the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Rock (2)
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or ROCK (πέτρα).—1. In Matthew 7:24 the word stands for a rocky foundation, which would remain solid, notwithstanding the sapping effect of floods; while the sandy foundation means a carelessly chosen site, where the loose formation of the soil would be very easily penetrated by torrents, thus making the building erected on it very insecure. The moral and spiritual parallel is that of two contrasted lives, one durable, the other perishing and worthless. The man who listens to Christ’s words but does not carry them out, never allowing them to affect his character, is one who builds upon the sand. He, again, who hears the word and straightway carries it into action, doing the will of God with his might, has chosen the rocky foundation. To him the storms and trials of life act as tests of character, which show it to be securely founded, and make it more firm and durable. Perhaps faith and obedience are the two prominent characteristics of the man who builds his house upon the rock. See art. Building.
2. At Caesarea Philippi, Christ asked His disciples about the various opinions men were holding regarding Him. St. Peter answered for the Apostles: ‘Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ The Saviour was pleased by this answer of faith, which had been revealed to Peter by the Heavenly Father, and commended him by saying (Matthew 16:18), ‘Thou art Peter (πέτρος), and on this rock (πέτρα) I will build my Church.’ St. Peter thus showed himself to be one who had profited by Christ’s teaching, being a doer of the word as welt as a hearer. Only the faithful and obedient heart could have given him such a deep knowledge of the truth. As Jerusalem stood on the rocky foundation of Mt. Zion, and was faced by the dark rocks of the valley of Hinnom, a scene of death and corruption; so the new city of God, the ἐκκλησία of Christ, is to be founded on imperishable foundations, so that the opposing gates of Hades (all the power of evil) should never prevail against it. St. Peter, in showing himself a man of faith, is a specimen of the believing ones who shall constitute the strong foundation on which the Church is to rest. As πέτρος is a fragment of πέτρα, so the believing St. Peter is an example of all who should hereafter believe (cf. 1 Timothy 1:16).
It is well to note that the Fathers took the rock to mean either Christ Himself, or the faith or the confession of St. Peter, but never St. Peter as an individual. In later days, the text Matthew 16:18 was used for polemical purposes, in defence of the Papacy. The Reformers returned to the earlier view of the Fathers, mostly holding that the confession of faith made by St. Peter was the rock. Another view held by Luther, following Augustine, was that Christ, in speaking the words, pointed to Himself as the rock. Perhaps this would best accord with the general teaching of the New Testament. St. Paul calls Christ the foundation (1 Corinthians 3:11), and again speaks of Apostles and prophets being the foundation, while Christ is the chief corner-stone (Ephesians 2:20). Is it not most likely, however, that our Lord looked on St. Peter as the type of converted, believing men, on whom, as a foundation, an un conquerable Church should be built? Origen well says: ‘If thou hast Peter’s faith, thou art a rock like him. If thou hast Peter’s virtues, thou hast Peter’s keys.’ See also artt. Caesarea Philippi and Church.
3. The word ‘rock’ occurs in Luke 8:6; Luke 8:13, in the parable of the Sower. It is the equivalent of the ‘stony (Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 ‘rocky’) places’ of Matthew 13:5; Matthew 13:20 (τὰ πετρώδη), and gives at once the right sense, a thin coating of soil covering a hard rocky surface, where there could be no depth of earth. The rock here, in the interpretation, signifies a sinful worldly nature, incapable of being penetrated by the living seed. That which makes a good foundation is not at all fitted to be a good seed-bed. See art. Seed.
4. In Matthew 27:51 we read that the rocks (πέτραι) were rent, at the hour of Christ’s death on Calvary. There is nothing figurative here; but the earthquake would make it appear to men’s minds as if the very earth shuddered at man’s wicked deed, so that its hardest elements were broken asunder.
5. Finally, the sepulchre in which our Lord was laid was ‘hewn out of a rock’ (Matthew 27:60 = Mark 15:46).
D. M. W. Laird.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Rock (2)'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/r/rock-2.html. 1906-1918.
