Connie, I will begin by saying that I do not question the KJB, even in the face of stiff opposition. Secondly, I don't know my alpha from my omega, and I have no interest in knowing. Last, I am not expecting to change your mind here. You seek for tangible proof. If and when you find it, you will move on to the next puzzling passage. There are plenty to choose from, so you will not have to make a final decision on the accuracy of the KJB based on objective proof and logic for a long time to come.
What I do want to do is tell what I believe this passage is saying. The greek-geeks can slam me, and the confusionists can scoff at my naivete, but it does not matter to me. So here goes:
Long before I ever knew that there was a supposed error here, I saw the verse in this light. The Scriptures are always self-explanatory, therefore the message must be able to be derived from the context. The phrase "swallow a camel" is quite plain wording. Jesus said that the Pharisees could do something that was physically impossible, so it is symbolic hyperbole describing the fact that they allowed serious error to slip by unnoticed. On the other hand, swallowing a gnat is not difficult at all. For someone to choke on or gag on (strain at) a gnat when swallowing said gnat would be unusual. The Pharisees choked on (were strained to allow past, couldn't swallow) the tiniest of violation of rules while letting the important things, greatest commandments, be ignored. This can clearly be seen when the whole dialogue is read.
Yea, yea, I know that the greekies will say that the greek word translated "strain" means "filter" and not "choke" or "gag", but I read English, God gave me an English Bible, and the English can be understood to mean struggling with or, with the "swallow" later in the verse as a parallel, to choke or gag. Using my child-like, simple idea, the "at" works well. AND even if I couldn't figure it out, let God be true and every man a liar.
Now for those who think that this exercise is silly, and, yes, it is ripe for humorous comments, there is a deeper and far more important issue. Do we truly believe that every jot and tittle, every pronoun and preposition is there for a purpose, or do we settle for 99.44% pure and doubt God?
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