The verse immediately before the "keys" verse establishes the connection of these verses with the church as a gathering of believers.

More: Matthew 16: Calling a masterful gathering of outgoing church believers

What are the "keys of the kingdom of heaven"?

What are "keys"?

What is the "kingdom of heaven"?

The same idea is repeated in Matthew 18 without the "keys".

The important words in the above verses include the following.

• "keys" and "kingdom of heaven"
• "bind" and "bound" (discussion delayed until later)
• "loose" and "loosed" (discussion delayed until later)

Here we look only at the "keys" part of the first verse while recognizing that the second part of the first verse and the second verse appear to be tied together in some way.

That way appears to be that of the interaction of people in a distributed system of people as part of a church .

Details are left as a future topic.

The "kingdom of heaven" could refer to age of the church or it could refer to "heaven" as the "kingdom of God" (or both or something else).

Details are left as a future topic.

• The word "earth" might represent the reality of life here on earth.
• The word "heaven" might represent heaven as in the narrow and straight gate to life.

It would be nice if the following were distinguished more clearly.

• A "kingdom of heaven" on "earth" (if applicable).
• The "kingdom of heaven" in "heaven".

The trouble with kingdoms of heaven on earth is that they're liable to come to pass, and then their fraudulence is apparent for all to see. We need a kingdom of heaven in Heaven, if only because it can't be realized. Malcolm Muggeridge (British broadcaster)

More: Malcolm Muggeridge

In the packing industry, for example, in the egg production industry, the word "Keye" is used to refer to a tray used to place eggs for stacking, packing, etc. The name comes from the company called "Keyes Packaging Group" that makes products such as this.

The name of the products and the company come from the inverter Martin L Keyes (1850-1914) who founded "Keyes Fibre Company" in 1903 which eventually led to the company today. Their web site is at https://www.keyespackaging.com/ (as of 2022-01-10) which has information on that history and current products, etc.

Keyes is credited with inventing the paper plate after thinking about how to create disposable dishware.

A "key" in a database is an attribute or group of attributes that can uniquely identify a row (or record) in a table.
E. F. Codd, an IBM researcher, developed the theory of relational databases in the 1970's. A crucial requirement of relational databases is that the data relationships be normalized in order to avoid anomalies.

Motivated by the desire to have every field of a table be dependent on the key and only on the key, the following phrase was coined (source unknown).

• Every non-key field of a table should depend on the key, the whole key, and only on the key, so help me Codd.

There are many other English definitions of "keys" and ideas related to "keys".

Let us move on to the key ideas in the "keys of heaven" as used in the GNT (Greek New Testament).

A physical "key" is used to open a physical "lock". In abstract terms, the English word "key" is used to mean both something that unlocks something that was previously locked and/or a way to access something in general that was previously unaccessible.

The Greek word for "key" is related to the Greek word for "closed" in that a key is a way to close something. To open it, one needs the key. One cannot open that thing more than it originally was open.

• A "key" to a "key" would be called a meta key.
• A "key" to a "key" to a "key" would be called a meta-meta key. And so on.



More: Have you ever met a prefix like this?

The English word "key" is from the PIE (Proto Indo-European) root "KLEHU" ≈ "nail, pin, hook".

• The Middle English word "keye" ≈ "key".
• The Old English word "cǣġ" ≈ "key".
• The Old English word "kaigen" ≈ "keys" .
• The Old Church Slavonic word "ключи" ≈ "keys".
• The Russian word "ключи" (klu-shee) ≈ "keys" .

The ancient Greek word "κλειδόν" ≈ "little key" and is the diminuative form of the ancient Greek word "κλείς" ≈ "bolt, catch, key".

The modern Greek word "κλειδί" (klee-THEE) ≈ "key".

The Latin word "clavis" ≈ "nail, pin" which, through the French word "clef" ≈ "key" is the source of the musical term "clef" which indicates which notes are represented by the lines and spaces on a musical stave/staff. The Spanish word "llave" ≈ "key".

It is not clear as to the history of musical keys where that term originated.

The music circle of fifths shows the key changes when going to the next music fifth.

Musical keyboards and computer keyboards and Morse code keys all use the idea of a "key" that is pressed in order to specify something.

One "types" on a keyboard by striking a "key".

More: Type theory in the Bible and elsewhere

The PIE words for "key" are related to the words for "close" from the same the PIE root "KLEHU" ≈ "nail, pin, hook".

• The ancient Greek word "κλεῖθρον" ≈ "bar for closing a door" which is the source of the English word "cleithrum" which is biological term for a large bone in fishes.
• The modern Greek word "κλειστός" (klee-STOS) ≈ "closed" and the modern Greek word "κλείνω" (KLEE-no) ≈ "to close, to shut".
• Both words are from the ancient Greek word "κλείω" ≈ "close"

The LXX (Septuagint) here differs somewhat from the Hebrew.

The German word "Riegel" ≈ "bolt, latch" which could be borrowed from the Latin word "regula" ≈ "rule, bar" and is related to the German word "Regel" ≈ "rule" as a regulation that bars someone from doing something or closes that actual (if following the rules).

The Latin word "vectis" ≈ "strong pole or bar".

A Latin word for door is "ostium" ≈ "door" which is the source, through French, of the English word "usher".

More: An usher for the door

The English word "close" and is from the Middle English word "clusen" ≈ "close" and is from the Old English word "clysan" ≈ "close" as in the following verse.

• The German word "schließen" ≈ "close, lock".
• The German word "das Schloss" ≈ "castle, lock".
• The German word "der Schlüssel" ≈ "key".

The English word "closet" is something that can be "closed".

Notice that John cannot easily talk to others since he has been "shut up". Another meaning is to close a business or place of business, the opposite of "open up".

Interestingly, the English word "open" is related to the English word "up". So "open up" is from "up up" which appears to be on the "up and up".

The English word "shut-in" is from the same idea as being "shut up" in a physical location.

The term "close call" is not the same thing as a "clothes call", but puns can be made based on the similar sounds of the words. Such jokes, however, can "wear thin" if not "dressed up" carefully. And so on.

An important aspect of a key is that a door or gate (e.g., the narrow and straight gate) that would otherwise be open can be closed. That is, access can be restricted by the key but one cannot open the door any more than what the door actually allows.

The English word "clause" is from the Middle English word "claus" ≈ "sentence, clause" is, through French, from the Latin word "clausus" ≈ "closed, shut off" which is the source of English words such as "claustrophobic", "close", etc.

The Roman emperor at the time of Paul, and mentioned twice in the GNT was "Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus", after Caligula and before Nero.

Legend has it that the name "Claudius" comes from "lame" or "crippled" however it appears that the name was adapted from an earlier name from a Sabine (from a tribe related to the original founders of Rome) word that was cognate to the Latin word "clausus" ≈ "shut, closed".

The English word "cloister" (from 1300) is, through French, from the Latin word "claustrum" ≈ "place shut in, bar, bolt" and is related to the Latin word "claustrum" ≈ "bar, bolt".

A "cloister" tends to be a place that is separate as a "monastery" or "convent" and has some form of wall, etc., to "close out" others or to "shut in" the members.

An example of a "cloister" is the Ephrata Cloister in Ephrata, PA.
Visitors to Ephrata in the 1700s found a unique monastic settlement they labeled a Cloister. Conrad Beissel, Ephrata’s founder, came to the site in 1732 seeking to live as a hermit following his own religious ideas. He believed earthly life should be spent preparing to achieve a spiritual union with God at the Second Coming he felt would soon occur.

From the web site at https://ephratacloister.org (as of 2022-01-10).

The English word "cluster", as a bunch or group, appears not to be related to the English word "cloister".

Note that "Santa Claus" is from the Greek word for the name "Nicholas" which is from the Greek words for "victory" ("k" part) and "people" ("laus" part) which, when joined, transliterate to English word "Claus" and is not related to the Latin word "clausus"

More: The doctrine of Santa Claus

Let us move back to the "keys of heaven" discussion.

With possession of a key to the kingdom of heaven comes authority but also responsibility.

• Authority is the ability and power to accomplish what needs to be done.
• Responsibility is the accountability of that power to others (e.g., a higher power, the people, etc.)

Authority should be appropriately matched with responsibility.

• Responsibility without authority leads to frustration in that one cannot accomplish the responsibility one is given.
• Authority without responsibility leads to authoritarian dictatorships since one can use that power without being responsible to anyone.



More: Absolute power

There are various ways to match authority with responsibility.

• A. Low responsibility, low authority
• B. Medium responsibility, medium authority
• C. High responsibility, high authority

Discussion question: Do the teachings of Jesus support matching authority with responsibility? If so, which of these ways appears to be advocated? Explain. It does appear that throughout history, many leaders of the church and those in the church (many instances, denominations, etc.) have used the above verses to claim authority to do things on earth with impunity while not being responsible for their actions.

Exercise: Provide some examples of this claim. Provide some counter-examples of this claim.

It does appear that the emphasis in the above (and following) verses is that of responsibility to insure that gates are not closed (using the provided keys) and that any closed gates are opened (using the provided keys) using, for example, the mandate of the Great Commission.

Details are left as a future topic.

In Luke 11:52, Jesus says that the "lawyers" have taken away the "key of knowledge". Knowledge is there to be acquired. A "key" can be used to control the access to knowledge. A key can allow access or restrict access.

Have you ever encountered someone who cannot do something and, therefore, does not want anyone else to do it?

Consider the person who is never happy and goes around trying to keep everyone else from being happy and, if necessary, will go to great lengths to make that other person not happy.

More: An actor as a hypocrite is not real

Throughout history, groups in power, whether religious or secular (or a combination) have made it a priority to keep knowledge from the people.

Discussion question: Have you ever encountered that people who do not believe in the Bible go to great efforts to keep others from believing in the Bible? Substitute other words for "Bible" and see if you can come up with additional examples.

Let us return to the idea of a "key".

Is a key a physical key?

Is a key an abstract key?

Is the use of the noun "key" a code that is to be substituted with another noun (and meaning)?

Is the key a meta key? That is, a key to a key.

More: Have you ever met a prefix like this?

A modern physical key has an encoding of a bit pattern (at some level).

A software key is like a password or passcode in that the bits are abstract and not physical.

Jesus provides a password to release a colt to ride on Palm Sunday.

The pre-arranged password appears to be "The Lord hath need of them".

If this were not pre-arranged, then would Jesus be asking his disciples to take someone's colt without permission?

Long passwords, as "coded information", cannot be broken by brute force (random or systematic guessing) with probability approaching 1.0 (certainty).

This problem is isomorphic to proofs that information cannot arise by chance since there is not enough time or space in the known universe for this to happen.

Details are left as a future topic.

The word "keys" is plural. Is there more than one key? Are those duplicate keys or is each part of a key.

Note that hardware keys have levels built into the key so that has, in effect, an abstract notion of a combination.

Might the "keys of heaven" be part of a split key?

Let us return to the original verses.
The last part of Matthew 16:19 is the same as Matthew 18:18 and appears to connect these two discourses.
The verses immediately before Matthew 18:18 are concerned with distributed conflict resolution.

Let us look at the next two verses.

In the verses after Matthew 18:18, Jesus starts by saying "again". This connects this thought with the previous thoughts.

More: Matthew 18:15-17 Conflicting and faulty resolutions

It is interesting that the split key concept, physical or real, requires that those with the keys get together and agree on something. This is exactly what the above two verses indicate.

The Greek word for "thing" in "touching any thing" is usually used for a physical object and not an abstract concept, though that may be the case here.

It would appear that Jesus needs to be in the "midst" of them in order to accomplish the combining of the "keys" (whatever they are) in order to open whatever access is needed to be granted.

The Greek word for "keys" is used 6 times in the GNT. Two of these were presented above. The other four are in Revelation, once in the plural and three times in the singular.

It appears that Jesus has the "keys" of hell and of death.

The word "keys" here is plural. Is there a key for each individual?

Keys are used to close access to something. Does this mean that Jesus can selectively close access to both "hell" and "death" for whoever he chooses?