THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT ROCKS
written by: bro. Rey V. Entila (written: May 2006)
CFD - Diocese of Bacolod
One of the persistent objections concerning Peter’s role as the foundation-rock of God’s new people is that only God and Christ are called in the Bible as Rock. There is a presumption that this title could not be given to any human being for that would be a usurpation of the divine title. An objective reading of the whole Bible would easily clear up this problem, because the Bible shows that a Patriarch in the Old Testament was called Rock, as well as Peter, patriarch of New People of God, was also called as such.
A. In the Old Testament
a. God the Father as Rock
The Hebrew word “Shur” was used of God. Easton’s Bible Dictionary defines Rock as:
“(Heb. tsur), employed as a symbol of God in the Old Testament (1 Sam. 2:2; 2 Sam. 22:3; Isa. 17:10; Ps. 28:1; 31:2,3; 89:26; 95:1); also in the New Testament (Matt. 16:18; Rom. 9:33; 1 Cor. 10:4). In Dan. 2:45 the Chaldaic form of the Hebrew word is translated ‘mountain.’ It ought to be translated ‘rock,’ as in Hab. 1:12 in the Revised Version. The ‘rock’ from which the stone is cut here signifies the divine origin of Christ”.
According to Augustus Strong, “The rock (or mountain) serves as a figure of security (Ps.61:2), firmness (Job 14:18), and something that endures” (Job 19:24) (Strong, p.765).
The book of Deuteronomy called God the Rock. "The Rock, his work is perfect; for all his ways are justice. A God of faith-fulness and without iniquity, just and right is He” (Deut. 32:4).
The Psalmist repeatedly called God the Rock. “The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold” (Psalm 18:2); “For who is God, but the LORD? And who is a rock, except our God?” (Psalm 18:31); “The LORD lives; and blessed be my rock, and exalted be the God of my salvation” (Psalm 18:46); “Yea, thou art my rock and my fortress; for thy name's sake lead me and guide me, 4 take me out of the net which is hidden for me, for thou art my refuge” (Psalm 31:3-4).
God is Israel’s Rock. “You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel” (Isa.30:29).
b. Abraham as Rock
Concerning the Patriarch Abraham, the prophet Isaiah wrote: "Hearken to me, you who pursue deliverance, you who seek the LORD; look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were digged. 2 Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for when he was but one I called him, and I blessed him and made him many” (Isa. 51:1-2).
Even though the term Rock, which in Hebrew language is Sur, is oftentimes a metaphor for God the Father, this does not imply that throughout the Old Testament, God alone was called that way in the Bible. This passage in Isa. 51:1-2 applies the metaphor to Abraham when it says “look to the rock from which you were hewn” (made or shaped) as it applies to Sarah the “quarry from which you were digged”. As Hebrew poetry is lavished by repetition and parallelism, verse 2 specifies Abraham and Sarah as the one referred in verse 1. So there is no truth in the common non-Catholic statement “God alone is referred to as rock in the whole bible, never to any human being.”
Stanley L. Jaki quoted Two prominent Jewish scholars Strack and Billerbeck, impartial to both Catholics and Protestants alike, who pointed Abraham as rock (Heb. Sur):
‘“When God looked on Abraham, who was to appear, he said: Behold I have found a rock on which I can build and base the world. Therefore he called Abraham a rock’…The earliest parts of Jalkut, a compilation by Simeon Kara (12th century) of Midrash fragments, are from the 5th century!Actually, the earliest of half a dozen other Talmudic texts describing Abtraham as rock, mentioned by Strack and Billerbeck, are from the middle of the second century A.D.” Midrash Jalqut (1,766), as cited in S.L.Jaki, And On This Rock, 2nd ed.,(Manassas, VA:Trinity, 1987), 89.
The Protestant scholar Donald Guthrie also affirms Abraham as rock. “Abraham is spoken of as ‘the Rock from which you were hewn.’(Is.51:1)” (Guthrie, p.837).
Furthermore, The New Strong’s Expanded Dictionary of Bible Words, a renowned standard reference among English-speaking Protestants, (2001) gave in #6697 the no. 8 meaning of rock (tsuwr/ tsoor) (8) Abraham is the source (rock) from which Israel was hewn (Is.51:1). (Strong, p. 765).
As Abraham was the patriarch of the people of God in the Old Testament whose name God Himself changed from Abram to Abraham, later in the New Testament, God in the person of Jesus, changed the name of Simon to Peter the Rock to be the foundation of the New People of God. As Abraham was in his person, the foundation of God’s people, Peter in person will be the foundation of God’s new people. But as Abraham was not given the name “rock”, Simon was the first person in the whole Bible to be called “Rock”.
B. In the New Testament
In the New Dispensation, Christ who was called by St. Paul as Rock, Simon was called by Jesus a rock. Just as Abraham was given by God the Father to share in His rockness, Jesus who is the perfect image of the Father (Col.1:15) shared his rockness to Simon the fisherman.
a. Jesus
St. Paul wrote to the Corinthian Christians concerning the event when the Israelites, after crossing the Red Sea went to Mount Sinai. After giving them quail and manna to eat, God gave them water from the rock that followed them (Ex.17:1-7). “I want you to know, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same supernatural food and all drank the same supernatural drink. For they drank from the supernatural Rock which followed them, and the Rock was Christ” (1 Cor.10:1-4).
b. Peter
Christ brought His Twelve Apostles in Caesaria Philippi and asked who He really was. No one but Simon was given the revelation by the Father to declare the true identity of Jesus. In Mt 16:13-17 “When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ They replied, ‘Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter said in reply, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’ Jesus said to him in reply, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.’”
Christ then gives Simon son of Jonah a new name. "And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (Mt 16:18). Concerning the place where this event happened, Steve Ray writes: “this fact is too often ignored. Jesus, standing in front of a massive rock in Caesaria Philippi upon which stands the “false church”, the temple of the “divine” Caesar Augustus, says to Peter, “You are Rock”, making a correlation. Then, after the correlation has been made, he looks at Peter and (sic) the massive rock and says, “And upon this Rock I will build my Church” (Ray, Upon This Rock, p.36).
Finally, Jesus gave to Peter the divine commission, "And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.'' (Matt.16:19). This echoes the commission made by God to Eliakim to become the prime Minister of Israel (Isa.22:21-22). Therefore, Peter was just declared to be the Prime Minister of the Church, that is, God’s people.
