Matthieu 23:31

31 Ainsi vous êtes témoins contre vous-mêmes, que vous êtes les enfants de ceux qui ont tué les prophètes.

Matthieu 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.

Matthieu 23:31 In-Context

29 Malheur à vous, scribes et pharisiens hypocrites, car vous bâtissez des tombeaux aux prophètes, et vous ornez les sépulcres des justes;
30 Et vous dites: Si nous eussions été au temps de nos pères, nous n'aurions pas été leurs complices pour répandre le sang des prophètes.
31 Ainsi vous êtes témoins contre vous-mêmes, que vous êtes les enfants de ceux qui ont tué les prophètes.
32 Et vous comblez la mesure de vos pères.
33 Serpents, race de vipères, comment éviterez-vous le châtiment de la géhenne?
The Ostervald translation is in the public domain.