Description and usage
The needle was a small, slender, and very smooth instrument, pointed on one end and with a hole at the other end. It was used to aid in passing thread through cloth in sewing. It could be made of metal, bone, or even a strong thorn.
Translation
There is no convincing evidence that the literal expression “eye of a needle” in MAT 19:24; MRK 10:25 and LUK 18:25 is a figurative name for a narrow gate. The reference to a camel passing through the eye of a needle is an example of rhetorical hyperbole. Here it is a purposeful exaggeration to point out the extreme difficulty of the event to which it is compared. It seems that Jesus chose the largest land animal known in Israel and the smallest man-made opening to express this difficulty. The hole in a needle is referred to differently in various languages, for example, “nostril of a needle,” “ear of a needle,” “mouth of a needle,” and even “anus of a needle.”