Bede : Whom heaven must indeed receive until the times of the restitution of all things, which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets since the world began. This is what the Psalmist testifies as said to the same Lord Jesus Christ by God the Father: Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet (Psalms 109). For He was taken up into heaven and sits at the right hand of God. In that seat of paternal majesty, He always remains divinely, nor has He ever departed from it, but in the assumed humanity, He is to come from heaven to judge the living and the dead when all His enemies will be put under His feet, and all things which God spoke through all the prophets from the beginning of the world will be restored; because, when all the saints enter eternal life with the Lord, the reprobates with the devil will endure eternal punishments, there will be absolutely nothing left which the prophets can promise us further to hope for, since both parts, namely the good and the bad, will have received an irrevocable sentence in the final judgment from the just judge. And Origen is greatly mistaken and deceives, who thinks that after this judgment, though after a long interval of time, the other sinners, who were sent to hell with the devil on the left side of the judge, will be freed and brought to the heavenly kingdom, as if the prophet who said: And they will be gathered in the dungeon, and after many days they will be visited (Isaiah 24), promised this to them, since the clear meaning of the prophet's words according to sound sense is that he predicted that the enemies and persecutors of the holy Church would be carried off to hell individually on the day of their departure, but he foresaw that all of them would be briefly released from there on the day of judgment, when, having received an immortal body, they would again be plunged into double punishment of eternal death. For the next words of the prophet declare that he intended this in his statement, who after saying: And after many days they will be visited, immediately added: And the moon will be confounded, and the sun ashamed (ibid.), which will come to pass on the day of judgment as both prophecy and the words of the gospel declare. — Retractions on Acts John Chrysostom : "Whom the heaven must receive." Still "must receive"? And why not simply, Whom the heaven hath received? This, as if discoursing of old times: so, he says, it is divinely ordered, so it is settled: not a word yet of His eternal subsistence. — Homily on Acts 9 John Chrysostom : "Who was purposely designed," says he: in Whom there is nothing novel. Here he also alarms them, by the thought that much remains to be fulfilled. But if so, how says he, "Hath fulfilled?" The things which it was necessary "that Christ should suffer," are fulfilled: the things which must come to pass, not yet. — Homily on Acts 9 Oecumenius : And he threatened the Jesus Christ who had been handed over to you; whom heaven must receive until the times of the restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient times. See how Peter proceeds on the way. In his first public proclamation he announced the resurrection and his ascension into heaven, and there also the visible presence, which he calls a time of refreshing, in which he points out the times of the resurrection. Which times Paul also longs for, saying: And we who are in this tent groan being burdened. (2 Cor. 5:4) If anyone also calls the times of refreshing those after the destruction, that does not prevent it. For Christ also shortened their period of affliction and captivity because of the elect, (Matt. 23:22) so that those who believed might find refreshment and be saved from that severe suffering and necessity. And having said above, But God, what he foretold, does not set aside Scriptural testimony concerning the crucifixion, because each of them is spoken of with many sins and punishment concerning them, and he did not wish to grieve for a time. He has used an easier account concerning Christ, a privilege of the humility of the hearers for the discourse. For the Lord's being seen, that is, his humanity, his sending from heaven was brought in, and for the future his reception into heaven. [CHRYSOSTOM] — Commentary on Acts Oecumenius : "Whom," Peter says, "heaven must receive," although indeed he had already been received at the time of the ascension. But in this passage the language is used more personally, according to his own letter, in which he says concerning Christ: "For he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was brought to him from heaven." (2 Peter 1:17) For even the phrase Λαβὼν instead of "ἔλαβεν" the construction of the sentence requires it, so that the meaning may be properly structured. Therefore likewise the phrase "Ὃν δεῖ ὑποδέξασθαι" has "Δεῖ" taken instead of "ἔδει." Since the ascension and visible presence of him to the heavens was not seen by all, they were for a time left to make use of their own conjecture. Yet by saying "he prepared the heaven to receive the one sent" he indicated in more vital terms, through the phrase "Ὃν δεῖ οὐρανὸν ὑποδέξασθαι," that the One to be received by heaven is the Son, coeternal with the Father and sent by the Father, from whom he was reckoned fellow to the Father as Son and Only-Begotten, and unquestionably ascending into heaven as one who had come down from heaven, and again necessarily received into the paternal dwelling, and from whom, according to the economy, he descended, there to be enthroned again, so that the assertion "Son and heavenly" may be established, and it may be shown that the same one is again expected to come from heaven. And to make these things plainly known, he refers to Moses and the prophets; to Moses, "The Lord our God will raise up for you a prophet like me," (Deut. 18:15; Acts 3:22) and to David, likening the rain that descends from his heaven as if upon the earth. (see Ps. 71:6) And having generally referred them to those prophets, he again comforts them, as if they had become sons made receptive of the prophets' teaching, whether not by nature but by grace through the generous bestower. For he has a Son by nature. The difference between sonship by nature and by appointment is great. For some were adopted as sons through the spiritual education of the prophets, while he by natural relation possesses sonship in the highest degree. — Commentary on Acts Oecumenius : In another way: "whom heaven must receive" is put in place of "It is necessary that heaven receive it," since indeed it exists as God. How then did he not say, "Which heaven received"? He says this as speaking about the upper times. And by "until the times of the restoration" he indicates the cause, why now it no longer comes. "It must be restored," he says, "and all must come to an end," and then it will come. — Commentary on Acts Origen of Alexandria : Everything endowed with reason will come under one law.… If we must refer to this subject, it will be with great brevity. The Stoics, indeed, hold that, when the strongest of the elements prevails, all things shall be turned into fire. But our belief is that the Word will prevail over the entire rational creation and change every soul into his own perfection. In this state all, by the mere exercise of his power, will choose what he desires and obtain what he chooses. For although, in the diseases and wounds of the body, there are some which no medical skill can cure, yet we hold that in the mind there is no evil so strong that it may not be overcome by the supreme Word and God. For stronger than all the evils in the soul is the Word and the healing power that dwells in him. This healing he applies, according to the will of God, to everything. The consummation of all things is the destruction of evil, although as to the question whether it shall be so destroyed that it can never anywhere arise again, it is beyond our present purpose to say. Many things are said obscurely in the prophecies on the total destruction of evil and the restoration to righteousness of every soul; but it will be enough for our present purpose to quote the following passage from Zephaniah: "Prepare and rise early; all the gleanings of their vineyards are destroyed. Therefore wait upon me, says the Lord, on the day that I rise up for a testimony. For my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kings, to pour upon them my indignation, even all my fierce anger. For all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy. For then will I bring about a transformation of pure language among the people, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent. From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia my suppliants, even the daughter of my dispersed, shall bring my offering. In that day you will not be ashamed for all your sinful deeds of transgression against me. For then I will take away out of your midst them that rejoice in your pride; and you will be haughty no more because of my holy mountain. I will also leave in your midst an afflicted and poor people, and they will trust in the name of the Lord. The remnant of Israel will not commit iniquity nor speak lies. Neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth, for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid." — AGAINST CELSUS 8.72