CORNER STONE (lcor'ne'r ston), (Heb. eh'ben pin'now, Job xxxviii.6; Is. xxviii:16; Gr. K€00) yowlas, go-nee'as).
The chief corner stone was a large and massive stone so formed as when placed at a corner, to bind together two outer walls of an edifice. This properly makes no part of the foundation, from which it is distinguished in Jer. 1i:26; though, as the edifice rests thereon, it may be so called. Sometimes it denotes those massive slabs which, being placed towards the bottom of any wall, serve to hind the work together, as in Is. xxviii :16. Of these there were often two layers, without cement or mortar (Bloomfield. Recens Synap. on Eph. ii :20). This explanation will sufficiently indicate the sense in which the title of 'chief corner stone' is applied to Christ. For various superstitions and religious rites connected with the corner stone, comp. Trumbull, Threshold Covenant, 22, 51, 55. (See FOUNDATION.) Figurative. The symbolical title of 'chief corner stone' is applied to Christ in (Epli. ii :20, and I Pet. ii:6), which last passage is a
quotation from Is. xxviii :t6, where the Septua gint has the same words for the Hebrew pinnaw. There seems no valid reason for distinguishing this from the stone called 'the head of the corner' (Matt. xxi :42; which is the Sept. translation of ptanah, in Ps. cxviii:22), although some contend that the latter is the top stone or coping. The figure of Eph. ii :20, is well explained by Grimm. As the corner stone is inserted at the angle of a building, holding two walls together and support ing the superstructure, so Christ unites Jew and Gentile, and is the support of the Church. The additional thought of t Pet. ii :8, can be without violence derived from the same figure. As one recklessly turning the corner of a building may stumble over the corner stone, so, while some find in Christ their support, others stumble at Him and perish (Comp. Alford and Ellicott on Eph. ii:20). (J. A. Selbie, Hastings' Bib. Diet.)