13:1 Luke linked this incident chronologically with the preceding one. Apparently messengers from Jerusalem had just arrived with news about Pilate's act. This is the usual force of the Greek verb apaggello, translated "reported"or "told."Some Galileans had been in Jerusalem offering sacrifices at the temple. This may have been at Passover since only then did non-priests offers sacrifices.318Pilate, the Roman governor of the province of Judea, may have killed them beside the altar in the temple courtyard. However the figure of speech that Luke used to describe Pilate's action permits a somewhat looser interpretation. There are no extra-biblical references to this event currently extant.
13:2-3 Many of the Jews in Jesus' day believed that tragedy or accident was the direct result of some personal sin (cf. John 9:1-3). Thus they concluded that the Galileans who had perished must have been great sinners. They based this view on a faulty theory of divine retribution (cf. Job 4:7; 8:20; 22:4-5). Jesus repudiated this theory and viewed the death of the Galileans as the consequence of sin generally. Jesus stressed the error of their view by placing the word "no"(Gr. ouchi) first in the sentence for emphasis (cf. v. 4). He then drew a conclusion. Therefore everyone needs to repent because everyone is a sinner, and all sin brings judgment.
13:4-5 Jesus reinforced His point by citing another apparently recent tragedy and repudiating the common view of judgment again. The pool of Siloam lay in the southeastern quarter of Jerusalem.319The Greek word opheiletai("culprits"or "more guilty") means debtors. The Jews used this term as a synonym for sinners (cf. Matt. 6:12; 18:24). Jesus asserted that people who experience calamities are not necessarily worse sinners than people who do not. More important all people face God's judgment unless they repent.
