Matthew 23:31

31 So then ye be witnesses vnto youre selfes that ye are the chyldren of them which killed the prophetes.

Matthew 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.

Matthew 23:31 In-Context

29 Wo be vnto you Scribes and Pharises ypocrites: ye bylde the tombes of the Prophetes and garnisshe the sepulchres of the righteous
30 and saye: Yf we had bene in the dayes of oure fathers we wolde not have bene parteners with them in the bloud of the Prophetes.
31 So then ye be witnesses vnto youre selfes that ye are the chyldren of them which killed the prophetes.
32 Fulfill ye lyke wyse the measure of youre fathers.
33 Yee serpentes and generacion of vipers how shuld ye scape ye dapnacio of hell?
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