The gnats . . . The camels

Jesus is known to use some extravagant images to drive home his message.

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He speaks of a camel passing through the eye of a needle to speak of the difficulty of a rich man to enter the Kingdom of heaven (Mt 19:23). Here, he compares the Pharisees’ scrupulosity about minor matters to the neglect of more important ones with “straining out the gnat and swallowing the camel.” Gnats may refer to mosquitoes or other insects. The Pharisees “strain out the gnat” (v 24), that is, they strain what they drink through a cloth for fear that they may swallow some unclean insect. This is an example of their meticulous observance of self-imposed ceremonial trifles.