PART II: Peter and the Keys to The Kingdom: All you need to know on the Papacy
In part II of this series we will speak of what it means to have the Keys to the Kingdom as it is understood in Ancient Judaism.
To say that Jesus is devaluing Peter flies within the face of the context. Jesus is positioning Peter as a type of chief steward under the King of Kings by awarding him the keys to the Kingdom. As it is seen in Isaiah 22:22, kings appointed a chief steward to serve under them in position of tremendous authority to rule over the citizens of their Kingdom. Jesus quotes almost verbatim from this passage in Isaiah, so it's clear what he has in mind. He's raising Peter up as a father figure to the household of faith (Isaiah 22:21), to guide them and guide the flock (John 21:15-17). This authority of the prime minister under the king was passed on from one man to a different man down through the ages by the giving of the keys, which were worn on the shoulder as an indication of authority. In the same way, the authority of Peter has been passed down for over 2000 years by means of the papacy.
As Christians, we recognize that Jesus is the King. He was called Emmanuel which means GOD is with us. We know this because it is written in the books of Luke and Matthew.
In Luke 1:30-35 Gabriel, the Archangel said to Mary,
“Mary, do not be afraid. You have found favor with God. See! You are to become a mother and have a Son. You are to give Him the name Jesus. He will be great. He will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give Him the place where His early father David sat. He will be King over the family of Jacob forever and His nation will have no end.” Mary said to the angel, “How will this happen? I have never had a man.” The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come on you. The power of the Most High will cover you. The holy Child you give birth to will be called the Son of God.
Matthew 1:22-23 says:
“All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).”
So Jesus is a King. There has not been a King on the throne of Israel for 600 years. Now we've got a King. This King, Jesus, gives Peter the keys which represents his authority as the representative of Christ here on Earth. There’s only one set of those keys and are owned by the King and it is only the King who has the authority to delegate those keys to his second in command, his royal steward.
Now let’s keep in mind that the keys passed down to the royal stewart of Israel were not symbolic, they were literal keys. They actually opened the royal treasury. They opened the gates of the kingdom. However, when Jesus is referring to the keys, he’s using the words and language of kingdoms and empires, but here they’re used as symbolic keys. He’s saying, “I’m going to give you the keys of the kingdom.” In other words, I’m the King and I’m delegating to you my authority, because keys were a sign of authority. Sometimes it was a seal. The king’s seal on a wax or some other type of sign. In Israel the sign of the kingdom and the sign of that authority were the keys of the kingdom.
Those keys were assigned to Peter and his successors. At the end of time, when the King comes back, he will give the keys back to its rightful owner. Jesus.
So what exactly are the keys of the kingdom of heaven? It is none other than the gospel! If you go and tell somebody that they need to accept Jesus as their personal Lord and savior, leave the Catholic church to be saved, what exactly is it that you have done? You have just used the keys of the gospel. We all have the keys. We all have the gospel and therefore, we can give it. Problem with this is Jesus didn’t say, I’m giving ALL OF YOU the keys. He gave the keys only to Peter. In the Greek this is singular. We have ‘you’ or ‘your’ about six times in here, and we don’t know whether they’re singular or plural in the English. When you read it in Greek, it basically says, “Simon, Simon, behold Satan has demanded permission to sift all of you like wheat. But I have prayed for YOU.” This is a singular Simon, “That your faith may not fail even if the others does, and you singular Simon Peter when once you have turned again, strengthen all of your brothers.” Here shows a primacy of Peter.
Matthew 10:1-4 gives us the idea in Matthew’s wording.
Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.From the leader, in the first place or principally, to the listing Judas Iscariot the betrayer as last.
In John 21:15-25 Jesus reinstates Peter. Jesus literally speaks to Peter, pulls him aside and he says, “Do you love me?” Peter says, “Yes, I do.” He says, “Then tend my lambs.” A second time he says that and he says, “Shepherd my sheep.” And a third time, “Shepherd my lambs.”
He spoke to Peter. What is important here is not what we as Americans or current language speaking individuals understand of this verse but what the ancient Jews believed and understood in those times. So, what did this mean to them at the time?
At the time this happened, there was no democracy. There were only kingdoms. These kingdoms were run by Kings. All Kings had a second in command called royal stewards and they ran under the authority of the King. The King would delegate his keys to the second in command.
The patriarch Joseph works with a steward in the palace in Egypt. King Saul has a steward, as does the prince Mephibosheth, but the most important image of steward in the Old Testament for understanding Matthew 16 is in Isaiah 22.
In this passage, the prophet foretells the fall of one royal steward and the succession of another. Shebna is being replaced by Eliakim, and the prophet says to the rejected Shebna,
“I will clothe him with your robe and fasten your sash around him and hand your authority over to him. He will be a father to those who live in Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David; what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open” Isaiah 22:21-22
“I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades” Revelation 1:18
So Jesus is saying, “I am the king and I am going to be ascending into heaven soon. And when I do, I’m going to leave you in charge. I’m going to give you the keys of my kingdom and you can administer and you can run my kingdom on earth in my absence. And this is the key to the kingdom. And while you’re doing that, I’m giving you the authority to bind and loose.” And that is judicial terminology from the time of Jesus.
To bind means that they can make laws and excommunicate someone from the Kingdom. To loose meant that they could release someone from laws or they could include someone into the kingdom. These are some of the most commonly used words among rabbis and judges in ancient Judaism. These were judicial terms. Jesus is setting up a kingdom and he’s making the apostles his judges, giving them the authority to do what judges and administrators do in a kingdom. That’s all the wording right here, it is Jewish terminology and you can’t understand it in American context.
Isaiah 22 provides the necessary Old Testament context in that Jesus’ disciples would have understood completely as he quoted and not made up, this particular passage in Matthew 16. When Jesus said to Peter,
“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,”
his disciples would have recognized the passage instantly as being quoted from the book of Isaiah. They would understand that not only was Jesus calling himself the King of his kingdom, but also that he was appointing Peter himself as his royal steward or his second in command. In the book of Revelation John sees the ascended and glorified Christ holding the eternal keys. Which only confirms the intention of Jesus to delegate that power to Peter, the rock of his Church.
Catholic scholars are not alone when interpreting Matthew 16:17-19, as a direct quotation of Isaiah 22. Steve Ray, a former Baptist, cites in his book Upon This Rock numerous Protestant biblical scholars who support this understanding and affirm that Jesus is delegating his authority over life and death, heaven and hell, to the founder of his Church on earth.
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