MATTHEW 16:19 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. The keys of the kingdom — the authority to open and close access to the kingdom — are given to Peter and (through him, as Matthew 18:18 makes clear) to the church. The binding and loosing authority given to Peter is the authority to declare what is permitted and what is forbidden, what is included and what is excluded, in the kingdom's community. The heavenly ratification of earthly decisions communicates the divine authority behind the church's community governance.
Church Fathers on Matthew 16:19
As soon as the Lord had taken His disciples out of the teaching of the Pharisees, He then suitably proceeds to lay deep the foundations of the Gospel doctrine; and to give this the greater solemnity, it is introduced by the name of the place, 'When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi.'
He adds 'of Philip,' to distinguish it from the other Caesarea, of Strato. And He asks this question in the former place, leading His disciples far out of the way of the Jews, that being set free from all fear, they might say freely what was in their mind.
This Philip was the brother of Herod, the tetrarch of Ituraea, and the region of Trachonitis, who gave to the city, which is now called Panaeas, the name of Caesarea in honour of Tiberias Caesar.
Read all 49 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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