Psalm 118:22 is one of those OT verses that has a special meaning for the development of the early church's Christology. The verse appears in the Synoptic tradition as Jesus' self-identification before the religious leaders of Jerusalem. It is quoted in conjunction with the parable of the tenants (cf. Matthew 21:33-45, Mark 12:1-12, Luke 20:9-19):
The stone rejected by the builders
has become the cornerstone.
In Luke's gospel, this quotation is followed by a comment: "Anyone who falls on it will be broken to pieces; on whoever it falls, it will crush him." (Luke 20:18) This saying was subsequently added to Matthew's version as Matthew 31:44 for the sake of harmonization. Modern translations now drop this verse. The Lucan commentary simply indicates how the stone formerly rejected but now has become a cornerstone is not something that anyone would want to mess with.
Other New Testament literature quote Psalm 118:22 as the designation of Jesus, the Lord and his new role as Head of the Church, the new spiritual temple of His Body.
The quotation is made within Peter's speech before the Sanhedrin. There is a slight change in the wording of the verse in that the second person plural is inserted: "He (Jesus) is 'the stone rejected by you the builders...'" clearly identifying the role of the priesthood in the death of Christ. "He", of course, is Jesus, and "there is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are saved." (v.12)
In Psalm 118, the rejected stone becoming a cornerstone is an event done by the Lord (v. 23) and is connected to a saving act in a victorious campaign (v.21). With the death and resurrection of Christ, salvation has been wrought. The name (=person) of Jesus, "Lord" is the source of that salvation.
1 Peter 2:1-10 is an exhortation for the community of faith to live according to their status as people of God (vv. 9-10). It is composed mostly of a series of texts -- a catena -- strung together in rabbinic fashion around the theme "Living stone". The discourse can be outlined as follows:
| vv. 1-3 | Opening admonition to live holy lives and "grow into salvation." |
| vv. 4-5 | The exhortation to cling the the Living Stone, Jesus, so as to be built up into a spiritual temple where sacrifices holy and pleasing to God can be offered. |
| v. 6 | Isaiah 28:16 This "living stone" is the new cornerstone laid in Zion |
| v. 7 | Psalm 118:22 It is the stone rejected by the builders but now has become the cornerstone |
| v. 8 | Isaiah 8:14-15 For the unbelieving, this "living stone" is a stumbling block causing the downfall of many. |
| v. 9 | Ex. 19:5-6 The Christian community however is the chosen race, (established under a new covenant) |
| v.10 | Hos. 1:6-9 The Gentiles were once "no-people" Hos 2:3.25 but now they are. |
Here the ambivalence of the "Living Stone" is illustrated by Psalm 118:22. For those who have faith, it is the new stone laid in Zion (Is. 28:16). For those, however, who continue in unbelief, it is a stumbling-block (Is. 8:14-15).
In the Pauline letters, psalm 118:22 is not quoted directly, but the allussion to Christ as the stone on which the the Church is founded can be discerned. In 1 Cor. 3:11, the allussion is found within a context where Paul talks about the role of evangelizers (3:1ff). The Corinthians have begun to form cliques around their favorite gospel preacher and thus have become divided. Paul calls them back to basics: Christ is the foundation, nobody else. "No one can lay a foundation other than the one that is there, namely Christ," declares Paul. A gospel proclamation stands or falls depending on its fidelity to this foundation.
In Ephesians 2:20, Paul is explaining to the Gentiles that they have become members of the new man that is Christ, being united with the chosen people in the one Body which is the Church.
Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners: but you are fellow citizens with the saints and the domestics of God,
Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone:
In whom all the building, being framed together, groweth up into an holy temple in the Lord.
In whom you also are built together into an habitation of God in the Spirit.
The allussion here grounds the image of the community of faith as an edifice that is being built up to become the dwelling place of the Spirit. The cornerstone is Christ who by his death and resurrection has become the head of a new humanity which is the Church (cf. Eph. 2:13-18).
