Matteo 23:31

31 Talchè voi testimoniate contro a voi stessi, che siete figliuoli di coloro che uccisero i profeti.

Matteo 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.

Matteo 23:31 In-Context

29 Guai a voi, Scribi e Farisei ipocriti! perciocchè voi edificate i sepolcri de’ profeti, e adornate i monumenti de’ giusti; e dite:

30 Se noi fossimo stati a’ dì de’ padri nostri, non saremmo già stati lor compagni nell’uccisione de’ profeti.

31 Talchè voi testimoniate contro a voi stessi, che siete figliuoli di coloro che uccisero i profeti.

32 Voi ancora empiete pur la misura de’ vostri padri.

33 Serpenti, progenie di vipere! come fuggirete dal giudizio della geenna?