to put someone or something back into the sound condition or rightful place it held before: to restore
The whole force of this verb points backward. It does not mean to fix something up or make it better than it was; it means to bring a thing back to a state it once had. When the man with the withered hand stretches it out and it is restored, the measure given in the text is his own other hand: the healed one is now as sound as its pair. The word takes an earlier, whole condition as the standard and says that condition has been reached again.
That single idea covers three kinds of object in the New Testament:
- a damaged body put back into working order, as with a withered hand or failed eyesight
- a people's life and order set right again, as in the expectation that Elijah will restore all things
- a person handed back to those he belongs among, as when the writer to the Hebrews hopes to be given back to his readers
Because the verb keeps its eye on a former condition, it carries hope rather than novelty. The disciples who asked whether Jesus would at last restore the kingdom to Israel were not asking for something new; they were asking for something back. The nearby Greek verb for mending and fitting (καταρτίζω) works differently: it puts a thing into good working order whether or not it ever held that order before.