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.
A lot has been made out of the keys. Keys, to me, simply represent authority. Binding and loosing aren't common words nowadays, but I believe they imply disallowing/allowing certain behaviors. Unfortunately, I think there is a poor translation here (though I don't know greek, I am going by what I hear). He's not saying that whatever Peter allows on earth will be, subsequently, allowed in heaven (and its opposite). That would be a very strange thought, to me. He's saying whatever is allowed in heaven can be enforced by Peter in the church. This can be seen by the 'have been' footnote in the NIV.
Jesus says basically the same thing (minus the keys) a couple chapters later, but there he is speaking to ALL the Apostles (not just Peter). So, I think the phrase is about church discipline (as seen by the Matthew 18 context). The debate comes from deciding whether the 'authority' is Peter, subsequent Pope's, or your local pastor, etc. Drury was thinking a lot about such things last year if I recall.
Jesus says basically the same thing (minus the keys) a couple chapters later, but there he is speaking to ALL the Apostles (not just Peter). So, I think the phrase is about church discipline (as seen by the Matthew 18 context). The debate comes from deciding whether the 'authority' is Peter, subsequent Pope's, or your local pastor, etc. Drury was thinking a lot about such things last year if I recall.
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