In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ - i:e., invested with His authority, as His earthly representative (2 Corinthians 2:10, end). John this with 'when ye have been gathered together, and my spirit' (wherewith I am "present" as president of your synod, though "absent in body," 1 Corinthians 5:3). Paul, speaking of himself, says, "spirit;" of Christ, "power." Christ's presence is promised to His Church "gathered together in His name" (Matthew 18:18-20). Christ's "power" will ratify their sentence (John 20:23; Matthew 18:18): so join "with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one unto Satan." Their decree was passed according to Paul's judgment (1 Corinthians 5:3) as presiding in spirit (2 Corinthians 13:3-10). Infallible judgment was limited to the apostles: for they alone could work miracles as credentials to attest it. Their successors, to establish their claim to it, must produce miracles (2 Corinthians 12:12). Even the apostles in ordinary cases, where not specially inspired, were fallible (Acts 8:13; Acts 8:23; Galatians 2:11-14). There degrees of excommunication are mentioned in the Talmud-nidduy (exclusion from eating with others, etc., for thirty days), cherem (anathema for ninety days), shamata (perpetual exclusion).