Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 22:1 (NA 1971)
Article: ‘Rock-Stone’ Imagery In I Peter
Author: Norman Hillyer

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TynBul 22:1 (1971) p. 58

‘Rock-Stone’ Imagery In I Peter

Norman Hillyer

Peter’s use of the ‘rock–stone’ imagery takes up a theme which recurs in different aspects all through Scripture, in the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings, as well as in the New Testament. There is, for example, the stumbling-stone of Isaiah 8:14, the foundation-stone of Isaiah 28:16, the parental rock of Isaiah 51:1f., the rejected but vindicated building-stone of Psalm 118:22, the supernatural stone of Daniel 2:34, and the burdensome stone of Zechariah 12:3. Although Eduard Meyer1 despaired of the text of Genesis 49:24 as ‘hopelessly corrupt’, he considers that the ‘stone of Israel’ is very likely a reference back to the sacred stone of Bethel (‘House of God’) in Genesis 28:11, 19. The presence of Jacob in both passages strengthens the possibility.

The term stone or rock could be applied to God and to the gods of the nations. ‘Their rock is not as our Rock,’ sings Moses; and again: ‘Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge?’ (Dt. 32:31, 37). Six centuries later Isaiah still uses the figure as he foretells the fate of Assyria: ‘His rock shall pass away in terror’ (Is. 31:9).

The qualities symbolized both by the metaphor itself and by its contexts are, of course, those of strength and reliability. In addition, in the case of Yahweh there are the cognate ideas of truth and faith, as brought out for example by the contrasts in Isaiah 28:16, 17.

Rock or Stone as an Old Testament name for Yahweh prepared the way for the Messianic understanding of many OT ‘stone’ texts.2 The LXX often translates צוּר not by λίθος but by θεός. Six examples appear in Deuteronomy 32. A Midrash explains the great stone over the mouth of the well in Genesis 29:2 as a reference to the Shekinah3—but one illustration

TynBul 22:1 (1971) p. 59

of the Rabbis’ fascination

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