Scripture
Jesus said to Peter, “Divinely favored are you, Simon, the son of Jonah, for flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but rather my Father in the heavens. And to you I also say, You are Peter [Rock], and upon this rock I will build my assembly, and the Gates of Hades shall have no power against it. I shall give you the Keys of the Kingdom of the Heavens, and whatever you bind on the earth will have been bound in the heavens, and whatever you unbind on the earth will have been unbound in the heavens.” Matthew 16:17-19
Origen of Alexandria
And if we, too, say like Peter, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” not because flesh and blood revealed it to us, but because light from our Father in heaven shined into our hearts, then we become Peter. And we might hear from the Word of God the same thing: “You are Peter,” and the words that come after. For every person who imitates Christ is a rock, just like those who drank from the “spiritual rock that followed them.” And every such rock is where the whole message of the Church is built, and the way of life that follows it. In each perfect person, who has the fullness of the words, actions, and thoughts that complete blessedness, there is the Church being built by God. Now if you think the whole Church is being built by God on just that one Peter alone, what would you say about John, the “son of thunder,” or about each of the other apostles? Would we really dare to say that the gates of Hades won’t overpower Peter specifically, but they will overpower the rest of the apostles and the perfect ones? Isn’t the earlier promise,“ the gates of Hades shall not overpower it”, true of all of them and of each one in particular? And isn’t the saying, “On this rock I will build my Church,” also true for all of them? So are the keys to the kingdom of heaven given only to Peter by Christ, and no other of the blessed will receive them? But if the statement, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven,” is meant for others too, then shouldn’t everything else said to Peter also apply to them? For even the part that says, “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven,” and so on, seems directed to Peter. But in the Gospel of John, when the Savior gives the Holy Spirit to the disciples by breathing on them, he says, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” and then continues with what follows. So then, many will say to the Savior, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” But not all who say this will be saying it because flesh and blood revealed it to them. Instead, those who say it because the Father in heaven took away the “veil” from their heart, so that afterward, “with unveiled face, we reflect the glory of the Lord”, they will speak “in the Spirit of God,” saying about him: “Jesus is Lord,” and to him: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And if someone says this to him, not because flesh and blood revealed it, but because the Father in heaven did, he will receive what was spoken. The letter of the Gospel speaks it to that one Peter, but the Spirit of the Gospel teaches that it applies to every person who becomes like that Peter.
- Origen of Alexandria [A.D. 246], Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew Book 12.10-11
Cyprian of Carthage
The Lord speaks to Peter, saying, “I say unto you, that you are Peter; and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” And again to the same He says, after His resurrection, “Feed my sheep.” And although to all the apostles, after His resurrection, He gives an equal power, and says, “As the Father has sent me, even so send I you: Receive the Holy Ghost: Whosoever sins you remit, they shall be remitted unto him; and whosoever sins you retain, they shall be retained;” (John 20:21) yet, that He might set forth unity, He arranged by His authority the origin of that unity, as beginning from one. Assuredly the rest of the apostles were also the same as was Peter, endowed with a like partnership both of honour and power; but the beginning proceeds from unity. Which one Church, also, the Holy Spirit in the Song of Songs designated in the person of our Lord, and says, “My dove, my spotless one, is but one. She is the only one of her mother, elect of her that bare her.” (Song of Songs 6:9) Does he who does not hold this unity of the Church think that he holds the faith?
- Cyprian of Carthage [A.D. 250], Treatise 1.4 On the Unity of the Church
Jerome of Stridon
But you say the Church was founded upon Peter: although elsewhere the same is attributed to all the Apostles, and they all receive the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and the strength of the Church depends upon them all alike, yet one among the twelve is chosen so that when a head has been appointed, there may be no occasion for schism.
- Jerome [A.D. 393], Against Jovinian Book 1.26
Far be it from me to censure the successors of the apostles, who with holy words consecrate the body of Christ, and who make us Christians. Having the keys of the kingdom of heaven, they judge men to some extent before the day of judgment, and guard the chastity of the bride of Christ
- Jerome [A.D. 373], Letter 14.8
John Chrysostom
For the son of thunder (the Apostle John), the beloved of Christ, the pillar of the Churches throughout the world, who holds the keys of heaven, who drank the cup of Christ, and was baptized with His baptism, who lay upon his Master’s bosom with much confidence, this man comes forward to us now.
- John Chrysostom [C. A.D. 386], Homily 1.2 on the Gospel of John
And how has He set over us so many to reprove; and not only to reprove, but also to punish? For him that hearkens to none of these, He has commanded to be as a heathen man and a publican. And how gave He them the keys also? Since if they are not to judge, they will be without authority in any matter, and in vain have they received the power to bind and to loose.
- John Chrysostom [C. A.D. 380], Homily 23 on the Gospel of Matthew
Augustine of Hippo
So does the Church act in blessed hope through this troublous life; and this Church symbolized in its generality, was personified in the Apostle Peter, on account of the primacy of his apostleship… The Church, therefore, which is founded in Christ received from Him the keys of the kingdom of heaven in the person of Peter, that is to say, the power of binding and loosing sins. For what the Church is essentially in Christ, such representatively is Peter in the rock (petra); and in this representation Christ is to be understood as the Rock, Peter as the Church
- Augustine [A.D. 419], Tractate 124.5 on the Gospel of John
On “this stone” [petra], is on that which thou sayest: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God” it is on this thy confession I build My Church. Wherefore the “thou art Peter”: it is from the “stone” [petra] that Peter [Petrus] is, and not from Peter [Petrus] that the “stone” [petra] is, just as the Christian is from Christ, and not Christ from the Christian…Therefore it was not one man, but rather the One Universal Church, that received these “keys” and the right “to bind and loosen.” And that it was actually the Church that received this right, and not exclusively a single person.
- Augustine [A.D. 395], Sermon on Saints Peter and Paul
Caesarius of Arles
“I have the keys of death and hell.” For He says this because he who believes and is baptized is freed from death and hell; and because the same Church, as it has the keys of life, also has those of hell. For it is said, “Whose sins you absolve, they are absolved, and whose sins you retain, they are retained”
- Caesarius of Arles quoted in a Catena on Revelation
Optatus of Milevis
“And though this has been thus written, nevertheless, for the sake of unity, blessed Peter (for whom it would have been enough if after his denial he had obtained pardon only) both deserved to be placed over all the Apostles, and alone received the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, which he was to communicate to the rest.”
- Optatus [A.D. 385], Against the Donatists 7.3