Mat 23:35, 27:25, Act 5:28, 18:6 | Barnes | STEP | 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. , also . 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 . Righteous Abel . Slain by Cain, his brother, . Zacharias son of Barschias . It is not certainly known who this was. Some have thought it was the Zechariah whose death is recorded in . 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, . (u) "Abel" (v) "Zacharias"

Matthew 23:35

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

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.

Acts 5:28

Verse 28. Straitly command you. Did we not command you with a threat? Acts 4:17,18,21.

In this name. In the name of Jesus.

Ye have filled Jerusalem. This, though not so designed, was an honourable tribute to the zeal and fidelity of the apostles. When Christians are arraigned or persecuted, it is well if the only charge which their enemies can bring against them is that they have been distinguished for zeal and success in propagating their religion. See 1Pet 4:16, "If any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf." Also Acts 5:13-15.

Intend to bring this man's blood upon us. To bring one's blood upon another is a phrase denoting to hold or to prove him guilty of murdering the innocent. The expression here charges them with designing to prove that they had put Jesus to death when he was innocent; to convince the people of this, and thus to enrage them against the sanhedrim; and also to prove that they were guilty, and were exposed to the Divine vengeance for having put the Messiah to death. Comp. Acts 2:23,36, 3:15, 7:52. That the apostles did intend to charge them with being guilty of murder, is clear; but it is observable that on this occasion they had said nothing of this; and it is further observable that they did not charge it on them except in their presence. See the places just referred to. They took no pains to spread this among the people, except as the people were necessary to the crime of the rulers, Acts 2:23,36. Their consciences were not at ease, and the remembrance of the death of Jesus would occur to them at once at the sight of the apostles.

(b) "straitly command" Acts 4:18 (c) "this man's blood" Mt 27:25, Acts 2:23,36, 3:15, 7:52

Acts 18:6

Verse 6. And when they opposed themselves. To him and his message.

And blasphemed. Acts 13:4.

He shook his raiment. As an expressive act of shaking off the guilt of their condemnation. Comp. Acts 13:45. He shook his raiment to show that he was resolved henceforward to have nothing to do with them; perhaps, also, to express the fact that God would soon shake them off, or reject them. (Doddridge.)

Your blood, etc. The guilt of your destruction is your own. You only are the cause of the destruction that is coming upon you. Mt 27:25.

I am clean. I am not to blame for your destruction. I have done my duty. The gospel had been fairly offered, and deliberately rejected; and Paul was not to blame for their ruin, which he saw was coming upon them.

I will go, etc. See Acts 13:46.