Keys of Saint Peter Tattoo Meaning
Authority, the keys of heaven, and the power to bind and loose on earth and above.
The Keys of Saint Peter are the keys of heaven — the gold and silver keys Christ gave to Peter with the power to bind and loose on earth and in heaven, the primary emblem of the papacy, the authority over access to the divine presence itself. To carry the Keys of Saint Peter is to carry authority, the keys of heaven, and the power to bind and loose on earth and above — the keys to the kingdom, the crossed keys of the papal office, the ultimate gatekeeper's power over the final gate.
The Keys of Saint Peter come directly from the words of Christ in the Gospel of Matthew (16:19): 'I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.' With these words, Christ gave to the apostle Peter a unique and awesome authority, symbolized by the keys — the keys to heaven itself, and the power they confer.
The keys represent the authority to grant or deny access to the divine presence — to open or close the door of heaven — and, in the power to 'bind' and 'loose,' the authority to forgive or retain sins and to define the boundaries of the sacred community. To 'bind and loose' was understood as the power to make binding decisions about right belief and conduct, to admit or exclude, to forgive or withhold forgiveness, with the assurance that what was so decided on earth would be ratified in heaven. This is an authority of staggering scope: the power over access to God, over the forgiveness of sins, over the very gates of the kingdom of heaven. The keys are its emblem — the keys to the kingdom given to Peter, the sign of the power to open and close heaven, to bind and to loose on earth with binding force in heaven above. The Christian Keys of Saint Peter are the keys of the kingdom — Christ's gift to Peter of the power to bind and loose, to open heaven. The Christian Keys of Saint Peter are the keys of the kingdom — from Matthew 16:19, Christ's words to Peter: 'I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven'; the keys represent the authority to grant or deny access to the divine presence, to forgive or retain sins, to define the boundaries of the sacred community — an authority of staggering scope over access to God, the forgiveness of sins, and the very gates of heaven, the power to open and close the kingdom given to Peter.
The Keys of Peter iconography appears in Christian art from at least the 4th century CE — Peter is consistently depicted holding one or two keys. The crossed gold-and-silver key symbolism is documented in papal heraldry from the medieval period; the two keys represent the power to bind and loose in both the heavenly and earthly dimensions. Peter's martyrdom: traditionally crucified upside down at his own request (he considered himself unworthy to die in the same manner as Christ) in Rome under Nero (c. 64–68 CE) — this tradition is documented from the 2nd century CE. St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City is built over the traditional site of Peter's grave — excavations in the 20th century CE (1940s–1960s) beneath the altar of confession identified human remains that the Catholic Church declared in 1968 CE to be Peter's with 'certainty.' The Pearly Gates of popular culture — Saint Peter standing at the entrance to heaven checking credentials — is the folk-theological development of the Keys tradition.
Keys of Saint Peter across cultures
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