Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.
All Commentaries on Matthew 27:25 Go To Matthew 27
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children. Let the guilt thou fearest be transferred from thee to us. If there be any guilt, may we and our posterity atone for it. But we do not acknowledge any guilt, and consequently, as not fearing any punishment, we boldly call it down on ourselves. And thus have they subjected not only themselves, but their very latest descendants, to God"s displeasure. They feel it indeed even to this day in its full force, in being scattered over all the world, without a city, or temple, or sacrifice, or priest, or prince, and being a subject race in all countries. It was, too, in punishment for Christ"s crucifixion that Titus ordered five hundred Jews to be crucified every day at the siege of Jerusalem, as they crowded out of the city in search of food, "so that at last there was no room for the crosses, and no crosses for the bodies" (Joseph. B. J. vi12). "This curse," says Jerome, "rests on them even to this day, and the blood of the Lord is not taken away from them," as Daniel foretold ( Daniel 9:27).
Strange stories are told by Cardinal Hugo of special diseases which attacked the Jews, in periodical loss of blood, etc, though Salmeron and Abulensis [Tostatus] attribute them to natural causes.
