Editorial August 15, 1983 Issue

Using the key

CAROLYN B. SWAN

The Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, is an extraordinary volume. Science and Health companions with the Bible; it is a key unlocking the scientific healing treasures in the Scriptures.

The concept of a key and the concept of what it opens unfolded in Bible times. According to one commentary, "Both in biblical and rabbinic literature, handing over a key is a metaphorical expression signifying not an appointment as a porter but the authorization to exercise complete power in a house."^{ J. Massyngberde Ford, The Anchor Bible: Revelation (Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1975), p. 416 .}

In Matthew, Christ Jesus promises "the keys of the kingdom" to Peter, the disciple who understood him as "the Christ, the Son of the living God."^{ See Matt. 16:16, 19.} Is this related to the key mentioned in Revelation? There John writes to the faithful Philadelphian church, "These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it."^{ Rev. 3:7, 8.}