First of all, it has been WAY too long since the last post! I usually write these during a break at work, and it has been a blitz for the last few weeks! Hopefully, it’s slowing down now.
Secondly, I’m getting back to the Revelation posts in due time, but an interesting question came up this week that I just had to throw out here. Just where is that cornerstone located?
Referring to Christ, the Psalmist first stated in Psalm 118:22 that the stone rejected by the builders had become the chief corner stone, and this verse would later be quoted five times (Mt 21:42, Mk 12:10, Lk 20:17, Ac 4:11, & 1 Pet 2:7). Isaiah would also prophesy concerning the corner stone in Isa 28:16, a verse quoted in 1 Pet 2:6. Zechariah 10:4 and Ephesians 2:20 round out ten verses in all that reference Christ as the corner stone.
But where is this corner stone? If we’re imagining the corner of an actual building, there are many stones from the bottom to the top. Beginning with the foundational corner stone, the walls reach up to the zenith, where the upmost corner stone is placed to cap it off. I’ve always grown up understanding that Christ is the foundational corner stone upon which the church is built. That’s what the Bible says in Ephesians 2:19-20, “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.” Isaiah, likewise, states in Isaiah 28:16, “Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation.”
It seems pretty cut and dry to say the Bible teaches Christ is the foundational corner stone upon which the church is built. The question is this: is that the only image being portrayed in these passages? I first ran upon this in reading the NIV translation of Psalm 118:22, “The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone.” I’m not a Hebrew scholar, nor am I an architect, but in lay terms, a cap is something that goes on the top of something – not at the bottom or foundation. Admittedly, the NIV is squirrely in spots, so we look to the original text. This is where it gets interesting and, at least for me, tough.
The Hebrew phrase translated as capstone in this verse is “rosh pinnah”. “Pinnah” is translated as “corner”, and “rosh” is best translated as “head”, so the most literal translation (and the one many versions employ) may be “head of the corner”. Since we have no problem with the “corner” aspect, let’s hone in on the word “rosh”. It’s easy to think anatomically here and just assume that a head will appear at the top of its structure. This may be often true, but one school of thought may be to think of a head as the most important member of a given body. In this sense, a corner foundational stone located at the bottom of a wall may very well be the most important stone in the wall as it is the one upon which the rest are laid. It dictates the soundness, the levelness, and pitch of every other stone. It begins the tone of the entire wall. We could adopt this reading and say David and Isaiah are using essentially the same imagery, or we could explore the totem pole mentality that a head must occupy the top spot. Which is correct? How do we even know? Let’s see how this word, “rosh”, is used in other passages.
“Rosh” is not an easy word for which to find context. For one thing, it’s used over 500 times in the Old Testament. For another, it takes on several different characters. I am by no means going to wade through over 500 verses, but here is what I saw in a fairly good scan:
• The most popular use of the word is in an anatomical sense. It is used to denote an actual human or animal head is most cases.
• It is used to denote the top of an object. This is the use in Gen 8:5 when the tops of the mountains became visible as the flood receded. This is the use in Gen 11:4 when the people sought to built a tower whose top would reach into heaven.
• It is used to denote the beginning of a chronological period. This is the use in Ex 12:2 to mark the first month of the Jewish calendar. Ezek 40:1 also employs it to mark the beginning of the year.
• It is used to denote the first item in a succession. Amos 6:7 uses the word to describe the first group to be led into captivity.
• It is used to denote superiority in a qualitative sense. Wisdom is personified in Prov 1:21 as a woman crying out in the place of the city where she can be heard by the most people. Some translations describe this place as the “chief place of gathering”.
In my mind, I believe the jury stays out indefinitely on this one, as both views have merits. Admittedly, the post as a whole is weighted more towards my curiosity than it does toward doctrinal implications anyway. I’ll offer my semi-educated opinion in much meekness, but I’d love to hear yours, as well. To get there, I drew on another image of the church – that of a body – and on a verse from John’s apocalypse.
Just a Christ is described in these verses as the “head of the corner”, Paul takes five verses of his letters to describe Him as another kind of head – the head of the body (Eph 1:22, 4:15, 5:23; Col 1:18, 2:19). Look first at Colossians 1:15-18, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent.”
The idea here is that Christ is first in everything. I highlighted a few phrases for emphasis on the fact that He precedes everything, including the church. One cannot gaze upon the church without seeing Christ. He is the image of God (because He is God), and His glory shines down from the most prominent of places at the head of the body.
Look also at Ephesians 4:15, “Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ.” Many may remember the WWJD bracelet craze of a few years ago (ok, maybe more than a few – I can’t be that old!) The whole point was to lift Christ up as the ultimate role model. In any decision making process, the first question should be, “What Would Jesus Do?” Paul writes it not as an isolated decision event, but as a continual growth process, “…grow up in every way into Him…” The point is still the same – He has preeminence in the most exalted place, and we look up to Him in all things to direct our growth.
The two images of Christ as head of the body in these verses describe Him as holding the most prominent place, both because He is preeminent and His image is before all things and because He is the model that we look up to and into which we grow. In this light, I lean toward the view that there are two images being portrayed concerning Christ as the corner stone – an image of Christ as the foundational corner stone and an image of Christ as the upmost corner stone.
When we say of an individual, “He has his feet on the ground and his head in the clouds,” what are we saying? It means this person has high hopes and dreams, but they do not forget their roots or their core values. Could this be the overall theme of these passages? Christ is the foundation of truth that we are to base our entire lives upon. He is the rock upon which the wise build their houses. He also is the hope and dream of the Christian – the ideal we aspire to and the image we project before ourselves. He is both beneath the church as her foundation and above the church as her crowning glory.
One more interesting thought – look at 1 Peter 2:6-7, “For it stands in Scripture: ‘Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.’ So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.’” The Spirit saw fit to have Peter quote in succession the texts from Isaiah and Psalms that we’ve contrasted. The Greek words for cornerstone, mirroring the Hebrew from which they’re taken, are two different words. If we were Greek, it would be immediately obvious that two similar, yet separate, images were being placed side by side. Now read Revelation 21:6, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.” I believe 1 Peter 2:6-7 is just one more occurrence of a consistent theme – He is the Alpha and the Omega.
The size of the post would double if I tried to wrap my head around all the practical implications, but in short, I’m reminded that not only do I stand on the Rock as my firm foundation of truth. It is also my daily duty to hold high the Rock. As I look down to my roots, I see Him. As I look from side to side, I see my fellow stones – all of us trying our best to form the best wall we can. And as we look high, we see the image of God. We see that head of the corner that we hold high for the entire world to see.
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