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Bible Dictionaries
Rock
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or (πέτρα, Romans 9:33, 1 Peter 2:8, 1 Corinthians 10:4, Revelation 6:15-16; cf. Acts 27:29, Judges 1:12)
Of the physical features of Palestine, rocks form a conspicuous part. Rock walls and escarpments, deep gorges and desolate crags, caves, fastnesses, and mighty boulders, are common in many portions of the country. Allusions to them on the part of the biblical writers were, therefore, inevitable. Symbolically they stood for solid foundations (Matthew 7:24), for confession of the Deity of Christ (Matthew 16:18), and for Christ Himself (1 Corinthians 10:4). Among the rocks mentioned in Scripture are Sela (Judges 1:36, Revised Version ), Oreb (Judges 7:25), Etam (Judges 15:8), and Rimmon (Judges 20:45). Precipitation from a rock was one form of execution (2 Chronicles 25:12; cf. Luke 4:29).
Of the four principal references to rocks in apostolic history, those in Romans 9:33 and in 1 Peter 2:8 may appropriately be considered together. Both St. Paul and St. Peter quote and combine the same two prophetic passages (Isaiah 8:14; Isaiah 28:16), adapting the Septuagint version of them so as to show that Israel had failed to attain unto God’s true law of righteousness, because they sought it not by faith but by works. Because they had not apprehended the wisdom of God’s salvation in Jesus Christ, St. Paul declares that he had become unto them ‘a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence.’ St. Peter probably had St. Paul’s statement (Romans 9:33) before him when he wrote, for his use of the two passages from Isaiah is practically the same. He tells his readers that they are stumbling through disobedience, and failing to obey what they must recognize is true. Instead of availing themselves of the blessing of the gospel offered them, they are refusing to submit to its influence, and so come into collision with the power and authority of Christ. Both apostles boldly apply to Christ what is spoken by the prophet of Jahweh, and they point to the prophet’s words as a prediction of their own people’s spiritual blindness and consequent failure. As Jahweh is a firm foundation to those who trust in Him, so is Jesus; but to those who disbelieve, both He and His Son may be a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence.
A more difficult passage is that contained in 1 Corinthians 10:4, ‘And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them: and the rock was Christ’ (ἔπινον γὰρ ἐκ πνευματικῆς ἀκολουθούσης πέτρας, ἡ δὲ πέτρα ἦν ὁ Χριστός). There is a Rabbinical legend, which can be traced back as far as the 1st cent. a.d., to the effect that the rock of Rephidim (Exodus 17:6; cf. Numbers 20:2 ff.), ‘globular, like a bee-hive,’ rolled after the camp in Israel’s wanderings, and supplied them with water. But in the face of Numbers 21:5, which must have been known to the Apostle, it is scarcely likely that St. Paul believed this. Rather he adapted it, stating explicitly that the rock which followed them was a ‘spiritual,’ i.e. a supernatural, rock, and that Christ was a rock. The manna was literally ‘food from heaven’ to him (1 Corinthians 10:3; cf. Psalms 78:24), and so were the water and the rock (Psalms 78:15 ff.); and both the water and the manna were a foreshadowing of the Christian sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 10:2; 1 Corinthians 10:16). St. Paul’s argument is briefly this: ‘all’ ate of the same spiritual food (1 Corinthians 10:3), and ‘all’ drank of the same spiritual drink (1 Corinthians 10:4)-the manna and the water being intended to sustain the spirit as well as the body-but only two (Caleb and Joshua) recognized the spiritual presence of Christ, who in His pre-existent state was ever with Israel in their gathering of the manna and beside every cliff which Moses struck. Philo had already identified the rock of Deuteronomy 8:15 with the Wisdom of God, and the rock of Deuteronomy 32:13 with His Wisdom and Word; hence, it was easy for St. Paul to take another step and identify the smitten rock with Christ, the Rock spiritual. A parallel to this mode of interpretation may be found in Hebrews 11:26, where the Apostle represents Moses as ‘accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.’ See also article Metaphor.
In a passage in Acts (Acts 27:29), St. Paul and his ship companions are described as fearful of being driven ashore on ‘rocky ground’ (τραχεῖς τόποι, literally ‘rough places’). While a different expression is used here in the Greek, the reference is evidently to rocks, upon which it would be hazardous to let their vessel strike. In Judges 1:12, also, a kindred expression (σπιλάδες) is used, in a similar but metaphorical way. ‘These are they who are hidden rocks in your love-feasts,’ etc. The Revised Version translates σπιλάδες by ‘spots,’ and this has the support not only of the Vulg. [Note: Vulgate.] maculae, but also of the parallel passage in 2 Peter 2:13. Hidden, or sunken, rocks is an eminently appropriate metaphor by which to describe the ungodly character of those who, like Balaam and Korah, were inclined to mar the fellowship of Christian believers.
The only other passage remaining to be discussed is that contained in Revelation 6:15-16, in which the Seer pictures the struggle of the Church, and of God’s judgment upon her enemies. At the opening of the sixth seal, the wicked are depicted as terrorized by an earthquake, and as hiding in the caves and rocks of the mountains, to escape the wrath of the Lamb. It is the dreadful Day of the Lord which is about to come. Panic seizes troubled consciences. The end is near. The wicked, even the rich and the mighty, princes and captains, bondmen and freemen, hide themselves, calling to the mountains and rocks to fall on them and hide them from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb (cf. Isaiah 2:19, Hosea 10:3, Luke 23:30).
George L. Robinson.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Rock'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/r/rock.html. 1906-1918.
