1 Corinthians 10:2Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Why does he say this? To show that, just as such gifts did not benefit them, the Israelites, so baptism and participation in the spiritual mysteries will not benefit them, the Corinthians, if their life does not correspond to grace. For this reason he points to the types of baptism and of the mysteries. What does "they were baptized into Moses" mean? We who believe in Christ and His resurrection are baptized so that we ourselves may have participation in these mysteries. We are baptized, he says, "for the dead" (1 Cor 15:29), that is, for our bodies. In the same way, they trusted in Moses. Seeing that he first entered the sea, they themselves resolved to enter there also.

That is, together with Moses they were under the shadow of the cloud and together passed through the sea. For when they saw that he was the first to cross, they themselves boldly went amid the waters. The same is true among us. Christ first died and rose, and afterward we were baptized, imitating His death through immersion in the water and His resurrection through ascent from it. “They were baptized into Moses.” This means that he went before them in the type of baptism. For being under the cloud and passing through the sea prefigured baptism.

Paul does not want us to be in danger after the pattern of the Jews, who suffered because of their neglect (Num 9:22). Therefore he speaks of their being under the cloud, for they themselves, and all that happened to them, served as a figure of our future truth. Those who were covered by the cloud, saved unharmed from their enemies, and already freed from death, are called baptized. Unlike the dead Egyptians in the sea (Ex 14:28-29), those who happily crossed the sea under Moses' leadership were snatched from death. This is what baptism brings. For there is no longer any accusation against them for their past evil. Purified through the sea and through the cloud, they were prepared to receive the Law and the image of our future mystery.

Question 27. How should one understand the Apostle's words: "All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was Christ" (1 Cor 10:2-4)? The Old Testament was a figure of the New Testament. The Law of Moses was shadow, and grace is the body. Therefore, since the Egyptians pursued the Hebrews, and the Hebrews were freed from the bitter dominion of the Egyptians after passing through the Red Sea, the sea prefigures the font of Baptism, and the cloud the Spirit.

"They were baptized into Moses." "There the sea was likened to the font, the cloud to the grace of the Spirit, Moses to the priest, or more precisely to Christ the Savior, the rod to the Cross, Israel passing through the sea to those being baptized, and the Egyptians represented an image of the demons. Pharaoh himself served as an image of the devil" (Theodoret). To bring the Hebrews' passage through the sea closer to Christian baptism, one must picture what this passage was for the Hebrews. Led out of Egypt and pursued by their recent oppressors, the Hebrews faced two dangers: behind them the pursuit, before them the waves of the sea. They had to renounce every hope of salvation by their own strength and entrust themselves to God and to His leader.

In affirming that the fathers of the Israelites received baptism when passing through the Red Sea, the Apostle Paul quite clearly distinguishes this baptism from the Christian baptism of the New Testament. The Israelites were baptized not in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, but into Moses. That is, in their baptism obedience to Moses was manifested, not faith in the Holy Trinity, nor obedience to the Son of God, who established New Testament baptism. Further, they were baptized while journeying under the cloud (Ex 13:21-22) and passing over the dried bed of the sea. Christians receive baptism through immersion in water. But if such is the difference, in what is the likeness? Why does the Apostle say of the fathers that they too were baptized?

The fifth guiding thought on the question of freely eating things sacrificed to idols is this: such eating is not only a stumbling block for weak brethren, but is in itself defilement (1 Cor 10:1-33). 1 Cor 10:1-14. First the Apostle frightens the Corinthians with cases of God's dread judgment for turning aside to idolatry, using the living example of the Israelites. They too were once chosen sons of God, like Christians. "I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, that your fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea" (1 Cor 10:1). "And all were baptized," typologically, "into Moses," that is, properly speaking, into Him whom Moses prefigured, according to St. Chrysostom, "in the cloud and in the sea" (1 Cor 10:2).

Turning again to the censure of conduct incompatible with the virtue of abstinence, namely, the censure of eating food sacrificed to idols, the Apostle Paul first points to the fearful example of the Hebrews punished for participation in idolatry. Then he explains that everything sacrificed to idols is demonic. From this Christians must see clearly how far from indifferent the eating of idol-sacrifices is. The Apostle adduces the example of the Hebrews because, according to Blessed Theodoret, "what happened to them is a figure of what is accomplished among us. The sea was likened to the font, the cloud to the grace of the Spirit, Moses to the priest, the rod to the Cross, Israel passing through the sea to those being baptized, and the pursuing Egyptians represented an image of the demons.

This is the point of the discourse: to show in the journey under the cloud and the passage through the sea a type of baptism. St. Paul does not set one feature against another, but by the single word "were baptized" gives us to understand all that he wished to say. "What happened to them," he says, "is a figure of what is accomplished among us. The sea was likened to the font, the cloud to the grace of the Spirit, Moses to the priest, the rod to the Cross, Israel passing through the sea to those being baptized, and the pursuing Egyptians represented an image of the demons. Pharaoh himself served as an image of the devil" (Theodoret). How were they baptized into Moses? Not properly into Moses, but into Him whom he prefigured. St.