In the parallel passage about binding on earth and heaven, it is the COMMUNITY that has that authority. While the proposition that Peter's authority to bind is inherited by successive bishops of Rome is open to dispute, the proposition that equivalent authority given to the COMMUNITY is inherited by successive Christian communities through history would appear to be beyond dispute. And the leap from there to the V2 concept of the Church as the Holy People of God as inheritors of this authority does seem a small step, provided of course one understands that Holy People to include everyone, clerics, theologians, lay.