Matthew 23:35 so that upon you will fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.
† Jesus declares that Jerusalem carries the guilt for the entire history of prophetic bloodshed. Abel was the first righteous man murdered, and Zechariah was among the last in the Old Testament record. Jesus gathers all covenant blood into one indictment aimed at first century Jerusalem.

Matthew 23:36 Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
† Jesus gives the timing. Not a future age, not a future nation, but the very generation He was speaking to. This ties the judgment directly to the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70.

† Jesus was saying that the generation He was in would take the fall for killing the prophets. What generation? Answer this first century generation, not that 21st century generation.

Matthew 23:37 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who have been sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.
† Jesus laments Jerusalem's long pattern of rejecting God's messengers. This confirms the continuity of guilt stretching from the earliest prophets to Jesus Himself.

† Jesus identifies Jerusalem as Babylon and guilty of all the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth. You can't have all the righteous bloodshed in two separate entities. Babylon is Old Covenant Jerusalem. This will not happen in the 21st century.

Luke 11:49-51 Therefore also the wisdom of God said, I will send to them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and some of them they will persecute, so that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house of God, yes, I tell you, it shall be charged against this generation.
† Luke gives the parallel statement confirming the same audience, the same guilt, and the same first century fulfillment. Abel to Zechariah brackets the entire prophetic history. Jesus assigns all of it to His generation.

Revelation 17:6 And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered greatly.
† The harlot city is identified by her crimes. She is drunk with the blood of prophets and saints, the same guilt Jesus laid on Jerusalem. No other city in scripture matches this identity.

Revelation 18:24 And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all who have been slain on the earth.
† This verse seals it. The same promise Jesus made in Matthew 23 is repeated: all prophetic blood is found in one city. Revelation doesn't divide prophetic guilt between two entities. It confirms Jesus' declaration.

Revelation 17:6 was referenced above.
† This reinforces that Revelation's Babylon is the same Jerusalem Jesus condemned.

Revelation 11:8 and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.
† Revelation identifies the city without ambiguity: the place where the Lord was crucified. That is Jerusalem. The symbolic names underline its covenant corruption.

Revelation 18:20-24
† Heaven and the apostles are told to rejoice over the downfall of the persecuting city because she was guilty of the blood of the prophets and the saints. This corresponds perfectly with Jesus' statements.

Genesis 4
† Abel's blood cries from the ground, marking the first righteous martyr. Jesus intentionally starts the prophetic bloodline here.

2 Chronicles 24:20-22
† Zechariah is murdered in the temple court, marking the last martyr in the Hebrew canon. Jesus intentionally ends the prophetic bloodline here.

Fulfilled commentary

† Jesus places the entire weight of prophetic bloodshed on one location and one generation. Beginning with Abel in Genesis and ending with Zechariah, Jesus shows the unified testimony of covenant rebellion. Jerusalem stood as the city that rejected, persecuted, and murdered God's messengers. The guilt was cumulative and now reached its climax in His generation.

† The use of the word "this" is direct, immediate, and unbreakable. Jesus wasn't pointing to a distant people thousands of years later. He was speaking face to face with the leadership of Jerusalem. The entire context of Matthew 23 demands a first century fulfillment, the very audience Jesus confronts in the Temple.

† Revelation confirms the same identity. The great city that kills the prophets is called Babylon. Revelation 11:8 says it's the city where the Lord was crucified, removing all doubt. There's only one city in all of scripture that kills the prophets and crucifies Christ. Old Covenant Jerusalem is Babylon, the harlot, the persecutor of the saints.

† When Jesus says all these things will come upon this generation, He anchors the timing of the judgment. It's not symbolic, it's not stretched out for millennia, and it's not waiting for a modern nation in the 21st century. The guilt was theirs, the judgment was theirs, and the fulfillment was theirs.

Historical references

† Justin Martyr wrote about the Jews killing the prophets and rejecting the Messiah, confirming Jesus' accusation in Matthew 23. He said Jerusalem was judged for shedding righteous blood.

† Irenaeus described the Jews as the persecutors of the prophets and identified their rejection of Christ as the climax of their rebellion, matching Jesus' condemnation on that generation.

† Eusebius recorded in detail the long history of Jerusalem killing the prophets, rejecting God's messengers, and finally crucifying the Lord, then connected the destruction of Jerusalem with Matthew 23 and 24.

† Tertullian repeatedly charged Jerusalem with the blood of the prophets, showing that early Christians universally understood Jesus' words to apply to first century Israel, not a future nation.

† Clement of Alexandria taught that Israel constantly rejected those sent to her and that the judgment Jesus spoke of was fulfilled in the downfall of Jerusalem.

† Barnabas explained that the Jews persecuted all the prophets and killed the Lord, bringing the judgment that Jesus warned would fall on this generation.

† Lactantius wrote that Israel was guilty of shedding righteous blood from Abel forward, echoing Jesus' statement that all such guilt would culminate in the generation that rejected Christ.

† Josephus, Wars of the Jews, gives the historical eyewitness account of the same generation Jesus condemned, showing their violence, corruption, prophetic rejection, and final destruction exactly as Jesus foretold.

How it applies to us today

† We're not waiting for another Babylon to rise. We're living in the fulfilled kingdom Jesus established after the fall of the Old Covenant world. The crisis that Jesus pronounced on Jerusalem is past. The guilt He placed on that generation isn't transferred to ours.

† The New Jerusalem is our present reality. We're not under the covenant of death and condemnation. We're living in the age where God dwells with His people without separation.

† This is the fulfilled perspective we proclaim at Fulfilled Prophecies †
© Fulfilled Prophecies - Dan Maines.

Source index

† Matthew 23:35-37, Luke 11:49-51, Revelation 17:6, Revelation 18:24, Revelation 11:8, Revelation 18:20-24, Genesis 4, 2 Chronicles 24:20-22
† Josephus Wars 5-6