1 Corinthians 10:1-4 – Jesus, the Rock who is God

Table of Contents

1. Exodus 17 & Numbers 20
2. Deuteronomy 32 & Psalm 78
3. The Divine Presence that Followed Israel
4. Table of YHWH – Malachi 1
5. Israelites Tempted Christ

Objections

5. Deuteronomy 32:6 – Is Jesus the Father of Israel?
6. 1 Corinthians 10:4 – Typology?
7. Movable Well Tradition
8. “Follow” = Sequential?
9. “Them” Not in the Greek
10. An Interesting Connection

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In 1 Corinthians 10:1-4, Paul says

Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, 2 all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ (ἡ πέτρα ἦν ὁ Χριστός). 5 But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. – 1 Cor 10:1-4

This statement is striking since Paul identifies the Christ as the Rock. In Greek, when a sentence has article + noun is-was article + noun (e.g., ‘the X was the Y’), that construction always means the two nouns refer to the same identity (cf. Matthew 13:38-39). So the Christ was the Rock from which Israel drank in the wilderness, rooting Jesus not merely in typology, but in Israel’s lived redemptive history. I have already written an article on how Israel is the first Church who experienced baptism and ate the eucharist. But, in this article, we are going to focus on how Paul identifies Jesus here as the YHWH of the Old Testament.

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Exodus 17 and Numbers 20

In this passage, Paul speaks of the “drinking of that spiritual Rock that followed them,” deliberately echoing Exodus 17:1–7 and Numbers 20:1-13.

In Exodus 17:1–7, Israel grumbled against God in the wilderness when they found themselves without water, testing the Lord and questioning His presence among them.

⁵ And the Lord said to Moses, “Go on before the people, and take with you some of the elders of Israel. Also take in your hand your rod with which you struck the river, and go. ⁶ Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.”

Here, YHWH stands upon the rock as a sign to the Israelites that the rock is identified with Him. This will become clearer later on. But Moses is then commanded to strike the rock, and when he does, water pours out. This water refreshes the thirst of the Israelites. This act symbolically portrays YHWH being struck and life-giving water flowing from Him. The event foreshadows the crucifixion, when YHWH incarnate—Jesus Christ—was struck on the cross and water flowed from His side, revealing the same divine source of life.

¹³ Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” John 4:13-14

³⁷ On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. ³⁸ He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” ³⁹ But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. – John 7:37-39

¹³ For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. – 1 Cor 12:13

When they were thirsty they cried out to you, and water was given to them out of unyielding rock, a refreshment for their thirst out of hard stone. 5 The very means that had served to punish their enemies became a benefit for them in their need. 6 Instead of the spring of an ever-flowing river befouled by blood mingled with water 7 as a rebuke for the decree to slaughter infants, you gave them abundant water unexpectedly, – Wisdom of Solomon 11:4-7

³⁴ But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. John 19:34

Interestingly, Wisdom of Solomon 11:4-7 contrasts the Exodus 17 event with that of Moses’ first plague at Egypt, the river mixed with blood. Blood and water was used as judgement. In Jesus, judgement is reversed and His blood and water is used as salvation. The Nile is struck and becomes death; the Rock is struck and becomes life. Wisdom of Solomon already sets up this theological contrast, and John presents Jesus as the place where that contrast resolves.

This framework clarifies the severity of Moses’ sin in Numbers 20:1–13.

⁷ Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ⁸ “Take the rod; you and your brother Aaron gather the congregation together. Speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield its water; thus you shall bring water for them out of the rock, and give drink to the congregation and their animals.” ⁹ So Moses took the rod from before the Lord as He commanded him.

¹⁰ And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock; and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock?” ¹¹ Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their animals drank.

¹² Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”

In this later incident, the Israelites again groan about not having enough water. But this time, God doesn’t command Moses to strike the rock, but instead He commands Moses to speak to the rock so that it would give water. Instead, Moses disobeys God and strikes the rock twice. God, in His mercy, still provides them with water, but Moses, because of His disobedience, was no longer allowed to enter the Promised Land.

The issue is not anger alone, but theological distortion. The Rock—who is Christ—was not to be struck again. The book of Hebrews makes this explicit:

⁴ For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, ⁵ and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, ^6 [a]if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.

¹⁴ For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

To strike the Rock again is to crucify Christ twice, acting out a false gospel, one in which Christ must be re-sacrificed to provide life. Moses’ exclusion from the Promised Land underscores the seriousness of this one undefiled sacrifice.

Some mistakenly take the “rocks” of these 2 events as being the same being rock, but the Bible, in Psalm 78:15, rejects such ideas stating “rocks” in the plural:

He split the rocks in the wilderness,
And gave them drink in abundance like the depths.
Psalm 78:15

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Deuteronomy 32

However, here is the bigger picture. Paul says that Rock actually “followed” the Israelites through their wilderness journey. This, however, is found nowhere in Exodus 17 or Numbers 20. That is because Paul is referencing another Old Testament passage: Deuteronomy chapter 32. Moses, like Paul, is talking about avoiding idolatry by not sacrificing to demons which provokes the Rock to jealousy. This is same context of Psalm 78 as well:

Deut 32

⁴He is the Rock, His work is perfect;
For all His ways are justice,
A God of truth and without injustice;
Righteous and upright is He.

¹⁵“But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked;
You grew fat, you grew thick,
You are obese!
Then he forsook God who made him,
And scornfully esteemed the Rock of his salvation.
¹⁶ They provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods;
With abominations they provoked Him to anger.
¹⁷ They sacrificed to demons, not to God,
To gods they did not know,
To new gods, new arrivals
That your fathers did not fear.
¹⁸ Of the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful,
And have forgotten the God who fathered you.

²¹ They have provoked Me to jealousy by what is not God;
They have moved Me to anger by their foolish idols.
But I will provoke them to jealousy by those who are not a nation;
I will move them to anger by a foolish nation.

1 Cor 10

⁴ and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.

¹⁴ Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. ¹⁵ I speak as to wise men; judge for yourselves what I say. ¹⁶ The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? ¹⁷ For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread.

¹⁸ Observe Israel after the flesh: Are not those who eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar? ¹⁹ What am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything? ²⁰ Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. ²¹ You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons. ²² Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?. – 1 Corinthians 10:14-22

Psalm 78

Psa 78:¹¹And forgot His works
And His wonders that He had shown them.
Deut32:¹¹Of the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful,
And have forgotten the God who fathered you.

Psa 78:¹⁵He split the rocks in the wilderness,
And gave them drink in abundance like the depths.
Deut32:¹³ “…He made him draw honey from the rock,
And oil from the flinty rock;

Psa 78:³⁵Then they remembered that God was their rock,
And the Most High God their Redeemer.
Deut32:⁴ He is the Rock, His work is perfect;
For all His ways are justice,
A God of truth and without injustice;
Righteous and upright is He.

Psa 78:⁵⁸ For they provoked Him to anger with their high places,
And moved Him to jealousy with their carved images.
Deut32:¹⁶ They provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods;
With abominations they provoked Him to anger.

Paul explicitly referenced Deuteronomy 32 in this chapter:

The only difference here is grammatical; one is present tense (Θύουσιν) and the other is aorist tense (like past tense)(ἔθυσαν).

Thus, within the very context of citing Deuteronomy 32 which identifies YHWH as “Rock” 5 times, Paul identifies Jesus as “the Rock,” even though he is fully aware that this title belongs to YHWH alone in that chapter 5 times.

Paul’s structure in 1 Corinthians 10:1–4 closely mirrors Psalm 78, which recounts the Israelites crossing the sea under the guidance of the cloud, drawing water from the rock, eating the manna, and ultimately declaring YHWH as their Rock:

Psalm: Marvellous things He did in the sight of their fathers…
Paul: I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers
Psalm: He divided the sea and caused them to pass through;
Paul: all passed through the sea,
Psalm: also He led them with the cloud,
Paul: they were all under the cloud
Psalm: And gave them drink
Paul: and all drank the same spiritual drink
Psalm: rained down manna on them to eat
Paul: all ate the same spiritual food
Psalm: Then they remembered that God was their rock,
Paul: and that Rock was Christ

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The Divine Presence That Followed Israel

Multiple passages portray the God of Israel not merely as one who once appeared, but as one who went with, went before, and even moved behind the people during their journey.

The most explicit text is Exodus 14:19:

¹⁹ And the Angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud went from before them and stood behind them.

The Angel positioning Himself between Israel and Egypt. In Exodus 13:21-22, this Angel is closely identified with the pillar of cloud, which elsewhere is said to be the LORD Himself guiding Israel continually:

²¹ And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night. ²² He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people.

The movement of this YHWH Angel from front to rear suggests not a static manifestation, but an active, accompanying presence that adjusted its position as Israel moved.

This theme recurs throughout the wilderness tradition. In Exodus 23:20–23, God promises:

²⁰ “Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. ²¹ Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him. ²² But if you indeed obey His voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. ²³ For My Angel will go before you and bring you in to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites; and I will ^[a]cut them off.

This angel bears God’s own name and authority. Later, in Exodus 33:14-15, when Israel’s sin threatens divine withdrawal, Moses insists that Israel’s identity depends on God’s continued accompaniment:

¹⁴ And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

¹⁵ Then he said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.

God’s response, “My presence will go with you”, confirms that Israel’s journey is defined by a God who travels with his people.

Later biblical reflection sharpens this identification. Isaiah 63:9 speaks of “the angel of his presence” who saved and carried Israel throughout the wilderness, while Nehemiah 9:12 and 9:19 recall that God did not abandon the people but led them continually by the pillar of cloud and fire. These texts collectively depict a divine presence that accompanies Israel in a personal, enduring, and protective manner.

Against this backdrop, Paul’s claim that Christ was the Rock who followed Israel reads as a Christological interpretation of the Angelic presence. The pre-existent Christ is identified with the Divine Angel of the Exodus.

Hence, when 1 Cor 10:4 says that the rock “followed” them, it does not necessarily mean the rock was physically trailing behind. The Greek verb ἀκολουθέω can also convey the sense of accompaniment, as in Revelation 14:13, where it says, “their works follow with them” (ἀκολουθεῖ μετ’ αὐτῶν), clearly indicating that the works go with them rather than merely behind. Considering the Exodus context—how God accompanied His people, moving both in front of and behind them in the cloud—this usage falls comfortably within the semantic range of the verb.

This reading finds a striking correspondence in Matthew 28:20, where the risen Jesus promises the Church, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Just as Israel’s life in the wilderness was constituted by the presence of God who went with them, so the Church’s mission is grounded in the abiding presence of Christ. Paul’s wilderness typology and Matthew’s Great Commission converge on the same theological claim: God never leaves His people but the enduring presence of the Lord journeys with them, then and now.

But it gets better:

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Table of YHWH – Malachi 1

Moving forward, Paul also references Malachi 1

1 Corinthians 10:21
the Lord’s table
τραπέζης Κυρίου

Malachi 1:7
The table of the Lord
τράπεζα κυρίου

Malachi 1:12
The table of the Lord
τράπεζα κυρίου

The only difference in the Greek texts is again a grammatical one; one is nominative (τράπεζα) and the other is genitive (τραπέζης). Paul needs the genitive because of the verb construction: to partake of (μετέχειν) takes the genitive. So the grammar demands “of the Lord’s table.”

In the text, the same Lord to whom the table belongs is the Lord to whom the cup belongs. In the very next chapter, Paul Himself identifies to whom this “cup of the Lord” belongs:

²⁷ Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 1 Cor 11:27

So “the Lord” of whom Paul speaks is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. So when Paul says: “Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy?”, this is covenant-jealousy language drawn Deut 32:21, but Paul applies it directly to Christ, that we ought not to provoke Him.

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Israelites Tempted Christ

This is further established by verse 9 of 1 Corinthians 10 where he says:

nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents; – 1 Cor 10:9

Paul is referencing the story of Numbers 21:4-9 where God sends snakes to bite the Israelites because of their groaning for food and water. Paul said that the One they tempted was Christ.

Here is also the NET footnote regarding 1 Corinthians 10:9:

¹ tc Χριστόν (Criston, “Christ”) is attested in the MAJORITY of mss, including MANY IMPORTANT WITNESSES of the Alexandrian (Ì⁴⁶ 1739 1881) and Western (D F G) texttypes, and other mss and versions (Ψ latt sy co). On the other hand, some of the important Alexandrian witnesses have κύριον (kurion, “Lord”; א B C P 33 104 1175 al). A few mss (A 81 pc) have θεόν (qeon, “God”). The nomina sacra for these readings are quite similar (cMn, kMn, and qMn respectively), so one might be able to account for the different readings by way of confusion. On closer examination, the variants appear to be intentional changes. Alexandrian scribes replaced the highly specific term “Christ” with the less specific terms “Lord” and “God” because in the context it seems to be anachronistic to speak of the exodus generation putting Christ to the test. If the original had been “Lord,” it seems unlikely that a scribe would have willingly created a difficulty by substituting the more specific “Christ.” Moreover, even if not motivated by a tendency to overcorrect, a scribe might be likely to assimilate the word “Christ” to “Lord” in conformity with Deut 6:16 or other passages. The evidence from the early church regarding the reading of this verse is rather COMPELLING in favor of “Christ.” Marcion, a second-century, anti-Jewish heretic, would naturally have opposed any reference to Christ in historical involvement with Israel, because he thought of the Creator God of the OT as inherently evil. In spite of this strong prejudice, though, {Marcion} read a text with “Christ.” Other early church writers attest to the presence of the word “Christ,” including {Clement of Alexandria} and Origen. What is more, the synod of Antioch in a.d. 268 used the reading “Christ” as evidence of the preexistence of Christ when it condemned Paul of Samosata. (See G. Zuntz, The Text of the Epistles, 126-27; TCGNT 494; C. D. Osburn, “The Text of 1 Corinthians 10:9,” New Testament Textual Criticism: Its Significance for Exegesis, 201-11; contra A. Robertson and A. Plummer, First Corinthians [ICC], 205-6.) Since “Christ” is the more difficult reading on all accounts, it is almost certainly original. In addition, “Christ” is consistent with Paul’s style in this passage (cf. 10:4, a text in which {Marcion} also reads “Christ”). This text is also christologically significant, since the reading “Christ” makes AN EXPLICIT CLAIM to the preexistence of Christ. (The textual critic faces a similar dilemma in Jude 5. In a similar exodus context, some of the more important Alexandrian mss [A B 33 81 pc] and the Vulgate read “Jesus” in place of “Lord.” Two of those mss [A 81] are the same mss that have “Christ” instead of “God” in 1 Cor 10:9. See the tc notes on Jude 5 for more information.) In sum, “Christ” has all the earmarks of authenticity here and should be considered the original reading. (NET Footnote)

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We have concluded:

• The Rock in Exodus 17 was struck and brought forth water, symbolizing Jesus being struck on the cross and water flowing from His side.
• Moses was barred from entering the Promised Land because he struck the Rock twice, a symbolic violation that portrays striking Christ more than once—an act treated in Scripture as grievous because the true Rock is struck only once.
• Paul explicitly calls Jesus “the Rock” who followed the Israelites, doing so in the immediate context of Deuteronomy 32, where YHWH alone is called “the Rock” five times.
• Paul draws from Malachi 1:7, 12, where the “Table of the LORD” belongs to YHWH because the sacrifices are offered to Him, yet Paul identifies that same covenantal table as belonging to Jesus.
• Paul alludes to Deuteronomy 32:21, which warns against provoking YHWH to jealousy, and applies that warning directly to provoking Jesus.
• Paul references Numbers 21, stating that the YHWH whom the Israelites tested in the wilderness was Christ.

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Is Jesus the Father of Israel?

Some will appeal to Deuteronomy 32:6 and argue that the YHWH spoken of there cannot be Jesus, since the text explicitly calls Him “Father.”

Do you thus deal with the Lord,
O foolish and unwise people?
Is He not your Father, who bought you?
Has He not made you and established you?

But as Trinitarians, although we do not believe that Jesus is the person of the Father, He shares in the “fatherly” role of YHWH toward Israel. The distinction matters, and the Bible is careful with it. In the Old Testament, YHWH is called the Father of Israel in a covenantal sense (Exo 4:22-23; Deut 14:1-2; Jer 31:9; Hos 11:1; Mal 2:10; Amos 3:2 etc…). This language is about origin, covenant loyalty, protection, and authority. “Father” here means the one who brought Israel into being as a people and sustained them. So Jesus, who in relation to the Father is is called Son, is still called “the Father” in relation to creation by virtue of being the One who brought all things into existence, including Israel.

That’s why Isaiah can say that Jesus is the “Everlasting Father” (Isa 9:6) without meaning “this king is God the Father.” The title speaks to royal, protective, covenantal care, particularly that of thr New Covenant of Christ.

So the clean formulation is this:
Jesus is not the Person of the Father,
but Jesus is the YHWH who fathered Israel and hence is the Father of Israel.

Now, the text itself, and by extension the Old Testament, speaks from the perspective of the number of “Gods” there are (cf. Deut 6:4). Hence there is 1 Creator, 1 Father, 1 Maker, 1 Husband etc. because there is 1 God. Jesus and the Father therefore are the 1 Father of Israel because they are the 1 God who birthed/created Israel:

But our Lord is Himself the resurrection, as He does Himself declare, I am the resurrection and the life. John 11:25 But the fathers are His children; for it is said by the prophet: Instead of your fathers, your children have been made to you. Christ Himself, therefore, together with the Father, is the God of the living, who spoke to Moses, and who was also manifested to the fathers.– Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies, Book 4, chapter 5

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Typology?

Some respond to this by appealing to Paul’s words in verse 6 and 11:

⁶ Now these things became our examples…“

¹¹Now all these things happened to them as examples…”

The Greek word for “examples” is τυπικῶς (typicos) from which we the word “types”. On that basis, they argue that Christ was not truly the Rock, but only that the rock functioned symbolically of Christ. So Christ would be the antitype (ἀντίτυπος – antitypos. cf. Heb 9:24; 1 Pet 3:21) —much like Galatians 4:25, where Paul says, “Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia.” No one thinks Hagar was literally present as a mountain when Moses received the Law; the language is understood symbolically. They therefore claim Paul is doing the same thing in 1 Corinthians 10.

Metaphor ≠ Type

But this objection misses the point entirely. No one is claiming that Jesus was a literal stone any more than YHWH being called “the Rock” implies a physical rock. In Deuteronomy 32, “the Rock” is not a type; it is a metaphorical name for God Himself. Scripturally, a “type” always prefigures something future. A metaphor does not. The type always comes first. The antitype is the later, fuller reality that the earlier pattern points toward. Christ’s antitypical roles (e.g., Passover Lamb, Second Adam etc…) refer to His incarnate mission, not His eternal divine nature. So Christ, according to the flesh, does come later in time than the types. YHWH, however, is eternal and uncreated and comes before all things, including rocks. Yes, a person or thing that functions as an antitype can also be described with metaphorical names that express that role but YHWH is excluded from the category of type/antitype because He exists before all types. So Him being the called “the Rock” is not a “type”, its a metaphorical name.

Paul’s Use of Tense in Explicit Typological Identification

A striking feature of Paul’s typological method, and the NT as a whole, is his consistent use of present‑tense grammar when identifying Old Testament figures or events as types of New Testament realities. Even when referring to ancient narratives, Paul never frames the typological identification itself in the past tense (e.g., “was a type”). Instead, he treats the typological relationship as a present and ongoing theological reality, one that continues to speak to the church.

The clearest example appears in Romans 5:14, where Paul writes that Adam

“Adam is a type of the one to come.”

In 1 Corinthians 10:6, 11, the events themselves “happened” in the past, but their typological significance is expressed in the present:

“These things are examples”

The allegory of Sarah and Hagar in Galatians 4:25-26:

which things are symbolic. For these are [g]the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar— for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children—

or the veil of Moses in 2 Corinthians 3:14-15

But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ…a veil lies over their hearts

The same grammatical instinct appears. Here a couple more:

“They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things.” – Heb 8:5

“which is a symbol for the present time.” – Heb 9:9

“the holy places made with hands… are copies of the true ones.” – Heb 9:24

“baptism, which corresponds to this…” – 1 Peter 3:21

“are set forth as an example…” – Jude 1:7

Here is what Robert M. Bowman Jr. had to say:

Christ with Israel in the Wilderness (1 Corinthians 10:1–9)

In 1 Corinthians, written about 54 or 55, Paul makes two statements about the relationship to Christ of the Israelites in the wilderness following the exodus. Here is the first one:

For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, 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 spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. (1 Cor. 10:1–4)

Paul assumes here that his readers have some knowledge of the account in Exodus. The Israelites escaped from Egypt, led by a pillar of “cloud” representing God’s presence (Exod. 13:21–22; 14:19–20, 24), and they “all passed through the sea,” that is, the Red Sea (14:21–29). Paul is speaking figuratively when he says that they “all were baptized into Moses,” comparing the Israelites’ covenant relationship with God through Moses to Christians’ covenant relationship with God through Jesus Christ. After the Israelites entered the wilderness, Yahweh’s glory “appeared in the cloud” (Exod. 16:10). On that occasion, God provided manna for them to eat (16:12–36). Soon afterward, God began providing water for the Israelites (17:1– 7). Paul calls the manna and the water “spiritual” food and drink, meaning not that they were immaterial but that God provided them supernaturally. Here is how Yahweh told Moses to get the water: “I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink” 17:6 NRSV). This is the first Old Testament text that uses the word “rock” (ṣûr). Later, the Song of Moses actually calls Yahweh “the Rock” five times (Deut. 32:4, 15, 18, 30, 31). The implication of these texts is that God himself was “the Rock” from which the water ultimately came.

It is in this context of God as “the Rock” that Paul says, “and the Rock was Christ” (1 Cor. 10:4b). An allusion here to Deuteronomy 32 is confirmed a few verses later when Paul makes a strong allusion to Deuteronomy 32:16–17 (1 Cor. 10:21–22). Of course, as Ben Witherington III comments, “Paul is not discussing an earlier incarnation of the Christ on earth as a rock!” In Paul’s day, a Jewish tradition was developing that later described a rock-shaped “well” of water that followed the Israelites around in the wilderness. Scholars debate whether the “well” was an explicit part of the tradition in Paul’s day and whether his statement assumes that idea. We may safely say that Paul was part of the same broader theological community within which the moving well motif developed, but we should probably not read that motif into 1 Corinthians.

Whatever the precise interpretive tradition concerning “the Rock” known to Paul, what he says in 1 Corinthians 10:4b indicates that Christ was a divine person present with the Israelites in the wilderness. Buzzard vehemently objects to this understanding of the text, mostly on a priori grounds that it would contradict what he claims the Bible teaches elsewhere. However, he also objects that Paul meant only that the “rock” was a type of Christ, quoting (twice) Paul’s statement, “Now these things happened to them as an example” (1 Cor. 10:11a), which Buzzard translates, “These things happened to them typically.” Here Buzzard has things a bit muddled. Of course, the inanimate, literal rock in the wilderness was a type, as were the cloud, the sea, the manna, and the water. However, “the Rock” in Deuteronomy 32 is not a type but a metaphorical name for God.

When Paul uses the Old Testament typologically or allegorically, he does so in the present tense: “Now Hagar is [estin] Mount Sinai in Arabia” (Gal. 4:25), interpreting Hagar in Genesis 16 as symbolic of the Mosaic covenant enacted at Mount Sinai. That is not what Paul does in 1 Corinthians 10. Instead, he writes, “and the Rock was [ēn] Christ.” Thus, a sound exegesis of the passage leads to the conclusion that Paul was identifying Christ as “the Rock” to whom the Israelites were supposed to look in faith. This conclusion, which for some people will be difficult to accept, is confirmed just a few sentences later, when Paul warns the Corinthian Christians: “We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents” (1 Cor. 10:9). Here Paul states in a matter-of-fact manner that some of the Israelites in the wilderness “put Christ to the test,” and he warns the Corinthians not to make the same mistake!

Not all of the extant Greek manuscripts containing 1 Corinthians 10:9 have the name “Christ” there; some say “Lord” instead. The reading “Christ” (christon) has the earliest, most diverse, and most numerous manuscript support (starting with P46, dated about AD 200), and it is also better attested by early translations into other languages (such as Coptic and Latin) and in other early Christian writings. It is the reading given in most contemporary critical editions of the Greek New Testament (notably NA28 and SBLGNT). It was the reading followed in the KJV and is followed by most contemporary English versions (CSB, ESV, LEB, NABRE, NET, NIV, NKJV, NLT, NRSV).

The reading “Lord” (kyrion) does have the support of two major codices from the fourth century (Sinaiticus and Vaticanus), which led Tregelles (1879) and Westcott and Hort (1881) to prefer this reading in their critical editions of the Greek New Testament. The recent edition published by Tyndale House (THGNT), which was based on the Tregelles edition, also accepts the reading kyrion. However, the rest of the manuscript support for kyrion is quite weak compared with the evidence for christon. Moreover, while it would be understandable for scribes to change the strange sounding “Christ” to “Lord” here, it is highly unlikely that scribes would change “Lord” to “Christ.”

For these reasons, the reading kyrion is followed by only a few English versions today (NASB, NJB). Manuscript discoveries in the twentieth century, especially P46 (which was rediscovered and published for scholars to study in the 1930s) have convinced nearly all textual critics and other scholars that “Christ” is the correct reading.

Predictably, the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Bible version follows the less likely reading kyrion in 1 Corinthians 10:9 and then substitutes Jehovah there, so that Paul is made to say, “Neither let us put Jehovah to the test” (1 Cor. 10:9 NWT). The Watchtower’s online study Bible cites the Westcott–Hort and THGNT editions of the Greek New Testament in support of the reading kyrion. Of course, no Greek manuscripts of 1 Corinthians use any form of the name YHWH (“Jehovah”). The Watchtower therefore speculates that “the divine name was originally used in this verse and later replaced with the title ‘Lord’ or ‘the Christ.’” Even granting the baseless assumption that the text originally had YHWH here, it is extremely implausible to claim that scribes might have replaced that name with “the Christ.” Thus, one must accept three implausible claims in order to defend the NWT rendering: that kyrion is better attested than christon; that kyrion originated as a substitute by apostate scribes for YHWH; and that some scribes would also have substituted christon for YHWH (or even for kyrion).

The Watchtower’s zeal to avoid having Paul say that the Israelites put Christ to the test in the wilderness is understandable. What Paul says here about Christ is what the Old Testament said about the Lord Yahweh: that the Israelites had put him to the test, resulting on one occasion in some of them dying from poisonous serpents (Num. 14:22; 21:5–6; Pss. 78:18–20; 95:9). Once again, the New Testament not only affirms Christ’s preexistence, but affirms his divine preexistence.

The Incarnate Christ and His Critics: A Biblical Defense, authored by Robert M. Bowman Jr. & J. Ed Komoszewski, pp.198-206.

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Movable Well Tradition

Later Jewish traditions describe God miraculously providing a well that accompanied the Israelites throughout the wilderness. Scripture itself does not explicitly state this. What interpretive weight, then, should these traditions carry when reading Paul’s claim in 1 Corinthians 10:4 that “the rock followed them”? The following texts illustrate the development of this tradition:

Wis 11:4 (250–50BC)
When they were thirsty, they called upon you [Wisdom], and water was given them
out of flinty rock, and from hard stone a remedy for their thirst

Philo of Alexandria, Legum Allegoriae (Allegorical Interpretations), Book 2, section 86. (70–100 AD)
For the flinty Rock is the Wisdom of God, which being both sublime and the first of things he quarried out of his own powers, and of it he gives drink to the souls that love God; 

Pseudo Philo’s Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum, p. 142, ch. 10, section 7 (1st century AD)
Now he led his people out into the wilderness; for forty years he rained
down for them bread from heaven and brought quail to them from the sea
and brought forth a well of water to follow them.
Also 11.15
And there [in the desert] he commanded him [Moses] many things and
showed him the tree of life, from which he cut off and took and threw
into Marah, and the water became sweet. And it [the water] followed them
in the wilderness forty years and went up the mountain with them and went
down into the plains.

Tosefta Sukkah 3.11 (around 4th century AD)
3) And so the well which was with the Israelites in the wilderness was a rock, the size of a large round vessel, surging and gurgling upward, as
from the mouth of this little flask, rising with them up onto the mountains,
and going down with them into the valleys. Wherever the Israelites would
encamp, it made camp with them, on a high place, opposite the Tent of
Meeting. The princes of Israel come and surround it with their staffs, and
they sing a song concerning it: spring up, O Well! Sing to it!; [the well which the princes dug, which the nobles of the people delved with the scepter and with their staves] (Num 21:17–18). And they well upward like a pillar on high, and each one [of the princes] draws water with his staff, each one for his tribe and each one for his family, as it is said: The well which the princes dug.

Targum. Onkelos. Num. 21:16–20 (3rd–5th century AD)
16 At that time the well was given to them, that is the well about which the Lord told Moses, “Gather the people together, and I will give them water.” 17 So Israel offered this praise, “Rise O well, sing to it.” 18 The well which the princes dug, the leaders of the people dug, the scribes, with their staffs, and it was given to them, since wilderness . 19 Now since it was given to them, it went down with them to the valleys, and from the valleys it went up with them to the high country. 20 From the high country to the descents of the Moabite fields, at the summit of the height, which looks out towards Beth Yeshimon

As we move backward in time, the tradition becomes progressively less “Pauline.” In the biblical narratives themselves (Exod 17; Num 20), the water comes from an immovable rock at a specific location. In later interpretive developments, the source becomes mobile—but it is no longer described as a rock; but as a well, most plausibly drawing on Numbers 21. Only in traditions centuries after Paul is this mobile well retroactively identified as a rock. Crucially, no extant Jewish tradition prior to or contemporary with Paul explicitly describes the rock of Exodus 17 or Numbers 20 as a movable rock.

Secondly, other biblical passages imply the Israelites sometimes lacked water. The very passage we discussed already, Numbers chapter 20, at Kadesh, the people complain again that there is no water. This leads to the famous incident where Moses strikes the rock improperly, an act that ultimately prevents him from entering the Promised Land. Also in Deuteronomy 2:6, the Israelites even say they are willing to buy water from the Edomites while passing through their territory.
If a magical traveling water source was always with them, those events shouldn’t happen. No water shortage → no complaints → no need to buy water.

Thirdly, this contradicts Psalm 78:15 which speaks of rocks in the plural, not a single continuous rock:

He split the rocks in the wilderness,
And gave them drink in abundance like the depths.
Psalm 78:15

Some scholars, however, argue that Paul is actually engaging these traditions, though in a highly selective and polemical way. Gilha Lee, for example, suggests that Paul intentionally draws on wilderness-water traditions—especially as interpreted by Philo of Alexandria—to make a wisdom argument. Philo, an Alexandrian Jew whose discussions of divine Wisdom would likely have been familiar in a Corinthian context saturated with philosophical discourse, regularly identifies the rock as God’s Wisdom. Within 1 Corinthians, where the pursuit of wisdom is a dominant theme (cf. 1:18–2:16; 8:1), Paul reframes this tradition christologically: the Rock is not abstract Wisdom but Jesus Himself, the pre-existent Wisdom of God. On this reading, Paul’s move functions rhetorically to humble the Corinthians—redirecting them away from worldly wisdom that “puffs up” toward the true Wisdom that builds up in love. Christ, not philosophical sophistication or inherited tradition, is the genuine source of knowledge and life.

With this view, some might ask, “Wait—are you saying Jesus, as Wisdom, was literally a physical rock following the Israelites?”
But this misses the point. The Hebrew scriptures frequently show God manifesting through visible, physical phenomena without implying that God’s essence is literally those objects. In the Book of Exodus, God leads Israel as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (Exodus 13:21–22), and speaks to Moses from the burning bush at Mount Horeb (Exodus 3:2–4). God’s presence also fills the Tabernacle as a cloud that moves with the people (Exodus 40:34–38). In the same way, God (Jesus as Wisdom) has the ability to appear as a physical moving Rock to signify His presence with Israel.

Although I disagree with this view in general, it is an interesting angle to take.

The way I see it is which is more likely: that Paul is relying on non-biblical Jewish traditions or myths—which, in some cases, contradict the biblical text—or that he is drawing on Old Testament language from Moses, the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms, where God is repeatedly described as the Rock? I think the latter is more plausible.

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“Follow” = Sequential?

Some Unitarians argue that the verb “followed” (ἀκολουθούσης) in 1 Corinthians 10:4 does not imply that Christ was present with the Israelites at the same time. They say the verb “follow” has several definitions in English, one of which is “come after in time or order” as in ““Night follows day.” Therefore, this can denote purely temporal succession rather than spatial following. According to this view, the Israelites drank from a physical rock that prefigured Christ, in the sense that the physical rock in Numbers and Exodus functioned as a type of Christ. According to this view, the Israelites drank from a physical rock that prefigured Christ, who would later be struck and give living water (the Spirit). Thus “followed” means “came next” /”arrived later”, and so Christ did not “accompany” them but “followed” the Israelites only in time—that is, He came thousands of years later.

The Unitarian reading fails on lexical grounds alone.

The New Testament never uses the verb ἀκολουθέω to mean strict temporal succession without coexistence—not once. In the Old Testament Septuagint, the word is used only 7 times:

Ezek 29:16 (the Israelites followed the Egyptians)
Num 22:20 (Balaam follows men)
Isa 45:14 (captive nations will walk in shame and follow behind Israel)
1 Kgs 19:20 (Elisha follows Elijah)
Hos 2:7 (Israel followed after her lovers)
Ruth 1:14 (Ruth follows Naomi)
1 Sam 25:42 (5 maidservants follow Abigail).

In the New Testament, it occurs 90 times, only four are non-literal and non-spatial:
Revelation 6:8 (Hades “following” Death)
Revelation 14:8 (a second angel “followed”)
Revelation 14:9 (a third angel “followed”)
Revelation 14:13 (works “following” their owners):

⁸ So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth. – Revelation 6:8

⁸ And another angel followed, saying, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” – Revelation 14:8

⁹ Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, – Revelation 14:9

¹³ Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labours, and their works follow them.” – Revelation 14:13

The first example (Rev 6:8) can be written off as a literal example because in so far as the imagery is concerned, the hades horse is literally following behind the death horse. Crucially, these four examples do not support the Unitarian proposal. In every case without exception, that which “follows” exists simultaneously with that which is followed: Hades operates alongside Death, the angels follow one another in the sequence of the vision but they all exist simultaneously, and a persons works exist with the person to whom they belong. None of these uses expresses anticipation, expectation, or prophetic fulfilment occurring centuries later.

Therefore, ἀκολουθέω in any of its various forms is never used in the Old and the New Testament to denote anticipation or purely chronological succession. Whether literal or metaphorical, the verb consistently conveys relational following that presupposes coexistence, not a later reality merely foreshadowed or awaited.

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“them” Not in Greek

Some point out that the Greek text in First Epistle to the Corinthians 10:4 does not actually contain the word “them” in the phrase often translated “followed them.” Because of this, they argue that the verse could mean the miracle of the rock followed sequentially after the miracle of the manna, rather than describing a rock that followed the Israelites through the wilderness. According to this interpretation, Paul would simply be referring to the order of events in the Book of Exodus—first the provision of manna (Exodus 16), and then the water from the rock (Exodus 17)—rather than suggesting that the rock itself accompanied Israel during their journey.

However, the phrase they “were all under the cloud,” which led them and remained with them throughout the journey, is crucial. As we have already mentioned, this harkens back to:

“The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night. He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people.” (Exodus 13:21–22)

YHWH in the cloud guided His people and never left them. This fits well with the phrase “the following Rock,” since the idea of “following” can also include accompanying. In Greek usage, the term does not require something to be behind another; it can simply describe something that goes along with or accompanies someone on a journey. This is the same promise Jesus gave to His Church: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). The glory of God was His presence among them (Exo 16:10; 24:16).

This suggests that, although the word “them” does not appear explicitly in Greek, the surrounding context makes that sense more natural. In the passage, Paul describes realities that accompanied Israel during their wilderness journey—they were under the cloud, passed through the sea, and continually received food and drink. Because the examples refer to provisions that were present with the people, the flow of the argument fits better with the understanding that the rock followed them, rather than merely indicating that the rock miracle occurred after the manna in sequence; especially when this becomes fulfilled in the Church, who after baptism, must continually eat and drink the Eucharist as the Lord Jesus never leaves them.

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An Interesting Connection

In Exodus 33:20-23, God says that no one can see His face, meaning God in His full essence, and live. But God says that we can see His back, meaning a veiled manifestation:

²⁰ But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” ²¹ And the Lord said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. ²² So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. ²³ Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.”

Notice that in this passage God reveals Himself to Moses when He standing on the rock and has the rock as his foundation. As long as Moses is on and in the rock, God reveals and manifests Himself. Lo and behold, Jesus, the true Rock whom these passages foreshadow, is the One in whom and through whom God reveals Himself in a visible form.

John 1:18 echoes this idea:

¹⁸ No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known.