I do not have a greek dictionary to reference. None of the on-line sources I found used that definition, but I'm happy to accept that it's used in that sense occassionally.
I do suggest that "the coat of a camel" is distinct from "a camel hair". I'd read "the coat of a camel" as being the hide, but perhaps it means more the 'fleece' of a camel, or the combings, if such is done.
Apart from whether it /could/ mean "a camel hair", I think there's another major problem with this interpretation. That is, if the writers had meant a camel hair then they would have said a camel hair, c.f. Mark 1:6
"And John was clothed with camel's hair, and with a girdle of a skin about his loiins, and he did eat locusts and wild honey;"
which uses "thrix kamelos". Now, my knowledge of greek is minimal, but it seems to me that if you were to use plain kamelos meaning "the coat of a camel",
here is where you'd use it. It would be very hard to interpret as meaning that John wore a live camel, after all. But no, here "camel's hair" is used explicitly.
http://scripturetext.com/mark/1-6.htm
I'm puzzled why so many people want to read this passage other than as the plain meaning, that without the grace of God, a rich man (or any man) has as much chance of gaining heaven as a camel has of getting through the eye of a needle.
Paul
Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Sorry, pdurrant, but I beg to differ.
The Greek word in Matthew 19:26 is "kamelon" - the accusative of "kamelos". Looking up "kamelos" in my Liddell and Scott "Intermediate Greek Lexicon" I find:
A camel; the coat of a camel; the camels in an army ("the camel brigade").
May I ask what source you are looking at?
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