Isaiah 22:22 in the New Testament

The source

I will lay the key of the house of David on his shoulder. He will open, and no one will shut. He will shut, and no one will open.

⛓ Read Isaiah 22 forward — the whole chapter and its afterlife →

Where this passage surfaces again, sorted by the strength of the link. Each kind of reuse — formal quotation, deliberate allusion, faint echo, figural pattern — carries its own mark. Follow any reference to read it in place.

Quotation1

A formal citation — high verbal volume, often introduced by a saying-formula.

Rev 3:7–13

The clearest near-quotation in the chapter: 'key of David... he opens and no one shuts, he shuts and no one opens' (Eliakim oracle) reapplied to Christ in 3:7. Very high volume + verbal correspondence. Rev follows the Hebrew/LXX sense closely; 'no one can shut' renders the same antithetic couplet.

High confidence

Allusion3

A deliberate verbal borrowing without a citation formula.

Matt 16:13-20

'I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven... bind... loose' draws on the Eliakim oracle: 'I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open and none shut, shut and none open.' The key-of-stewardship granting authority to admit and exclude is the controlling image. Strong verbal and conceptual borrowing.

High confidence

Rev 1:17–20

'I have the keys of Death and of Hades' draws on Isaiah's image of the authoritative 'key' that opens and shuts (explicitly reused at Rev 3:7). High thematic coherence on delegated sovereign authority; John transfers the key from Eliakim's stewardship to Christ's power over the realm of the dead.

High confidence

John 20:19-23 ?

The authority to forgive or retain sins ('he shall open, and no one shall shut; he shall shut, and no one shall open') parallels the key-of-the-house-of-David grant of binding/loosing power. The remit-or-retain antithesis matches the open/shut structure of the oracle; medium confidence on the structural rather than verbal link.

Medium confidence

Echo1

A fainter, low-volume reuse, carried by recurrence or thematic coherence.

Matt 18:18-20 ?

Binding/loosing as authoritative juridical decision shares the open/shut imagery of the 'key of the house of David... he shall open and none shut.' The connection is firmer at Mt 16:19; here it is reasserted communally and is more diffuse.

Low confidence