M
Mystophilus
Guest
on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you may have bound on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you may have loosed on earth will have been loosed in heaven. (Matthew 16:18-9)So says Jesus when Peter confesses that his lord is “the Christ, the Son of the Living God”. Note that I have put the verbs in v.19 in the perfect, because that is what the Greek says, although many translations omit this. While some of us have recently been discussing the implications of petros and petra, the Greek words for “rock” in v. 18, I have been wondering about that next verse, and the connection between the two.
The Rock
Matthew is widely regarded as the most Jewish of the gospel accounts, which leads us to a vital consideration: what would a Jew think, upon reading this passage? In Jewish tradition, the eben shetiyyah was the foundation-stone of the Temple. It was that very Rock upon which Abraham was to sacrifice Isaac and instead was permitted to sacrifice the ram, and it subsequently became the basis for the altar in the Temple. However, it was also the Foundation of the entire world. It was believed to have been the very first thing which God created, and so everything else was created around it. The Rock then became an image of permanence, naturally, as the fulcrum of the world.
The image of the rock is a very common one in the Bible, in both testaments, but one of the most persistent iterations is that of the cornerstone, the first stone laid in the construction of a building, often used in reference to Jesus.
“Behold, I lay in Zion
A chief cornerstone, elect, precious,
And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.”
Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient,
“The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone,”
and
“A stone of stumbling
And a rock of offense.” (1 Peter 2:6-8, ref. Isaiah 28:16; Psalm 118:22; Isaiah 8:14)
The Gates
So what does a stone have to do with the Gates of Hell? This goes back to the Jewish tradition. Because the eben shetiyyah was the Foundation Stone, it was also the centre of the cosmos, both horizontally and vertically. Everything was laid out around the Stone, and so it represented the junction between Heaven and Hell.
In this sense, it became the capstone on the Well of Souls, the Abode of the Dead. It was believed that, if you could remove the stone, you would find the opening to the Underworld.
When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. (Revelation 6:9)Since the Underworld was the abode of Chaos and the Stone was the One Fixed Point upon which all else depended, removing it would not be the best idea. The Abode of the Dead is not generally a happy place, and is connected, throughout the Bible, with the “Abyss”. “Abyss” is from Greek “abussos”, which is from “a” (“without”) and “buthos” (“the bottom of the sea”): i.e., it is a bottomless pit.Jesus asked him, saying, “What is your name?”
And he said, “Legion,” because many demons had entered him. 31 And they begged Him that He would not command them to go out into the abyss. (Luke 8:30-1)The place was so bad that even demons feared it, which is unsurprising, when you consider that it was used as a prison for their kind:When they finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them. (Revelation 11:7)
The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition. (Revelation 17:8)
Thus, it is a prison whence they shall eventually be released, and assail God’s order, hence the reason for the capstone.
The Rock
Matthew is widely regarded as the most Jewish of the gospel accounts, which leads us to a vital consideration: what would a Jew think, upon reading this passage? In Jewish tradition, the eben shetiyyah was the foundation-stone of the Temple. It was that very Rock upon which Abraham was to sacrifice Isaac and instead was permitted to sacrifice the ram, and it subsequently became the basis for the altar in the Temple. However, it was also the Foundation of the entire world. It was believed to have been the very first thing which God created, and so everything else was created around it. The Rock then became an image of permanence, naturally, as the fulcrum of the world.
The image of the rock is a very common one in the Bible, in both testaments, but one of the most persistent iterations is that of the cornerstone, the first stone laid in the construction of a building, often used in reference to Jesus.
“Behold, I lay in Zion
A chief cornerstone, elect, precious,
And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.”
Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient,
“The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone,”
and
“A stone of stumbling
And a rock of offense.” (1 Peter 2:6-8, ref. Isaiah 28:16; Psalm 118:22; Isaiah 8:14)
The Gates
So what does a stone have to do with the Gates of Hell? This goes back to the Jewish tradition. Because the eben shetiyyah was the Foundation Stone, it was also the centre of the cosmos, both horizontally and vertically. Everything was laid out around the Stone, and so it represented the junction between Heaven and Hell.
In this sense, it became the capstone on the Well of Souls, the Abode of the Dead. It was believed that, if you could remove the stone, you would find the opening to the Underworld.
When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. (Revelation 6:9)Since the Underworld was the abode of Chaos and the Stone was the One Fixed Point upon which all else depended, removing it would not be the best idea. The Abode of the Dead is not generally a happy place, and is connected, throughout the Bible, with the “Abyss”. “Abyss” is from Greek “abussos”, which is from “a” (“without”) and “buthos” (“the bottom of the sea”): i.e., it is a bottomless pit.Jesus asked him, saying, “What is your name?”
And he said, “Legion,” because many demons had entered him. 31 And they begged Him that He would not command them to go out into the abyss. (Luke 8:30-1)The place was so bad that even demons feared it, which is unsurprising, when you consider that it was used as a prison for their kind:When they finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them. (Revelation 11:7)
The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition. (Revelation 17:8)
Thus, it is a prison whence they shall eventually be released, and assail God’s order, hence the reason for the capstone.