Matthew 27 · Verse 25

Matthew 27:25

Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.
Matthew 27:25, King James Version

Matthew 27:25 in other translations

BSBAll the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!”
WEBAll the people answered, “May his blood be on us and on our children!”
ASVAnd all the people answered and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.
YLTand all the people answering said, ‘His blood is upon us, and upon our children!'
DARBYAnd all the people answering said, His blood be on us and on our children.
BBEAnd all the people made answer and said, Let his blood be on us, and on our children.
WebsterThen answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.

What does Matthew 27:25 mean?

Barnes' Notes
Verse 25. His blood be on us, etc. That is, let the guilt of putting him to death, if there be any, be on us and our children. We will be answerable for it, and will consent to bear the punishment for it. It is remarked by writers, that among the Athenians, if any one accused another of a capital crime, he devoted himself and children to the same punishment, if the accused was afterwards found innocent. So in all countries the conduct of the parent involves also the children in the consequences of his conduct, The Jews had no right to call down this vengeance on their children, but in the righteous judgment of God it has come upon them. In less than forty years their city and temple were overthrown and destroyed. More than a million of people perished in the siege. Thousands died by famine; thousands by disease; thousands by the sword; and their blood ran down the streets like water, so that, Josephus says, it extinguished things that were burning in the city, Thousands were crucified-- suffering the same punishment that they had inflicted on the Messiah. So great was the number of those who were crucified, that, Josephus says, they were obliged to cease from it, "room being wanting for the crosses, and crosses for the men." To this day, also, the curse has remained. They have been a nation scattered and peeled; persecuted almost everywhere, and a hissing and a by-word among men. No single nation probably has suffered so much; and yet they have been preserved. All classes of men; all the governments of the earth, have conspired to overwhelm them with calamity, and yet they still live as monuments of the justice of God, and as proofs, going down from age to age, that the Christian religion is true-- standing demonstrations of the crime of their fathers in putting the Messiah to death, and in calling down vengeance on their heads.

Albert Barnes, 1834 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 25 His blood be on us and on our children - If this man be innocent, and we put him to death as a guilty person, may the punishment due to such a crime be visited upon us, and upon our children after us! What a dreadful imprecation! and how literally fulfilled! The notes on chap. 24, will show how they fell victims to their own imprecation, being visited with a series of calamities unexampled in the history of the world. They were visited with the same kind of punishment; for the Romans crucified them in such numbers when Jerusalem was taken, that there was found a deficiency of crosses for the condemned, and of places for the crosses. Their children or descendants have had the same curse entailed upon them, and continue to this day a proof of the innocence of Christ, the truth of his religion, and of the justice of God.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Matthew 27:11-25

Having no malice against Jesus, Pilate urged him to clear himself, and laboured to get him discharged. The message from his wife was a warning. God has many ways of giving checks to sinners, in their sinful pursuits, and it is a great mercy to have such checks from Providence, from faithful friends, and from our own consciences. O do not this abominable thing which the Lord hates! is what we may hear said to us…

Read the full comment on Matthew 27:11-25 →

Matthew 27:25 in the original Greek

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

ΚαὶKaiAndG2532
ἀποκριθεὶςapokritheisansweringG611
πᾶςpasallG3956
ὁhotheG3588
λαὸςlaospeopleG2992
εἶπεν·eipensaid;G2036
τὸtoTheG3588
αἷμαhaimabloodG129
αὐτοῦautouof HimG846
ἐφ᾽eph᾽[be] onG1909
ἡμᾶςhēmasusG3165
καὶkaiandG2532
ἐπὶepionG1909
τὰtatheG3588
τέκναteknachildrenG5043
ἡμῶν.hēmōnof us.G3165

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Matthew 27:25

  • Joshua 2:19

    And it shall be, that whosoever shall go out of the doors of thy house into the street, his blood shall be upon his head, and we will be guiltless: and whosoever shall be with thee in the house, his blood shall be on our head, if any hand be upon him.

  • Acts 5:28

    Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.

  • Acts 7:52

    Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:

  • 1 Thessalonians 2:15-16

    Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men: Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.

  • Deuteronomy 19:10

    That innocent blood be not shed in thy land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, and so blood be upon thee.

  • Numbers 35:33

    So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are: for blood it defileth the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it.

  • Matthew 23:30-37

    And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? …

  • 1 Kings 2:32

    And the Lord shall return his blood upon his own head, who fell upon two men more righteous and better than he, and slew them with the sword, my father David not knowing thereof, to wit, Abner the son of Ner, captain of the host of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, captain of the host of Judah.

  • Psalms 109:12-19

    Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children. Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out. Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the Lord; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out. Let them be before the Lord continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth. …

  • Hebrews 10:28-30

    He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.

  • 2 Samuel 1:16

    And David said unto him, Thy blood be upon thy head; for thy mouth hath testified against thee, saying, I have slain the Lord’s anointed.

  • Ezekiel 24:7-9

    For her blood is in the midst of her; she set it upon the top of a rock; she poured it not upon the ground, to cover it with dust; That it might cause fury to come up to take vengeance; I have set her blood upon the top of a rock, that it should not be covered. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Woe to the bloody city! I will even make the pile for fire great.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
His.
21:44; 23:30-37; Nu 35:33; De 19:10,13; Jos 2:19; 2Sa 1:16; 3:28,29
1Ki 2:32; 2Ki 24:3,4; Ps 109:12-19; Eze 22:2-4; 24:7-9; Ac 5:28
Ac 7:52; 1Th 2:15,16; Heb 10:28-30
and.
Ex 20:5; Eze 18:14-32

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Matthew 27:24

    When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it.

  • Matthew 27:25

    Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.

  • Matthew 27:26

    Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.

Read all of Matthew 27

Matthew 27:25 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		Y respondiendo todo el pueblo, dijo: Su sangre sea sobre nosotros, y sobre nuestros hijos.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		Et tout le peuple, répondant, dit: Que son sang soit sur nous et sur nos enfants!
German
Elberfelder 1871		Und das ganze Volk antwortete und sprach: Sein Blut komme über uns und über unsere Kinder!
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		Et respondens universus populus, dixit: Sanguis ejus super nos, et super filios nostros.