The Sacrament of Confession Began with Jesus?

Following his Resurrection, Jesus instituted the sacrament of reconciliation (confession), giving his apostles the power to absolve the faithful of their sins (John 20:21-23).

As we note in our tract on the subject:

Over time, the forms in which the sacrament has been administered have changed. In the early Church, publicly known sins (such as apostasy) were often confessed openly in church, though private confession to a priest was always an option for privately committed sins. Still, confession was not just something done in silence to God alone, but something done “in church,” as the Didache (A.D. 70) indicates.

For more on this subject, see our aforementioned tract.