Luke 11:48

48 Therefore you are witnesses that you approve [a] the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their monuments. [b]

Luke 11:48 Meaning and Commentary

Luke 11:48

Truly ye bear witness, that ye allow the deeds of your
fathers
Or "ye bear witness, and ye allow"; that is, they both witnessed that their fathers killed the prophets, and they consented to what they did, and approved of their actions:

for they indeed killed them;
it must be owned, and not their sons:

and ye build their sepulchres;
which was a bearing and keeping up a testimony against them, and a continuing a remembrance of their crimes; and which looked as though they approved of them, or otherwise they should have been content to have the prophets lie buried in silence, and not erected stately monuments over them, which seemed to be raised more for the honour of those that put them to death, than of the prophets themselves. Or, whereas they did this under specious pretences of disliking their fathers' sins, which yet secretly they loved, and were of the same wicked disposition against the ministers of the word, and which they would quickly show; this discovered their hypocrisy, and confirmed the character Christ had before given of them; for it follows,

Luke 11:48 In-Context

46 Then He said: "Woe also to you experts in the law! You load people with burdens that are hard to carry, yet you yourselves don't touch these burdens with one of your fingers.
47 "Woe to you! You build monuments to the prophets, and your fathers killed them.
48 Therefore you are witnesses that you approve the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their monuments.
49 Because of this, the wisdom of God said, 'I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute,'
50 so that this generation may be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world -

Footnotes 2

  • [a]. Lit witnesses and approve
  • [b]. Other mss omit their monuments
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