Ante-Nicene Volume 2

Pastor of Hermas, A.D. 160

And in the middle of the plain he showed me a large white rock that had arisen out of the plain. And the rock was more lofty than the mountains, rectangular in shape, so as to be capable of containing the whole world: and that rock was old, having a gate cut out of it ... .
Pastor of Hermas, similitude ninth, chapter II

... and the six men commanded them to build a tower above the rock. And great was the noise of those men who came to build the tower, as they ran hither and thither around the gate....
Pastor of Hermas, similitude ninth, chapter III

... Now the tower was built upon the great rock, and above the gate. Those ten stones were prepared as the foundation for the building of the tower. And the rock and gate were the support of the whole of the tower....
Pastor of Hermas, similitude ninth, chapter IV

... "I would like to know, sir," I said, "what is the meaning of the building of this tower, and what the rock and gate ... ."
Pastor of Hermas, similitude ninth, chapter V

... So I went round the tower along with him. And the Shepherd, seeing that the tower was beautifully built, rejoiced exceedingly; for the tower was built in such a way, that, on seeing it, I coveted the building of it, for it was constructed as if built of one stone, without a single joining. And the stone seemed as if hewn out of the rock; having to me the appearance of a monolith.
Pastor of Hermas, similitude ninth, chapter IX

"First of all, sir," I said, "explain this to me: What is the meaning of the rock and the gate?" "This rock," he answered, "and this gate are the Son of God."...
Pastor of Hermas, similitude ninth, chapter XII

"And the tower," I asked, "what does it mean?" "This tower," he replied, "is the Church."...
Pastor of Hermas, similitude ninth, chapter XIII

{The Pastor of Hermas is a very beautiful book from the post-apostolic period that was widely read in the early churches. I would encourage every reader here to take the time to read it in its entirety. I do not know how there could be a more clear testimony that the understanding in the earliest Church was that the 'rock' that the Church is being built upon is Christ.}

Clement of Alexandria, A.D. 153 - 217

... "All things were made by Him, and without Him was not even one thing." Certainly He is called "the chief corner stone; in whom the whole building, fitly joined together, groweth into an holy temple of God," according to the divine apostle.
The Stromata, or Miscellanies, Book VI, Chapter XI

... A few, too, knew Him as the Son of God; as Peter, whom also He pronounced blessed, "for flesh and blood revealed not the truth to him, but His Father in heaven,"—showing that the Gnostic recognises the Son of the Omnipotent, not by His flesh conceived in the womb, but by the Father's own power....
The Stromata, or Miscellanies, Book VI, Chapter XV

Now Clement, writing in the sixth book of the Hypotyposes, makes this statement. For he says that Peter and James and John, after the Saviour's ascension, though pre-eminently honoured by the Lord, did not contend for glory, but made James the Just, bishop of Jerusalem.
Fragments of Clemens Alexandrinus, Fragment IV, From the Books of the Hypotyposes, quoted in Eusebius: Ecclesiastical History, Book VI. II. X

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