Future or past event?????

I don't see how this could happen to anyone but Jews in a very strictly religious society. How else would members of a synagogue be persecuting the saints?

Tim

 

Maybe it's both. God's word is perfect in every way, maybe just maybe the past holds the keys to the future. Afterall we humans do tend to repeat the same mistakes over and over again .

 

Lea,

I know that "both" is a popular view when Christians discuss difficult prophecies. But doesn't it seem strange that when you hold that view you're assuming that synagogues could again become as powerful and wicked as they were in Christ's time? And that God would send prophets to them again? And some prophets would be crucified?

It's too deja vu all over again to me.

Tim

 

I believe Matthew 23 is past and that the destruction of the temple and all the killing that went with it were because of what Christ said in Matthew 23.

What bearing does this have on prophecy for today?

 

Be careful about the meaning of the word 'generation' here. I don't have time to give all the biblical references, but generation, today, has a much more narrow meaning than it used to. Today it refers to either those contemporaneous with one another or is a direct reference to a parent/child relationship. At least two other meanings were known in Hebrew culture. The first was somewhat similar to social class -- a particular group of people regardless of any given time. The second was a particular number of years, be it forty, seventy, one hundred, or more (depended on the context).

So when Jesus was saying that 'this generation' or 'your generation', there could be a meaning involved that we don't normally associate with the word. Since Jesus referred specifically to the Pharisees and teachers of the law here, the meaning may well include all Pharisees and teachers of the law from that time forward...

 

"But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come." -Matthew 10:23

"Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zechariah son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar." -Matthew 23:34-36

It is apparent to any serious student of the scriptures Jesus was referring to the generation in which He lived, not some generation 2,000+ years in the future as the Scofield tribe entertains. Matthew 10:23 can be readily interpreted in conjunction with Luke 20:16, "He shall come and destroy these husbandmen, and shall give the vineyard to others." Read Malachi 3.

 

Certainly the Jews used the Romans to get their "criminals" crucified. So I think we're being a little nitpicky to say it could thus not be talking about the past.

As far as the meaning of "generation", if I could see a clear instance elsewhere in Scripture where it doesn't mean the people of that time or a certain period of time, perhaps I'd be willing to concede the more general definition as a possible interpretation. But then would it still refer to "pharisees"? So pharisees will be back in power too?

Tim

 

What more needs to be said, other than to quote you, "save our precious Lord."

I think that one counts.

Tim

 

Kill: Saul of Tarsus and his Pharisee group killed Stephen. James, brother of John, was put in prison by the Jews, died.

Crucify: Peter and some other apostles or disciples in Foxes Book of Martyrs.

Scourge/Persecute: Saul of Tarsus

The Pharisees and Saducees of Jesus's generation took the brunt of the curse of verse 35. Though certainly, if we have modern-day pharisees in any evangelical camp, I'm sure Jesus will do the same to us as well.

MA

 

I think it is past. It refered to Jesus and the the Apostles and Christians after him as well as those who stood before them.

The blood that came upon them I think speaks of the fall of Jerusalem when many Jews were slaughtered and throughout the Dispora(hope I am spelling that right).

Just my two cents.

IFBReformer

 

Dr. Bob,

I do think the 'crucify' from this passage had to do specifaclly with Jesus Christ. We don't have to show any other examples. The rest could have been 'killed' as the passage indicates in many other ways such as Stephen being stoned.

IFBReformer