A Larger Hope 1

by Ilaria L E Ramelli

  Paul

  Paul represents Origen’s and Gregory of Nyssa’s favorite scriptural pillar for their universalistic soteriology.30 In Romans 1:16–17 Paul describes the gospel as the power of God for the salvation of all those who believe. In Romans 3:23–24 he declares that “all” have sinned, but they are gratuitously justified thanks to Christ. Jesus “was put to death because of our sins and resurrected for our justification” (Rom 4:25); “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more now that we are justified by means of his blood, we will be saved from God’s wrath thanks to him” (Rom 5:8–9). The Christian doctrine of apokatastasis was never a way of ignoring sin, or bypassing the salvation wrought by Christ in his death and resurrection or the importance of faith in Christ, but it held fast to all of these teachings from the book of Romans. It simply maintained that just as sin applies universally so too justification will extend universally.

  The most universalistic passages—which in turn will inspire the fathers in their wider hope—are the following. In Romans 5:18–19 Paul states: “because of one human being [Adam] condemnation has spread to all humans. Likewise, thanks to the work of justice of one human being [Christ] life-giving justification pours upon all humans. By virtue of the obedience of one human, all will be made just.”31 In a similar vein, in Romans 11:11–32 Paul proclaims the final restoration and salvation of all gentiles and all Israel:

  Did they [the people of Israel] stumble so as to lie fallen forever? Surely not, but thanks to their fall salvation has reached pagans. . . . Therefore, if their failure has been the richness of the pagans, how much more will their total participation be. . . . If their refusal has marked the reconciliation of the world, what will their admission ever be but a resurrection from the dead? . . . The hardening of a part of Israel is taking place until the totality [πλήρωμα/plērōma] of the nations/‘pagans’ has entered, and then all [πᾶς/pas] of Israel will be saved. . . . You have obtained mercy on account of their disobedience, so they too, now, have become disobedient in view of the mercy to be bestowed on you, that they too may obtain mercy. For God has the power to graft them anew [back into the olive tree]. . . . God closed all [πάντας/pantas] in disobedience so as to have mercy upon all.

  The totality [πλήρωμα/plērōma] of the nations added to the whole [πᾶς/pas] of Israel amounts to all humanity. (Πλήρωμα/plērōma, which is sometimes translated “fullness,” in many places in the Septuagint means “totality.” For instance, in Psalm 23:1, it parallels “all people” [πάντες/pantes], so it means the totality of people; see also Psalm 49:12; 88:12; 95:11, in which plērōma parallels “all beings,” [πάντα/panta], so as to mean “all beings”. See also Psalm 97:7; Jeremiah 8:16; 29:2; Ezekiel 12:19, in which plērōma parallels again πάντες/pantes, so as to mean the totality of all beings [see again Ezek 19:7; 30:12].) Origen read in Romans 11:11–32 the announcement of universal salvation and the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham that he would inherit all the world through faith (Gen 12:3). This fulfillment will occur “when in the end, after the totality of the gentiles has entered, all of Israel will be saved . . . when the totality of the gentiles will have entered and all of Israel will be saved . . . The words, ‘all the families of the earth will be blessed in you,’ mean that Abraham will inherit the whole world; . . . he will inherit it thanks to the justification brought about by faith” (Comm. in Rom. 4:2–3). Note here how Origen repeats the point that he wants to emphasize.

  The beautiful and eloquent promise in Romans 8:35–39 will also be remembered by the fathers: “nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God,” not even the evil powers, not even death (either physical or spiritual death, in Origen’s view). This is an undefeatable love.

  Another text that caught the eye of Origen was Romans 14:11, where Paul announces the eventual universal submission to Christ and God that Origen and Gregory will interpret as spontaneous and as coinciding with universal salvation: in the end “the Lord says, every knee will bow before Me, every tongue will praise God.” Enemies who are forced to submit and are crushed do not praise their oppressor, but if all will submit spontaneously and willingly, all will praise God and be saved.

  God’s own faithfulness is opposed to human incredulity and instability in Romans 3:3–4: “If some have not believed, can their incredulity ever cancel God’s own faithfulness (tēn pistin tou Theou)? Impossible.”32 Humans in their sin and faithlessness cannot cause God to abandon them. The same phrase can be used of Jesus, such that Paul speaks of “the faith(fulness) of Christ” (pistis Christou) in several passages.33 Since Paul declares this “faith of Christ” to be salvific, the salvation of humans does not rest only upon their own faith or confidence (pistis), but also on Christ’s and God’s faithfulness, which is a much more solid foundation.

  In 1 Corinthians 15:22–23 Paul is clear in his universalism: “As all humans die in Adam, so will all humans be made alive in Christ.” Those who die because of Adam are not some subgroup of the human race, but all human beings; therefore, those who are vivified by Christ are the same all humans without exception. What is more, this vivification is not simply the resurrection of the body, but justification and thereby salvation. We can see this from Romans 5:18–19: “Because of one human being, condemnation has spread to all humans; so also, thanks to one human’s work of justice, life-giving justification spreads to all humans. . . . All will be made just.”

  Another strong universalistic hint comes from the same letter (1 Cor 15:24–28): Christ will reign until he has subjected all enemies—the last is death, which will rather be destroyed, since it is no creature of God. Then he will hand the kingdom to the Father, and God will be “all in all.” This is Origen’s and Gregory of Nyssa’s favorite passage in support of universal salvation; they interpreted the submission of all as the salvation of all. Paul expresses himself in similar terms in 1 Corinthians 9:22: “I have made myself all to all, in order to save all [pantas].”34

  Indeed, God has reconciled all to himself by means of Christ (2 Cor 5:19),35 and the final universal submission of every creature to Christ is likewise proclaimed by Paul in Philippians 2:10–11: “in the name of Christ every knee will bend, in heaven, on earth, and in the underworld, and every tongue will proclaim that Jesus Christ is the Lord.” The verb “proclaim” in Greek (ὁμολογέω/homologeō, ἐξομολογέω/exomologeō), like other closely related terms, in the Septuagint and the New Testament always implies a voluntary recognition, praise, and thanksgiving. In Philippians 3:21 Paul insists that Christ has the power of submitting “all beings” to himself. This confirms Origen’s and Gregory’s interpretation of the eventual submission of all in the end announced by Paul as the salvation of all.

  In 1 Corinthians 3:14–15 Paul makes it clear that the otherworldly fire does not preclude salvation: “If the work that one built up on the foundation resists, one will receive a reward. If the work is burnt, one will suffer a loss, but will be saved, albeit as it were through fire.” Either one will be rewarded or one will be saved through fire; no mention of people who will not be saved. On the same line is 1 Corinthians 5:5: a man who has committed a very serious sin must be “handed over to satan for the ruin/perdition of his flesh, that his spirit be saved in the day of the Lord.”

  Pseudo-Paulines, Other Letters, and Revelation

  1 Timothy, one of the Pastoral Epistles, develops the universalistic thread in Paul’s thought. Being handed to satan is presented, as in Paul, as a therapeutic measure (1 Tim 1:20), and we read that Christ entered this world to save sinners (1 Tim 1:15). Most significantly, the author declares:

  God our Savior wants all human beings to be saved and to reach the knowledge of the truth. For God is one, and one is the mediator between God and humans: the human being Christ Jesus, who has given himself in ransom for all. (1 Tim 2:4–6)

  (This is conceptually parallel to 2 Peter 3:9: “God wants nobody to per
ish, but all to reach conversion.”) Therefore, “We have placed our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all humans, especially [sc. but not exclusively] of those who believe” (1 Tim 4:10); “God’s Grace has appeared, which brings about salvation for all humans” (Titus 2:11).

  Similar themes are found in the letter to the Hebrews: in 9:19 Jesus is said to have been sacrificed once and for all to bear the sins of the many; in 9:11–13 he is said to have offered “one sacrifice forever,” a voluntary sacrifice, which purifies our conscience (10:5–10). More significantly, in 2:9 Jesus is said to have “tasted death for everyone”: 2:14–15 comments that “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.” Origen and other fathers will strongly rely on 1 Timothy 2:4–6 and on Hebrews for their universalism.

  In 1 Peter 3:19–21, Jesus is said to have preached salvation to those who were prisoners in Hades and who once had refused to believe and had therefore perished in the flood. Those who survived the flood in the ark represent those who are now saved through baptism. However, Christ is said to save even the others, those who did not believe and represent those who are not baptized. Henryk Pietras considers this passage to be an expression of universal salvation.36 Indeed, Christ’s descent to hell will play an important role for the supporters of apokatastasis right up to von Balthasar in the twentieth century.

  In Revelation 20:10–15 the lake of fire is the second death (cf. 21:8), and those who enter there are death itself and hell, which are no creatures of God. The death of death is clearly the disappearance of death. Sinners too are said to be cast into the lake of fire, but nowhere is it said that they will remain there forever (21:8); the devil will burn there “for ages and ages,” which means a very long time. According to Origen, it denotes all the future aeons prior to the eventual apokatastasis! In chapter 21, the nations of the earth, who throughout Revelation are Christ’s opponents, will in the end bring their wealth into the New Jerusalem, entering as worshipping pilgrims.37 The doors of the heavenly Jerusalem are said to be permanently open so that those who have completed their purification in that fire can finally enter the holy city. Chapter 22 reveals that inside the city there is a tree of life, an allusion to Genesis and perhaps the symbol of Christ’s cross, whose leaves produce “the therapy/healing of the nations” (i.e., those who are still outside Jerusalem). Moreover, the end of every malediction and exclusion and of every pain is proclaimed. The radical destruction that is announced in Revelation does not involve creatures, but evil and death (the same is announced in 1 Cor 15:24–8). The fire that will destroy evil is the same that will purify sinners precisely by eliminating evil.

  In this chapter we have seen some of the biblical seeds of hope that were sown into the soil of early Christianity. In the chapters that follow we shall observe how those seeds began to germinate and grow into the plant we know as the doctrine of apokatastasis.

  20. See also Beauchemin, Hope beyond Hell, 19ff.

  21. See also Isa 45:20–25 and MacDonald, The Evangelical Universalist, 64.

  22. See Ramelli and Konstan, Terms for Eternity, new edition (2013).

  23. For an argument for this interpretation, with a theological passive, see my “Luke 16:16,” 747–68.

  24. Méhat, “Apocatastase,” 196–214, understands apokatastasis here as the realization of the promises of God and not the restoration of all beings; contra LS 201, s.v. apokatastasis, and a systematic investigation in the TLG. Apokatastasis in Greek, from the beginning to the New Testament, does not mean “realization” or “accomplishment,” but “restoration,” “reintegration,” “reconstitution” to an original state.

  25. See my “Matt 17:11,” 107–26. Acts 3:21 is considered to refer to the eschatological restoration also by Doering, “Urzeit–Endzeit Correlations,” esp. 20.

  26. For this rendering, or the alternative “all beings will be restored,” see Ramelli, “Matt 17:11.” Cf. Mark 9:12.

  27. On the restoration of Israel, besides my Apokatastasis monograph, see my “Philo’s Doctrine of Apokatastasis”: reviewed by Matthew Kraus, Bryn Mawr Classical Review Sept 5, 2015 and by Johannes van Oort, Vigiliae Christianae 69.5 (2015) 577; Eskola, A Narrative Theology of the New Testament. The restoration of Israel was perceived as foretold in Scripture, e.g., Joel 2:28—3:1: “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even upon the menservants and maidservants in those days, I will pour out my spirit. For behold, in those days and at that time, I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem” (RSV).

  28. 1) In 1 Peter the announcement of Christ’s descent to hell to save those who were condemned at the time of the universal flood and are also the allegory of those unbaptized; 2) the announcement of Christ’s descent to hell in the Gospel of Peter; 3) the announcement of the salvation of those damned to hell in the Apocalypse of Peter; 4) the promise of universal apokatastasis in the “Ps. Clementines” that form the frame of the Ethiopic Apocalypse of Peter. See below on these texts.

  29. See my “Christian Soteriology,” 313–56.

  30. The church fathers did not distinguish authentic, deutero-Pauline, and pseudo-Pauline letters in the Pauline corpus in the way that modern scholars do.

  31. On the universality of the effects of both Adam’s and Christ’s acts, Bell, “Rom 5.18–19 and Universal Salvation,” DeBoer, The Defeat of Death, 175, and MacDonald, The Evangelical Universalist, 79–84, among many other exegetes and theologians, concur with me.

  32. This passage will be echoed in 2 Tim 2:13: “If we lack faith, God, for his part, remains faithful.”

  33. Rom 3:22 and 26; Gal 2:16 and 20; 3:22; Phil 3:9; 1 Thess 1;3; cf. Gal 3:26. The relevant bibliography is richer and richer.

  34. A variant in Greek here is πάντως/pantōs, which would yield the translation: “to save some at all costs.” But the reading I have stuck to is attested in a family of Greek manuscripts, in Priscillian, in the Syriac Peshitta, and in the Latin versions (Old Latin and Vulgate): ut omnes salvos facerem.

  35. Cf. two deutero-Paulines: Eph 1:10: “God has the intention of recapitulating all beings in Christ, those in heaven and those on earth,” and Col 1:18–20: Christ in the end will attain “primacy over all beings,” and the Father “by means of him will reconcile all beings to himself.” The very notion of reconciliation excludes again a forced submission.

  36. Pietras, L’escatologia, 38, with my review in Augustinianum 48 (2008) 247–53.

  37. For the motif of the nations bringing their wealth to Jerusalem, see Chan, The Wealth of Nations, who shows how Scripture reflects ancient Near Eastern traditions.

  2

  Universal Restoration before Origen

  The Riddle of Ignatius and Theophilus of Antioch

  Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, was born in Syria around 50 AD and was martyred in Rome between 98 and 117 AD. In the corpus of letters of Ignatius, written while he was en route to face his death in Rome, universal salvation is evoked in Ep. ad Sm. 2 (belonging to the so-called middle recension38): “the Logos, when its flesh was lifted up like the brazen serpent in the desert, dragged all human beings to itself for their eternal salvation,” with a patent echo of John 12:32. Ignatius’ corpus was known to Origen (Hom. in Luc. 6:4) and Eusebius (HE 3:36) and was preserved in the library of Caesarea. With Christ’s crucifixion, Ignatius wrote, “every spell of evilness has been dissolved, every chain destroyed; ignorance has been eliminated, the ancient kingdom has fallen into ruin, when the Godhead has manifested itself in human form for the
novelty of absolutely eternal [ἀϊδίου/aidiou] life. What has been established by God has begun: from then on, all beings have been put in motion for the providential realization of the destruction of death.” The death that is destroyed is not only physical, but spiritual: Christ has “performed every justice,” that is, the justification of all (Ep. ad Sm. 1:1).