Liddon, SL;
KERIOTH
KINDNESS
KERIOTH.— See Judas Iscariot.
KEYS The word (K\els) occurs 6 times in the
New Testament, twice in the Synoptic Gospels, and 4 times in Kevelation. In Lie IP- Jesus upbraids the lawyers on the ground that they have ' taken away the key of knowledge,' the instrument by which entrance into knowledge could be obtained, and thereby hindered the people from the privilege which should have been theirs. This they had done bjr substituting a false confidence in the wrong kind of knowledge, with the result that the right kind was ignored and forgotten. The know- ledge from whicli the peoiile are thus excluded is ' that of tlie way of «ilvation ' (Plummcr), or, more profoundly, that knowledge of tlic> Lord, for lack of which the 'people |ierish ' (lids ('■), tn s^ek which they had been urged by th.' ],i.,|,lh'i~ k t. .In 17^).
InMt IG'" the word is ii^r.l .i-.n i.iiihorically,
in the address to Peter : ' I \\ ill i;i\e imlo thee the keys of the kingdom of liea\en.' The apparent limitation of the promise to one Apostle is to be controlled by the repetition of the following and interpretive clause addressed to the Apostles in general in Mt 18'*. The keys are to be intrusted to Peter as to a steward of the house (and in like manner to the Apostles in general), to whom might be given the power of locking and unlocking, but not of deciding who did or did not belong to the household (Weiss). The significance of this promise would be fully met if it announced the effectual proclamation, tlirongli the Apostles, of the gospel by nicins iif wliirli (be l)i'liL'V(;r obtains entrance into tlir kiiiuiliijii. (in iIh; passage as a whole see artt. C.ksauea ruiMi-ri, p. 249, and Peter.
In Rev 1'* the Son of Man in John's vision says : 'I have the keys of tleath and of Hades,' i.e. con- trol over the entrance to the realm of the dead. The figure of death as a realm with portals conies down from Ps 9'^, and was freely developed in the Rabbinic writings. The ' key of death ' was one of the three (four) keys which were s.iid to be in the hand of God alone. Thus in S,ni/i,;/ri„, ll.'i, 'Elijah desired that there should li" ji\i n to liiiii the Key of rain; he desired tliat iIm ic .sh.iiilil lie given to him the key of resurrcd inn ni (hr dr.ul ; they said to him, '"Three keys an- not uii.ii into the hand of a representative, the kc-y of l.ii ih, the key of rain, and the key of rr.^ni icrtion of the dead."' There is therefore strong signilicauce in the claim here made by the Risen Messiah.
In like manner a claim to at least Messianic dignity is involved in the phrase in Rev 3' ' he that hath the key of David.' The allusion is clearlj' to the promise in Is2'2-- ' I will give to him (Eliakiui) the key of the house of David upon his shoulder,' ,-i passage which, according to ZuUich, was commonly referred by Jewish commentators to the Messiah.
In the two remaining passages (Rev 9' 20') the use of the word ('the key of the pit of the abyss,' ' the key of the abyss ') depends on the idea familiar in Jewish cosmogony, viz. that there was a eoni- nmnication between the upper woi M anil the nialei world or abyss by means of a jiit or shaft , ilu' opening to which might be conceited as i-overed and locked. According to Rabbinic tradition, this opening was placed beneath the foundations of the Temple, as the Moslems hold to this day that it is to be found beneath the Dome of the Rock, or Mos(]ue of Omar (see Gunkel, Schtipfung unci Chaos, pp. 91-98). C. Anderson Scott.
KHAN
—See Inn.
KID.-
See Animals, p.
64»
KIDROK.-See Brook.
vo
L. I.— 59
KIN, KINDRED, KINSHIP.-' The antique con- ception of kinship is participation in one blood, which passes from parent to child, and circulates in the veins of every member of the fanuly. The unity of family or clan is viewed as a physical unity ; for the blood is the life, — an idea familiar to us from the OT, — and it is the same blood, and therefore the same life, that is shared by every descendant of the common ancestor. The idea that the race has a life of its own, of which individual lives are only parts, is expressed even more clearly by picturing the race as a tree, of which the an- cestor is the root or stem and the descendants the branches' (W. R. Smith, A'.V-40f.). This concep- tion underlies tlie words 'kin' {avyyc-rjs, Mk 6-*) and 'kindred' {(nryyeveta. Lk 1'''). But it was Christ's piirjrase to organize suiiet\- aric.vding to another conception of the basis of unil y. lie made kin.ship depend not upon physi<al i)ul sjiiritual affinities (Mt 12^8 etc.). ' AlreJely. in the spiritual religion of the Hebrews, the iilea' of Divine father- hood is entirely dissocial ed fiiini the hasisof natural fatherhood. Man was ereat.'d in the image of God, but he was not begotten ; God-sonship is not a thing of nature, but of grace' (liS- 41). There, however, Uie sonship of the nation is emphasized : in Christ's teaching the personal relationship is brought into prominence. Sonship depends on personal faith (Jn 1'-), and its evidence is indi- vidual submission to the will of God (Mt ]2«''-)- In His allegory of the Vine (Jn 15'), Jesus practically adopts the old figure. He Himself takes the place of stem or root, but the branches share the common life only on condition of an abiding faith (cf. St. Paul's figure of the olive-tree, Ro 11" etc.). The ancient kindred of blood, with its narrow physical limits, gives place in the NT to a fellow- ship of faith which is open to all mankind. See also art. FAMILY. W. EwiNG.