Luke 11:48

48 And now you show that you approve of what your ancestors did. They killed the prophets, and you build tombs for them!

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 Jesus answered, "How terrible for you, you experts on the law! You make strict rules that are very hard for people to obey, but you yourselves don't even try to follow those rules.
47 How terrible for you, because you build tombs for the prophets whom your ancestors killed!
48 And now you show that you approve of what your ancestors did. They killed the prophets, and you build tombs for them!
49 This is why in his wisdom God said, 'I will send prophets and apostles to them. They will kill some, and they will treat others cruelly.'
50 So you who live now will be punished for the deaths of all the prophets who were killed since the beginning of the world --
Scripture taken from the New Century Version. Copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.