the Gate (enter through the narrow gate), there was a gate so named ‘eye of the needle’ in Roman fortress architecture. But… a camel could not pass through it, loaded or unloaded. (Even on its knees).
It is not the mid sized door in a door, as often seen, but a very narrow opening that only a child messenger could fit through.
It was easily guarded.

P.S. in the partially excavated wall of Jerusalem the eye of the needle gate exists – maintained by the Fransiscans. You can go through it for tourism purposes as only the bottom part exists.
It isn’t a very effective person stopper anymore. 🙂

Any consistent interpretation, in Greek, would mean that it is impossible.

However,

You could get a rope through the “Eye of the needle Gate”.
So, I suppose if the Aramaic word for Rope, really is the same as Camel, there might be a mensa like way to make it happen.
Anyone know Aramaic?
 
Huiou Theou:
ο καμιλος = the rope (very rare) ο καμηλος = the camel, (from young camel, perhaps…).
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Ah, the difference is clear to me now!

NotWorthy
 
My favorite “Jesus Humor” is how He always tells the Scribes and the Pharasees, people known for their knowledge of the scriptures, “Have you not read?” or “You err, not knowing the scriptures!”. It’s like telling a math instructor, “Oh, what, you can’t do this problem? This is too hard for you?”. And Jesus is telling them this - the son of a carpenter! HA! Awesome!
 
I wonder if there is a scripture passage that says “Jesus smiled” or “Jesus laughed”?? I remember in Mel Gibson’s “Passion” Jesus sprinkled Mary with the water he washed His hands with and they both laughed. I know it is nowhere in the bible but I wonder if anyone has found a passage indicating that Jesus smiled or laughed!!😃
 
Just said several times how much He loved the children. If you love children so much, how can you not smile and laugh?

I think it is safe to assume that Jesus was often seen to be laughing and smiling.

NotWorthy
 
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