enewed promise of power to bind and loose, this time not to Peter alone, as in Matthew 16:19, but to all the Twelve, not qua apostles, with ecclesiastical authority, but qua disciples, with the ethical power of morally disciplined men. The Twelve for the moment are for Jesus = the ecclesia : they were the nucleus of it. The binding and loosing generically = exercising judgment on conduct; here specifically = treating sin as pardonable or the reverse a particular exercise of the function of judging.

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Old Testament