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Joh_20:23. The peculiar authority of the apostolical office, for the exercise of which they were fitted and empowered by this impartation of the Spirit. It was therefore an individual and specific charismatic endowment, the bestowal of which the Lord knew must be still connected with His personal presence, and was not to be deferred until after His ascension,[268] namely, that of the valid remission of sins, and of the opposite, that of the moral disciplinary authority, consisting not merely in the authorization to receive into the Church and to expel therefrom,[269] but also in the authorization of pardoning or of inflicting penal discipline on their fellow-members. The apostles exercised both authorizations, and it is without reason to understand only the former, since both essentially belonged to the mission ( πέμπω , Joh_20:21) of the apostles. The promise, Mat_16:19; Mat_18:18, is similar, but not equivalent. The apostolic power of the keys in the sense of the Church is contained directly in the present passage, in Matt. only indirectly. It had its regulator in the Holy Spirit, who separated its exercise from all human arbitrariness, so that the apostles were therein organs of the Spirit. That was the divine guarantee, as the consecration of moral certainty through the illumination and sanctification of the judgment in the performance of its acts.
On ἄν . instead of ἐάν , see Hermann, ad Viger. pp. 812, 822; frequently also in the Greek prose writers.
ἀφίενται ] They are remitted, that is, by God.
κρατῆτε ] He abides by the figure; opposite of loosing: hold fast (Polyb. viii. 20. 8; Act_2:24).
κεκράτ ] They are held fast, by God. Here the perf.; for the κρατεῖν is on the part of God no commencing act (such is the ἀφιέναι ).
That to Thomas, who was at that time absent (Joh_20:24), the same full authority under the impartation of the Spirit was further particularly and supplementarily (after Joh_20:29) bestowed, is, indeed, not related, but must be assumed, in accordance with the relation of the necessity contained in the equality of his position.
The objections of Luthardt against our interpretation of this verse are unimportant, since in reality the eleven are thought of as assembled together (Joh_20:19; Joh_20:24); and since the assertion, that all charismatic endowments first date from Pentecost onwards, is devoid of proof, and is overthrown precisely by the present passage; comp. also already Luk_9:55. Calovius well says: “ut antea jam acceperant Spiritum ratione sanctificationis, ita nunc accipiunt ratione ministerii evangelici.” The full outpouring with its miraculous gifts, but on behalf of the collective church, then follows Pentecost.
[268] Hence the objection: “they required at present no such impartation” (Hofmann), is precipitate. They made use of it first at a future time, but the bestowal was still to take place face to face, in this last sacred fellowship, in which a quite peculiar distinction and consecration was given for this gift.
[269] This in answer to De Wette and several others, including Ahrens (Amt d. Schlüssel, 1864, p. 31), who explains it of the reception or non-reception to baptism, and to the forgiveness of sins therewith connected. So also Steitz in the Stud. u. Krit. 1866, p. 480. But baptism is here, without any indication of the text, imported from the institution, which is non-relevant here, in Mat_28:18 ff. On the apostolic penal discipline, in virtue of the κρατεῖν τὰς ἁμαρτίας , on church members, comp. the apostolic handing over to Satan, and see on 1Co_5:5.