rock

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rock, noun Anyone who has visited Israel or Palestine will not be surprised to learn that rock is one of the most common metaphors in the Bible. Rock dominates the landscape. Hebrew has two words for rock: tsur and cela. They seem to be used interchangeably, but cela often carries a sense of loftiness as in a steep or rugged face of a cliff. More often than not, rock is a metaphor for God, frequently used in association with other figures of speech such as fortress, refuge, and salvation¹.

tsur

For I will proclaim the name of the Lord, ascribe greatness to our God! The
Rock, his work is perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God, without
deceit, just and upright is he. [Deuteronomy 32:3-4]

                       The God of Israel has spoken, the Rock of Israel has said to me: One who
         rules over people justly, ruling in the fear of God, is like the light of morning,
         like the sun rising on a cloudless morning, gleaming from the rain on the
         grassy land. [II Samuel 23:3-4]

Incline your ear to me; rescue me speedily. Be a rock of refuge for me, a
strong fortress to save me. [Psalm 31:2]

O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our
salvation! [Psalm 95:1]

cela

You are indeed my rock and my fortress; for your name's sake lead me and
guide me. [Psalm 31:3]

I say to God, my rock, "Why have you forgotten me? Why must I walk about
mournfully because the enemy oppresses me?" [Psalm 42:9]

            Occasionally tsur and cela are used in parallel, which suggests that the two metaphors for God carried similar connotations.
      David said: The Lord is my rock (cela), my fortress, and my deliverer, my
          God, my rock (tsur), in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my
          salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my savior; you save me from
          violence. [II Samuel 22:2-3]
      The Lord is my rock (cela), my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock
          (tsur) in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my
           stronghold. [Psalm 18:2]
      Be to me a rock (tsur) of refuge, a strong fortress, to save me, for you are my
          rock (cela) and my fortress. [Psalm 71:3]

            The rock had other religious associations in addition to being a God metaphor. A rock could be used as an altar for the offering of sacrifice². A knife made of flint rock was used in circumcision³. From out of rock came life-sustaining water⁴. Rock stood for a sense of steadiness and security or protection. Rock is the source of life itself.
    The angel of God said to Gideon, "Take the meat and the unleavened cakes,
          and put them on this rock (cela), and pour out the broth." And he did so.
          Then the angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff that was in his
          hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes; and fire sprang up
          from the rock (tsur) and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes; and
          the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight. [Judges 6:20-21]
     At that time the Lord said to Joshua, "Make flint knives and circumcise the
          Israelites a second time." So Joshua made flint knives, and circumcised the
          Israelites at Gibeath-haaraloth. — tsur [Joshua 5:2-3]
      I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew
          me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a
          rock, making my steps secure. — cela [Psalm 40:1-2]
      See, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule with justice.
          Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a covert from the tempest, like
          streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary
          land. — cela [Isaiah 32:1-2]
     God split rocks (tsur) open in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly
          as from the deep. He made streams come out of the rock (cela), and caused
          waters to flow down like rivers. [Psalm 78:15-16]
     Listen to me, you that pursue righteousness, you that seek the Lord. Look to
          the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were
          dug. — tsur [Isaiah 51:1]

            Rock was also used figuratively to indicate hiding from God. This theme was picked up in the words of a gospel hymn: “Well, I run to the rock just to hide my face: And the rocks cried out, no hiding place: There's no hiding place down here.”
     Enter into the rock, and hide in the dust from the terror of the Lord, and from
          the glory of his majesty. — tsur [Isaiah 2:10]
     On that day people will throw away to the moles and to the bats their idols of
          silver and their idols of gold, which they made for themselves to worship, to
          enter the caverns of the rocks (tsur) and the clefts in the crags (cela), from
          the terror of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty, when he rises to
          terrify the earth. [Isaiah 2:20-21]
      The terror you inspire and the pride of your heart have deceived you, you who
           live in the clefts of the rock, who hold the height of the hill. Although you
           make your nest as high as the eagle's, from there I will bring you down, says
           the Lord. — cela [Jeremiah 49:16]

            One negative connotation of the rock metaphor was the picture of a dry and barren land, a scene of desolation and despair.⁵Another is God the Rock pictured not as a refuge but as a threat.
       Leave the towns, and live on the rock, O inhabitants of Moab! Be like the
           dove that nests on the sides of the mouth of a gorge. — cela
           [Jeremiah 48:28]
       Therefore, thus says the Lord God: See, I am against you, O Tyre! I will hurl
           many nations against you, as the sea hurls its waves. They shall destroy the
           walls of Tyre and break down its towers. I will scrape its soil from it and
           make it a bare rock. — cela [Ezekiel 26:3-4]
      The Lord of hosts, him you shall regard as holy; let him be your fear, and let
           him be your dread. He will become a sanctuary, a stone one strikes against;
           for both houses of Israel he will become a rock one stumbles over--a trap and
           a snare for the inhabitants of Jerusalem. — tsur [Isaiah 8:13-14]
     Are you not from of old, O Lord my God, my Holy One? You shall not die. O
          Lord, you have marked them for judgment; and you, O Rock, have
          established them for punishment. — tsur [Habakkuk 1:12]

            Although Jesus and his followers did not call God a rock, they seem to have been influenced by the rock imagery. The word for rock in Greek is petra, the source of Jesus’s name for Simon, Petros or in English, Peter. In the naming of Peter and in the assertion about the reliability of Jesus’s words, the gospels appear to have been drawing on the Hebrew use of the rock metaphor suggesting steadiness and security.
   And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the
         gates of Hades will not prevail against it. [Matthew 16:18]
   "Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a
          wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the
          winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been
          founded on rock. [Matthew 7:24-25]

            The parable of the foolish farmer may have been influenced by the Hebrew use of rock to indicate a barren, desolate land. A prophesy in the Bible’s last book also seems to pick up on the tradition of using rocks to picture desolation. In addition, the prophesy echoes the theme of trying to hide from God in or among the rocks.
A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell on the path and
        was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Some fell on the rock; and
        as it grew up, it withered for lack of moisture. [Luke 8:5-6]
   Then the kings of the earth and the magnates and the generals and the rich
         and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid in the caves and among the
         rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and
         hide us from the face of the one seated on the throne and from the wrath of the
         Lamb." [Revelation 6:15-16]

St. Paul uses two rock metaphors from the Hebrew Scriptures to identify his understanding of Jesus as the Christ⁶. Like Paul’s letter to the Romans, the first letter attributed to Peter uses the image of the rock that causes stumbling.

    As it is written, "See, I am laying in Zion a stone that will make people
         stumble, a rock that will make them fall, and whoever believes in him will not
         be put to shame." [Romans 9:33]
   All drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that
         followed them, and the rock was Christ. [I Corinthians 10:4]
   To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe, "The
         stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner," and
         "A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall." They
         stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
       [I Peter 2:7-8]

People who have spent their lives on the Great Plains of America may have trouble relating to God as the Rock. They may not react much at all to any metaphorical uses of rocks in the Bible. Those who have been fortunate enough to traverse rugged mountain terrain, however, can readily sense what the Hebrew-speaking people meant when they employed rock imagery. Jesus’s early followers were as familiar with the outcropping of rocks and the craggy cliff faces of Palestine as were the people of ancient Israel. As they walked with Jesus from village to village, at times they must have been impressed with the immovability of the immense rocks in which they could find shelter as well as annoyed by the smaller rocks that could cause them to stumble. They not only understood the rock metaphors of the Hebrew Scriptures, but they also employed the same images to convey their convictions about Jesus.

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1. For salvation, see From Literal to Literary, pp. 217-219.

2. For sacrifice, see From Literal to Literary, pp. 214-217.

3. For circumcision, click here.

4. For water, see Baptise, From Literal to Literary, pp. 37-40.

5. For despair, see From Literal to Literary, pp. 77-78.

6. For Christ, see From Literal to Literary, pp. 57-59.