Editing Apokatastasis (section)

===New Testament===
The word, ''apokatastasis'', appears only once in the New Testament, in Acts 3:21.<ref>Greek: ὃν δεῖ οὐρανὸν μὲν δέξασθαι ἄχρι χρόνων '''ἀποκαταστάσεως''' πάντων ὧν ἐλάλησεν ὁ θεὸς διὰ στόματος τῶν ἁγίων ἀπ᾿ αἰῶνος αὐτοῦ προφητῶν. <br />Vulgate: ''quem oportet caelum quidem suscipere usque in tempora '''restitutionis''' omnium quae locutus est Deus per os sanctorum suorum a saeculo prophetarum''.</ref>  Peter healed a beggar with a disability and then addressed the astonished onlookers. His sermon set Jesus in the Jewish context, the fulfiller of the [[Covenant (biblical)|Abrahamic Covenant]], and says:
{{quote|1={{small|[19]}} Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; {{small
|[20]}} And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: {{small
|[21]}} 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.|2={{bibleverse||Acts|3:19–21|KJV}} KJV}}

Grammatically, the [[relative pronoun]] "ὧν" ("of which", [[Ancient Greek grammar|genitive plural]]), could refer either to "χρόνων" ("of times") or to "πάντων" ("of all" or "of all things"), which means that it is either the times of which God spoke or the all things of which God spoke.<ref>{{Citation | first = Darrell L | last = Bock | title = Acts | year = 2007 | quote = The relative pronoun ὧν (''hon'', of which) could refer back to "the seasons" of which God spoke (Bauernfeind 1980: 69) or to "all things" of which God spoke (so Conzelmann 1987: 29; Barrett 1994: 206, nearest referent).}}</ref>

The usual view taken of Peter's use of the "''apokatastasis'' of all the things about which God spoke" is that it refers to the restoration of the [[Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy)|Kingdom of Israel]] and/or the [[Garden of Eden]] and not "all things that ever existed".<ref>{{Citation | last = Fitzmyer | title = The Acts of the Apostles | series = The Anchor Yale Bible Commentaries | pages = 283–293}}.</ref>

The verbal form of ''apokatastasis'' is found in the [[Septuagint]]: [[Malachi]] 3:23 (i.e. {{bibleverse ||Malachi|4:6|ESV}}); a prophecy of [[Elijah]] ''turning back'' the hearts of the children to their fathers; in {{bibleverse ||Matthew|17:11|ESV}} ("he will ''restore'' all things"), echoing Malachi, and in {{bibleverse ||Hebrews|13:19|9}} ("that I may be ''restored'' to you the sooner").

Nineteenth-century German theologian [[Jakob Christoph Rudolf Eckermann|Jakob Eckermann]] interpreted "the 'apokatastasis of all things' to mean the universal emendation of religion by the doctrine of Christ, and the 'times of refreshing' to be the day of renewal, the times of the Messiah."<ref>{{Citation |title=Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, Volume 8 | first1 = John | last1 = McClintock | first2 = James | last2 = Strong |publisher=Harper |year=1879 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vTotAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1051 |page=1051 }}</ref>