Whosoever's sins you remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosoever's sins you retain, they are retained.
All Commentaries on John 20:23 Go To John 20
Tertullian of Carthage
AD 220
Touching this difference, we have not only already premised certain antithetical passages of the Scriptures, on one hand retaining, on the other remitting, sins;.
Hence the power of loosing and of binding committed to Peter had nothing to do with the capital sins of believers; and if the Lord had given him a precept that he must grant pardon to a brother sinning against him even "seventy times sevenfold "of course He would have commanded him to "bind"-that is, to "retain"
