Acts 3:21 Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things… The "times" seem distinguished from the "seasons" as more permanent. This is the only passage in which the word translated "restitution" is found in the New Testament; nor is it found in the LXX. version of the Old. Etymologically, it conveys the thought of restoration to an earlier and better state, rather than that of simple consummation or completion, which the immediate context seems, in some measure, to suggest. It finds an interesting parallel in the "new heavens and new earth" — involving, as they do, a restoration of all things to their true order — of 2 Peter 3:13. It, does not necessarily imply, as some have thought, the final salvation of all men, but it does express the idea of a state in which "righteousness," and not "sin," shall have dominion over a redeemed and new-created world. The corresponding verb is found in the words, "Elias truly shall come first, and restore all things " (Matthew 17:11); and St. Peter's words may well be looked on as an echo of that teaching, and so as an undesigned coincidence testifying to the truth of St. Matthew's record. (Dean Plumptre.) Parallel Verses KJV: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. |
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