Wednesday, March 2, 2022

Bruce Chilton on the Keys and the Power to Bind and Loose in Matthew 16 and the Targum of Isaiah

  

The promise of the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 16:17-19) demonstrates the cultic implications of such acceptance within the earliest phases of Jesus’ movement. The imagery of the keys is harnessed to speak of the power of the Church to forgive particular transgressions (16:19b, c; cf. 18:18, 23-35), and that may be regarded as the sense of the keys given Peter within the Matthean redaction. But the prehistory of the passage suggests another context. The keys of v. 19 are reminiscent of Isaiah 22, where Eliakim is given power of access into the Temple, the Targum of Isaiah makes the cultic implications of that power unmistakable. Eliakim is there given the key of what is specifically called the sanctuary, and he is provided with priestly vesture in v. 21 and with a priestly entourage in v. 24. What Jesus promises Simon/Peter is the authority to determine who might and who might not be acceptable within the Temple; the subsequent shift to the liturgical forgiveness of sins occurred under the influence of preoccupations of the Matthean community. For Jesus, sin is “bound” or “loosed” because sacrificial practice may be changed in the Temple, the point closest to heaven, on his authority. (Bruce Chilton, A Feast of Meanings: Eucharist Theologies from Jesus through Johannine Circles [Supplements to Novum Testamentum LXXII; Leiden: Brill, 1994], 53-54)

 

Targum Jonathan on Isa 22:22-23:

 

וְאֶתֵּן מַפְתֵּחַ בֵּית מִקְדְשָׁא וְשׁוּלְטַן בֵּית דָוִד וְיִפְתַּח וְלֵית דְאָחִיד וְיֵיחוֹד וְלֵית דְפָתַח:

 

וְאֶמַנִנֵיהּ אַמַרְכֶּל מְהֵימָן מְשַׁמֵשׁ בַּאֲתַר קַיָם וִיהֵי לְכוּרְסֵי יְקָר לְבֵית אֲבוּהִי:

 

English translation:

 

22 And I will place the key of the house of the sanctuary, and the government of the house of David, in his hand; and he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. 23 And I will appoint him a faithful chief governor, an officer in a firm place, and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father's house.

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