Bet, Rec. Text, Origen 3,525«, 529of, 530a, support ^uau aoi. Dbc Vulg. Cypr. support aoi !ti>au. — ED.
2 i.e. As Christ, without any derogation to His proper Divinity. — (I. B.)
' GEconomice,' in conformity with the Mediatorial economy, which ap pertains to Him. — En.
authority. Tertullian, in his work on fasting, ch. 15, says, Apostolus claves macelli tibi tradidit : the apostle1 has given thee the keys of the meat market, where he alludes to 1 Cor. x. 25. The keys are available for two purposes, to close and to open ; the keys themselves are not said to be two.2 One and the same key closes and opens in Rev. iii. 7. The Jews declare that a thou sand keys were given to Enoch. See James Alting's Hist, pro- mot, acad. Hebr. p. 107. — rr^ (SaaiXtlas ruv ovpowuv, of the kingdom of heaven) He does not say of the Church, nor of the kingdoms of the world. — SfanS) ^or,c, thou shalt bind — thou shalt loose) The keys denote the whole office of Peter. By the expressions, therefore, of binding and loosing,3 are comprehended all those things which Peter performed in virtue of the name of Jesus Christ, and through faith in that name, by his apostolic autho rity, by teaching, convincing, exhorting, forbidding, permitting (see Tertullian, already quoted), consoling, remitting (see Matt. xviii. 18, 15; John xx. 23) ; by healing, as in Acts iii. 7, ix. 34 ; by raising from the dead, as in Acts ix. 41 (cf. ibid. ii. 24) ; by punishing, ibid. v. 5 ; cf. 1 Cor. v. 5 ; he himself records, in Acts xv. 8, an instance of a matter performed on earth and sanctioned in heaven. It is advisable to compare with this passage that in Matt, xviii. 18? and with both of them the third in John xx. 23. In this passage, to Peter alone, after uttering his confession concerning Jesus Christ, the authority is pro mised, first of binding, and secondly of loosing sins, and what soever is included under that authority ; and this is done as it were enigmatically, it not being expressed what things were to be bound and loosed, because the disciples were not yet capable of understanding so wonderful a matter ; see Luke ix. 54. In chapter xviii., after our Lord's transfiguration, the disciples,
1 Sc. St Paul.— (I. B.)
" The keys of the market," i.e. the free use of authority to buy and eat whatever meat is sold in it. — ED.
2 More keys, in fact, may be accounted to have been delivered to Peter. Hence it was that with so great efficacy he opened the entrance into the kingdom of heaven to the Jews and Gentiles. Comp. the opposite case [of the Pharisees, who shut up the kingdom of heaven against men], ch. xxiii. 4, 13 ; Luke xi. 52.— V. g. /•
3 These words as to binding and loosing do not properly apply to the keys, but yet have a close connection with the use of the keys. — V. g.