Is Paul saying that the rock trailed behind the wandering Jews? And was the rock literally Christ in a different form? Or is he calling attention to its value as a metaphor for Christ?
KJV 1Co_10:4 And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.
„Is Paul saying that the rock trailed behind the wandering Jews?” Well, yes. In what sense?
First of all, we have to take into account that God is often referred to as a Rock, in the OT. For instance:
Deuteronomy 32:4
He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he. (NIV)
Isaiah 30:29
And you will sing as on the night you celebrate a holy festival; your hearts will rejoice as when people playing pipes go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the Rock of Israel. (NIV)
There are many more examples, a concordance would bring them out easily.
On the other hand, some commentators (see E. E. Ellis, “A Note on First Corinthians 10:4”, in Journal of Biblical Literature, 76/1957, pp. 53–56) noticed that Paul is taking here a targumic style and is alluding a Jewish legend according to which that rock followed the Israelites during their wanderings in the desert:
T. Sukka 3.11
So the well, which was with Israel in the wilderness [...] travelling with them up the mountains and going down with them in the valleys
(From Sukkah, Mishna and Tosefta, tr. A. W. Greenup, Translations of Early Documents, Series III: Rabbinic Texts, SPCK, London, 1925, p. 76)
What is important to see, I think, is that Paul is using here a Jewish legend as a framework for transfering to Christ the title, ‘the Rock’, used in the Jewish tradition for Yahweh. Through this he is inferring that Christ is God.
From a different outlook, there are other commentators (I take as an example J. F. Walvoord, R. B. Zuck, The Bible knowledge commentary : An exposition of the scriptures (2:526), Victor Books, Wheaton, IL, 1983-1985) who noticed that in the OT the drinking of water from the rock is mentioned twice:
Exodus 17:6
I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink." So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. (NIV)
Numbers 20:11
Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank. (NIV)
Now it is truth that these two verses can talk about one single event, yet according to Walvoord & Zuck (see above), Exodus 17:6 is marking the beginning of Israel’s wilderness wanderings in the desert, whereas the event from Numbers 20:11 is happening near the ending of wanderings. Now if Paul is referring to both of these events, this would be the reason why he is saying that Christ, in whom he is seeing the source of supernatural water, accompanied/followed/trailed them: it was with them from the beginning until the end of the wanderings. Therefore God was with them everywhere. Therefore God is omnipresent. So, as we discover in Walvoord & Zuck, another possible answer would be that in 1 Corinthians 10:4, Paul is talking about the omnipresence of God. Later on, in Jewish and Christian theological contexts, omnipresence was discussed as an attribute of God. I am well aware this can take a bit to far. It would be intersting to see if Paul is using anywhere else a notion related to "omnipresence". However I think it is interesting to see it unfolding in the following centuries (found it in Walvoord&Zuck and in various other commentaries).
Is Paul talking here about Christ as „Rock” (metaphor for God in the OT)? Is Paul talking about Christ as “omnipresent” (attribute of God)? Or is he just willing to express that Christ is God?
Now let's return to the original question:
"... was the rock literally Christ in a different form?"
Most likely not. In fact the text is not very complex here:
1 Corinthians 10:4
... they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock [the spiritual one] was Christ. (NIV)
The auhtor is saying that the rock was "spiritual". If you bear with me a little word play, we could say perhaps that from a spiritual point of view, the spiritual rock was literally Christ.
"Or is he calling attention to its value as a metaphor for Christ?"
If the above is correct, then the answer to this goes to: "Most likely yes." And if this is true, then really we have to think that in the ANE a metaphor is not just a figure of speach or a clever way to express things. When Paul is writing, Saussure is still to come. In the ANE, when a metaphor is used in a religious text, the meaning is most likely a theological one.
To conclude: my opinion, based on 1 Corinthians 10:4 and on later commentaries, would be that the rock was not literally Christ, but the rock was spiritually Christ. And that Paul, using a figure of speach, is calling attention to Christ as God, using a syllogism in a Jewish context:
- the Jewish context is:
Isaiah 30:29 (and other OT verses alike) + Exodus 17:6 + Numbers 20:11 + the legend from T. Sukka 3.11
- the syllogism is:
A. God/he is the rock (of Israel) >
B. God is faithful (as a rock) and accompanies Israel all the way through the desert >
C. that rock was Christ >
D. therefore Christ is God. ///
The Greek construction contains some well worn literary forms and allusions. Here are a few. First, Jehovah is often referred to as the Rock of Israel and so was a common metaphor (Isa 44:8, 26:4, Ps 118:22, Isa 28:16, Dan 2:34, 35, 45, Matt 21:42-44, Mark 12:10, Luke 20:17, 1 Peter 2:4-8, Acts 4:11, Rom 9:33, Ps 28:1, 33;1-3, 42:9, 61:2, 62:7, 71:3, 78:35, 92:15, 144:1, Deut 32:4, 15, 31, 37, 1 Sam 2:2, 2 Sam 22:32, 23:3, Isa 30:29, Hab 1:12). In this metaphor, God is referred to as both deliverer and saviour.
The context of 1 Cor 10:4 is highly figurative - "our ancestors were under the cloud and passed through the sea" (v1). Paul then expresses this in more figurative/metaphorical or "spiritual" (v3) language or being "baptised into Moses" and then ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink. That is, they drank from water that was from a spiritual source (water from the rock twice) and ate food from a spiritual source (manna).
The Rock is called spiritual and involves an interesting Greek construction. A rock could be either a "petros" (masculine: a smallish rock or sometimes pebble) or a "petra" (feminine: a large rock or rock mass). Paul makes the statement, that rock (petra feminine) was Christ (Christos, masculine), an obviously figurative statement (that may also allude to Matt 16:16-19, but this is not clear).
The Figurative nature of this passage and its obvious Hebrew idiom are reinforced by the allusion to the Israelites being "baptised" into Moses, a clearly impossible act if it is understood literally.
There is a vast difference between the phrase “spiritual rock” and “the rock which was anointed by the Spirit”. Former is saying that the rock was NOT a literal-physical rock; latter is saying that the rock was a physical-literal rock which was Spirit-anointed (to perform the miraculous function of providing flowing water as it followed the congregation in the wilderness). [If it was not a physical rock, when Mosheh hit the rock with his rod, what was he hitting?]. Simple answer to the Question is that the rock was a physical rock which was Spirit anointed to (miraculously) bring forth water as well as move along with the congregation in the wilderness. Note that this miraculous water-flowing rock event is re-capitulated in the following places within scripture, and none of them gave the slightest hint about the rock is the future latter day Mashiach - Ex 17:6; Nu 20:8, 11; Deu 8:15 (rock of flint); Isa 48:21; Ps 78:16, 20; 105:41; 114:8; Neh 9:15.
In 1 Corinthians 10:4, in what sense was Christ the rock that followed the Jews and how did he/it follow?
1 Corinthians 10:4 (NASB)
"And all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ."
The Israelites were expecting the promised seed, Shiloh,to Abraham God promised:
Genesis 22:18 , 49:10 (NASB)
22:18 In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”49:10 “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,Until Shiloh comes, And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
Paul wrote that the sacrifices for sin pointed to the Messiah and that the Law was a tutor leading to Christ, the "rock mass" (Matthew 16:18)
Hebrews 10:1 (NASB)
One Sacrifice of Christ Is Sufficient
10 For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very [a]form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near.
Galatians 3:24 (NASB)
24 Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.
Conclusion.
Thus ,God not only provided the Israelites with literal food and water for their daily needs ,He also provided them with spiritual food associated with the Messiah, giving them faith and hope that followed them in the wilderness.
Paul wrote that the Israelites: "And all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ."(1 Corinthians 10:4) Miraculously the Israelites received provision of water from a rock mass (Exodus 17:5-7 and Numbers 20:1-11). Hence ,the rock-mass as a source of water, in effect, followed them. The rock-mass itself was evidently a pictorial, or symbolic, type of Christ Jesus, who said to the Jews: “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.”—John 7:37
Apparently the rock is "the Rock of Miriam". The video shows the prominence of Miriam, Moses' wife in the story of the striking of the rock and she is always associated with water.
It might be tempting to see in this the idea that Mother Mary is being referenced, but per Paul, rather than Mary, it is Christ that is the water giver.
I take this all to mean that in this story there was a single miraculous rock which did in fact show up each day in their travels and provide them with water for forty years. In the Torah, it represented the faith of Miriam, but in the NT, for Paul, it becomes either a metaphor of Christ or a manifestation of Christ. I don't think it is possible to resolve that last point.
1Cor 10- “10:1 Now I would not have you ignorant, brothers, that our fathers were all under the pillar of cloud, and all passed through the sea; 10:2 and were all baptized with Mosheh in the cloud and in the sea; 10:3 and all ate the same food from the RUACH; 10:4 and all drank the same drink from the RUACH - for indeed, they drank from a RUACH sent rock that followed them, and that rock was anointed463. 10:5 However with most of them, ELOHIM was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.”
BTC Footnote 463:
“463 Vs 10:4 – ‘anointed (mashiach, christos)’ - Refers to that Spirit anointed rock which the people drank from. Vs 1-4 is to remind believers that being fellow partakers of spiritual or anointed provision is no guarantee that one cannot fall into sin and its consequences thereof, just as happened to our forefathers in the wilderness (vs 5-6, 11).”
Excerpt From Book of The Covenant
The word “christon” (mashiach, anointed) in 1Cor 10:4 context and as evident in the referenced event of Ex 17:6 is simply saying that the rock (which poured forth water miraculously) was anointed by God for that specific purpose. This word “anointed” occurs many times throughout scripture, and does not necessarily refer to “the Christ (Mashiach YaHshua).
