A.T. Robertson Commentary 1 Corinthians 10

For (γαρ). Correct text, not δε. Paul appeals to the experience of the Israelites in the wilderness in confirmation of his statement concerning himself in 9:26f. and as a powerful warning to the Corinthians who may be tempted to flirt with the idolatrous practices of their neighbours. It is a real, not an imaginary peril.

All under the cloud (παντες υπο την νεφελην). They all marched under the pillar of cloud by day (Exodus 13:21; Exodus 14:19) which covered the host (Numbers 14:14; Psalms 95:39). This mystic cloud was the symbol of the presence of the Lord with the people.

Were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea (παντες εις τον Μωυσην εβαπτισαντο εν τη νεφελη κα εν τη θαλασση). The picture is plain enough. The mystic cloud covered the people while the sea rose in walls on each side of them as they marched across. B K L P read εβαπτισαντο (causative first aorist middle, got themselves baptized) while Aleph A C D have εβαπτισθησαν (first aorist passive, were baptized). The immersion was complete for all of them in the sea around them and the cloud over them. Moses was their leader then as Christ is now and so Paul uses εις concerning the relation of the Israelites to Moses as he does of our baptism in relation to Christ (Galatians 3:27).

The same spiritual meat (το αυτο πνευματικον βρωμα). Westcott and Hort needlessly bracket to αυτο. Βρωμα is food, not just flesh. The reference is to the manna (Exodus 16:13ff.) which is termed "spiritual" by reason of its supernatural character. Jesus called himself the true bread from heaven (John 6:35) which the manna typified.

For they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them (επινον εκ πνευματικης ακολουθουσης πετρας). Change to the imperfect επινον shows their continual access to the supernatural source of supply. The Israelites were blessed by the water from the rock that Moses smote at Rephidim (Exodus 17:6) and at Kadesh (Numbers 20:11) and by the well of Beer (Numbers 21:16). The rabbis had a legend that the water actually followed the Israelites for forty years, in one form a fragment of rock fifteen feet high that followed the people and gushed out water. Baur and some other scholars think that Paul adopts this "Rabbinical legend that the water-bearing Rephidim rock journeyed onwards with the Israelites" (Findlay). That is hard to believe, though it is quite possible that Paul alludes to this fancy and gives it a spiritual turn as a type of Christ in allegorical fashion. Paul knew the views of the rabbis and made use of allegory on occasion (Galatians 4:24).

And the rock was Christ (η πετρα δε ην ο Χριστος). He definitely states here in symbolic form the preexistence of Christ. But surely "we must not disgrace Paul by making him say that the pre-incarnate Christ followed the march of Israel in the shape of a lump of rock" (Hofmann). He does mean that Christ was the source of the water which saved the Israelites from perishing (Robertson and Plummer) as he is the source of supply for us today.

With most of them (εν τοις πλειοσιν αυτων). "A mournful understatement," for only two (Caleb and Joshua) actually reached the Promised Land (Numbers 14:30–32). All the rest were rejected or αδοκιμο (9:27).

Were overthrown (κατεστρωθησαν). First aorist passive indicative of καταστρωννυμ, old compound verb, to stretch or spread down as of a couch, to lay low (Euripides), as if by a hurricane. Powerful picture of the desolation wrought by the years of disobedience and wanderings in the desert by this verb quoted from Nu 14:16.