What Does Matthew 18:18 Mean?
Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on the earth will have been bound in the heavens, and whatever you unbind on the earth will have been unbound in the heavens.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.THE KEY
What is bound or released on earth belongs to the same reality named in heaven.
THE MEANING
What is held or released among you matters within heaven’s order. The verse places earthly decisions and heaven’s settled state in one field of action, giving the life of the assembly consequence beyond the visible moment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that decisions made among people have no bearing beyond the earthly room.
THE ROOT
δήσητε
dēsēte
GROWS FROM
δέω
deō
to tie, fasten, or bind
“bind” in this verse is dēsēte. The same word family names the act of binding, a bond, and a person held in bonds. The verse pairs that concrete holding with release, placing both actions on earth and their resulting state in heaven within one sentence.
ALSO GROWS
desmos: bond, chain, or fetter
δεσμός
This branch makes binding tangible: what is bound is held by a bond.
desmios: a prisoner, one held in bonds
δέσμιος
It shows that binding can describe a condition a person inhabits, not just a rule or decision.
λύσητε
lysēte
GROWS FROM
λύω
lyō
to loosen, untie, or release
“unbind” in this verse is lysēte. The Greek word carries the sense of loosening what is fastened, so release is the undoing of a hold. Beside δεω (deō), it reveals a paired movement: what is bound can also be released.
ALSO GROWS
lysis: loosening or release
λύσις
This noun names the release itself, making the verse’s second action a concrete change of state.
apolyō: to release or dismiss
ἀπολύω
This compound uses the same root to describe someone being let go from a hold or obligation.
THE PATTERN
Human acts of restraint and release carry consequences within a larger order.
I will set the key of the house of David upon his shoulder, and he will open, and none will shut. He will shut, and none will open.Whose shortcomings you release, they are released to them; whose shortcomings you hold fast, they are held fast.And this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom the Adversary has bound, look, these eighteen years, ought she not to be unbound from this binding on the sabbath day?THE THREAD
And this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom the Adversary has bound, look, these eighteen years, ought she not to be unbound from this binding on the sabbath day?Luke uses the same Greek roots, δέω (deō, bind) and λύω (lyō, release), for the woman’s bond and her release. That gives Matthew’s paired words a living texture: binding names what holds a person, and loosening names the release of that hold.
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