Acts 1:6Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

On the contrary, they were in extreme danger. Therefore, saying nothing to Him about the Spirit, they ask: "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" They did not say, "When?" but, "At this time?" So much did they desire to know this day. For this reason they approach with great reverence. It seems to me that they did not yet understand quite clearly what this kingdom was, because they had not yet been taught by the Spirit. They did not say, "When will this be?" What did they say? "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" They spoke as though it had already been destroyed. They asked in this way because they were still attached to sensible things, though not to the same degree as before. They had not yet become better. Yet they already thought more highly of Christ. Since they had been raised up, He also speaks to them in a loftier way. He no longer says to them that even the Son does not know "of that day" (Mk 13:32). What does He say? "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority" (Acts 1:7).

They said to Him, "But we had hoped that He was the one to redeem Israel" (see Lk 24:13-21). You hoped rightly. What you hoped was true: in Him is the redemption of Israel. But why are you hastening? You want to take Him (see Jn 6:15). The following also shows us this desire, for the disciples asked about the end. They said to Him, "Will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:6). They were already thirsting for this kingdom and already wanted it. That is, they wanted to take Him and make Him king. But He answered the disciples, since He still had to ascend alone: "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power from on high when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:7-8). "You want Me to establish the kingdom already now. Let Me first gather what I shall establish. You love the things above, and you will obtain the things above, but follow Me through humility."

Under the influence of these prophecies, and still more under the influence of those who interpreted them, the apostles, not yet illumined by the Holy Spirit, dreamed of the restoration of the Jewish kingdom. This kingdom, granting earthly blessedness to every Jew, would subject all foreigners to its authority and extend its dominion over all nations (Isa 61:5). Therefore, when they heard from Christ about their imminent illumination by the Holy Spirit, they came together and asked the Savior collectively: "Lord, will You at this time, in this present year, restore the Kingdom to Israel and the reign of the Jews?"

Therefore they supposed that after His Resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ would sit on the throne of the kingdom of Israel. For this very reason the sons of Zebedee approached Him and begged Him: "Grant us to sit, one at Your right hand and one at Your left, in Your glory" (Mk 10:37). For the same reason Luke and Cleopas, when they met the risen Christ on the road and did not recognize Him, were asked what they were discussing. Speaking of Jesus and of what they expected from Him, they said, "We had hoped that He was the one to redeem Israel" (Lk 24:21). Holding such thoughts about Christ Jesus, the apostles saw that the time was already approaching when He would depart from them. Having gathered before Him, they asked Him: Lord, show us, is it at this time that You restore the kingdom to Israel, in its original condition? But He answered them: "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has placed in His own authority."

The hope for the restoration and liberation of Israel from the heavy Gentile yoke revives in them with full force. This hope had suffered defeat in the Lord's death, but had come alive again with His Resurrection. They think that perhaps the day of the outpouring of the Spirit upon all flesh will also be the day of Jesus Christ's glorious and visible ascent to the throne of David. Perhaps it will also be the day of the restoration and liberation of God's people joined to this. The nearer the fulfillment of the Lord's promise stood in the future, the more joyfully and anxiously their hearts beat, full of ardent love for their homeland. At once they put the question to the Lord: "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?"

From these very trees the faithless people had torn branches to spread on the road at the triumphant entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem. From the surrounding trees they also made the cross, to nail the same Christ to it. Crossing the bridge over the stream and passing by the Garden of Gethsemane, the travelers began to ascend the mountain. And now they are at its summit. Rising above the whole region, Olivet opens a distant and enchanting view. Directly beneath the mountain lies the populous city with its majestic temple and its noisy square, the Haram. Beyond it, to the west, appears the far blue of the Mediterranean Sea. To the southeast the Dead Sea moves as if in a tomb, in the low basin surrounding it, which lies far below the level of the Mediterranean. On the eastern slope of the mountain Bethany is nestled, where Martha and Mary lived with their brother Lazarus, who had been raised from the dead. To the north stretch the unbounded hills of Galilee, among which the swift Jordan winds like a blue ribbon. To the south lies Bethlehem. How many memories, how many thoughts this scene still awakens! For the disciples with their divine Teacher, this scene breathed the life they had just lived. On every detail of this picture lay traces of their activity, their feelings, their joys, and their tears. Their gaze involuntarily ran over all the surroundings. There, near Bethlehem, shepherds still watch their flock as before. Perhaps they are the very shepherds who first offered worship to the divine Infant. There are the native Galilean hills, among which passed the childhood both of the Teacher and of most of His disciples. Beneath their feet the lawless city murmurs, deaf to good, the city that killed the prophets. "Jerusalem, Jerusalem!" There beyond Bethany stand the bare branches of the fruitless fig tree. Such, Jerusalem, will be your fate! But the city is deaf. It is wholly sunk in its vanity and does not wish to know that soon not one stone will be left upon another. The disciples did not often have occasion to see such a scene. Struck by its majesty, and forgetting the tenderness of the moment of farewell, they turned to the Teacher with a question. It showed how little they still understood the purpose of Christ's ministry. "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" they asked. Until now they were still more sons of the "kingdom of Israel" than sons of the "Kingdom of Christ."

Yet He had repeatedly explained to them the mysteries of His Kingdom. They could not have been ignorant of the Lord's Ascension to the Father, for He had often spoken to them of it. Nevertheless their thought was occupied with the external kingdom of the Messiah among the people of Israel. Before the day of Pentecost they had not yet been fully illumined by the Holy Spirit. On the basis of misunderstood words of their Teacher (Jn 14:2-3 and following; Jn 16:16 and following, and others), did they not expect that He would again come from the Father with the promised Comforter? Only after the descent of the Holy Spirit upon them did they completely part with this dream of an external kingdom of the Messiah after the likeness of earthly kingdoms. In general, they were then completely reborn spiritually. Why do they ask the Lord precisely now about His ordering of the kingdom? It seems that this question was prompted by the Lord's present and preceding words. The question about the time was probably prompted by the Lord's indication that the time of their baptism with the Holy Spirit was near (cf. Theophylact). They undoubtedly knew that, according to the Old Testament prophecies, in the Kingdom of the Messiah there would be an abundant outpouring of the gifts of the Holy Spirit (Joel 3:1-2; cf. Acts 2:16 and following). They evidently understood the Lord's words about their baptism with the Holy Spirit precisely in the sense of such an abundant outpouring of the Spirit upon them. The question about the restoration specifically of the kingdom to Israel was probably prompted by the fact that the Lord, appearing during the forty days, spoke to them about the Kingdom of God (v. 3). Yet they evidently did not yet fully understand His teaching. "They did not quite clearly understand what this kingdom was, because they had not yet been taught by the Spirit. They were still attached to sensible things, though not as much as before. They had not yet become better, but they already thought more highly of Christ" (Chrysostom; cf. Theophylact). Their question breathes a lofty spirit of patriotic thought, to which the idea of their people's freedom, greatness, and glory was so close. These thoughts were so deeply permeated with hope in the fulfillment of the divine promises given to their fathers. Nevertheless this question still expressed the imperfection of their idea at that time about the Kingdom of the Messiah.

The expectation of the restoration of the kingdom of Israel was shared by many patriots and even by pious people. They took into account not all the prophecies about the Kingdom of the Messiah, the Savior, but only those especially pleasing to them. Such were, for example, the prophecies of Amos (see Amos 9:11) and Daniel (see Dan 7:27), where there is mention of the restoration of the tabernacle and the setting of the saints in authority. Even after the Lord's Resurrection, the two disciples walking to Emmaus plainly expressed their hope that Christ would deliver Israel from its external enemies (see Lk 24:21). For this they were called foolish and slow of heart (see Lk 24:25). Even now the apostles evidently had such firm confidence in this that they asked only about the time of the restoration of the kingdom of Israel. It was as if they had forgotten all that had been said before, and even what had just been said about preaching to the whole world and baptizing all nations. Always full of love and condescending to human weaknesses, the divine Teacher answers His disciples according to the form of their question, that is, concerning the time. He says: "It is not for you to know times or seasons..."

For man, in its full establishment, the Kingdom of Heaven appears and is known in the heavens, and the Kingdom of God in God. This can occur only when "we shall see Him face to face" (1 Cor 13:12), "as He is" (1 Jn 3:2). It can occur when "God will be all in all" (1 Cor 15:28). This cannot be before release from the mortal body, which, in the Apostle's expression, "keeps us away from the Lord" (2 Cor 5:6). Therefore there is ground to think, as people commonly do, that every son of the Kingdom must not expect the Kingdom of Heaven before the death of his earthly body. Nor must all expect it before "the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up" (2 Pet 3:10).