Matteo 23:31

31 Talché voi testimoniate contro 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, perché edificate i sepolcri ai profeti, e adornate le tombe de’ giusti e dite:

30 Se fossimo stati ai dì de’ nostri padri, non saremmo stati loro complici nello spargere il sangue dei profeti!

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

32 E voi, colmate pure la misura dei vostri padri!

33 Serpenti, razza di vipere, come scamperete al giudizio della geenna?