Luke 11:48

48 The tombs you build are monuments to your murdering ancestors more than to the murdered prophets.

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 He said, "Yes, and I can be even more explicit. You're hopeless, you religion scholars! You load people down with rules and regulations, nearly breaking their backs, but never lift even a finger to help.
47 "You're hopeless! You build tombs for the prophets your ancestors killed.
48 The tombs you build are monuments to your murdering ancestors more than to the murdered prophets.
49 That accounts for God's Wisdom saying, 'I will send them prophets and apostles, but they'll kill them and run them off.'
50 What it means is that every drop of righteous blood ever spilled from the time earth began until now,.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.