Christian Pure

What Do Stones Symbolize in the Bible? Memory, Law and Christ

Christian Pure Team

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Summary

  • In the Bible, stones stand for what lasts and what remembers: memorials, altars, the tablets of the law, and Christ the cornerstone.
  • Joshua set up twelve stones from the Jordan so that children would ask what they meant and hear how God brought Israel across.
  • Jacob’s pillar at Bethel and Samuel’s Ebenezer, the “stone of the help,” mark places where God met and helped his people.
  • God wrote the Ten Commandments on stone with his own finger and promised through Ezekiel to replace our stony heart with a heart of flesh.
  • Jesus applied Psalm 118’s rejected stone to himself, and Peter calls him a living stone and believers lively stones.
  • On Matthew 16:18, Catholic teaching names Peter the rock, the Orthodox Church in America reads the rock as Peter’s faith, and Protestant commentators differ: Matthew Henry saw Christ or Peter’s confession, while Albert Barnes saw Peter himself but no papal succession.
  • The King James Version uses “stone” or “stones” 370 times, in 320 verses.
  • The twelve precious stones of the high priest’s breastplate carried the names of Israel’s tribes, and the twelve foundations of the new Jerusalem carry the apostles’ names.

In the Bible, stones stand for what lasts and what remembers. A stone set up marked the place where God had acted (Joshua 4:7), his law was written on tables of stone (Exodus 31:18), a “stony heart” is one God must replace (Ezekiel 36:26), and Christ himself is “the stone which the builders rejected” (Matthew 21:42). Stones are everywhere in Scripture. The King James Version says “stone” 192 times and “stones” 178 times, 370 in all, in 320 verses; other…

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Bibliography (Click to show)
  • Scripture quotations from the King James Version: Genesis 28:11, 18, 22; Exodus 20:25; 24:12; 28:9–12, 17–21, 29; 31:18; 32:16, 19; 34:1; Deuteronomy 27:6; 32:4; Joshua 4:6, 20–24; 24:26–27; 1 Samuel 7:10, 12; 17:40, 45; 1 Kings 18:31–32; Psalm 18:2; 118:22–23; Isaiah 28:16; Ezekiel 36:26; Daniel 2:34–35, 44; Matthew 3:9; 4:3–4; 7:24–25; 16:18; 21:42; Mark 16:3–4; Luke 19:40; John 8:7; Acts 4:10–11; 1 Corinthians 10:4; 2 Corinthians 3:3; Ephesians 2:20; 1 Peter 2:4–8; Revelation 2:17; 21:14, 19–20. Word counts made on the Project Gutenberg King James text. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Joshua+4&version=KJV
  • Bible Hub, Strong’s Hebrew 68 (eben), 72 (Eben ha-Ezer) and 1008 (Beth-el). https://biblehub.com/hebrew/72.htm
  • Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 881. https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P2A.HTM
  • Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary and Barnes’ Notes on the Bible, Matthew 16:18, on Bible Hub. https://biblehub.com/commentaries/matthew/16-18.htm
  • Barnes’ Notes on the Bible, Revelation 2:17, on Bible Hub. https://biblehub.com/commentaries/revelation/2-17.htm
  • “Orthodox Christianity and The ‘Branch Theory’,” Questions & Answers, Orthodox Church in America. https://www.oca.org/questions/history/orthodox-christianity-and-the-branch-theory
  • “Matthew Henry,” Christian Classics Ethereal Library. https://www.ccel.org/ccel/henry
  • “Stones, Precious,” International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915), on Bible Study Tools. https://www.biblestudytools.com/encyclopedias/isbe/stones-precious.html

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