to loose: to undo something that is tied, fastened, held, or bound together, whether a literal knot or a thing that holds people captive or in place.
At its core this word pictures undoing what is bound. The same act can be small and physical, untying a sandal or releasing a tethered animal, or large and forceful, breaking a thing apart so it no longer holds together. From that one picture the word reaches in several directions.
When what is bound is a person, loosing them means setting them free: a prisoner from his chains, a sick woman from the grip of her illness, a believer released from sins. When what is bound is a structure or a thing, loosing it means breaking it up or dissolving it, from a ship pounded to pieces to the whole created order coming undone. And when what is bound is a rule or an established arrangement, loosing it means doing away with it, breaking a commandment or annulling what once stood.
The single thread is release: something that was held fast is let go. English needs different words for the different objects, untie, free, break, dissolve, abolish, but in the original it is one verb working across all of them. That is why the same word can describe both untying a colt and the heavens passing away.
Nuances
Disputed
What loosing means in the binding-and-loosing sayings (Matthew 16:19; 18:18): authoritative teaching of what is permitted, the forgiveness or retention of sins, or admission to and exclusion from the community.
- majorityIt reflects the rabbinic legal idiom for declaring an action permitted (loosed) or forbidden (bound), so it concerns authoritative teaching and discipline.; BDAG (Bauer-Danker-Arndt-Gingrich), s.v. λύω; W. D. Davies and Dale C. Allison, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to Saint Matthew, ICC (1991)
- minorityIt refers primarily to the forgiveness and retention of sins, read alongside John 20:23.; Ulrich Luz, Matthew 8-20, Hermeneia (2001)