The Rabbinic Authority Conferred on the Apostles

Binding and loosing are often interpreted as the power to band members from the community and to readmit them. Jesus authorizes it to interpret the scriptures and establishes norm for christian behavior. The words binding and lo losing are the literal translation of the hebrew equivalents, asar, which means to bind in the sense of prohibiting, and hitir, which mean to loose in the senseof permitting.