Matthew 23:36

Jesus's solemn declaration 'verily I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation' concludes the Woes against the scribes and Pharisees and points toward the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE as the historical fulfillment of judgment. The phrase 'this generation' (hē genea hautē) has been interpreted as the contemporaries of Jesus (preterist), as the Jewish people across history (ethnic interpretation), or as the final generation before the parousia (futurist). The contextual logic strongly favors the first-century contemporaries: Matthew 23:35's 'from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias' frames accumulated covenant unfaithfulness as about to reach culmination. N.T. Wright's analysis of this passage as primarily a historical prophecy about the Jewish War (66-70 CE) has been highly influential in recent scholarship.