{For they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them}
(epinon ek pneumatik(8873) akolouthous(8873) petras). Change to the
imperfect epinon 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 ( Ex 17:6 ) and
at Kadesh ( Nu 20:11 ) and by the well of Beer ( Nu 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 ( Ga 4:24 ). {And the rock was Christ} (h(880a)petra de (886e) ho Christos). 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.