A GNAT — the smallest winged insect, and the smallest unclean creature that could ruin a drink; wine was strained through cloth for exactly this reason. ⚠ At Matthew 23:24 it is paired with the KAMĒLOS, the largest unclean animal in the neighbourhood, in what is plainly a cartoon: 'you strain out the gnat and gulp down the camel.' The two words may also have rhymed in Aramaic — qalma (a gnat or louse) against gamla (a camel) — which if so makes it a pun as well. The verbs are technical and blunt in turn: diÿlizō is to filter, katapinō is to gulp down whole. This is the camel's second appearance in five chapters, after the needle's eye at 19:24; the shelf's 'swallow' is correct but tamer than the Greek. → first discussed at Matt 23:24