Matthäus 23:31

31 Also gebet ihr euch selbst Zeugnis, daß ihr Söhne derer seid, welche die Propheten ermordet haben;

Matthäus 23:31 Meaning and Commentary

Matthew 23:31

Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves
Or "against yourselves", as the Syriac reads; for what they said was a plain acknowledgment, and a full confession, what their fathers had done, and whose offspring they were; and from whom better things were not to be expected; since they were their fathers' own children, and of the same temper and disposition with them: that ye are the children of them that killed the prophets.
They plainly owned, that their fathers killed the prophets, and that they descended from them; though they meant not so much to reproach, their ancestors, as to give themselves a greater character; yet it did not with those, that knew them; not with our Lord: for as their own words testified against them, that they were a seed of evildoers; their practices showed them to be of the same spirit and principles with their progenitors.

Matthäus 23:31 In-Context

29 Wehe euch, Schriftgelehrte und Pharisäer, Heuchler! Denn ihr bauet die Gräber der Propheten und schmücket die Grabmäler der Gerechten und saget:

30 Wären wir in den Tagen unserer Väter gewesen, so würden wir nicht ihre Teilhaber an dem Blute der Propheten gewesen sein.

31 Also gebet ihr euch selbst Zeugnis, daß ihr Söhne derer seid, welche die Propheten ermordet haben;

32 und ihr, machet voll das Maß eurer Väter!

33 Schlangen! Otternbrut! Wie solltet ihr dem Gericht der Hölle entfliehen?