Chronological timeline of texts tagged with Moving Rock in the Wilderness
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The midrash of the moving rock arises from attempts to reconcile and find additional meaning in the two water-from-the-rock episodes in Exodus and Numbers. Rather than two separate miracles, later traditions imagined a single rock that followed the Israelites through the wilderness. This idea appears in diverse forms across early Jewish and Christian texts—including the Dead Sea Scrolls, Philo, Pseudo-Philo, Paul, and rabbinic literature—each adapting the motif to their own theological literary frameworks.
Note: Dates shown in this timeline are approximate and based on scholarly estimates.
Back to Tag5th Century B.C.E. (Final composition)
Exodus 17:1
Hebrew Bible
4 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What will I do with this people?—a little more and they will stone me!” 5 The Lord said to Moses, “Go over before the people; take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand your staff with which you struck the Nile and go. 6 I will be standing before you there on the rock in Horeb, and you will strike the rock, and water will come out of it so that the people may drink.” And Moses did so in plain view of the elders of Israel. 7 He called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the contending of the Israelites and because of their testing the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
5th Century B.C.E. (Final composition)
Numbers 20:8
Hebrew Bible
6 So Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance to the tent of meeting. They then threw themselves down with their faces to the ground, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them. 7 Then the Lord spoke to Moses: 8 “Take the staff and assemble the community, you and Aaron your brother, and then speak to the rock before their eyes. It will pour forth its water, and you will bring water out of the rock for them, and so you will give the community and their beasts water to drink.” 9 So Moses took the staff from before the Lord, just as he commanded him. 10 Then Moses and Aaron gathered the community together in front of the rock, and he said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring water out of this rock for you?” 11 Then Moses raised his hand, and struck the rock twice with his staff. And water came out abundantly. So the community drank, and their beasts drank too.
5th Century B.C.E. (Final composition)
Numbers 21:18
Hebrew Bible
16 And from there they traveled to Beer; that is the well where the Lord spoke to Moses, “Gather the people and I will give them water.” 17 Then Israel sang this song: “Spring up, O well, sing to it! 18 The well which the princes dug, which the leaders of the people opened with their scepters and their staffs.”And from the wilderness they traveled to Mattanah; 19 and from Mattanah to Nahaliel; and from Nahaliel to Bamoth; 20 and from Bamoth to the valley that is in the country of Moab, near the top of Pisgah, which overlooks the wastelands.
100 B.C.E. - 80 B.C.E.
4Q266
Dead Sea Scrolls
They prophesied deceit in order to divert Israel from following God. But God remembered the covenant of the forefathers. Blank And he raised from Aaron men of knowledge and from Israel wise men, and made them listen. And they dug the well: A well which the princes dug, which the nobles of the people delved with the staff. The well is the law. And those who dug it Blank are the converts of Israel, who left the land of Judah and lived in the land of Damascus, all of whom God called princes, for they sought him, and their renown has not been repudiated in anyone’s mouth.
20-50 C.E.
Philo Allegorical Interpretation
Classical
Moreover, the soul falls in with a scorpion, that is to say, with dispersion in the wilderness; and the thirst, which is that of the passions, seizes on it until God sends forth upon it the stream of his own accurate wisdom, and causes the changed soul to drink of unchangeable health; for the abrupt 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; and they, when they have drunk, are also filled with the most universal manna; for manna is called something which is the primary genus of every thing. But the most universal of all things is God; and in the second place the word of God. But other things have an existence only in word, but in deed they are at times equivalent to that which has no existence.
50-120 C.E.
Pseudo Philo Biblical Antiquities 10:7
Classical
6 And Israel passed over on dry land in the midst of the sea. And the Egyptians saw and went on to pursue after them, and God hardened their mind, and they knew not that they were entering into the sea. And so it was that while the Egyptians were in the sea God commanded the sea yet again, and said to Moses: Smite the sea yet once again. And he did so. And the Lord commanded the sea and it returned unto his waves, and covered the Egyptians and their chariots and their horsemen unto this day. 7 But as for his own people, he led them forth into the wilderness: forty years did he rain bread from heaven for them, and he brought them quails from the sea, and a well of water following them brought he forth for them. And in a pillar of cloud he led them by day and in a pillar of fire by night did he give light unto them.
55-57 C.E.
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. 6 These things happened as examples for us, so that we will not crave evil things as they did.
100-200 C.E.
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.
190-230 C.E.
Tosefta Sukkah 3
Rabbinic
And also : By the river, upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow every tree for meat, whose leaf shall not wither, neither shall the fruit thereof fail ; it shall bring forth first-fruits every month, because the waters thereof issue out of the sanctuary ; and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for healing intimating that all "the waters of creation" will come forth as from the mouth of this flask. So the well, which was with Israel in the wilderness, was like a rock of the size of a k'bara, and was oozing out and rising as from the mouth of this flask, travelling with them up the mountains and going down with them to the valleys. Wherever Israel encamped it encamped opposite them before the door of the Tabernacle. The princes of Israel with their slaves surrounded it, and said over it this song, Spring up, O well, sing ye unto it. Then the waters bubbled forth, and rose on high like a pillar; and every one drew out the staff of his tribe and family, as it is said, The well which the princes digged, Which the nobles of the people delved, With the sceptre and with their staves. And from Mattanah to Nahaliel ; and from Nahaliel to Bamoth ; and from Bamoth to the valley, etc. going round every camp of the Lord, and watering all Jeshimon ; and it made mighty streams, as it is said, And streams overflowed. 3 And they were sitting in skiffs, going from place to place, as it is written, They ran in the dry places like a river. If Israel went up on the right, it would come down on the right ; if on the left, it would come down on the left. The waters which emptied themselves from it became a great river, pouring themselves into the Mediterranean, and bringing thence all the precious things of the world, as it is said, These forty years the Lord thy God hath been with thee ; thou hast lacked nothing.
1200 C.E.
Numbers Rabbah 1:2
Rabbinic
When Aaron died, what does Scripture say? And the soul of the people became impatient because of the way (Numbers 20:4), because the sun beat down fiercely upon them. And the well was due to the merit of Miriam. For what does Scripture say? And Miriam died there, and was buried there (Numbers 20:1). And what is written after that? And there was no water for the congregation. How was the well constructed? It was rock-shaped like a kind of bee-hive, and wherever they journeyed it rolled along and came with them. When the standards under which the tribes journeyed halted and the tabernacle was set up, that same rock would come and settle down in the court of the Tent of Meeting and the princes would come and stand upon it and say, Rise up, O well (Numbers 21:17), and it would rise. After that? I brought you quails.