Matthäus 23:31

31 So gebt ihr über euch selbst Zeugnis, daß ihr Kinder seid derer, die die Propheten getötet 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 Weh euch, Schriftgelehrte und Pharisäer, ihr Heuchler, die ihr der Propheten Gräber bauet und schmücket der Gerechten Gräber
30 und sprecht: Wären wir zu unsrer Väter Zeiten gewesen, so wollten wir nicht teilhaftig sein mit ihnen an der Propheten Blut!
31 So gebt ihr über euch selbst Zeugnis, daß ihr Kinder seid derer, die die Propheten getötet haben.
32 Wohlan, erfüllet auch ihr das Maß eurer Väter!
33 Ihr Schlangen und Otterngezücht! wie wollt ihr der höllischen Verdammnis entrinnen?
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