Answers 3 Discuss 1. Army In this passage Matthew , commonly known as "The Seven Woes", Jesus was pronouncing His repeated judgments against the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law for their selective, self-interested, hypocritical application of guidance given by God, and the manner in which they were thus deceiving the people who looked to them because of their education and learning as the authoritative interpreters of Scripture. To make His points more forcefully, He used hyperbole exaggeration.
In the particular case in question, He condemned the Pharisees for taking care to give a tithe one-tenth of everything they owned or earned, as had been commanded by God Leviticus , even going so far as to measure out their spices such as mint, dill, and cumin for that purpose.
However, at the same time that they were taking such extreme care in small details, they were completely overlooking or intentionally ignoring in their own conduct the larger reasons or purposes for which the Law had been given, such as to insure the treatment of people with justice and mercy, and to emphasize the importance of faithfulness to God. Instead, they were pursuing personal power or riches for themselves at the expense of the common people, while hypocritically appearing to comply with the Law's smallest details.
To memorably emphasize the point that the Pharisees and teachers of the Law were doing this, Jesus said that they were straining out a gnat as one would do if there were a gnat in something that one was about to drink, even though the gnat would do little if any harm , but then being as willfully oblivious as if they were swallowing a camel to the way in which they themselves were violating or ignoring the intent of the Law, which would be fatal to them spiritually just as surely as swallowing a camel would be fatal to a person physically.
Jesus also used hyperbole for the same purposes on other occasions, such as when he said that it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God Matthew What does he mean by this?
He's saying that they've picked out the smallest and least commandments to focus on, and take pride in doing those, while completely ignoring the most important matters, like justice. He follows this up in verse 24 with the phrase you asked about: "Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
Jesus is indulging in a bit of hyperbole here. He's imagining someone who is about to take a drink of water from a cup, notices that there's a small bug in it, strains the bug out, and then drinks the water, never noticing that there was a camel floating in the cup.
Sure, but it gets the point across. Jesus' claim was that the religious leaders were focusing on the lesser matters, while completely ignoring the more important ones. A similar idiom would be "penny-wise and pound-foolish.
Someone who is pound-foolish is someone who throws about large amounts of money indiscriminately. So someone who is both penny-wise and pound-foolish is straining at a gnat focusing on small things while swallowing a camel ignoring larger things.
As a teacher, if I gave a student a detention because he was slouching in his chair, but did nothing when he punched a classmate in the face, then I'm straining at gnats while swallowing camels. By the way, if you have the time, you should take a few minutes to read Jesus' entire tirade against the religious leaders. English Revised Version Ye blind guides, which strain out the gnat, and swallow the camel. Good News Translation Blind guides! You strain a fly out of your drink, but swallow a camel!
You strain gnats [out of your wine], but you swallow camels. International Standard Version You blind guides! You filter out a gnat, yet swallow a camel! Literal Standard Version Blind guides! Who are straining out the gnat, and are swallowing the camel. NET Bible Blind guides! You strain out a gnat yet swallow a camel!
New Heart English Bible You blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel. Weymouth New Testament You blind guides, straining out the gnat while you gulp down the camel! World English Bible You blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel! Young's Literal Translation 'Blind guides! Additional Translations Isaiah For those who guide this people mislead them, and those they mislead are swallowed up.
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