The noun κωνωψ (konops) means gnat or mosquito, the proverbially small airborne bug that proverbially sucks blood and spreads diseases. Our word occurs in the New Testament in Matthew 23:24 only, in the familiar complaint of Jesus that the Pharisees are so blind that they strain out the gnat but drink up the camel. What's not emphasized often enough is that the wordplay in this statement is nearly endless.

There are two kinds of bugs: (1) the bee, which has a house, a stratified society and a language, and which cherishes their offspring, pollinate flowers so that they can become seed-bearing fruits for the world to enjoy, and produces honey, and (2) all others, which don't have any of the previous, don't care for their offspring, don't produce anything and thrive on decay and death and spread those wherever they go. In Hebrew, the former is called דברה (debora), hence the name Deborah. The latter is called זבב (zebub), hence the name Beelzebub.

Actually, the Hebrew word for gnat, specifically, is כן (ken), which is identical to Hebrew's primary particle of confirmation ("yes" or "indeed" or "it is thus"), which differs from the familiar אמן ('amen) in that the latter conveys substantial support and veracity, whereas the former merely confirms it without strings attached. Hence Jesus said: "Let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one" (Matthew 5:37).

Gnats relate to camels the way כן (ken) relates to אמן ('amen), and the word "camel" comes from the verb גמל (gamal), which means to invest, or rather more elaborately: to establish and cultivate lasting networks of international trade. In Biblical times, everybody was familiar with caravans meandering across the deserts and realized that trains of camels stitch patches of production together — hence the pun about the camel and the eye of a needle (Matthew 19:24), which implies that it is much easier to wring a gnat through the eye of a needle, but gnats have no strings attached and don't patch anything together (see our article on τικτω, tikto, to produce or "weave together").

Said otherwise: it's easier for some profiteering local peddler to say "yes-yes" and then do nothing but take-take, than to actually substantiate one's commitment to a commercial relationship by showing up with actual camels. Not mere commerce (hence the name Canaan) but international trade is what made Abraham the father of many nations. International trade makes the world one.

The etymological origin of our noun κωνωψ (konops), gnat, is unknown, but to anybody not immediately bothered by technicalities, it obviously reminds of Κων (Kon), the Homeric name for the island Cos, or else the noun κωνος (konos), meaning cone (unused in the New Testament), but either plus the familiar noun ωψ (ops), meaning face. The latter brings our noun κωνωψ (konops) in proximity of other (some true but mostly false or pseudo) ops-words like ανθρωπος (anthropos), looks-like-man, μωλωψ (molops), visible stripe or battle scar, μυωψ (muops), a squint, οψε (opse), late (as in: the day has been seen and now it's late) and οψωνιον (opsonion), wage or salary (paid out in the evening), υδρωπικος (hudropikos), hydropic or edemic, οινοπσ (oinops), wine-colored, and of course toponyms like Europe and Ethiopia and the ever thought-provoking term Cyclops (which would mean round-eye and not one-eye).

Another striking (and probably pseudo-) ops-word is οφις (ophis), serpent, also because the act of biting was typically ascribed to serpents and gnats alike. The verb for this is δακνω (dakno), to bite, which in turn resembles the familiar δρακον (drakon), dragon, which suggests that gnats are little dragons — the image of which is not unlike the "worm" that attacked Jonah's tree, which wasn't a single monstrous python but a host of tiny maggoty ones (see our article on Phoenicia).

Our noun κωνωψ (konops) comes with a synonym, namely εμπις (empis), also meaning gnat, which is likewise of unknown origin but which for long has reminded commentators of the verb πινω (pino), to drink, which helps to explain why Jesus said that Pharisees "drank" camels. From that verb comes the noun ποταμος (potamos), river, and both stem from the same PIE root "pet-", meaning to rush or fly, that also produced the nouns πτερυξ (pterux), wing, and πτερον (pteron), feather. Also see our article on πυρ (pur), fire.