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CAMEL

Either of two species of camel (Heb. gāmāl; Gk. kámēlos): the dromedary, one-hump camel, native to Arabia; and the Bactrian, two-hump camel, named for its origin in central Asia. The dromedary is the one normally referred to in Scripture, though Isa. 21:7 may refer to the Bactrian camel, which had spread to Assyria by 1100 b.c.e.

Abraham is given camels by the pharaoh of Egypt (Gen. 12:16). Camels also figure in the story of Abraham’s servant sent to search for a wife for Isaac (Gen. 24). More often, however, camels are owned by non-Israelites: the Egyptians (Exod. 9:3), Midianites (Judg. 6:5; 7:12), Amalekites (1 Sam. 15:3; 27:9; 30:17), the queen of Sheba (1 Kgs. 10:2), the king of Syria (2 Kgs. 8:9), and others. Camels were used during the reign of David (1 Chr. 12:40) and were brought back to Palestine by those returning from exile (Ezra 2:67), but they remained much more extensively used in lands to the south and east of Palestine, where their physiological features made them uniquely adapted to life at the desert’s edge.

The Mosaic law forbade eating the meat of the camel (Lev. 11:4), but since better milk and meat were available from other domestic animals, this was no great hardship. Moreover, camels tended to be ill-tempered, intractable, and at times dangerous, and so other animals were preferred by the Hebrews.

The camel’s hide was used by the Jewish people for leather, and the thick coat of hair the camel shed every spring was woven into rough cloth, such as that worn by John the Baptist (Matt. 3:4 = Mark 1:6), possibly as a symbol of his prophetic status (cf. Zech. 13:4; 2 Kgs. 1:8).

In Matt. 23:24 straining at a gnat (Aram. qalmāʾ) and swallowing a camel (gamlāʾ) produces a play on words in Aramaic. Jesus comments that it is easier “for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Matt. 19:24 = Mark 10:25; Luke 18:25). The suggestion that Gk. kámēlon (“camel”) should be read kámilon (“cable”) lacks any serious basis and is disregarded by most scholars.

Bibliography. F. E. Zeuner, A History of Domesticated Animals (New York, 1963).

John S. Hammett

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

CAMEL

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)