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Basil of Caesarea (probably) on Isaiah 9:5ff

“For all shall be subjected to Him and all shall recognise His mastery, and when God shall be all in all (1 Cor. 15:28), and those making an uproar by their apostasies are silenced, all in peaceful harmony shall praise God with hymns.”

It is debated whether or not Basil of Caesarea (Gregory of Nyssa’s older brother) believed in a final restoration of all things in the Origenian sense. Ilaria Ramelli has argued that he probably did, though he does not seem to have defended the doctrine overtly. Basil, in the commentary on Isaiah usually attributed to him, comes close though, as he seems to propound the idea that the final submission of all to God in 1 Cor. 15:28 will be a peaceful, harmonious submission, rather than a forced one. This was, at least for Origen and Gregory of Nyssa, a key reason for believing in the final apokatastasis of all things. Notice that Basil is not saying, that when “those making un uproar” are silenced, the rest shall praise God with hymns, but that all shall praise God with hymns:

“We have heard before how many names of the Lord we have already been taught by the prophet. ‘Behold, a virgin shall conceive in her womb and shall beat a Son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel.’ Here His name is called ‘Messenger of great counsel’. He is the one Who made known the great counsel kept secret for the ages (Col. 1:26) and not manifested to other generations (Eph. 3:5). He is the one Who announced and manifested among the Gentiles His inscrutable wealth (Eph. 5:8), in order that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs and the same body (Eph. 3:6) of Him whose sovereignty is upon His shoulder, that is Whose kingdom and power are on the cross; as having been lifted up on the cross He drew all to Himself (John 12:32). […] There is no end of His peace, for the reason that it is a supramundane gift. For had it been from the world, it would have lasted only as long as the world exists. But now, he who has accepted His peace and preserved it shall live with the good things of His peace for ever. The peace of Solomon was limited to the recorded years, whereas the peace from the Lord is co-extensive with the whole of eternity, being unlimited and boundless. For all shall be subjected to Him and all shall recognise His mastery, and when God shall be all in all (1 Cor. 15:28), and those making an uproar by their apostasies are silenced, all in peaceful harmony shall praise God with hymns.” (quoted from St. Basil the Great, Commentary on the Prophet Isaiah, translated by Nikolai A. Lipatov, p. 275-276)
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