Greek verbs for "bind" and "loose"

[Magnum_V8]

I was talking to someone that said the Greek verbs for “bind” and “loose” from Matthew 16:19 (whatever you bind on earth…) are past tense.

Our Catholic Bible says “…bind/loose on earth, shall be bound/loosed in Heaven.” The Protestant guy that I’m talking to says the Greek verbs say “…bind/loose on earth, have been bound/loosed in Heaven.”

I guess he’s implying that this takes away from Peter’s authority.

Can you shed some light on this for me?

Thanks.

 

[PC_Master]

As a Protestant, I’ve heard this argument before. The Amplified Bible has a mention of this…

Matthew 16 in The Amplified Bible

The argument hinges on what is found in footnotes i and j, where it explains that the “shall be” uses a rare grammatical construct in Greek – a perfect passive participle form that transfers the referent such that it is most properly interpreted as “shall have been”, or perhaps “must be what is already”, thus making the verse to be taken as an instruction to make sure that what is bound or loosed reflects that which is in heaven.

There’s another reason this argument makes sense – to assume that anything bound on earth is bound in heaven, you now necessitate the additional concept of infallibility in binding or loosing, lest you have earth defining heaven, rather than heaven defining earth. However, with the simpler “shall have been” interpretation, that verse becomes instruction, rather than promise.

I hope that helps you understand the argument.

 

[Magnum_V8]

Maybe I’m not understanding your interpretation completely, but how would Peter know what was already bound/loosed in Heaven?

If that’s the case, wouldn’t that mean that Peter’s decisions are not necessarily his own, rather, they have been guided by the Holy Spirit, which has already approved/disapproved of the future decisions? In essence-----again, as it seems to me----that proves the infallibility of Peter and his successors, on matters of faith and morals.

I hope I’m clear enough in my response.

 

[Epistemes]

The World English Bible is, perhaps, the most accurate (in modern language):

“I will give to you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven; and whatever you release on earth will have been released in heaven.”

The perfect passive participle is best translated as a passive future aorist.

The obvious meaning of Matt 16:19 is that whatever the Peter (and his successors) bind upon the faithful (e.g., faith or morals) will not be their own teaching but what has already been bound upon the Church by God in eternity.

 

[Nita]

…
The perfect passive participle is best translated as a passive future aorist.

The obvious meaning of Matt 16:19 is that whatever the Peter (and his successors) bind upon the faithful (e.g., faith or morals) will not be their own teaching but what has already been bound upon the Church by God in eternity.

The translation “shall have been bound” clearly expresses the doctrine of infallibility. Whatever Peter/succeeding popes bind as truth can confidently be accepted as truth, since it is a declaration of what is bound in heaven.

Nita