Matthew Poole and continuators on Matthew 23:36

36 Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.

Luke saith, Ch. 11.49.50. Therefore also said the Wisdom of God, I will send them Prophets and Apostles, and some of them they shall slay, and persecute. That the Blood of all the Prophets, which was shed from the Foundation, of the World, may be required of this Generation. From the Blood of Abel, to the Blood of Zacharias, who perished between the Altar and the Temple. Verily I say unto you, it shall be required of this Generation. Luke saith, Therefore also said the Wisdom of God. Matthew saith, Behold I send. Christ is the Wisdom of God, he here tells them, he would send them Prophets, Wise men, Scribes. Luke expounds it by Prophets and Apostles. Men Authorized by Christ, to reveal unto Men the Will of God, and Men that should be extraordinarily inspired to inable them thereunto. Scribes, that is Persons instructed to the Kingdom of God, a new sort of Scribes, but much sitter for their Work, than the present Scribes. And some you shall kill, and crucifie, &c. Our Lord in this only fore-tells, what usage both himself and his Apostles should meet with from them, which was fulfilled, in what the Scripture telleth us, of the scourging of Paul, the stoning of Stephen, the killing of Iames, &c. beside the Crucifying of himself. That upon you; that is, as he expounds it, v. 38. Vpon this Generation may come all the Righteous Blood, that is, the Blood of righteous men, from the Blood of Abel, to the Blood of Zachariah, shed upon the Earth, &c. Here arise two Questions. 1. Who this Zachariah the Son of Barachiah was? 2. How it could stand with Gods justice, to bring the Guilt of the Blood of former Generations, upon that Generation. As to the first, some have guest the Person spoken of, to have been one Zachariah the Son of Baruch, who was the last slain upon the taking of Ierusalem, as Iosephus tells us, but our Saviour here speaks of a thing past, not to be afterwards done: Others think, it was Zachariah the Father of Iohn Baptist, but we have no Proo[illegible: 1 letter] that he dyed a violent Death: Others think, it was Zachariah, who was one of the small Prophets, but there was no Temple in his time. It is most probably concluded to be Zachariah, the Son of Iehojada, whom the Iews stoned with Stones, at the Commandement of Ioash: In the Court of the House of the Lord, 2 Chron. 24.21. The Fathers name indeed doth not agree, but first, Iehojada (as many of the Iews had) might have two Names, some think it was this same Zechariah, who is called the Son of Ie Berechiah, Isa. 8.2. Our Saviour nameth Abel, who lived before the Law, and Zachariah, who lived under the Law, both slain for Righteousness sake; that under them he might comprehend all the Martyrs slain in those two Periods, others Judge, that these two are named, because we read of Abels Blood crying, Gen. 4.10. and Zechariah's praying (when he dyed) That the Lord would require his Blood. For the other Question. It is but Righteous with God, to punish the sins of Parents upon their Children; and tho such Vengeance doth not ordinarily reach further than the Third and Fourth Generation, yet where succeeding Generations, go on in the same sinful Courses, it may reach further, and oft does, Isa. 65.6. I will (saith God) Recompence into their Bosom your iniquities, and the iniquities of your Fathers together. That was the Case here. They filled up the measure of their Fathers sins. Therefore Christ tells them, that Vengeance should sleep no longer, but come upon that Generation, which hapened in the utter Destruction of Ierusalem, within less than forty years after. Our Lord concludes with a Pathetical Lamentation over Ierusalem, and a further Confirmation of what he had said about their Ruin.