One day, Jesus the Christ asked his disciples a candid question that can at best be understood as a test of public perception. He had been going about his ministry for some time mostly in the towns and villages scattered about Galilee in the north and Judea in the south of Palestine.
Obviously, Jesus was a crowd-puller. Yes. Wherever he went, crowds numbering in their thousands flocked about him, eager to hear his teaching and even more, to be healed of their sicknesses and diseases. It is on record that at a particular time he and his disciples couldn’t eat because the crowd was simply too much, and they had to forgo eating in order to attend to them all (Mark 3:20). His family heard about this and were like, “He’s out of his mind. Let’s go get him!”.
On another instance, the crowds were extremely large that they literally trampled each other (Luke 12:1). On yet another instance, he had to enter a boat to teach (the bulk of which was parables), and he needed to maintain a reasonable distance from the surging crowds (Luke 5:1). There was also a time Jesus fed 5,000 men, in addition to women and children. This means that the total number of that crowd could have been in excess of 12,000 (for the simple fact that an average sampling of a population has more women than men).
Throughout Jesus’ ministry, the crowds were always there. No doubt about it.
Now Jesus asked his disciples a simple question, to gauge the perception of the crowds about his person. He asked the critical question, “Who do men say that I am?”, and they responded, “A prophet, Elijah, John the Baptist, etc.”. It was obvious to Christ that the crowds had not yet known who he really was. Turning to his disciples, he also asked the same question,
“Who do you say that I am?”, to which Peter responded, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!”
In response, Jesus informs Peter that his acknowledgement of Christ’s messiahship was actually divinely inspired, not just an everyday utterance. Next, Jesus made a profound statement here in response to Peters acknowledgement. This statement of Christs informs the concept of the Catholic Apostolic Succession (more on this shortly).
Matthew 16:18-19
“And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
19 “And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven“
Now this statement has been misconstrued and misinterpreted by the Church over the last 2000 years, especially during the first 500 years of church history. This brings us to what we call the Catholic Apostolic Succession.
The Catholic Apostolic Succession: truth or error?
During the 1st two centuries after the birth of the Christian church at Pentecost, the church had no name, no special meeting places like we have today (they actually met in homes), and there were no popes. Much later, when the pagan persecutions against the Church was brought to an end by the Emperor Constantine in the 4th century, the church was already being regarded as Catholic (universal).
Constantine himself played a substantial role in institutionalizing the church as we know it, because during that period, special magnificent meeting places were constructed, and a hierarchy of church leadership came into being (against the instructions of our Lord as found in Matt. 23:8-12).
It happened that some bishops began to arrogate undue powers unto themselves, in that they assumed that they occupied a special place, and should be seen as “special bishops”. The chief culprit here was the bishop of Rome.
Over time, the Catholic church leadership came up with the idea that authority was transferred from the original apostles (especially Peter) down to the presiding bishops, especially the bishop of Rome.
Eventually, that bishop came to be called papa, or pope. They believed that Christ’s charge to Peter was essentially an investiture of apostolic authority to rule over the church of Christ. They believed that Peter the apostle journeyed to Rome where he founded the church in Rome and was the first bishop of that church.
All this can be regarded as church tradition, because some of this information is not verifiable according to the scriptures and other contemporary writings. However, it is on record that Peter was martyred in Rome during the Neronian persecution about 64AD.
He had been arrested by Herod and slated for execution, but prayers prevailed, and God sent an angel to rescue him from prison. This story can be found in Acts 12.
After this, not much is heard about Peter, except that he left Jerusalem that same night and went to Caesarea, where he lived for a while, and from where he probably made his way to the imperial city, Rome. He probably met with Paul the apostle (my opinion though) during his time in the city. The only other information we have relating to Peter are his two epistles.
And so tradition prevailed, resulting in the elevation and ascension of the bishop of Rome to a place of prominence and eminence, till today. Now to the crux of this article: the true meaning of Mathew 16:19.
True meaning of Mathew 16:19
Jesus uttered the following words in response to Peter’s acknowledgement of his messiahship and divinity:
Matthew 16:18-19
“And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
19 “And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven“
This statement by Christ can be interpreted accurately, with the help of the same scriptures. As a matter of principle, we use scripture to interpret scripture. You don’t need to look too far for clues to unravel the true meaning of any biblical text, for the same scriptures have all you need to make what is hidden visible.
Jesus said his church will be built on “this rock”. This is a word-play based on Peter’s name (petros or rock), and also based on Peter’s position as a prominent apostle who would play a crucial role in the formation of the church. After all, Peter was one of the disciples of the inner circle (Peter, James, and John). In other words, the church would be founded on the rock of Peter’s confession, not on his person or position.
Jesus said his church will be built on “this rock”. This is a word-play based on Peter’s name (petros or rock), and also based on Peter’s position as a prominent apostle who would play a crucial role in the formation of the church.
What informed this? Remember, Jesus had already charged his disciples to remember that they were all “brethren”, and should not call anyone father, or teacher. If Jesus meant to found his church on Peter’s person, that meant Jesus was contradicting himself, something which he never did. In other words, the idea that Peter was the first pope is all hogwash and lacks substance.
Secondly, Jesus revealed that Peter would receive the keys of the kingdom of heaven, to bind or loose. This revelation was personal to Peter, and it would play out later at Pentecost.
This is where this scripture finds interpretation or fulfilment, and it can be found in Acts 2. On Pentecost day, Peter it was who preached a message that convicted its hearers to the extent of them asking, “What should we do?”, to which he responded, “Repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit…” (Acts 2:38).
The result? 3000 souls were admitted into the church that day, and were baptized too! Talk about giving him the keys, as Jesus declared! This was the same Peter who, out of fear of arrest and death, denied Christ three times on the night he was arrested! However, when the Holy Spirit came, a “new” Peter emerged; no longer afraid, and no longer in a state of denial of the Nazarene!
By his inspired preaching, Peter loosed 3000 souls from the power of the devil, and they were admitted into the kingdom of God!
This is how the keys were given to Peter, not some cooked up story of what is called apostolic succession. Actually, the Catholic church quotes the same passage of Matthew 16 to support their doctrine. Thus, the two Keys of Saint Peter are often seen on the papal coat of arms of the Vatican City state. Two keys – one representing spiritual authority, while the other represents temporal authority. Even the regalia of popes have keys etched on them, as a testament of this investiture of authority on Peter.
However, these are all doctrines of men. The fulfilment of Christ’s words happened on Pentecost, and after that, it no longer was necessary to refer to that statement as a mark of endued apostolic authority of Peter over the church, as the Catholic church would have us believe. They have a long list of popes, down to the present pope, whom they describe as successors to Peter’s chair. All these to justify why there should be a pope?
Final words
The true meaning of Matthew 16:19 is not far-fetched. A careful study of scriptures reveal exactly what Christ meant by his statement to Peter on that day almost 2000 years ago. We care about accurate biblical interpretation, because the bible was written as a guide to us. How can we be properly guided if we misinterpret the words of scripture? Obviously not.
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