1 Corinthians 10:4
New Testament
1 For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they were all drinking from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. 5 But God was not pleased with most of them, for they were cut down in the wilderness.
Date: 55-57 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Onkelos Numbers 21:19
Targum
16 And from there was given to them the well, which is the well that the Lord spake to Moses about, Gather the people together, and I will give them water. 17 Therefore sang Israel this song: Spring up, well; sing all of you to it. 18 The well which the princes digged, the chiefs of the people cut it, the scribes with their staves; it was given to them in the wilderness. 19 And from the time that it was given to them it descended with them to the rivers, and from the rivers it went up with them to the height, 20 and from the height to the vale which is in the fields of Moab, at the head of Ramatha, which looketh towards Bethjeshimon.
Date: 100-200 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
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Notes and References
"... In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul warns his readers to stand firm in the face of temptation (10:12). He does so by looking back at Israel’s period of wilderness wandering. He then makes a curious comment in 10:4 ... Paul is no doubt referring here to the rock that provided water for the Israelites mentioned in Exodus 17 and Numbers 20. By referring to spiritual food and drink, Paul is using this Old Testament story to make his point to his readers: the food and drink in the Old Testament are symbols of the spiritual sustenance that God provides for his people through all time. And that spiritual sustenance for Paul’s readers is the very same Christ who sustained the Israelites in the desert. What is striking, however, is the comment that the rock that provided this spiritual drink is said to have accompanied the Israelites through the desert. What does this mean? When we place Paul’s incidental comment here side by side with other ancient texts, a picture begins to emerge. Other Second Temple texts refer to a mobile source of water accompanying the Israelites through the desert. Actually, there are some variations on this story, but what they all have in common is the notion of mobility. One example is Targum Onqelos to Numbers 21:16–20 ..."
Enns, Peter
Inspiration and Incarnation: Evangelicals and the Problem of the Old Testament
(p. 188) Baker Academic, 2005
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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