Acts Chapter 3 verse 21 Holy Bible
whom the heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, whereof God spake by the mouth of His holy prophets that have been from of old.
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Who is to be kept in heaven till the time when all things are put right, of which God has given word by the mouth of his holy prophets, who have been from the earliest times.
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whom heaven indeed must receive till [the] times of [the] restoring of all things, of which God has spoken by the mouth of his holy prophets since time began.
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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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whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God spoke long ago by the mouth of his holy prophets.
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whom it behoveth heaven, indeed, to receive till times of a restitution of all things, of which God spake through the mouth of all His holy prophets from the age.
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Acts 3 : 21 Bible Verse Songs
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 21. - Restoration for restitution, A.V.; whereof for which, A.V.; spake for hath spoken, A.V.; his for all his, A.V. and T.R. Whom the heaven must receive. This is clearly right, not as some render it, who must occupy heaven. The aorist δέξασθαι seems to point to the moment when, at the Ascension, he was carried up into heaven (Luke 24:51). The restoration of all things (ἀποκαταστάσεως πάντων). This must be the same operation as our Lord speaks of in Matthew 17:11: "Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things (ἀποκαταστήσει πάντα) ;" and from the words of Malachi (Malachi 4:5, 6) it would seem to be a moral or spiritual restoration preparatory to the coming of the Lord. If so, the time of restoration is not exactly synchronous with the times of refreshing, but preparatory to them; preparatory, too, to that restoration of the kingdom to Israel of which the apostles spake to the Lord (Acts 1:6). Probably, however, St. Peter includes in his view the immediately following times of" the presence of the Lord," just as in St. Mark (Mark 1:1) the preparatory mission of John the Baptist is included in the phrase, "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ." Whereof God spake. The antecedent to "whereof" is "the times" (ver. 24).
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(21) Whom the heaven must receive.--The words have a pregnant force: "must receive and keep."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 2Peter 3:13. It does not necessarily involve, 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; and that idea suggests a wider hope as to the possibilities of growth in wisdom and holiness, or even of repentance and conversion, in the unseen world than that with which Christendom has too often been content. The corresponding verb is found in the words, "Elias truly shall come first, and restore all things" (see Note on 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.Which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets.--The relative, if we take the meaning given above, must be referred to the "times," not to "things." The words, compared with 2Peter 1:21, are, as it were, the utterance of a profound dogmatic truth. The prophets spake as "they were moved by the Holy Ghost"; but He who spake by them was nothing less than God.Since the world began.--Literally, from the age--i.e., from its earliest point. The words take in the promises to Adam (Genesis 3:15) and Abraham (Genesis 22:18). See Note on Luke 1:70, of which St. Peter's words are as an echo. . . .
