Keys...

[ignatius]

I hear Roman Catholics talk about 'keys to bind and loose'. Can someone who is knowledgeable please speak to me about these and what Orthodox Tradition has to say about their power?

[Anastasios]

Catholics make a distinction between the power to bind and loose and the keys, saying the former is given to all apostles, the later to Peter alone.  I have read that passage in Matthew many times and the other verses that are pertinent and just don't see the distinction.

[montalban]

I'm having this same argument at the moment on a Catholic forum
http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?t=114695


From the Catechism...
881: The Lord made Simon alone, whom he named Peter, the "rock" of his Church. He gave him the keys of his Church and instituted him shepherd of the whole flock. "The office of binding and loosing which was given to Peter was also assigned to the college of apostles united to its head." This pastoral office of Peter and the other apostles belongs to the Church's very foundation and is continued by the bishops under the primacy of the Pope.

http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/881.htm


The Catholic argument is that the Bible mentions keys specifically only in relation to Peter.
Matthew 16:13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"

 14 They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."

  15 "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"

  16 Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

  17Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.

18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

20 Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.


However not long after this Jesus gives the rest of the Apostles the rights to bind and loose. Matthew 18:18 "I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

No doubt Peter had the keys. But did he have them 'alone'? How one gets to 'bind and loose' without the keys is interesting. Some Church Fathers recognise that the other Apostles also got the keys


Hilary of Poitiers is quite clear that all who hold that faith have the keys for binding and loosing...

37. This faith it is which is the foundation of the Church; through this faith the gates of hell cannot prevail against her. This is the faith which has the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatsoever this faith shall have loosed or bound on earth shall be loosed or bound in heaven. This faith is the Father's gift by revelation; even the knowledge that we must not imagine a false Christ, a creature made out of nothing, but must confess Him the Son of God, truly possessed of the Divine nature

Hilary of Poitiers "On the Trinity" Book VI.

http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF2-09/Npnf2-09-13.htm#P1388_859877

”For the Son of thunder *, the beloved of Christ, the pillar of the Churches throughout the world, who holds the keys of heaven, who drank the cup of Christ, and was baptized with His baptism, who lay upon his Master’s bosom, with much confidence, this man now comes forward to us now” John Chrysostom, “Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homily 1.1”

quoted in Schaff, P, “Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers” (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1956), Volume XIV, p1 Also at: http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF1-14/npnf1-14-05.htm#P175_1913


*that is the Apostle John

and Origen
Commentaries on the Gospel of Matthew: Book XII. "The Promise Given to Peter Not Restricted to Him, But Applicable to All Disciples Like Him."

http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-10/anf10-48.htm

[ignatius]

Thank you very much montalban. Great Post.

[montalban]

Thank you very much montalban. Great Post.

Many thanks. Even Augstine notes this...

Chapter 18.-The Keys Given to the Church.
17. He has given, therefore, the keys to His Church, that whatsoever it should bind on earth might be bound in heaven, and whatsoever it should loose on earth might be, loosed in heaven; that is to say, that whosoever in the Church should not believe that his sins are remitted, they should not be remitted to him; but that whosoever should believe and should repent, and turn from his sins, should be saved by the same faith and repentance on the ground of which he is received into the bosom of the Church. For he who does not believe that his sins can be pardoned, falls into despair, and becomes worse as if no greater good remained for him than to be evil, when he has ceased to have faith in the results of his own repentance.
Augustine
"On Christian Doctrine" Book I.18.17
http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF1-02/npnf1-02-32.htm#TopOfPage

"...Peter, the first of the apostles, receive the keys of the kingdom of heaven for the binding and loosing of sins; and for the same congregation of saints, in reference to the perfect repose in the bosom of that mysterious life to come did the evangelist John recline on the breast of Christ. For it is not the former alone but the whole Church, that bindeth and looseth sins; nor did the latter alone drink at the fountain of the Lord's breast, to emit again in preaching, of the Word in the beginning, God with God, and those other sublime truths regarding the divinity of Christ, and the Trinity and Unity of the whole Godhead."
On the Gospel of John
Tractate CXXIV.7
http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF1-07/npnf1-07-129.htm#P3892_2145605


Though I am not an expert on Augustine and I don't know if he retracted either or both these statements

Oops, forgot to add more from the Bible and my fave Saint
John 20:23 "If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."

Matthew 18:19 "Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.

"As a king sending forth governors, gives power to east into prison and to deliver from it, so in sending these forth, Christ investeth them with the same power.
John Chrysostomon
On the Gospel of John
Homily LXXXVI
http://www.ccel.org/fathers/NPNF1-14/John/John-Hom86.html

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