The following comes from:
David H. Stern, Jewish
New Testament Commentary: A Companion Volume to the Jewish New Testament (Clarksville:
Jewish New Testament Publications, 1996), Logos Bible Software edition
Matt 16:19:
In consequence of his confession Yeshua makes Kefa both (1) shammash (“steward”; see Ro 16:1N, Pp
1:1N, 1 Ti 3:8–13), with the keys,
and (2) dayan (“judge”), who, as the
one who can prohibit and permit, establishes new covenant halakhah (see 18:18–20&N).
Matt
18:18-20:
Contrary to most Christian interpreters, I take the p˒shat (“plain sense”) of this passage
to be dealing with making legal judgments and halakhah, not prayer.
The words rendered “prohibit”
and “permit” (v. 18) are, literally,
“bind” and “loose.” These terms were used in first century Judaism to mean
“prohibit” and “permit,” as is clear from the article, “Binding and Loosing,”
in the Jewish Encyclopedia, 3:215:
“Binding and loosing (Hebrew asar
ve-hittir) … Rabbinical term for ‘forbidding and permitting.’ …
“The power of binding and loosing was always claimed by the Pharisees.
Under Queen Alexandra the Pharisees, says Josephus (Wars of the Jews 1:5:2), ‘became the administrators of all public
affairs so as to be empowered to banish and readmit whom they pleased, as well
as to loose and to bind.’ … The various schools had the power ‘to bind and to
loose’; that is, to forbid and to permit (Talmud: Chagigah 3b); and they could
bind any day by declaring it a fast-day ( … Talmud: Ta’anit 12a … ). This power
and authority, vested in the rabbinical body of each age or in the Sanhedrin,
received its ratification and final sanction from the celestial court of
justice (Sifra, Emor, ix; Talmud: Makkot 23b).
“In this sense Jesus, when appointing his disciples to be his
successors, used the familiar formula (Matt 16:19, 18:18). By these words he
virtually invested them with the same authority as that which he found
belonging to the scribes and Pharisees who ‘bind heavy burdens and lay them on
men’s shoulders, but will not move them with one of their fingers’; that is,
‘loose them,’ as they have the power to do (Matt 23:2–4). In the same sense in
the second epistle of Clement to James II (‘Clementine Homilies,’ Introduction),
Peter is represented as having appointed Clement as his successor, saying: ‘I
communicate to him the power of binding and loosing so that, with respect to
everything which he shall ordain in the earth, it shall be decreed in the
heavens; for he shall bind what ought to be bound and loose what ought to be
loosed as knowing the rule of the church.’ ”
The article notes that a very different, non-Jewish interpretation,
equating binding and loosing with remitting and retaining sins (Yn 20:23), was
adopted by Tertullian and all the church fathers, thus investing the head of
the Christian Church with the power to forgive sins, referred to on the basis
of Mt 16:18 as the “key power of the Church.” Needless to say, I reject this
later understanding which bears no relationship to the Jewish context.
The usual Christian view of vv. 19–20 is that it defines a “Messianic minyan” not as the quorum of ten
established by halakhah (Talmud,
Sanhedrin 2b) for public synagogue prayers, but as two or three assembled in Yeshua’s name, plus Yeshua himself, who
is there with them (v. 20). The
problem with this is that the passage is not about prayer—although it is not
wrong to make a midrash on it which
does apply to prayer (see below and 2:15N). Rather, Yeshua, speaking to those
who have authority to regulate Messianic communal life (vv. 15–17), commissions
them to establish New Covenant halakhah,
that is, to make authoritative decisions where there is a question about how
Messianic life ought to be lived. In v. 19 Yeshua is teaching that when an
issue is brought formally to a panel of two or three Messianic Community
leaders, and they render a halakhic decision here on earth, they can be assured
that the authority of God in heaven stands behind them. Compare the Mishna:
“Rabbi Chananyah ben-T’radyon said, ‘If two sit together and words of Torah pass between them, the Sh˒khinah abides between them, as it is
said, “Those who feared Adonai spoke
together, and Adonai paid heed and
listened, and a record was written before him for those who feared Adonai and thought on his name” (Malachi
3:16).’ ” (Avot 3:2)
Curiously, the following extract from the Talmud provides a Jewish
setting for both my understanding and the traditional Christian one.
“How do you know that if ten people pray together the Sh˒khinah [“manifested divine presence”]
is there with them? Because it is said, ‘God stands in the congregation of God’
(Psalm 82:1a) [and a “congregation” must have a minyan of at least ten]. And how do you know that if three are
sitting as a court of judges the Sh˒khinah
is there with them? Because it is said, ‘In the midst of judges he renders
judgment’ (Psalm 82:1b [taking elohim
to mean “judges”; compare Yn 10:34–36&N]).” (B’rakhot 6a)
Thus, according to vv. 18–20 Yeshua’s other talmidim join Kefa (16:19) in replacing “the Levitical cohanim and the judge who shall be in
those days” (Deuteronomy 17:8–12) as the final earthly repository of halakhic
authority. However, the new system was not established instantaneously; for
later Yeshua could still advise the Jewish public to obey the Torah-teachers and P˒rushim because they “sit in the seat of Moshe” (23:2–3&N). In
fact, even today, two thousand years later, the new system has hardly been
established at all—Messianic communal practice is far more ad hoc and makes far less use of received wisdom and established
precedents than one might expect.
The unity of subject matter in vv. 15–20 is also seen in the fact that
“two or three” is found in both v. 16 and vv. 19–20. Moreover, it is then
evident that v. 21 continues the topic begun in v. 15 (how communal Messianic
life is to be lived), without what otherwise is an irrelevant digression to
another subject (reassurance about prayer).
The following expansion of v. 19 further clarifies its meaning: “To
repeat (Greek kai, “and, moreover”)
[and fortify in other language what I have just said in v. 18], I tell you that
if two of you [Messianic community leaders] agree on the answer to any halakhic
question or matter of public order that people ask you about, then it [the halakhic
decision you make] will be for them [the people who asked the question] as if
it had come directly from my Father in heaven.” In v. 20 Yeshua strengthens
this statement by promising his own presence and authority in such situations.
Nevertheless, one may regard the traditional Christian understanding
of vv. 19–20 as a drash in which a
prayer context is supplied (by allowable eisegesis, see 2:15N) in a homily
reassuring believers that their prayers are “powerful and effective” (Ya
5:16&N).
