Jesus told John that he had the “keys to hell and death.” A key, of course, is able to open or lock something. It is often used in Scripture as a symbol of authority or power. For example, the scribes and Pharisees had the authority or power to allow the Jewish populace to enter into the Kingdom of God by permitting them to believe in Jesus (Luke 11:52; cf. Matthew 23:13), but they hindered the people. Not only did they reject Jesus, but they slandered him before the people (Matthew 12:23-24; Mark 3:20-22), in order to cause them to be afraid of placing their trust in him. Moreover, these same authorities threatened the people, saying anyone who trusted in Jesus would be cast out of the synagogues (John 12:42-43; cf. 9:22, 28-34). So the “key of knowledge,” which Jesus attributed to the scribes and Pharisees, does not mean they possessed such knowledge. However, it does mean they had the authority to open the door to knowledge or at least not lock it so others could possess it, even though they, themselves, rejected it.
On another occasion, Jesus told the Apostles (Peter in particular) that they (or he) would be given the keys to the Kingdom of God (Matthew 16:19). Given the understanding of what it meant for the scribes and Pharisees to have the “key to knowledge,” it seems that the Lord told his Apostles that they would be given the “keys to the Kingdom of God,” but what they did and said would hinder or help their brethren in gaining the Kingdom (cf. Matthew 16:19b). In other words they weren’t given additional authority to bind or loose, but what they did bind or loose would, by example, place or take away obstacles in the path of those seeking to enter the Kingdom. So, Jesus’ statement about binding and loosing was a warning, not an empowerment.
The keys, as it pertains to Jesus having them (Revelation 1:8), show he has authority or power over hell (hades – G86; i.e. the grave) and death (thanatos – G2288). While it could be argued that anyone having authority over people is able to also have significant authority over information that the people receive, such as the scribes and the Pharisees of Luke 11:52 and Matthew 23:13 had concerning the people who looked to them as their leaders, no one has authority over the grave or over death, once one has died and is put into the grave. Even if one claims he has power or authority over life and death, as Pilate claimed (John 19:10), that one had no such power or authority over the one whose life he had taken. So, the power and authority Jesus claims in Revelation 1:18 is very different from power and authority normal authorities have over folks.
Moreover, it can also be argued that, although one has power over information he gives to others, he has absolutely no power over the effect of that information, once it is given to another. In other words, the authority that the Apostles were given, as it pertained to the Kingdom of God, did not include power over the effect of the Gospel, once it was preached. Those men were given authority to preach the Gospel, but they had absolutely no authority over who would or would not believe it, or even over what believers would do with it once it was preached to them.
Nevertheless, this isn’t so of Jesus in Revelation 1:18. Here, he claims he has absolute authority over the grave and even death itself. This authority includes both physical death (Luke 7:11-15; 8:49-56; John 11:39-44), and spiritual death (Luke 8:10; John 12:40; cf. Ephesians 2:1-6; 4:18; 5:14). The Jewish idea of the grave was that it is a prison (1Peter 3:18-20), and they spoke of it as having gates (Job 38:17; Psalm 9:13; 107:18; Isaiah 38:10; Matthew 16:19). While this is true in the figurative sense, the rabbinic stories of the place of the dead go far beyond what is true (cf. Luke 16:19-31).[1] Rather, the rabbinic stories of the dead had come to resemble pagan myths and spoke against the word of God (cf. Mark 7:13).
Speaking figuratively, Peter wrote of a prison in 1Peter 3:19, into which “spirits” were cast (2Peter 2:4),[2] Although there is much controversy over what this prison / hell (G5029 – tartaroo) actually is, Peter merely claims it is a state (chains) of darkness. That is, he tells us that it is a spiritual state in which men’s minds are held when they reject the truth of God (cf. Romans 1:21-22). Not only are such people unable to recognize the spiritual truth of God, they are unable to see the coming of God’s judgment, which he is steadily bringing upon them who don’t repent. It is this spiritual state (spiritual death), together with its physical counterpart that Jesus claims he is in authority over, and he will raise up from the grave (physical or spiritual) whomsoever he will (John 1:4; 5:21, 25-29; 17:2).
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[1] See one of my studies on the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus in the Gospel of Luke: Luke and Egyptian Folklore.
[2] For the identity of these spirits and the context of Jesus’ Spirit preaching to them see my studies in 2Peter: The Angels Who Sinned; and The World of the Ungodly, and The Judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah.
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