Exegesis:

dia touto kai hē sophia tou theou eipen ‘therefore then the wisdom of God said.’ kai reinforces dia touto. Whether hē sophia tou theou is the title of an (unknown) book, or refers to a place in an (unknown) book, in which the personified wisdom of God speaks is uncertain. The meaning ‘God in his wisdom’ is improbable.

apostelō eis autous prophētas kai apostolous ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles.’ For apostellō cf. on 1.19. For apostolos cf. on 6.13.

kai ex autōn apoktenousin kai diōxousin ‘and (some) or them they will kill and persecute,’ or, ‘and (some) of them they will kill and (some others) they will persecute,’ preferably the latter, ex autōn stands for tinas ex autōn ‘some of them.’

diōkō ‘to run after,’ ‘to persecute.’

(V. 50) hina ekzētēthē to haima pantōn tōn prophētōn … apo tēs geneas tautēs ‘so that the blood of all the prophets will be required of this generation,’ i.e. the present generation will be charged with the crimes of the preceding generations.

ekzēteō (also v. 51) ‘to seek out,’ hence ‘to require as a debt,’ ‘to charge with.’

haima ‘blood,’ see next note.

to ekkechumenon apo katabolēs kosmou, going with haima, ‘(the blood) that has been shed since the foundation of the world.’ To shed somebody’s blood means to kill him.

katabolē ‘foundation,’ ‘beginning.’

kosmos here ‘created world,’ ‘creation.’

(V. 51) apo haimatos Habel heōs haimatos Zachariou ‘from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah,’ a specification of apo katabolēs kosmou, stating the slaying of the first and the last prophet of the Old Testament that were killed (cf. Gen. 4.1ff and 2 Chron. 24.20f, the last book in the Hebrew Bible).

tou apolomenou metaxu tou thusiastēriou kai tou oikou, going with Zachariou (Zechariah), ‘who perished between the altar and the temple building.’ The verb implies violence. For thusiastērion cf. on 1.11. Here the reference is to the altar of burnt offering in the inner forecourt of the temple in Jerusalem in front of the temple building itself (to which oikos refers). metaxu also 16.26.

nai, legō humin ‘indeed, I tell you’ (cf. on 3.8), marks the end of the quotation from the wisdom of God (v. 49) and introduces the emphatic repetition of its main words by Jesus himself. In that repetition the emphasis is on apo tēs geneas tautēs ‘of this generation.’

Translation:

The Wisdom of God said, or, ‘it is written (for which cf. 2.23) in (the) book of (i.e. called) Wisdom of God’ (Kituba), following the first interpretation. If the other interpretation is preferred, it may be unidiomatic to take an abstract noun (‘Wisdom’) as subject of ‘said’; then one may shift to something like, ‘the One called Wisdom of God said.’

I will send them. The first pronoun refers to (the Wisdom of) God, the second presumably to Israelites of preceding generations, virtually identical with “your fathers” in vv. 47f.

Apostles, or, ‘personal messengers’ (Zarma), ‘persons sent’ (Trukese, Pohnpeian), and cf. the descriptive renderings mentioned in 6.13 and references, most of which can be used also in the more general sense meant here.

Some of whom, or co-ordinated, ‘some of (or, from among) them,’ referring to the prophets and apostles.

They (same reference as “them” as in “send them”) will kill and persecute. To keep the references clear it may be better to shift to a passive construction, e.g. ‘some of whom will be killed and persecuted’ (cf. Shona 1966, some Indonesian languages), or to specify the agent, e.g. ‘those men’ (Balinese), unless this has been done already in the preceding clause. When kill and persecute are taken as having the same group as object the more logical sequence is ‘persecute and kill’ (followed e.g. in Tzeltal, Trukese, Pohnpeian); this transposition is not necessary, however, when two different groups are envisaged, as advocated in Exegesis. The verb to persecute, i.e. to pursue (or, run after) with enmity and injury, has also been rendered ‘to harass,’ ‘to maltreat’ (Bahasa Indonesia, Tzeltal).

(V. 50) That is resultative, hence in co-ordination e.g. ‘the consequences/result (of this) will be thus: ….’

The intricate pattern of the subsequent clause may require several adjustments. The agent implied in “may be required” is God, that in “blood … shed” is the preceding generations, or, the fathers. To shed (or, cause to flow) the blood of … may have to be rendered by, ‘to cause the death of,’ ‘to kill/murder,’ and the blood of … may be required of this generation by, ‘the blood of … has been avenged on…’ (Toraja-Sa’dan, Batak Toba), ‘this generation may be caused to pay for the blood/death of … (or, to pay because their fathers killed …),’ “the people of this time will be punished for the murder of…” (Good News Translation), ‘the blood of … its account may be taken from this generation’ (Marathi). When an active construction is necessary or preferable, one may say, ‘God will require (etc., as above) of this generation the blood shed (or, which their fathers shed),’ or shift to, ‘this generation will be responsible for the blood of…’; cf. also ‘the killing of…, this generation must pay(-for-it)’ (cf. Kituba).

From the foundation of the world, or, ‘from the (very) beginning of the world onward’ (cf. Trukese, Tzeltal), ‘since the world was made’ (Sranan Tongo), ‘from the oldest times onward’ (cf. Pohnpeian).

(V. 51) The first half of this verse also may better be co-ordinated and recast, e.g. ‘as the first they killed A. and as the last they killed Z., who….’

The altar. To make explicit what was implied in this expression for the original receptors one may have to add some specification, e.g. ‘in the courtyard of the temple’ (Tzeltal). Some other possible renderings are, ‘where they place the gifts to God’ (cf. Huixtec), ‘place where the (killed) gifts to God are burned.’

For sanctuary see “temple” in 1.9.

It refers to ‘the blood, or, murder, of all the prophets.’

Quoted with permission from Reiling, J. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1971. For this and other handbooks for translators see here . Make sure to also consult the Handbook on the Gospel of Mark for parallel or similar verses.