Tyndale Bulletin 22 (1971) 58-81. ‘ROCK-STONE’ IMAGERY IN I PETER By 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 Testa- ment. 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 רּוצ not by λίθος but by θεός. Six examples appear in Deuteronomy 32. A Mid- rash explains the great stone over the mouth of the well in Genesis 29:2 as a reference to the Shekinah3—but one illus- 1 E. Meyer, Die Israeliten and Ihre Nachbarstämme, Niemeyer, Halle (1906) 282. 2 ZAW 10 (1890) 85-96; TWNT IV. 272, VI. 97. 3 Gen. R. 70.9. 'ROCK—STONE' IMAGERY IN I PETER 59 tration of the Rabbis' fascination4 for the concept of the foun- dation-stone of Isaiah 28, to which we shall return later. The 'rock—stone' imagery is taken up in the New Testament. The main references are Mark 12:10f. ( = Mt. 21:42; Lk. 20:17), where the figure appears in a verbum Christi as the culmination of the parable of the Wicked Husbandmen; Acts 4:11 in Peter's defence before the Council; Romans as Paul explains Israel's lack of faith; and in I Peter 2:4-8. It is not possible to demonstrate mathematically a link be- tween Old Testament passages on this theme, but the strong impression that a particular stone is in mind makes such a con- nection highly probable,5 though Hooke6 considers any link between the passages is only a New Testament interpretation. On the other hand, we find in Justin's Dialogue (36) that Trypho the Jew is willing to concede the point, without dis- pute, that 'Christ is called a Stone', although actual texts have not been mentioned. This clearly implies that 'the Stone' was an accepted Messianic title among Jews and not merely a Christian view. Although Selwyn7 thinks that the interpre- tation may have been suggested to the Jews by the destruction of the Temple in AD 70, at least one example predates the New Testament. This is to be found in the addition of ἐπ’ αὐτῷ to Isaiah 28:16 in most MSS of the LXX,8 an addition which is included when this verse is cited in Romans 9:33 and 1 Peter 2:6. The addition, as Jeremias points out, essentially alters the sense of Isaiah 28:16 to the degree that the stone now becomes a ground of assurance or the object of faith, and this at least suggests a personal understanding.9 A comparison of 1 Peter with Romans gives this picture of their use of the Old Testament passages: Romans 9:33 reads: 'Behold, I lay in Zion (Is. 28:16a) a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence (Is. 8:14); and he that believeth on him (or, it) shall not be put to shame' (Is. 28:16c). 4 R. J. McKelvey, The New Temple, OUP (1969) 188-192. 5 H. L. Ellison, The Centrality of the Messianic Idea, Tyndale Press, London (1953) 20. 6 S. H. Hooke, Siege Perilous, SPCK, London (1956) 240. 7 E. G. Selwyn, The First Epistle of St. Peter, Macmillan, London (1946) 158f. 8 A pre-Christian insertion, according to F. J. A. Hort, The First Epistle of St. Peter, Macmillan, London (1898); contra, F. W. Beare, The First Epistle of Peter,3 Blackwell, Oxford (1970) 120. The addition is included in the Targum of Is. 28:16. 9 TWNT IV. 272. 60 TYNDALE BULLETIN I Peter 2:6 reads: 'Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner-stone, elect, precious, and he that believeth on him (or, it) shall not be put to shame' (all from Is. 28:16), followed in verse 7 with 'The stone which the builders rejected, the same was made the head of the corner' (Ps. 118:22) and 'A stone of stum- bling and a rock of offence' (Is. 8:14). The first phrase in both Peter and Romans (‘Behold, I lay in Zion’), while a fair rendering of the Hebrew, shows a remarkable departure from the LXX, which reads ἐμβάλλω εἰς τὰ θεμέλια Σιών (‘I lay for the foundations of Zion’). Peter and Paul both alter ἐμβάλλω to τίθημι, and abbreviate the rest of the LXX phrase to simply 'in Zion'. Again, both writers abandon the LXX in their virtually identical rendering of the citation from Is. 8:410 and give a correct version of the Hebrew. More- over, while the LXX denies the 'stumbling-stone' and 'rock' (‘Ye shall not come against him as against a stumbling-stone, neither as against the falling of a rock’), Peter and Paul seem to presuppose a text which affirmed the actuality of both.11 These agreements taken together are hardly fortuitous, though the hypothesis of literary interdependence between Peter and Paul is unlikely, despite F. W. Beare's view12 that Dean Selwyn's hymn suggestion is a construction 'mounted on pins' and the literary dependence of I Peter on Romans 'far simpler and more natural'. The alleged dependence on Romans may be explained just as well by assuming that the writer of 1 Peter is near enough a contemporary of Paul. In the first place, the 'influence' of Romans upon 1 Peter is neither deep nor far-reaching.13 And again, of the eight passages usually cited as parallels to passages in Romans, Wand14 points out that two are Old Testament prophecies (2:6-8; 2:10), two give lists of common Christian duties (2:13-17; 3:8, 9, 11), a fifth is semi-liturgical (2:5), a sixth depends rather on thought than on words (4:7- 11), and the remaining two are doubtful (1:14-22). Thus the material could easily have been common to many 10 In BZ (1967) 109-116 J. M. Ford discusses the symbolism behind Is. 8:14- 16. 11 C. H. Dodd, According to the Scriptures, Nisbet, London (1952) 42 note. 12 Comm. 217. 13 V. Taylor, The Atonement in NT Teaching, Epworth, London (1940) 37. 14 J. W. C. Wand, The General Epistles of St. Peter & St. Jude (Westminster Com- mentary), Methuen, London (1934) 19. ‘ROCK—STONE’ IMAGERY IN I PETER 61 Christian teachers, and been drawn upon independently by Peter and by Paul. Certainly so far as the 'rock' motif in 1 Peter 2 is concerned, the idea of stumbling at the Rock of Offence, or Stone of Scandal, is so widely diffused in the Gospels and Epistles, that the teaching is plainly part of the earliest Christian tradition,15 and goes back to the passages quoted by Peter from Isaiah 28:16, Psalm 118:22, and Isaiah 8:14. Even with the earliest date possible for 1 Peter, few would be prepared to maintain that Paul borrowed from Peter. It is in fact even less likely that Peter borrowed from Paul, since in the case of 1 Peter 2:6-8, for example, this would entail the proposition that Peter first disentangled the two passages from Isaiah, then added parts of Isaiah 28:16 which Paul omitted, and yet did not supplement them out of the LXX. The insertion of 'on him' after 'believe', omitted from the MT, is found in the Targum of Isaiah 28:16, and from its appearance in both Peter and Paul may have been a familiar rendering of the day, derived perhaps from the interpretation of the methurgeman in the synagogue.16 Dodd suggests that Peter and Paul each used a twofold testimonium already current in the pre-canonical tradition, and differing somewhat from the LXX. Dodd's conclusions, however, have not gone unchallenged. J. de Waard17 considers that the similar text of Isaiah 28:16 used in Romans 9:33 and I Peter 2:8 is not to be explained by the common use of a testimony book, for the early Fathers all go back to the LXX version of Isaiah 28:16 and not to Dodd's supposed testimon- ium-text. Neither is de Waard satisfied with Selwyn's hypo thesis of an early Christian hymn or rhythmical prayer. Among other things, it fails to explain Paul's omission of Psalm 118 from the catena. Rather we should think in terms of a Chris- tian midrash concerning the 'stone', based on a verbum Christi, since we now have such an excellent example from Qumran 15 J. R. Harris, Testimonies, CUP (1916) I. 29. 16 According to C. H. Toy, Quotations in the NT, Scribner, New York (1884) 146. But The Targum of Isaiah, tr. J. F. Stenning, OUP (1953), has a plural: וילאב ונימיהד איקידצ 'the righteous who have believed in these things (shall not be dismayed when distress cometh)'. 17 J. de Waard, A Comparative Study of the OT Text in the Dead Sea Scrolls and in the NT (STDJ 4) Brill, Leiden (1965) 58. 62 TYNDALE BULLETIN (IQS viii.7ff.). But it seems doubtful whether 'Christian mid- rash' is much of an advance on ‘testimonium’, for the fact remains that no other Christian writer uses the Romans- Peter text of Isaiah.18 Another criticism of Dodd comes from A. C. Sundberg,19 who demonstrates with a large number of examples that most citations in the New Testament are atomistic. Few seem to require reference back to the original context to give them their full meaning for Christian readers, as Dodd had argued.20 Although Sundberg's examples from 1 Peter do not include the ‘rock’ passage, his contention applies here too. A knowledge of the historical background of Isaiah's prophecies, to which we shall return later, is hardy essential to the Christian understanding of Peter's use of the citations. In Romans 9:33 Paul disregards the other Old Testament text in 1 Peter, a verbum Christi from Psalm 118:22. But in Eph. 2:19f. he does allude to this passage in a combination of the 'stone' and 'temple' imagery. With I Peter 2:6 (cf. Mt. 21:42; Mk. 12:10f.) Paul refers to Christ as the chief corner- stone (ἀκρογωνιαῖος, Eph. 2:20), and both speak of Christians as the house of God. Although Paul does not explicitly call Christians 'living stones' of the building, as Peter does, this is clearly implied. Probably then the 'building of God' is as much part of the testimonium as the 'corner-stone'. It is noticeable in Luke 20:17 that the quotation from Psalm 118 is followed by the words 'every one who falls on that stone', which may well be an allusion to Isaiah 8:14. The Epistle of Barnabas (6)21 uses in one passage Isaiah 28:16, Isaiah 50:7, Psalm 118:22 (in that order) and also says that Christ was set as a strong stone for breaking (εἰς συντριβήν), an echo of the other Isaiah passage (8:14). Cyprian’s Testi- monia22 have a section headed 'That Christ is called the Stone', in which two of these Old Testament passages are quoted (Is. 28:16; Ps. 118:22). There is, therefore, a link stretching from the reported words of Christ himself through the Epistles out into the first centuries of the early Church. 18 The Epistle of Barnabas (ch. 6) may indicate that the writer knew Is. 28:16 in both the LXX version and the Romans/Peter text, according to J. R. Harris, Testimonies I. 30f. 19 NovTest 3 (1959) 271. 20 According to the Scriptures 59, 61f. 21 R. A. Kraft, JBL 79 (196o) 336-350. 22 Ad Quirinium: Test. adv. Jud. ii. 16f. 'ROCK—STONE' IMAGERY IN I PETER 63 Rendel Harris23 investigated the problem at some length, and concluded that this unbroken chain might suggest an enlightening exegesis of the difficult clause ending 1 Peter 2:8, 'for they stumble at the word, being disobedient, where- unto also they were appointed (εἰς ὃ καὶ ἐτέθησαν)'. Harris argues from the Greek used in Barnabas 6 that the final verb in this verse should be singular, ἐτέθη: 'It is the Stone which is the ordinance of God and not the stumblers.' But his proposed emendation lacks any sort of support in the manuscripts, and later commentators rightly disregard it. Interpretations how- ever are diverse. Calvin supposed that Peter meant 'unto which rejection and destruction they were designated in the purpose of God'. Benge124 paraphrased: 'They who do not believe, stumble; they who stumble are also appointed for stumbling.' Bigg25 restricts the predestination to evil to the divine decree that stumbling inevitably follows upon disobedience: 'Their dis- obedience is not ordained; the penalty of their disobedience is.' Beare26 is close to this: 'It is the stumbling that is fore- ordained, rather than the unbelief which leads to it.' Hort27 noticed the undoubtedly designed repetition of the Greek verb τίθημι to express the ordinance of God: 'I lay (τίθημι) in Zion a chief corner stone' (2:6); 'whereunto also they were appointed (ἐτέθησαν)' (2:8). Both the redemptive mission and the work of Christ and its rejection and rejectors were within the counsel and purpose of God, though it is not stated that this rejection is final or irretrievable.28 The primary reference is probably to the rejection of Christ by the Jews (Hort), though Peter's particular thought is not made clear. ‘They were appointed’ may perhaps mean not that individuals are predestined to stumble but that the stumbling of many against the rock is foretold in Scripture. Peter's confession of faith at Caesarea Philippi made him a rock, or part of the Rock: 'Thou art Πέτρος, and upon this πέτρα I will build my church' (Mt. 16:18). The name is given 23 Testimonies I. 26-32. 24 J. A. Bengel, Gnomon, T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh (1858) v. 55. 25 C. Bigg, The Epistles of St Peter & St Jude (ICC), T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh (19o1) 13. 26 Comm. 126. 27 Comm. 123. 28 H. Kleinknecht, Wrath, A. & C. Black, London (1964) 89. 64 TYNDALE BULLETIN with explicit reference to a foundation-stone. But the warn- ing is at once added that he is capable of being a stumbling- stone (σκάνδαλον, Mt. 16:23) and of stumbling himself. It is not surprising, therefore, that Peter's Epistle presents the alterna- tives of receiving or rejecting Christ in terms of the stone imagery,29 incidental evidence which should not be disre- garded in any discussion of the problem of authorship. This double use of the stone—as a foundation for some and as a dangerous obstacle for others—comes out in the context of the two passages from Isaiah quoted in 1 Peter 2. Isaiah 8:14 and 28:16 both reflect the troubled period around 735 BC when Tiglath-Pileser III was threatening Palestine with invasion, and a northern confederation headed by Damascus and Israel was trying to force Ahaz, who was Assyria's vassal, to join them. In chapter 7 Isaiah warns Ahaz against panic. In chapter 8 the prophet speaks similarly to his own disciples, assuring them that Yahweh will become 'a sanctuary', so far as they are concerned, but 'a stone of offence and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel'. The gist of the message is that 'the way of this people' is leading them to disaster (Is. 8:11, 15). In the companion passage (Is. 28) the 'word of Yahweh' causes the people ‘to go’, i.e. to continue on their course of rebellion, and consequently to 'fall backward and be broken and snared and taken'. In 7:9 Isaiah had told the king and the people, 'If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established'. Conversely, the believer would be established, because the living and powerful 'word' of Yahweh imparted to him its own character of rock-like steadfastness. The same thought recurs in 28:16: 'He who believes will not be in haste', i.e. (by metonymy) he who believes will not stumble, as the consequence of hurry. But while the believer remains firm as rock itself, the unbeliever going against Yahweh's 'word' en- counters its rock-like quality. He stumbles, falls, and is shat- tered . Isaiah 28 describes the scornful rulers of Jerusalem, with their self-chosen and confident foreign policy, confronted with a stone laid by Yahweh in Zion. A coming storm will sweep away their building, but the stone will abide. In Isaiah 28:16 29 C. F. D. Moule, NTS 2 (1955-56) 57. ‘ROCK—STONE’ IMAGERY IN I PETER 65 it is called ןַחֹּב ןֶבֶא, which is rendered in the English versions as 'a tried stone' or 'a tested stone' (AV, RV, RSV, Moffatt). But Delitzsch has pointed out that ןַחֹּב is active not passive: a stone of testing, i.e. for the purpose of approving, or the opposite. C. A. Briggs agrees: ‘ןַחֹּב is a test stone, not a tested stone.' The BDB lexicon states that ןַחֹּב, is active—and then like Whitehouse (Century Bible) promptly gives the word a passive translation: 'a tested, tried stone'. It is in fact a testing- stone. Isaiah never speaks of its being built upon. Hooke,30 however, maintains that in Isaiah 28:16ןַחֹּב ןֶבֶא ; is probably to be taken as passive, for the active sense in which the ןֶבֶא is doing the testing has already appeared in Is. 8:14. In 28:16 the testing is carried out not by the ןֶבֶא but (verse 17) by the measuring line of justice and the plummet of righteous- ness, both of which may be viewed as expressions of 'the word of Yahweh' (verse 13). The ןֶבֶא symbol also occurs in Zechariah (3:9; 4:7, 10). This prophecy concerns the period after the Exile, a calamity which has been caused by the false building31 of the rulers of Isaiah's day. The ןֶבֶא in Zechariah is now a headstone or topstone. This is a stone cut beforehand by the architect. As the final stone to be dropped into place, it had two purposes. It bonded the building together, and also demonstrated—by how well it fitted—whether the architect's plans had been faithfully followed. In Christian eyes, the symbol is peculiarly appropri- ate to Jesus Christ. The various Messianic prophecies knit together into a pattern whose final form may not be clear, but which can yet be inferred. Bring their fulfilment in Christ and drop them into place as the topstone and the house is perfect and complete.32 For one who will work or expound without thought of God's Messiah, the testing-stone has been laid by God in Zion. It cannot be avoided and 'he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces' (Lk. 20:18). There is, however, a worse fate foretold for the man who in theory accepts the testing- stone, but in practice 'builds' falsely, that is, by his own wis- dom and will. When the topstone is hoisted into place on the 30 Siege Perilous 242. 31The metaphor was recognized. The scribes, for example, laid claim to the title of 'builders' in the Targum of Ps. 118:22, et al. (cf. Acts 4:11). 32 Ellison, Messianic Idea 20. 66 TYNDALE BULLETIN summit of the building, it will come crashing down, and ‘when it falls on any one, it will crush him’—not an extrava- gant expression when one bears in mind the massive nature of these stones.33 Among the ruins of the Phoenician city of Baalbek at the foot of Mount Lebanon were found three such stones, each 12 feet thick and together 175 feet in length.34 Megiddo has provided other examples.35 In the Zechariah passages mentioned above, the returned exiles are being encouraged to resume the rebuilding of the Temple, and Messianic hopes centred on Zerubbabel are ris- ing.36 In a vision (Zc. 3) Joshua the High Priest is symbolically cleansed and restored by Yahweh, who also promises to do the same for Israel. After a reference to 'my Servant the Branch (Zc. 3:8), already associated in Isaiah I and Jeremiah 23:5 with the restoration of the Davidic kingdom in the person of a Messianic figure, the ןֶבֶא is then placed before Joshua. His attention is drawn to a certain feature of the Stone. The RV translates: 'Upon one stone are seven eyes.' The Hebrew is obscure. Assuming the same Messianic symbolism of ןֶבֶא, the ‘seven eyes’ may well be the 'seven spirits'37 of Yahweh, already connected with the figure of the Messianic king in Isaiah 11. The seven spirits rest upon the stone as a symbol of the Messiah (cf. I Pet. 4:14: 'The Spirit of God resteth upon you', where those addressed have been earlier described as ‘living stones’). Next, Yahweh declares that to 'remove the iniquity of that land' he will 'engrave the engraving thereof' (ּהָחֻּתִפּ  ַחֵּתַפּ ְמ. The Piel of חתפ often means 'to engrave', and most commen- tators38 follow the RV, though the translation is hardly edifying. The LXX rendering is ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ ὀρύσσω βόθρον, 'I will dig a pit', possibly reading חַתֶפּ an opening, or תַחַפּ a pit. Jerome and Cyril explain this translation as containing a reference to the 33 1 Ki. 5: 1 7. 34 'These stones are of white granite, with large shining flakes. There is a quarry of this kind of stone under the whole city, and in the adjacent mountains, which is open in several places. As we approached the city, there was still lying there a stone, hewn on three sides, measuring 69 feet x 12 feet x 83 feet.' Scripture Manners and Customs, SPCK, London (Anon. c. 1858) 26. 35 W. F. Albright, Archaeology of Palestine, Revell, N.Y. (1960) 125f.; R. S. Lamon and G. M. Shipton, Megiddo (1939) 1, 11, 41, 52f. 36 Hooke, Siege Perilous, 244. 37 E. E. Le Bas, PEQ (1950) 114. 38 Goodspeed and RSV have: 'Upon a single stone with seven facets, I will en- grave its inscription.' ‘ROCK—STONE’ IMAGERY IN I PETER 67 wounds of Christ.39 The LXX version leads Le Bas40 to suggest God intends to 'tunnel a channel to the cache in the heart of Mount Zion in which this corner-stone lies buried'. Hooke41 goes back to the primary meaning of חַתָפּ , 'to open', and refers to Zechariah 13:1: 'On that day there shall be a fountain opened (חָּתְפִנ) for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.' Hooke doubts whether the prophet thought of the stone placed before Joshua in the vision of the heavenly temple in Zechariah 3:9 as the same as the stone mentioned in 4:7. In the latter scene Zerubbabel is envisaged as completing the building of the earthly Temple in Jerusalem. Common to the two situations is the prediction that those who had doubted whether Yahweh was able to carry out His purpose would rejoice when they saw Zerubbabel standing with a stone which the MT (4:10) describes as לידִ ְּבַה ןֶבֶאָה, and the LXX as λίθον κασσιτέρινον, 'a tin stone'. Most English versions render it as 'plummet'. Perhaps some participial form of לדַ ָּב, to separate, is intended, meaning 'a stone separated, set apart', since a plumbline is hardly appropriate.42 The text and translation of a further reference to the stone imagery in Psalm 118:22 are straightforward, though the Sitz im Leben is obscure—as is the date of the passage (some say ‘Maccabaean’;43 others 'as early as Nehemiah 8:14ff.').44 Leaving aside the New Testament interpretation, the stone here is a symbol of Israel, chastened and humiliated, but not delivered to death. Now it has been exalted by Yahweh to the key position in his purposes. The architectural reference is clear, and the position indicated by the expression הָּנִפּ  ׁשֹאר is almost certainly the same as that of the הָׁשאֹרָה ןֶבֶאָה of Zecha- riah 4:7, the crown of the building. But nothing suggests the shape of the stone. In Zechariah 12:3 Yahweh declares he will make Jerusalem a ‘burdensome stone’ (הָסָמֲעַמ ןֶבֶא) in the day when he inter- 39 C. H. H. Wright, Zechariah and His Prophecies, Hodder & Stoughton, London (1879) 547. 40 PEQ (1950) 117. 41 Siege Perilous 245. 42 P. R. Ackroyd, in Peake's Commentary on the Bible, Nelson, London (1962) section 566j. 43 JTS 17 (1916) 140f. 44 F. Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Psalms, Hodder & Stoughton, London (1889) III. 207.