116
οὐρανὸν μὲν δέξασθαι ἄχρι
Ill.
Xpovwv ἀποκαταστάσεως πάντων, ay
ἐλάλησεν ὁ Θεὸς διὰ orépatos! πάντων ἁγίων αὑτοῦ προφητῶν aw
1 ayer, prefix των instead of παντων ΝΑΒΟΡ 27,61, Vulg. verss., Irint., Chrys.,
Orig. ;
so Tisch., W.H., R.V., Weiss, Wendt.
αυτου προφ. am atwvos; but
κ ΑΒ”Ο 61, 69 read am’ αιωνος αυτον προφητων, so Tisch., W.H., R.V., Weiss, Wendt. In D, Flor., Gig., Par., Iren., Tert., so Arm, am’ atwvos omitted; so in Hilg.
first cometh, and shall restore all things,” καὶ ἀποκαταστήσει πάντα, and cf. LXX, Mal. iv. 6, where the same verb is found (ἀποκαταστήσει). It was the teaching of the Scriptures that Elias should be the forerunner of the Messiah, Mal. iv. 5, and Matt. xvii. 11, and xi. 14. But his activity embraced both an external and an internal, {.6., a moral restoration, Ecclesi- asticus xlviii, 10. Heis said καταστῆσαι φνλὰς ᾿Ιακώβ, to enable those who had been illegally excluded from the con- gregation to attain their inheritance. But he is eager also for the moral and religious renewal of his people. All disputes would be settled by him at his coming, and chiefly and above all he conducts the people to a great repent- ance, which will not be accomplished before he comes, Luke i. 16, 17 (Mal. iv. 6, LXX). This is the inward and moral side of the ἁποκατάστασις, Matt. xvii. r1, Mark ix. 12. But as in Acts i. 6 our Lord had corrected the ideas of the dis- ciples as to an external restoration of the kingdom to Israel, so in the Gospels He had corrected their ideas as to the coming of Elias, and had bidden them see its realisation in the preaching of John the Baptist in turning the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedi- ent to the wisdom of the just. And so the ἀποκατάστασις πάντων had already begun, in so far as men’s hearts were restored to obedience to God, the begin- ning of wisdom, to the purity of family affection, to a love of righteousness and ‘a hatred of iniquity. Even when the thoughts of the N.T. writers embrace the renewal of the visible creation, the moral and spiritual elements of restoration were present and prominent; cf. 2 Pet. iii. 13, Rom. viii. 19-21, Rev. xxi. 5. So too the παλινγενεσία, in Matt. xix. 28, is joined with the rule which the disciples would share with their Lord, and in- volved great moral issues. A renewal of ajl things had no doubt been fore- told by the prophets, Is. xxxiv. 4, li. 6, Ιχν. 17 ; it was dwelt upon in later Jew- ish writings, and often referred to by the Rabbis (cf., ε.ρ., Book of Enoch, xlv., 2; lxii., 1; xci., 16, 17; Apocalypse of
Baruch, xxxii., and instances in Eder- , sheim, Fesus the Messiah, ii., p. 343); but even amongst pious Israelites there was always a danger lest their hopes for the future should be mainly associated with material prosperity and national glorification. It is perhaps significant thas Josephus uses the two terms ἄπο- κατάστασις and παλινγενεσία in close conjunction of the restoration of the Jews to their own land after the exile. How this restoration of all things was to be effected, and what was involved in it, St. Peter does not say, but his whole trend of thought shows that it was made dependent upon man’s τε- pentance, upon his heart being right with God, see Weber, Fidische Theol- ogie, p. 352 ff. (1897); Edersheim, Fesus the Messiah, ii., pp. 343, 706; Hauck’s Real-Encyclopadie, ‘* Apokatas- tasis,” p. 616 ff. (1506).--ὧν refers to χρόνων, so R.V. “whereof,” i.¢., of which times. Holtzmann and Wendt on the other hand refer ὧν to πάντων. But the words of our Lord in Matt. xvii. II certainly point to the former reference, and the words are so taken by Weiss, Page, Hackett. In the article from Hauck quoted above, the writer speaks of the reference to χρόνων as the more correct, and points out that if ὧν is the relative to πάντων, the restoration spoken of would no longer be a restoration of all things, but only of those things of which the prophets had spoken. On the prophecies referred to see above. All the words from πάντων to προφητῶν are ascribed by Hilgenfeld to his ‘‘ author to Theophilus”; the thought of the prophets existing ἀπ᾿ αἰῶνος (Luke i. 70) belongs in his opinion to the Paulinism of this reviser, just as in Luke’s Gospel he carries back the genealogy of Jesus not to Abraham but to Adam. To a simi- lar Pauline tendency on the part of the same reviser, Hilgenfeld refers the intro- duction in vv. 25, 26 of the promise made to Abraham embracing all the nations of the earth (Gal. iii. 16), and also the introduction of the word πρῶτον (Rom. i. 16, ii. g), to show that not only upon the Jews, but also upon the Gentiles had.