Abstract
This article examines Paul’s enigmatic statement that “the rock was Christ” (1 Cor 10:4) from the perspective of ancient understandings and habits of allegorical interpretation. Paul’s use of the exodus story can be addressed as an exemplum type of allegory, as described by Quintilian and applied for exegetical purposes by Heraclitus and Philo. In contrast to previous scholarship, it is shown that the employment of different tenses in allegorical formulas is a matter of style rather than of content so that Paul’s use of ἦν instead ἐστίν does not contradict the fact that it is meant to designate the allegorical sense of the term “rock”.
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