And Jesus answered and said unto them,
Elijah truly shall first come, and restore all things.
Read Chapter 17
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Shall . restore all things. According to St. Chrysostom, Theophylactus, and others, these words signify that Elias shall restore all the Jews to the one true faith towards the end of the world; or, according to St. Augustine, he shall strengthen those that shall be found wavering in the persecution of Antichrist.
To show therefore that the Tishbite comes before that other advent, which has the judgment, He said this. And the reason too of his coming He teaches withal. And what is this reason? That when He has come, he may persuade the Jews to believe in Christ, and that they may not all utterly perish at His coming. Wherefore He too, guiding them on to that remembrance, says, And he shall restore all things; that is, shall correct the unbelief of the Jews that are then in being.
Hence the extreme accuracy of his expression; in that he said not, He will restore the heart of the son to the father, but of the father to the son. For the Jews being fathers of the apostles, his meaning is, that he will restore to the doctrines of their sons, that is, of the apostles, the hearts of the fathers, that is, the Jewish people's mind.
