Luke 11:51

From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(51) From the blood of Abel. . . .—See Note on Matthew 23:35. We note the absence here of the description “Zacharias, son of Barachias,” which causes so much perplexity in St. Matthew’s report. So far as it goes, the omission favours the view that the additional words were inserted by the reporter of our Lord’s discourse there, or by some early transcriber.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

11:37-54 We should all look to our hearts, that they may be cleansed and new-created; and while we attend to the great things of the law and of the gospel, we must not neglect the smallest matter God has appointed. When any wait to catch something out of our mouths, that they may insnare us, O Lord, give us thy prudence and thy patience, and disappoint their evil purposes. Furnish us with such meekness and patience that we may glory in reproaches, for Christ's sake, and that thy Holy Spirit may rest upon us.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The wisdom of God - By the "wisdom of God," here, is undoubtedly meant the Saviour himself. What he immediately says is not written in the Old Testament. Jesus is called "the word of God" John 1:1, because he is the medium by which God "speaks" or makes his will known. He is called "the wisdom of God," because by him God makes his wisdom known in creation (Colossians 1:13-18 and in redemption 1 Corinthians 1:30. Many have also thought that the Messiah was referred to in the Proverbs 8:1 of Proverbs, under the name of Wisdom.

I will send ... - See Luke 10:3; Matthew 10:16.

Shall slay ... - Compare John 16:2; Acts 7:52, Acts 7:59; James 5:10; Acts 12:2; Acts 22:19; 2 Corinthians 11:24-25; 2 Chronicles 36:15-16.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

51. blood of Zacharias—Probably the allusion is not to any recent murder, but to 2Ch 24:20-22, as the last recorded and most suitable case for illustration. And as Zacharias' last words were, "The Lord require it," so they are warned that "of that generation it should be required."

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Luke 11:47"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

From the blood of Abel,.... "Righteous Abel", as in Matthew 23:35 and so read the Arabic version here, and two manuscripts in the Bodleian library, and three of Stephens's copies; the Persic version renders it, "innocent Abel": he is mentioned because he was the first man that was slain, and he was slain because of his righteousness.

Unto the blood of Zacharias; in the Cambridge copy of Beza's, it is added, "the son of Barachias", as in Matthew 23:35 and so the Arabic version, "the son of Barasciah"; who he was; see Gill on Matthew 23:35.

which perished between the altar and the temple; or "the house", that is, the holy place: and the Ethiopic version renders it, "the holy house"; here he died, being slain by the Jews; see the note, as before.

Verily I say unto you, it shall be required of this generation; as it was at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem.

Geneva Study Bible

From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Luke 11:51. τοῦ ἀπολομένου who perished, in place of the harsher whom ye slew of Mt.—τοῦ οἴκου = τοῦ ναοῦ in Mt., the temple.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

51. unto the blood of Zacharias] His murder by Joash is described in 2 Chronicles 24:20-21, and also filled a large place in Jewish legends. The words “the son of Barachiah,” in Matthew 23:35, are probably an erroneous gloss which has crept from the margin into the text. The murdered Zacharias was the son of the High Priest Jehoiada; the Prophet Zechariah was a son of Barachiah, but died, so far as we know, a natural death; and the Zechariah son of Barachiah, who was murdered by the Zealots, did not die till forty years later than this time. The allusions are all the more striking from the direct references to retribution in these two instances, and from the fact that they are drawn from the first and last historical books of the O. T. (Genesis 4:10; 2 Chronicles 24:22).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 51. - From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple. The reason, probably, why these two are selected out of the long red list of the noble army, must be sought for in the special position which the recital of these two deaths occupies in the Jewish canon of Scripture; the death of Abel being related in Genesis, the first book of the canon, that of Zacharias in the Second Book of Chronicles, which occupies the last place in the sacred volume (is the Jewish canon). They were simply two martyrdoms of illustrious men at the beginning and at the close of the long many-coloured story of the chosen race. There is no doubt that the Zacharias here alluded to was Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada the high priest - a prophet and preacher of righteousness, who at the commandment of the king was stoned in the court of the house of the Lord. This is related in 2 Chronicles 24:20-22, in the same passage which was evidently in the Lord's mind when he pronounced the awful woe upon the generation then living. This martyrdom of Zacharias was to his Jewish listeners a very familiar and painful memory. It evidently ranked among the most terrible crimes committed by their fathers, and was the subject of some wild strange legends in the Talmud. The martyr's blood would not dry up; it was still bubbling when Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans took the temple. No sacrifices availed to stop the awful flow. Tradition assigns one of the four great sepulchral monuments at the foot of Olivet, alluded to above, to the murdered Zacharias. Luke 11:51

Vincent's Word Studies

The altar and the temple

Oἴκου, temple, lit., house, is equivalent to ναοῦ, sanctuary (Rev.), in Matthew 23:35. The altar is the altar of burnt-offering. See on Matthew 4:5; and compare 2 Chronicles 24:18-21.