What did Jesus mean in John 20:23 when he said "whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven"?
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The risen Jesus sends his disciples out as the Father sent him, gives them the Holy Spirit, and tells them their word about forgiveness will match what God has already done. Christians agree on that much. They disagree about whether it means priests giving absolution, the church declaring the gospel, or both.
What the text says
The setting matters. It is the evening of the resurrection, and the disciples are behind locked doors (John 20:19). Jesus says "Peace be with you" and shows them his wounds. Then he commissions them: "As the Father has sent Me, so also I am sending you" (John 20:21). He breathes on them and says "Receive the Holy Spirit" (John 20:22). Only after that comes the saying: "If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld" (John 20:23). So the authority over forgiveness belongs to the sending and the Spirit. It is not a free-standing power. The disciples carry on Jesus' own mission, and in John that mission is about bringing life and exposing sin (John 1:29; John 3:17-19; John 16:8).
Forgiveness is still God's. Elsewhere the Gospels assume that only God forgives sins (Mark 2:7; Luke 5:21; Isaiah 43:25). John 20:23 does not deny that. The verbs "are forgiven" and "are withheld" are passive, and in Greek they are perfects. Read most simply, the disciples' word matches a forgiveness that God has granted, or has already granted. Matthew 16:19 and Matthew 18:18 use similar wording about binding and loosing "in heaven." Grammarians and theologians argue over how much weight the perfect tense can carry, but nothing in the passage makes the disciples the source of forgiveness.
What it looked like in practice. In the rest of the New Testament the apostles use this authority mainly by preaching. They proclaim "repentance for the forgiveness of sins" to all nations (Luke 24:47). They tell hearers to repent and be baptized "for the forgiveness of your sins" (Acts 2:38). They announce that "everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name" (Acts 10:43). There is also a community side. Paul tells a church to restore a disciplined member, saying "Anyone you forgive, I also forgive" (2 Corinthians 2:7-10). James tells believers to confess their sins to one another (James 5:16). Forgiveness is also withheld at times. Peter tells Simon to repent so that he might be forgiven (Acts 8:20-23), and Matthew 18:15-18 describes a church treating an unrepentant member as an outsider.
Who received it? John says only "the disciples" were present (John 20:19), and Thomas was missing (John 20:24). Luke's account of the same evening includes "the Eleven and those with them" (Luke 24:33-36). Whether the commission was given to the apostles as office-holders or to the gathered community is one of the main points Christians disagree on.
Where readers differ
Sacramental absolution through ordained ministers (Catholic and Orthodox)
Jesus gave the apostles a real, judicial authority to forgive or retain sins, and it passes to their successors, the bishops and priests. The breathing and the gift of the Spirit mark this as a formal empowerment. To 'retain' sins, a confessor needs to know what they are, which implies confession spoken aloud. Early church practice of public and later private penance is read as the carrying out of this verse. The Council of Trent cited John 20:23 directly as the founding of the sacrament of penance.
John 20:21Matthew 16:19Matthew 18:18James 5:142 Corinthians 5:18
The Office of the Keys: absolution as the gospel spoken to a person (Lutheran and some Anglican)
Christ gave the keys to the whole church, and called ministers exercise them publicly. When a pastor pronounces absolution, it is truly God's forgiveness given through a human word, not just information about it. Private confession is valued but not required, and a person does not have to list every sin. Unrepentant sinners have their sins retained through church discipline.
Declarative proclamation: the gospel opens and shuts (Reformed and many evangelicals)
The disciples do not forgive in their own right. They announce God's terms. Whoever repents and believes the message hears that their sins are forgiven, and whoever refuses hears that their sins remain. The verse is a missionary commission parallel to Luke 24:47, and Acts shows it being fulfilled through preaching, not confession booths. The perfect passives are taken to mean that heaven has already decided and the messenger declares it.
Authority given to the whole community of disciples
John says 'the disciples', not 'the Twelve', and Luke places others in the room. In this reading the Spirit-filled church as a whole carries Jesus' mission. It brings people into forgiveness through its witness and baptism, and it deals with sin among its members through mutual confession and restoration, not through a separate priestly class.
The words it turns on
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ἀφίημι aphiēmi (ἀφίημι), here aphēte / apheōntai
To release, let go, send away, cancel a debt. With sins it means to release someone from them. John uses the perfect passive apheōntai, 'they stand forgiven'. Some manuscripts read a present or future form.
Drift: The English word 'forgive' now often suggests a private feeling of letting go of resentment. The Greek is closer to releasing a debt or a prisoner: an objective change of status, not an emotion.
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κρατέω krateō (κρατέω), here kratēte / kekratēntai
To grasp, hold fast, keep hold of. Used of sins, it means they are not released but held onto the person. Also a perfect passive.
Drift: Translations vary between 'retain', 'withhold forgiveness' and 'do not forgive'. 'Retain' sounds technical, but the picture is simply holding on as opposed to letting go, the opposite of aphiēmi.
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ἁμαρτία hamartia (ἁμαρτία)
Sin, failure, wrongdoing against God. The plural (tas hamartias) points to actual sins.
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ἐμφυσάω emphysaō (ἐμφυσάω)
To breathe on or into. This is the only use in the New Testament. The Greek Old Testament uses the same verb when God breathes life into Adam (Genesis 2:7) and in the vision of dry bones (Ezekiel 37:9). It presents the moment as a new creation by the Spirit.
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πνεῦμα pneuma (πνεῦμα)
Breath, wind, spirit. Here it is the Holy Spirit. The breathing and the word 'Spirit' make a deliberate wordplay.
Drift: In English 'spirit' and 'breath' are separate words, which hides the link the Greek makes between Jesus' breath and the Spirit he gives.
What the Bible doesn't say
The passage does not describe any procedure. It does not mention confession to a priest, a form of words, or penances, and it says nothing about handing the authority on to successors. It also does not explain how the disciples would know whose sins to forgive or retain. Every tradition fills these gaps from other texts and from church history. How the gift of the Spirit here relates to Pentecost in Acts 2 is also debated: some see an earlier gift, some a symbolic anticipation, and some John's version of the same event. A few manuscripts differ on the tense of "are forgiven", which affects how much can be built on the perfect tense.
Key verses
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John 20:23
If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.”
The saying itself, with passive perfect verbs for forgiven and retained.
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John 20:21
Again Jesus said to them, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, so also I am sending you.”
Ties the authority to being sent as Jesus was sent by the Father.
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John 20:22
When He had said this, He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
The breathing and 'Receive the Holy Spirit' come just before, so the authority depends on the Spirit.
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Luke 24:47
and in His name repentance and forgiveness of sins will be proclaimed to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem.
Luke's version of the same evening: preaching repentance for the forgiveness of sins to all nations.
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Matthew 18:18
Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
The parallel binding-and-loosing saying, given to the church in the context of discipline.
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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.”
The keys of the kingdom given to Peter, with similar 'in heaven' wording.
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Mark 2:7
“Why does this man speak like this? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
States the shared assumption that only God forgives sins.
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Acts 10:43
All the prophets testify about Him that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name.”
Shows the apostles carrying out the commission by proclaiming forgiveness to believers.
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2 Corinthians 2:10
If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And if I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven it in the presence of Christ for your sake,
Paul and a church jointly forgiving a disciplined member.
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Acts 8:22
Repent, therefore, of your wickedness, and pray to the Lord. Perhaps He will forgive you for the intent of your heart.
An apostle telling someone his sin is not yet released and calling him to repent.
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James 5:16
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power to prevail.
Confession of sins to one another as ordinary church practice.
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Matthew 6:14
For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
Personal forgiveness between people, a related but different subject.
Common points of confusion
- Jesus gave the disciples the power to forgive sins on their own authority, whatever God thinks.
- The verbs are passive, which points to God as the one who forgives, and the authority depends on being sent by Jesus and receiving the Spirit (John 20:21-22). The Gospels hold that only God forgives sins (Mark 2:7).
- This verse is about forgiving people who have hurt you personally.
- The verse is about sins against God within the mission of the church. Forgiving personal offences is taught elsewhere (Matthew 6:12-15; Luke 23:34), but John 20:23 is a commission, not a lesson on personal grudges.
- The verse spells out confession to a priest.
- It gives no procedure at all. Sacramental confession is one tradition's reading, drawn from this verse together with later church practice. The verse itself does not describe it.
- The verse means nothing more than 'tell people about Jesus.'
- The authority to retain sins and the parallels in Matthew 18 and 2 Corinthians 2 show the saying also covers the church dealing with sin among its members, not only evangelism.
Sources: Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece, 28th ed. (Greek text and variants of John 20:23) · Bauer, Danker, Arndt, Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (BDAG), entries ἀφίημι, κρατέω, ἐμφυσάω · Strong's Exhaustive Concordance · Septuagint, Genesis 2:7 and Ezekiel 37:9 · Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel According to John XIII–XXI (Anchor Bible) · D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John (Pillar) · Catechism of the Catholic Church §§1441–1445; Council of Trent, Session XIV · Luther's Small Catechism, 'The Office of the Keys'; Augsburg Confession XI–XII · John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion 3.4 and 4.11 · Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 30
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