Mat 23:34-39, 27:25 | Barnes | STEP | Verse 34. I send unto you prophets , etc. He doubtless refers here to the apostles, and other teachers of religion. Prophets, wise men, and scribes, were the names by which the teachers of religion were known among the Jews; and he, therefore, used the same terms when speaking of the messengers which he would send. I send has the force of the future, I will send. Some of them ye shall kill . As in the case of Stephen, , and James, . Crucify . Punish with death on the cross. There are no cases of this mentioned; but few historical records of this age have come down to us. The Jews had not the power of crucifying, but they gave them into the hands of the Romans to do it. Shall scourge . . This was done, . Persecute , etc. . This was fulfilled it the case of nearly all the apostles. (q) "shall kill" (r) "ye scourge" (s) "city to city"

Matthew 23:34-39

Verse 34. I send unto you prophets, etc. He doubtless refers here to the apostles, and other teachers of religion. Prophets, wise men, and scribes, were the names by which the teachers of religion were known among the Jews; and he, therefore, used the same terms when speaking of the messengers which he would send. I send has the force of the future, I will send.

Some of them ye shall kill. As in the case of Stephen, Acts 7:59, and James, Acts 12:1,2.

Crucify. Punish with death on the cross. There are no cases of this mentioned; but few historical records of this age have come down to us. The Jews had not the power of crucifying, but they gave them into the hands of the Romans to do it.

Shall scourge. Mt 10:17. This was done, Acts 22:19-24, 2Cor 11:24,25.

Persecute, etc. Mt 5:10. This was fulfilled it the case of nearly all the apostles.

(q) "shall kill" Acts 7:59 (r) "ye scourge" Acts 5:40, 2Cor 11:24,25 (s) "city to city" Heb 11:37 Verse 35. That upon you may come, etc. That is, the nation is guilty Your fathers were guilty. You have shown yourselves to be like them. You are about, by slaying the Messiah and his messengers, to fill up the iniquity of the land. The patience of God is exhausted; and the nation is about to be visited with signal vengeance. These national crimes deserve national judgments; and the proper judgments for all these crimes are about to come upon you in the destruction of your temple and city.

All the righteous blood. That is, all the judgments due for shedding that blood. God did not hold them guilty for what their fathers did; but temporal judgments descend on children in consequence of the wickedness of parents--as in the case of drunken and profligate parents. A drunken father wastes the property that his children might have possessed. A gambler reduces his children to poverty and want. An imprudent and foolish parent is the occasion of leading his sons into places of poverty, ignorance, and crime, materially affecting their character and destiny. Rom 5:12, also Rom 5:13-19. So of the Jews. The appropriate effects of their fathers' crimes were coming on the nation, and they would suffer.

Upon the earth. Upon the land of Judea. The word is often used with this limitation. See Mt 4:8.

Righteous Abel. Slain by Cain, his brother, Gen 4:8,9. Zacharias son of Barschias. It is not certainly known who this was. Some have thought it was the Zechariah whose death is recorded in 2Chr 24:20,21. He is there called the son of Jehoiada; but it is known that it was common among the Jews to have two names, as Matthew is called Levi; Lebbeus, Thaddeus; and Simon, Cephas. Others have thought he referred to Zechariah the prophet, who might have been massacred by the Jews, though no account of his death is recorded. It might have been known by tradition.

Whom ye slew. Whom you, Jews, slew. Whom your nation killed.

Between the temple and the altar. Between the temple, properly so called, the sanctuary, and the altar of burnt-offering in the court of the priests. See the plan of the temple, Mt 21:12.

(u) "Abel" Gen 4:8 (v) "Zacharias" 2Chr 24:20,21 Verse 36. Upon this generation. The destruction of Jerusalem took place about forty years after this was spoken. See the next chapter. Verse 37. O Jerusalem, etc. Lk 19:41,42.

Would have gathered. Would have protected and saved.

Thy children. Thy people.

(x) "gathered thy children" De 32:11.12, Ps 91:4 Verse 38. Your house. The temple. The house of worship of the Jews. The chief ornament of Jerusalem.

Desolate. About to be desolate, or destroyed. To be forsaken as a place of worship, and delivered into the hands of the Romans, and destroyed. Mt 24:1 and following.

(y) "desolate" Zech 6:6 Verse 39. Ye shall not see me, etc. The day of your mercy is gone by. I have offered you protection and salvation, and you have rejected it. You are about to crucify me, and your temple to be destroyed; and you, as a nation, be given up to long and dreadful suffering. You will not see me as a merciful Saviour, offering you redemption any more, till you have borne these heavy judgments. They must come upon you, and be borne, until you would be glad to hail a deliverer, and say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Blessed be he that comes as the Messiah, to bring deliverance. This has not been yet accomplished; but the days will come when the Jews, long cast out and rejected, will hail Jesus as the Messiah, and receive him whom their fathers slew, as the merciful Saviour, Rom 11:25-32.

(z) "shall say" Ps 118:26, Mt 21:9

REMARKS ON MATTHEW CHAPTER 23

(1.) Proper respect should always be shown to teachers and rulers, Mt 23:3.

(2.) We are not to copy the example of wicked men, Mt 23:3. We are to frame our conduct by the law of God, and not by the example of men.

(3.) Men are often very rigid in exacting of others what they fail altogether of performing themselves, Mt 23:4.

(4.) We are to obey God rather than man; not to seek human honours, Mt 23:8, nor to give flattering titles to others, nor to allow others to give them to us, Mt 28:9. Our highest honour is in humility; and he is most exalted who is most lowly, Mt 23:11,12.

(5.) In the descriptions of the Scribes and Pharisees in this chapter, we have a full-length portrait of the hypocrite. 1st. They shut up the kingdom of heaven against others, Mt 23:13.

They made great pretensions to knowledge, but they neither entered

in themselves nor suffered others.

2nd. They committed the grossest iniquity under a cloak of religion,

Mt 23:14. They cheated widows out of their property, and made

long prayers to hide their villany.

3rd. They showed great zeal in making proselytes; yet did it only for

gain, and made them more wicked, Mt 23:15.

4th. They taught false doctrine--artful contrivances to destroy the

force of oaths, and shut out the Creator from their view,

Mt 23:16-22.

5th. They were superstitious, Mt 23:23. Small matters they were

exact in; matters of real importance they cared little about.

6th. They were openly hypocritical. They took great pains to

appear well, while they themselves knew that it was all deceit

and falsehood, Mt 23:25-28.

7th. They professed great veneration for the memory of the pious dead,

while at the same time they were conscious that they really approved

the conduct of those who killed them, Mt 23:29-31.

Never, perhaps, was there a combination of more wicked feelings and

hypocritical actions, than among them; and never was there more

profound knowledge of the human heart, and more faithfulness, than

in him who tore off the mask, and showed them what they were.

(6.) It is amazing with what power and authority our blessed Lord reproves this wicked people. It is wonderful that they ever waited for a mock trial, and did not kill him at once. But his time was not come; and they were restrained, and not suffered to act out the fury of their mad passions.

(7.) Jesus pities dying sinners, Mt 23:37. He seeks their salvation. He pleads with them to be saved. He would gather them to him, if they would come. The most hardened, even like the sinners of Jerusalem, he would save if they would come to him. But they not; they turn from him, and tread the road to death.

(8.) The reason why the wicked are not saved is in their obstinacy. They choose not to be saved, and they die. If they will not come to Christ, it is right that they should die. If they do not come, they must die.

(9.) The sinner shall be destroyed, Mt 23:38. The day will come when the mercy of God will be clean gone for ever, and the forbearance of God exhausted; and then the sinner must perish. When once God has given him over, he must die. No man, no parent, minister, or friend, no angel or archangel, can then save. Salvation is lost, for ever lost. Oh, how amazing is the folly of the wicked, that they weary out the forbearance of God, and perish in their sins!

Matthew 27:25

Verse 25. His blood be on us, etc. That is, let the guilt of putting him to death, if there be any, be on us and our children. We will be answerable for it, and will consent to bear the punishment for it. It is remarked by writers, that among the Athenians, if any one accused another of a capital crime, he devoted himself and children to the same punishment, if the accused was afterwards found innocent. So in all countries the conduct of the parent involves also the children in the consequences of his conduct, The Jews had no right to call down this vengeance on their children, but in the righteous judgment of God it has come upon them. In less than forty years their city and temple were overthrown and destroyed. More than a million of people perished in the siege. Thousands died by famine; thousands by disease; thousands by the sword; and their blood ran down the streets like water, so that, Josephus says, it extinguished things that were burning in the city, Thousands were crucified-- suffering the same punishment that they had inflicted on the Messiah. So great was the number of those who were crucified, that, Josephus says, they were obliged to cease from it, "room being wanting for the crosses, and crosses for the men." To this day, also, the curse has remained. They have been a nation scattered and peeled; persecuted almost everywhere, and a hissing and a by-word among men. No single nation probably has suffered so much; and yet they have been preserved. All classes of men; all the governments of the earth, have conspired to overwhelm them with calamity, and yet they still live as monuments of the justice of God, and as proofs, going down from age to age, that the Christian religion is true-- standing demonstrations of the crime of their fathers in putting the Messiah to death, and in calling down vengeance on their heads.