It was not something to be passed on or repeated or needed thereafter. Peter, he taught, used the keys preaching first to the Jews (Pentecost) and to the Gentiles (Cornelius). Previous to this circa CE 200 we find the argument of Tertullian who focuses the giving of the keys on to Peter alone and not to or passed on to the subsequent generations. When he mentioned, that to Peter were intrusted the keys of the kingdom of heaven, the king said: “I will not contradict the door-keeper, lest when I come to the gates of the kingdom of heaven, there should be none to open them.” By this irresistible argument the opposition was broken, and conformity to the Roman observance established. Wilfrid rested the Roman observance on the authority of Peter, who had introduced it in Rome, and on the universal custom of Christendom. Colman, the second success or of Aidan, defended the Scottish observance of Easter by the authority of St. The controversy was decided in a Synod held at Whitby in 664 in the presence of King Oswy or Oswio and his son Alfrid. Here is an example of the teaching in the 7th century at the Synod of Whitby over the argument about the Easter observance. Of course, as things go, sourcing alone and understanding the source may be two different things. The idea of Peter at the gates of heaven with the keys has a long history that is sourced to the bible. Numerous others make the same connection between the passage and the popular imagery, like Miriam Van Scott in Encyclopedia of Heaven, 208 and Howard Clarke, who ties this imagery to medieval drama ( The Gospel of Matthew and Its Readers, 146). This understanding of Peter goes back to an early medieval interpretation that identified Peter with a figure in Germanic mythology who was the porter of heaven. The passage moves from a building, to gates, to keys.Ī popular image has Peter as the doorkeeper of heaven, deciding admission through the pearly gates to each person at death. Leading church historian Everett Ferguson identifies a possible source: There are a few other sources for Petrine authority, like Matthew 18:18, but the popular image of Peter standing at the pearly gates is a later interpretation or extrapolation of the scriptures. However, this is as explicit as the Bible itself gets on this question. When this concept of "keys" belonging to Peter is combined with the teaching from Revelation 21:12, that the New Jerusalem has walls and gates, it's not a huge leap to see Peter as being the gatekeeper of heaven, who allows entrance to some but not others. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
This view is based primarily on Matthew 16:18–19, in which Jesus says:Īnd I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.