John 20:23

John 20:23 is the twenty-third verse of the twentieth chapter of the Gospel of John in the New Testament. It records Jesus giving the power of forgiveness to the apostles during his first appearance after the resurrection.

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The original Koine Greek, according to the Textus Receptus, reads:
In the King James Version of the Bible, this verse is translated as:
The modern World English Bible translates the passage as:
For a collection of other versions see .

The account of Jesus' appearance in "the house where the disciples had gathered" is similar to the account in the Gospel of Luke, when Jesus appeared to his disciples in Jerusalem on the evening of the day of his resurrection.
Jesus' promise here is given to the whole group of disciples: the verbs ἀφῆτε, aphēte, "forgive" and κρατῆτε, kratēte, "retain", are both plurals. This promise parallels the promise in Matthew 16:19 and Matthew 18:18, where the text refers to "binding" and "loosing".
The disciples' power to forgive sins is linked to the gift of the Spirit in John 20:22, and does not reside in human power. The verbs for forgiving and retaining are in the passive form, indicating that God is the one in action. Thus, most Protestants believe that this is in the Gospel message, that those who respond with faith to the Gospel will receive grace, their sins forgiven by God.
With the statement in this verse, Jesus declares that in his messianic community his followers now hold the key to membership, in contrast to the authority held by the Jewish leadership to affirm or deny acceptance in the synagogues.
John 20:23 is seen as the origin for the practice of Confession and Absolution by the Catholic Church, Lutheran Churches, Anglican Communion, Eastern Orthodox Churches, Oriental Orthodox Churches, Assyrian Church of the East, and Irvingian Churches. These Christian denominations teach that the Church has been given the apostolic power to forgive sins.