<p>11:50 <i>So that the blood of all the prophets- </i>This stands for &lsquo;<i>judgment for</i>&nbsp;all the righteous blood shed&rsquo;. Note how language is being used here. The sin is put by metonymy for&nbsp;<i>the judgment for</i>&nbsp;the sin. Sin is its own judgment. To sin is to ask for judgment / condemnation. In this lies the utter lack of logic in any sin. And iniquity was added to their iniquity (Ps. 69:27- a specific prophecy of the Jews who killed Jesus), just as righteousness can be imputed.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p><i>Which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation</i>- &quot;Upon you&quot;, Mt. 23:35. One would&rsquo;ve expected God to be so hurt by the death of His Son that judgment came immediately upon those responsible. But instead, the Lord predicted that the judgment would come only after the Jews had further persecuted the apostles as they went out to fulfil the great preaching commission to the Jews. This apparent delay was not because God was not hurt or not angry. He was. But His patient love and desire for human repentance, to give them yet more chances, was simply greater. The delay was so that the Lord could send out the apostles to appeal to Israel for repentance. But they had been given final appeal after final appeal. And still God waited for their repentance. With what eagerness must He have watched for response to the preaching to them, and with what generous provision He would&rsquo;ve provided for all those who wished to make that appeal to the Jews. And nothing has changed to this day. The idea of blood coming upon,&nbsp;<i>epi</i>, a person clearly meant &lsquo;guilt for their death&rsquo;. Soon the Jews were to be using this very term in asking for the blood of Jesus to be &lsquo;upon&rsquo; them (Mt. 27:25). Because Jesus was the personification of God&rsquo;s prophetic word and thereby the summary of all the prophets, their desire for&nbsp;<i>His</i>&nbsp;blood to be upon them was effectively taking upon themselves the blood of the prophets.</p><p>Even in this prediction of terrible judgment there is grace. Because the AD70 judgments didn&rsquo;t come until nearly 40 years afterwards. Male lifespans in first century Palestine were estimated at an average of 29 years by J.D. Crossan, basing his research on tomb inscriptions and analysis of bones from graves. So the actual &lsquo;elders&rsquo; who were responsible for the Lord&rsquo;s death likely died in their beds rather than in the Jewish-Roman war or the final holocaust in Jerusalem. I can only explain this on the basis of God&rsquo;s grace prolonging that final coming of judgment, in the earnest hope that Israel would yet repent. In the context of AD70, this would appear to be the teaching of 2 Peter 3. We would expect those men to have fairly soon received their judgment in this life. They will be judged- at the last day. But it would seem that God&rsquo;s desire to judge them was in tension with His desire to give Israel the maximum opportunity for repentance. We can only draw a sharp breath at God&rsquo;s grace. Another approach would be to understand that the threatened judgment upon that generation simply didn&rsquo;t happen- in their lifetimes. The entire Divine program was delayed until the last days, when that generation shall be resurrected and receive their judgment. The events of AD70 were simply a foretaste and prefigurement of the final judgment at the Lord&rsquo;s second coming.</p><p>&quot;This generation&quot; is a phrase often used by the Lord concerning those who heard and dealt with Him. It is surely the same generation in view in Mt. 24:34: &ldquo;This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled&rdquo;.&nbsp;<i>This</i>&nbsp;generation is used elsewhere by the Lord concerning those right in front of Him. It is the same &ldquo;this generation&rdquo; as in Mt. 24:34. The Lord doesn&rsquo;t, therefore, mean &lsquo;The future generation which shall exist and see these things will not pass until all is fulfilled&rsquo;. He is saying that the generation,&nbsp;<i>this</i>&nbsp;generation, would not pass until all was fulfilled. The fact all wasn&rsquo;t fulfilled simply in that generation shows that there was a major delay or change in the Divine program. And the reason for the delay was not simply that Israel hadn&rsquo;t repented, but because God&rsquo;s loving patience was still awaiting their repentance- and He so wished them to repent.</p>