Binding and loosing is originally a Jewish Mishnaic phrase also mentioned in the New Testament, as well as in the Targum.
[2] The poseks had, by virtue of their ordination, the power of deciding disputes relating to Jewish law.
[1] Theoretically, however, the authority of the poseks proceeded from the Sanhedrin, and there is therefore a Talmudic statement that there were three decisions made by the lower house of judgment (the Sanhedrin) to which the upper house of judgment (the heavenly one) gave its supreme sanction.
[3] The claim that whatsoever [a disciple] bind[s] or loose[s] on earth shall be bound or loosed in heaven, which the Gospel of Matthew attributes to Jesus,[4] and is still used commonly today in prayer, an effective method on account to Christianity.
[1] This is also the meaning of the phrase when it is applied in the text to Simon Peter and the other apostles in particular[1][5] when they are invested with the power to bind and loose by Christ.