Biblical Views: Paul, Jesus and the Rolling Stone

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Every now and then I read something in the apostle Paul’s letters that trips me up—where he makes a claim or statement without offering any explanation and then moves on. For instance, while arguing why women should cover their heads during worship, he throws in the line “because of the angels” (1 Corinthians 11:10), but Paul never explains what he means. He just keeps writing and ignores the mental train wreck behind him as readers are left asking: “Wait, what about the angels?” And since nature and scholarship both abhor a vacuum, numerous explanations have been offered as to […]

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Endnotes

In some interpretations, it is known as “Miriam’s Well” because the second instance of Israel needing water takes place right after Miriam dies (Numbers 20:2). Interpreters may have thought that the original rock followed Israel because of Miriam but then ceased working after her death (James L. Kugel, Traditions of the Bible [Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 1998], p. 621).

Peter Enns, “The ‘Moveable Well’ in 1 Cor 10:4: An Extrabiblical Tradition in an Apostolic Text,” Bulletin for Biblical Research 6 (1996), p. 30.

See Targum Onqelos Numbers 21:17–19 and Targum Neofiti Numbers 21:17–20.