Matthew 23:24 Meaning: Straining Gnats, Swallowing Camels

The Greek verb diulizō means to filter through a cloth or sieve. It is a careful, deliberate action, the kind of thing you do when you are genuinely afraid of breaking a rule. The noun kōnōps refers to a wine gnat, the tiny insect that bred in fermenting wine. Both the gnat and the camel were unclean animals under Jewish law. So the Pharisees, to avoid even the smallest defilement, would strain their drink. But then they behave exactly opposite with the camel: katapinō means to gulp down greedily, to swallow whole. They bypass their own filter when the sin is big enough. Jesus is exposing a heart that obsesses over tiny failures of ritual but has no trouble consuming huge failures of character. The tenderness here is that he names it, so we can stop doing it.

Christians across traditions have seen this verse as a vivid warning against religious hypocrisy. Early English translators like Tyndale and Cranmer rendered it “strain out a gnat,” while the King James Version’s “strain at” caused confusion for centuries. Reformers like Calvin emphasized how hypocrites shrink from small faults but freely commit great crimes. Catholic moral teaching has often used this verse to caution against scrupulosity, focusing so much on minor sins that you ignore grave ones. Modern evangelicals tend to apply it to the danger of picking and choosing which commands to obey. None of these readings contradict. They all point to the same danger: missing the weight of God’s commands while getting tangled in our own.

A common misunderstanding comes from a famous misprint. The King James Version reads “strain at a gnat,” which sounds like the Pharisees were trying (and failing) to strain something. In fact, the original Greek diulizō means “strain out.” They succeed at filtering out a tiny gnat, then gulp down a camel. The true miss is not a mistranslation; it is that they could be so meticulous about a speck and so careless about an entire creature. The correction is subtle but crucial: their problem isn’t incompetence; it’s a wildly misplaced sense of proportion.

Think of a tension you feel this week about your faith. Maybe you are frustrated with someone whose worship style differs from yours, or you are anxious about a small ethical rule you might break. Hold that frustration up to this verse. Ask yourself: is this the gnat or the camel? Is there something bigger I am ignoring, a person I need to forgive, a truth I have been avoiding, a neighbour I have not served? Jesus invites you to stop gulping the heavy thing and start paying attention to what actually matters to him. Check your drink. But check your gut even more.