Jesus asks this to bring a hidden assumption into the open. Barnes says that from Jesus' answer "it would appear that they supposed that the fact that these men had been slain in this manner proved that they were very great sinners." Barnes notes that why they told Him the news "can only be a matter of conjecture": it might have been to draw Him into trouble with the rulers, or simply news. Either way, Jesus' question puts the real issue on the table: does a terrible death prove a person was worse than others?

Jesus answers His own question at once: "I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3). He then gives a second example, the eighteen killed by the tower in Siloam, and asks the same kind of question (Luke 13:4). He gives the same answer word for word (Luke 13:5). The answer turns the listeners' attention from the victims to themselves.

Galilee was the northern region where Jesus grew up. Pontius Pilate was the Roman governor of Judea. Luke says Pilate had mingled the Galileans' blood with their sacrifices (Luke 13:1), which means they were killed while offering sacrifices. Gill thinks these were "very likely some of the followers of Judas Gaulonitis, or Judas of Galilee," who opposed paying tribute to Caesar, and that they were killed at Passover. Barnes says it was "doubtless an event of recent occurrence."

The Greek word for "suppose" is dokeite, "do you think" or "are you of the opinion." "Sinners above" uses para, meaning beyond or more than.

This question shows how Jesus handles suffering. He refuses to read other people's tragedies as proof of special guilt. Barnes says plainly: "The fact that men come to a sudden and violent death is not proof that they are especially wicked." Matthew Henry agrees: "We cannot judge of men's sins by their sufferings in this world," for "many are thrown into the furnace as gold to be purified, not as dross and chaff to be consumed."

But Jesus does not stop with comfort. He turns the question toward the listeners: "except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3). Barnes believes Jesus was pointing to the calamities soon to come on the nation, when "thousands perished in a way very similar to the Galileans." The parable that follows shows God's patience giving time to repent (Luke 13:6-9). In God's story, a tragedy is not a verdict on the victims but a call to everyone to turn to Him.