Rocks, Stones And The Rock-Mass
By Jonathan Mitchell
This study will begin with a revelation given to Peter about who Jesus is, in Mk. 8:29, will pick up Jesus' response to Peter, in Mat. 16:17ff, and then spread out from there by tracing out some OT references to stones and rock-masses, and then following the thread into the precious stones of the New Temple. Many more side trails could be followed, but this study is designed to be a catalyst, as well as an unveiling. I want to thank John Gavazzoni and Dan Kaplan for their insights, that are included, below. So let us begin with Mk. 8:
29. And then He continued inquiring of them, "But you yourselves, whom are you repeatedly saying Me to be?" So Peter, replying from discernment, is then decidedly saying to Him, "You Yourself are the Christ (the Anointed One; = the Messiah) - the Son of God!" [other MSS omit: "the Son of God"; cf Jn. 6:69; 11:27]
Peter replied "from discernment" and then "decidedly" (apokrinomai) proclaimed the dual understanding concerning the Messiah,
"You Yourself are the Christ (the Anointed One; = the Messiah) - the Son of God."
I used the phrase "You Yourself" to render the emphatic way in which Peter spoke (when the Greek uses a personal pronoun together with a verb, it indicates an emphatic saying). We could also show this using the upper case,
"YOU are the Anointed One!"
This was not a casual response. He made a bold and decided proclamation. Mark does not give Jesus' response to Peter, but we find it in Mat. 16:17,
"You continue being a happy and blessed person, Simon, son of Jonah, because 'flesh and blood' (= the human nature or intellect; or: = people; or: = the old covenant system) did not uncover [this] for you, nor disclose [this] so as to reveal [it] to you (or: = you did not come up with this revelation yourself, nor uncover it in yourself, nor disclose it by or for yourself). To the contrary, [it was] My Father - the One within the heavens (or: centered in the atmospheres)!"
As Dan Kaplan was meditating on Jesus' words to Peter, in Mat. 16:17, above, the Spirit brought to him how it was affirmed to Peter that the Father was revealing Truth to Peter, just as Jesus, Himself, regularly heard from the Father. In Jn. 8:38a, Jesus explained:
"I am habitually speaking things which I, Myself, have seen, [being] at the side of (or: present with) the [other MSS: My] Father..."
He later gave further instruction on this Son-to-Father relationship in Jn. 12:49-50,
"because I Myself do not speak from out of the midst of Myself, but to the contrary, the One sending Me - [the] Father, Himself - has given an implanted goal (an impartation of the finished, purposed product within; an inward directive of destiny) to Me: what I could (or: should; would; may) say, and what I will proceed to (or, as an aorist subjunctive: could, should, would or may) speak. And I have seen and know that His implanted goal (purposed impartation of the finished product within; inward directive of destiny) is, and continuously exists being, eonian Life (life of and for the ages; Life having the qualities and characteristics of the Messianic Age; an eon-lasting life which pertains to, and comes from, the Age). Therefore, the things which I, Myself, am habitually (or: continuously; periodically) speaking, just and according as the Father has told Me (or: declared to Me), thus I am habitually and continually speaking (= When I speak, I repeat what the Father has told Me)."
Dan went on to point out that, as with Peter, so it can, and should, be with us - just as it was with Jesus, who came to be one of us, as we read in Phil. 2:5-8,
"You see, this way of thinking (this attitude and disposition) is continuously within and among you folks (or, as an imperative: So let this minding be habitually within you folks) [comment: we are to THINK in the same way that Jesus thought].... He empties Himself (or: removed the contents of Himself; made Himself empty), receiving (or: taking; accepting) a slave's form (external shape; outward mold), coming to be (or: birthing Himself) within an effect of humanity's (mankind's;people's) likeness. And so, being found in an outward fashion, mode of circumstance, condition, form-appearance (or: character, role, phase, configuration, manner) as a human (a person; a man)..."
So as we think as He thought, while He was living in the role and manner as a human being, Dan explains that hearing from the Father, and receiving disclosures from the Father, should be the normal life of a person who is "joined to the Vine" (Jn. 15:1ff). This should be our ongoing and habitual experience as we are
"habitually walking about (= living [our] life) in spirit (or: by [the] Spirit; with a Breath-effect)"
- Gal. 5:16a - within God's ongoing reign upon the earth. Or, as Paul put it, as we are,
"continually joining [ourselves] (or: being habitually glued in intimate union; in himself being continuously welded) to (or: in; with) the Lord [and existing] being one spirit (or: one Breath-effect; one Attitude; one Spirit)" (1 Cor. 6:17).
To all of this, John Gavazzoni adds:
"As the Son does only what He sees the Father doing, and only speaks what He hears from the Father, so the pattern continues in regard to the Lord's brethren, the sons of God: in manifestation they bind and loose on earth that which is bound and loosed in heaven."
But there is more that Jesus said, in Mat. 16:
18. "And now I, Myself, am saying to (or: progressively laying it out for) you that you are Peter (or: that you continue being an isolated stone). And you see, [it is] upon this, this rock-mass (or: the bedrock), [that] I will progressively be constructing and building up My House - the called-out, covenant community. And even gates of [the] Unseen (or: double-winged doors of an unseen place; the openings or orifices which are unseen {e.g., entrance of a womb}; gateways or entrances from the Unseen; [= boulders on the entrances of graves; = {the prison} gates of the 'house of death'; or: = the bars enclosing the realm of the dead]) will not continue bringing strength down against it (or: will not proceed to be coming to their full strength in relation to it; or: will not continue overpowering it or prevail in resisting it).
19. "I will continue giving to you the keys [note: = means of locking or unlocking] which have their origin and source in the reign and activities of the heavens
(or: which pertain to and have the characteristics of the kingdom of the heavens; or: which belong to the sovereignty from the atmospheres; or, as a genitive of apposition: the keys which are the sovereign influences of the heavens). And so, whatever you can (or: may; should; would) bind upon the earth will continue being [something] having been bound, and still remaining bound, within the midst of the heavens (or: in union with the atmospheres). Also, whatever you can (or: may; should; would) loose upon the earth will continue being [something] having been loosed (unbound; untied), and remaining free of bonds, within the midst of the heavens (or: in union with the atmospheres)."
Let us tease out some insights from these two verses which Matthew records about this incident. First of all, the mention of "this rock-mass (or: the bedrock)" may be an allusion to Israel's history, and to their source as a people (just as Paul used the metaphor of a"root," in the same way - Rom. 11:17-20). In Isa. 51:1b-2a we find a Hebrew parallelism,
"Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug; Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you..."
Abraham and Sarah were "the rock" and "the quarry" that Israel was built upon. When speaking of the time when Israel was wandering in the wilderness, Paul saw in that story that,
"the bedrock (or: cliff rock) was the Christ (or: the rock mass was existing being the Anointing)" (1 Cor. 10:4).
So the rock in that particular story was seen as a metaphor for Christ. But, in returning to Isaiah's metaphor, notice how Paul picks up the theme of Abraham, in Rom. 4:16,
"Because of this [i.e., there being no law, the Promise comes] out of [Christ's] faithfulness, to the end that [it is] down from, in line with and according to grace... from out of [the] faithfulness and trust of Abraham - who is a father of all of us."
We again pick up the trail of Abraham in Gal. 3, where Paul explains:
"Be assured consequently, by your experiential knowledge and insight, that the folks [springing] forth from out of the midst of Faithfulness (or: whose source is [His; his] faith, trust and confident loyalty), these are Abraham's sons!" (Gal. 3:7)
And then, in Gal. 3:29,
"Now since you folks belong to Christ, you are straightway and consequently Abraham's Seed: heirs, down from, corresponding to and in the sphere of Promise!"
What a thread of truth is woven from Isaiah, who reached back to Abraham, and then through Jesus, and finally into Paul's pictures of the called-out community, in Christ.
In Mat. 16:18, above, Jesus' mention of "this rock-mass" may also be an allusion to Dan. 2:34-35, 44-45, in the vision of "the Stone that was cut out of the Mountain," which grew to became God's kingdom which would destroy the pagan kingdoms (figured by the visionary image made of different metals) that had dominated the world. The results would be that "even gates of [the] Unseen will not continue bringing strength down against it." Dan Kaplan has tied the Dan. 2 theme of "Stone-to-Mountain" to the vision of the New Jerusalem, which is composed of precious stones, as seen in Rev. 21:
9. And one of the seven agents - the ones holding (having) the seven shallow bowls: the ones being continuously full of (or: brimming with) the seven plagues - came and spoke with me, saying, "Come here! I will proceed in showing you the Bride, the Wife of the little Lamb."
10. Next he carried (or: carries) me away, in spirit (or: in the midst of a Breath-effect), upon a great and high MOUNTAIN, and showed (points out to) me the set-apart (or: holy; sacred) city, Jerusalem, progressively (or: habitually; or: presently) descending out of the atmosphere (or: heaven), from God
11. - continuously having (holding; or: = bringing with it) the glory of God (God's glory; God's reputation; or: God's appearance; or: the opinion from God; the manifest presence, which is God), her illuminator (that which gives her light; the cause of her light) - like a most precious STONE, as a jasper stone being continuously crystal-clear...
Jesus would
"progressively be constructing and building up [His] House - the called-out, covenant community" (Mat. 16:18).
Recall the wisdom that He expressed, in Mat. 7:24,
"Everyone, then, who continues obediently hearing these words (thoughts; ideas; messages) of Mine, and habitually does them (or: acts on them), will progressively be made to be and to become like an intelligent, considerate, thoughtful, prudent and sensible adult male, who builds (or: built) His House upon the Rock-mass."
In this illustration, the strength and stability of what Christ is "progressively constructing" is seen in Mat. 7:25,
"And when the rain descended (or: falls) and the rivers came (or: come) [flooding] and the winds blew (or: blow) and lunged (or: fall toward; lash against) that House, it did (or: does) not fall, for it had been provided with a foundation and continued being established upon the Rock-mass."
This corresponds to Paul's instruction for building God's temple - 1 Cor. 3:9-17 - where he makes it clear that he is speaking about building the called-out covenant community within which God dwells. In that passage, he informed them that:
"no one can (or: continues able to; is having power to) lay another foundation (or: to place or set another foundation [Stone] of the same kind) beside (or: in addition to and distinct from) the One lying (or: continuing being laid): which is (continues being) Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. 3:11).
In regard to the Lord (often through us) doing the "building," John Gavazzoni comments:
"It is by our Lord's progressive (obviously continuously and habitually) building of His house, that we are made to continue obediently hearing His words and doing them. It's what I tried to convey in my article, "Our Steady God". That comple of His progressive building and our continual obedient hearing and doing, is something going in, and out from, the inner man ministering to the outer man to overcome the flesh's resistance. 'The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak,' applies here, I think. Is it right to conclude that God, in both short and long seasons of the above work, deliberately keeps the soul in the dark to what He is doing in our spirit? I think of the writer of Heb. 6:3 saying that we will go on to maturity IF God permits. In that spiritual scenario, I see how Jesus' hanging back from responding to the news that His friend, Lazarus, was sick (Jn. 11:6b), and then, 'in due time,' finally going, was a living allegory of our spiritual experience. The Lord obviously doesn't always get up and rush to aid us in our dying."
In Mat. 16:13, Jesus had asked them,
"Whom are the People (the humans) customarily saying the Son of the Man (= a symbolic reference to the anticipated messiah, based on the vision in Dan. 7) is to be?"
In vs.16, Peter answers, saying,
"You, Yourself, continue being the Anointed One (the Christ; = the Messiah), the living God's Son!"
In these two verses are the three main titles, or designations, which became the standard descriptions of Jesus: Son of the Man, the Anointed (Christ), and the Son of God. Jesus' response, in 16:18 presents us with an enigmatic pronouncement:
"the gateways or entrances from the Unseen will not proceed to be coming to their full strength in relation to it."
On this topic, Ken Nichols offers these insights:
"If we continue in THIS way of thinking, then the 'gates of [the Unseen] cannot prevail against it' may speak of how the Spirit will NOT be thwarted in His revelatory task. I know from experience how this is. Once I became even slightly 'teachable' again, the Spirit became rather 'relentless' in showing me the error of my ways in certain doctrines, so that I had to RELENT of my old beliefs. No blindness-darkness-lies from [the Unseen, erroneously termed, 'Hell'] would stand in the way of the new truth that was dawning in my mind. This could ALSO speak of the idea that even the veil of DEATH itself will not halt the process of revelation. That God will not allow even ONE of His children to be left in [the Unseen - (the traditional 'Hell')], i.e., in death/destruction/lostness, but will impart the knowledge of Himself that will allow/compel/draw them into His loving embrace." (from a personal email; bracketed editing, mine)
Ken shared with us potential application of the enigmatic phrases in Mat. 16:19b,
"Perhaps the 'bindings' and 'loosings' are also talking about revelation. Jesus may be saying that if there is something you don't know yet, it's because that revelation has not been released to you. But all that IS released to you, you WILL know. Maybe it's a personal promise that God would continue to teach Peter so as to give Him the strength and wisdom to be the first teaching apostle of the church."With the inclusion of Ken's remarks arises the topic of "the Unseen."
So it seems advisable to highlight the alternative renderings of the phrase, in Mat. 16:18, that are also on offer in my translation - along with the one given just before Ken's quote (i.e., "the gateways..."):
a) double-winged doors of an unseen place;
b) the openings or orifices which are unseen (e.g., entrance of a womb);
c) gateways or entrances from the Unseen;
d) = boulders on the entrances of graves;
e) = [the prison] gates of the 'house of death';
f ) = the bars enclosing the realm of the dead (cf Jonah 2:1-10).
As indicated, the final three are paraphrases. In the LXX, the Hebrew word, sheol, (often used to indicate a person's grave, or to speak of the realm of "the dead") is rendered by the Greek hades. This Greek term is the word "seen" prefixed by the alpha privative, a-, which negates the word, thus giving us, "unseen." Because of its use in the Greek rendering of the OT (the LXX), Hellenistic religious ideas or pagan philosophies/worldviews should not be imported into the words of Jesus. He, and the writer of the Gospel of Matthew, would have used this word in the same way that their LXX Scriptures used it - as being the equivalent of sheol.
The word "gate" also meant an opening, an orifice, an entrance, a simple door or a double-winged door/gate. We suggest that this phrase, composed by Jesus, was a metaphor for whatever functioned as a separation between the realms of life and death, or a confinement which held people in the realm of death (cf Eph. 2:1). This entire proclamation, by Jesus, may have been a statement about the called-out folks bringing resurrection Life into the lives and beings of those who had been "dead in trespasses and sins."
In the phrase,
"the keys which are the sovereign influences of the heavens" (Mat. 16:19),
we may have an allusion to Eliakim (Heb. means: God is setting up), in Isa. 22:20-25, where we read:
"On that Day... I will commit your authority to His hand, and He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem... I will place on His shoulder the KEY of the house of David; He shall open, and no one shall shut; He shall shut, and no one shall open [note: a precursor to Mat. 16:19b, above]. I will fasten Him like a peg in a secure place, and He will become a throne of honor to His ancestral house.... On that Day... the Peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way; it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will perish..."
The Peg, in this prophecy, prefigured Christ; it's being cut down spoke of His death; "the load" was the sin of the world, which "perished" - was destroyed - through the work of Christ on the cross. Then, in Rev. 3:7 we have a designation of the risen Christ, as being,
"The Set-apart One (The Holy One), the True One, the One having (continuously holding) David's KEY, the One habitually opening - and no one keeps on shutting (or: locking) - and He is repeatedly shutting (locking) - and no one keeps on opening..."
All this was passed on to Peter, representing the twelve, and then to us, the overcomers (cf Rev. 3:12). There is more to be unpacked from Jesus' words in this Matthew text, but we feel that this digression has proceeded far enough. The main idea was that Jesus was setting up (Eliakim, above) the New Temple upon Himself (the rock-mass) as the Representative of Israel and all of its history. He is
"the Root and the Offspring of (Family from; Race which is) David" (Rev. 22:16b).
From meditating upon the above observations, John Gavazzoni has submitted these insights that expand our perceptions of Jesus' words in Mat. 16:19,
"The importance of the Greek verb tense, as this translation brings out, shows up here where Jesus promised to Peter that He would continue to give him the keys of the kingdom. If Jesus promised to CONTINUE to give him the keys, it would be a continuation, and shall we say, a further unpacking of the Father giving Peter the discernment that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Then enters Paul (Eph. 3:18-19), with his prayer that we might comprehend the breadth, length, height, and depth: to know the love of Christ. The keys to the kingdom pertain to all there is to be discernably known of the Person of God's Son. Each dimension of His glorious Person opened to us by the Father is a key to unlock each door into the scope of the kingdom of God. Perceiving and entering the kingdom of God (Jn., chapter 3) is identical to perceiving and believing INTO Christ (Jn. 3:18)."
Jonathan
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