The only time the phrase is used is in Matthew 16:19- “and I will give to thee
the keys of the reign of the heavens, and whatever thou mayest bind upon the earth shall be having been bound in the heavens, and whatever thou mayest loose upon the earth shall be having been loosed in the heavens.” (The literal translation preserves the cool and rare use of the future perfect periphrastic for luo and deo- for helpful grammar charts, go to this link
englishpage.com/verbpage/futureperfect.html and look at Use 2).
There is one other place in the New Testament outside of Revelation where the word “key” is used in a similar way. Luke 11:52- “Woe to you, the lawyers [experts of the law], because ye took away the
key of the knowledge; yourselves ye did not enter; and those coming in, ye did hinder.”
So it’s a key of knowledge rather than a key to the kingdom. By taking it away they hindered people from coming in, and they did not enter themselves. But go into what, and enter where? Perhaps the kingdom, or something closely associated with the “reign of the heavens.”
Do you think the passage from Luke 11 is relevant to interpreting the phrase used in Matthew 16? Any other thoughts?
JL: THE KEYS to the Kingdom of God or the Davidic kingdom are shown to be given to a new Prime Minister of the kingdom in; Is 22:19-22. And I will drive thee from thy station, and from thy state shall he pull thee down. 20 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah: 21 And I WILL CLOTHE HIM WITH THEY ROBE, and STRENGTHEN HIM WITH THY GIRDLE, and I WILL COMMIT THY GOVERNMENT INTO HIS HAND: and HE SHALL BE A FATHER to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. 22 And THE KEY OF THE HOUSE OF DAVID will I LAY UPON HIS SHOULDER ; so HE SHALL OPEN AND NONE SHALL SHUT, and HE SHALL SHUT, AND NONE SHALL OPEN.
The following snips I have taken from the book Jesus, Peter & The Keys A Scriptural Handbook on the Papacy, by Scott Butler, Norman Dahlgree and David Hess, Queenship Publishing Company
FF BRUCE who taught NT Biblical Exegesis a the University of Manchester in The Hard Saying of Jesus, (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity, 1983), 143-144 (Isaiah 22:22). so in the new community which Jesus was about to build, Peter would be, so to speak, chief steward. (Pg 41 Jesus, Peter & The Keys)
W.F. ALBRIGHT and C.S. Mann, the Anchor Bible: Matthew, (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1971), 196: Isaih xxii 15 ff. Undoubtetly lies behind this [Mathew 16:19] saying… (Pg 41 Jesus, Peter & The Keys)
INTERVARSITY PRESS produced a commentary analyzing Isaiah 22:22 and its relationship to Matthew 16:19, “The image of keys (plural) perhaps suggests not so much the porter, who controls admission to the house, as the steward, who regulates its administration (Is 22:22, in conjunction with 22:15. The issue then is not that of admission to the church (which is not what the kingdom of heaven means; see pp. 45-47) but an authority derived from a delegation of God’s sovereignty.” Craig S. Keener, the IVP Bible Background Commentary New Testament, Intervarsity Press, 1993), 256. (Pg 43 Jesus, Peter & The Keys)
THE KEEPER OF THE KEYS his authority within the house as administrator and teacher (cf. Isa. 22:20-25, which may have influenced Matthew here). M. Eugene Boring, “Matthew,” in Pheme Perkins and others, eds., The New Interpretter’s Bible. Vol. 8, (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995), 346. (Pg 43 Jesus, Peter & The Keys)
THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN: the phrase [from Matthew 16:19] is almost certainly based on Is. 22:22… D. Guthrie and others, The New Bible Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1953 [reprinted by Inter-Varsity Press], 837. (Pg 44 Jesus, Peter & The Keys)
When an absolute king gives his authority to his Prime Minister, the king does not surrender his power he only delegates the minister to act in his name and with his aurhtority. So there is no problem with Rv 3:7 or any scripture showing Christ as key holder. Christ still holds absolute power (keys) by right and has delegated authority to his First Minister to act in his name by giving of the keys.
pg 47 top, Jesus Peter & The Keys, “The keys of the kingdom would be committed to the chief steward in the royal household and with them goes plenary authority. In Isa. 22:22 the key of the house of David is promised to Eliakim. According to Paul, Jesus is the only foundation (1Cor. 3:11), and in Rev. 1:18; 3:7, Jesus posesses the key of David and the keys of death and Hades. But in this passage [Matthew 16:19] Peter is made the foundation (cf. Eph. 2:20, where the Christian apostles and prophets are the foundation and Christ is the cornerstone) and holds the keys.” George Buttrick and others, eds., The Interpreter’s bible, (New York: Abingdon, 1951), 453. (pg 47 Jesus, Peter & The Keys)
The following two paragraphs are taken off line under:
canapologetics.net/html/peter___the_keys.html
The Anchor Bible commentary, A Protestant work says this: “By conferring the power to bind and loose upon church leadership, Jesus authorizes it to interpret the Scriptures and establish norms for Christian behaviour (vol 1).” R.T. France, another Protestant scholar says; “these terms (binding and loosing) thus refer to a teaching function, and more specifically one of making halakhic pronouncements (i.e. relative to laws not written down in Jewish Scriptures but based on an oral interpretation of them) which are binding on the people of God. In that case, Peter’s ‘power of the keys’ declared in (Matt) 16:19 is not so much that of a doorkeeper, who decides who may or may not be admitted, but that of the steward whose keys of office enable him to regulate the affairs of the household.” (Matthew: Evangelist and Teacher, 1989. 247) (Isn’t that the office of the pope defined? And this from a Protestant! ( I like the part about halakhic pronouncements, which I highlighted in bold print)
** Speaking of “binding and loosing, R.T. France, in another place says; “’Shall be bound & shall be looosed’ (as stated in Matt 16:16-19) are literally future perfects (i.e. shall have been bound, shall have been loosed), and as future perfect sounds as stilted in Greek as in English, the tense is apparently deliberate. In that case, it is not heaven that will ratify Peter’s independent decisions, but that Peter will pass on decisions that have already been made in heaven.” (The Gospel according to Matthew, an introduction and commentary). (My take, in other words, Peter, or bishops in union with him in council, will inform the whole church what is bound in heaven and what is loosed in heaven infallibly. (I added the bold print)
Long time no hear