The oth of the Oxyrhynchus (1897) ' Sayings of Jesus ' contains tlie striking words, ' Jesus saith . . . Raise the stone and there shalt thou find me ; cleave tlie wood and there am I.' The W(n-ds have lent themselves to various ingenious explanations ; but the most probable interpretation is the one wliich also most readily suggests itself — that we have here an affirmation of the immanence of Christ in natural things. The saying may be understood in a sense that is perfectly in keeping with teaching tliat is found in the NT [e.fj. Jn P, Col P"'-), but was more probably written with a leaning to a kind of Gnostic Pantheism. It is generally agreed that, in their present form at least, these ' Sayings of Jesus ' were not spoken by the Lord Himself, and do not even belong to the earliest age (see Lock and Sanday, Two Lertures
on the 'Sayings of Jesus ^ (1897); cf. ExpT ix. [1898] p. 194 ft'.").
(3) His Person. — On one occasion (Lk 20^^ = Mt 21'*^) Jesus took a stone {\Wo% ; cf. His symbolic use of ' rock ' (iriTpa) in Mt 7-^f- II, W^, and St. Paul's ' spiritual rock,' ' that rock was Christ,' 1 Co lO"*) as a symbol of His own Person. He had just spoken the parable of the Wicked Husbandmen, and after announcing their doom. He quoted epexegetically Ps 118-2 ' 'phe stone wliicli the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.' Thus He identified the rejected 'Son' of the parable with the rejected stone of the Psalm, and the wicked husbandmen Avith the scribes and Pharisees as the ' builders ' of Israel's theocratic edifice ; but at the same time intimated to the latter that they must not think that by I'ejecting Him and putting Him to death they would be done with Him for ever. So far from that. He went on to say, ' Every one that falleth on that stone shall be broken to pieces ; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will scatter him as dust' (Lk 20i8 = Mt 21«).
In Ac 4" we find St. Peter taking up Christ's symbol, and boldly declaring to the Sanhedrin that Jesus Christ of Nazareth was the stone set at naught by them the builders, but made by God the head of the corner. And in his Epistle he returns to this parable of the stone as a symbol of Christ's Person, and dwells upon it with much greater fulness (1 P 2'*"^). He describes the Lord now, with evident reference to His Resurrection (cf. Ac 4^" with v."), as a 'living stone,' rejected indeed by men, but to God chosen and precious, upon whom His people are built up into a spiritual house. The allusion to the verse in Ps 118 is un- mistakable ; but in what he proceeds to say the Apostle makes use further of two passages in Isaiah. First he quotes Is 28^^ ' Behold I lay in Zion a chief corner stone,' etc., and next the words of 8''* about the ' stone of stumbling and the rock of offence.' And it seems clear that his reminis- cence of the latter passage has been inspired by his recollection of the Lord's own words as to those Avho fall upon the Stone which is Himself, and those upon whom that Stone shall fall (cf. vv.''- ^ with Lk 20"-'8 = Mt 2V^-'^% See, further, art. Rock.
Literature. — The Lexx. on the various Gr. words, and the Comm. on the passages quoted. J. C. LAMBERT.
STONING.— There are three Greek verbs in the NT which mean 'to stone' — XiOo^okit^, Xt^afw, and KaTaXLdd^oj. These, again, are the equivalents of the two Heb. synonyms Vpo and d:i, each of which may denote either the mere throwing of stones by a mob at any person who has incurred their ill-will (Ex H'*, Nu 14^"), or the legal execu- tion of a criminal by letting fall one or more large pieces of stone upon his body. Mere stone-throw- ing is mentioned in the Gospels in the following passages : The priests fear tliat the people may stone them (Lk 20^) ; the prophets were so treated (Mt 233^, Lk 13^^) ; the husbandmen in the parable beat or stone the messengers (Mt 2F^ Mk 12'* A V) ; and in St. John's (iospel the Jews so threaten Jesus
(§59 1Q31-33 118),
The Jewish Senate {Beth Din) recognized four forms of capital i)unishment, — stoning, burning, beheading, and strangling {Sank. vii. 1). In the case of stoning, the two witnesses took tlieir stand on an elevation of aliout twice the height of a man. The convict was laid on his back beneath, and one of the witnesses dr<)p])e(l a stone upon his iieart. If this did not prove fatal, the .second witness cast one ; and if the victim still survived, then all Israel (Dt 17^). The bodies of all stoned persons were crucified according to one account ; according to
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another, only those of blasphemers and idolators, a man being hung with his face to the people, a woman with hers to the tree. According to another account, women were not crucified {ib. vi. 4). A person who had been stoned was not buried in the sepulchre of his fathers (vii. 1).