ARAMAIC WORD STUDY:  BIND, LOOSE  – ASAR  SHARA’  אשׁר שׁרא  

Matthew 16:19: “And I will give to you the keys to the kingdom of heaven and whatsoever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatsoever  you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

In Matthew 16:19 Jesus gave the keys to the kingdom to Peter and told him that whatever he binds on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever he loosens on earth will be loosed in heaven.   The words binding in Greek is dein and loose in Greek is luein.  However, in the Aramaic is uses the legal terms ‘asar which means to  bind, secure, tie together or imprison and shara’ which means to divorce, to separate or dismiss. These words are quite common in the Mishnah where it represents forbidding and permitting. 

You see the council of sages and rabbis of the Sanhedrin claimed the authority to ‘asar that is to bind or forbid and to shara’ to loosen or permit Jews to aspects of the law. It was believed that whatever the rabbis bound on earth was bound in heaven that is whatever was forbidden on earth by the council was ratified in heaven and whatever they permitted on earth was also ratified in heaven. This was an invention of man not God, yet  it would seem that Jesus used this same popular expression to grant similar authority to Peter to resolve future disputes in the establishment of the church.  

We find an example of this in Acts 15:10 where we find Peter exercising his authority of binding and loosening to declare that the commandments were too heavy for the Gentiles and that they should be loosened from the obligations of the ceremonial law except for the moral laws like the ten commandments.