Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

BINDING AND LOOSING

Jesus entrusted the keys of the kingdom of heaven and the power of “binding and loosing” to Simon Peter after the apostle’s declaration that Jesus was the Messiah (Matt. 16:16-19). Later, Jesus gave the disciples (the Twelve in Matthew) similar authority to regulate disciplinary matters in the Church (Matt. 18:18), and when he returns he will have the power to “open and shut” (Rev. 3:7).

Linking keys with the power to bind and loose establishes Peter, the proclaimer of Christ, as an authority without equal. Whereas former teachers had shut people out of the kingdom (Matt. 23:13), the apostolic preaching caused people to accept the gospel and enter the kingdom or refuse it and be excluded.

In the OT, keys also symbolized divinely ordained responsibility and authority (Isa. 22:15-25; Job 38:31). Terms such as “to forgive” and “to retain” sins in the risen Jesus’ mandate to his disciples lead some to interpret “to bind and loose” as authority to forgive sins (cf. John 20:22-23).

Bibliography. G. Bornkamm, “The Authority to ‘Bind’ and ‘Loose’ in the Church in Matthew’s Gospel,” in The Interpretation of Matthew, ed. G. Stanton (Philadelphia, 1983), 101-14.

Terrence Prendergast, S.J.

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

BINDING AND LOOSING

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)