Noah was standing at the gangplank checking off the pairs of
animals when he saw three camels trying to get on board.

"Wait a minute!" he said. "Two each is the limit. One of you
will have to stay behind."

"It won't be me," said the first camel. "I'm the camel whose
back is broken by the last straw."

"I'm the one people swallow while straining at a gnat," said
the second.

"And I am the one that shall pass through the eye of a needle
sooner than a rich man shall enter heaven." said the third.

"Well, I guess you had better all come in," said Noah, "the
world is going to need all of you."

********************
Have you ever heard the expression, "Straining at a gnat
while swallowing a camel?" I never knew what the heck that
was supposed to mean until today. When I came upon the joke
in the middle of today's issue I determined to do a little
research and solve this mystery once and for all.

As you might have guessed, it has a biblical origin. In
Matthew 23 Jesus was chastising the Pharisees for observing
the letter of the law but not practicing the spirit of the
law.

He said, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you
hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices-mint, dill and
cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters
of the law--justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have
practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You
blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel."

The important thing to understand is that according to the
laws of Moses certain things were forbidden to eat, like
insects, pigs and camels, among other things.

So Jesus was comparing the Pharisees devotion to the minutia
of the law while ignoring the large picture to straining one
miniscule little insect out of water or wine so as not to
contaminate it with a "forbidden" animal, and then drinking
that wine with a camel steak.

Anyway, it seems to make the joke just a little bit funnier
if you actually understand it.