Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 23:24

"Ye blind guides, that strain out the gnat, and swallow the camel!" — Matthew 23:24 (ASV)

Strain at a gnat — A better rendering, as found in Tyndale’s and other earlier versions, is to strain out. It is sometimes said that the current rendering in the Authorized Version is merely the perpetuation of a printer’s error, but there is insufficient evidence for this, nor is it probable. In the Greek, both nouns have the emphasis of the article: the gnat—the camel.

The scrupulous care described in the first part of the proverbial saying was literally practiced by devout Jews (as it is now by the Buddhists of Ceylon), in accordance with Leviticus 11:23, 42. In the second part, the camel appears not only as the type of vastness, as in Matthew 19:24, but also as one of the unclean beasts that the Israelites were not allowed to eat (Leviticus 11:4).