BAR BAHLUL Enters the Ring... via Mr. Ring

Photo by britannica.com

"So... Bar Bahlul  said you are a ROPE ...
a SHIP'S ROPE, to be exact ? " 

Mr. Steven Ring, an Aramaic scholar well-known on the internet, graciously translated Bar Bahlul's Aramaic Lexicon entry for readers. 

Bar Bahlul's Aramaic Lexicon found on Dukhrana gives the ONLY Aramaic hint that GaMLa could possibly have ever been  translated to be ROPE instead of CAMEL. The reference is 500:19, 1691:9 as found at Matthew 19:24. 

Below, highlighted, are Mr. Ring's copy-righted insights plus translation. 

Tie that camel up with a rope!

The controversy surrounding the Syriac gospel reading found in Mt19v24, Mk10v25 & Lk18v25.

Mar Aphrahat writing in the early 4th  century quotes this verse (Wright 1869, page 392, line 16), so a reading with the Syriac word gamlā was likely also in Tatian's 2nd  century Diatessaron Syriac gospel harmony. 

The 10th  century east-Syrian Syro-Arabic lexicon of Hassan bar Bahlul (Duval 1901, columns 500, 501) reports that gamlā can mean a camel, or the thick rope used to tie up boats.

He writes about several different definitions for this word, but I [ Steven Ring]  translate only those of interest:

500.20: '[According to] Cyril [of Alexandria] gamlā he calls the thick rope boats are tied up with.'

...

gap

...

501.01: 'And in the Greek language, Qamelos

501.02: it is called. Others say that gamlā is

501.03: what our Lord said in the worshipful gospel, that

501.04: the gamlā is thin to pass through the eye of a needle

501.05: for he said that gamlā was threaded.'

The same is reported by Toma Audo in his east-Syrian Syro-Arabic lexicon called the Treasury of the Syriac Language, (Audo 1897, pages 145, 146):

146.1.6: 'Again the thick rope of boats.'

And by Carl Brockelmann in his Lexicon Syriacum, (Brockelmann 1928, page 120) where he mentions that several earlier scholars defined gamlā as 'rudens navis' = nautical rope.

Hence to extract the most probable meaning of this saying in the gospel, it can and probably should be translated:

‘…it is easier for a ship’s rope to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom…’

The misunderstanding in the Greek text which translates gamlā as ‘camel’ is due to the ambiguity of the Syriac word gamlā. The usual English reading translated from the Greek NT with the comic notion of threading a camel through the eye of a needle, is evidence that the Greek gospels are a translation of Syriac textual originals.

Hence, this verse contains evidence both for the originality of the Peshiṭta Syriac gospel text-type and also that Tatian constructed his gospel harmony from a Syriac gospel source. 

References:

Audo, Thoma 1897. ‘Treasury of the Syriac language’ 2 volumes. Dominican Press, Mosul.

Brockelmann, Carl 1928. 'Lexicon syriacum' 2nd Ed. Max Niemeyer, Halle.

Duval, Rubens 1901. 'Lexicon syriacum auctore Hassano bar Bahlule voces syriacas græcasque cum glossis syriacis et arabicis complectens; e pluribus codicibus edidit et notulis instruxit' 3 volumes, Paris.

Wright, William 1869 ‘The homilies of Aphraates the Persian sage’ Williams & Norgate, London & Edinburgh

© Steven Ring 2013 

Sister Judith Hannah extends her great appreciation for the scholarly work and gracious attitude of some of the scholars who have been so helpful in this research, especially Mr. Lars Lindgren at Dukhrana   and Mr. Steven Ring.

[ But, we are not finished yet.... :>)  ]