The keys of Peter are
mentioned only in the famous Matthean text on the founding of the Church (Matt.
xvi, 19). Every one of the metaphors used in this text is Jewish. The keys were
a well-known symbol of authority, whether a teacher’s or a ruler’s (Is. xxi,
22); Luke xi, 52; Rev. iii. 7), with which the writers of the New Testament
show themselves familiar. Peter does not rule the universe like Janus. It is
only in popular mythology, which is not endorsed by either scriptural or
ecclesiastical authority, that he is the doorkeeper of heaven. The role Jesus
assigns him is that his faith shall become the foundation of the Church, which
his authority as teacher and ruler shall sustain by God’s permission. Elsewhere
the authority to bind and the loose is bestowed by Jesus on all the Apostles
(Matt. xviii, 18). (A.D. Howell Smith, Jesus Not a Myth [London: C.W.
Watts & Co., 1942], 40)
