Matthew 23:31

Mat 23:31. Μαρτυρεῖτε, ye bear witness) sc. by your deeds, Mat 23:29, by your words, Mat 23:30.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat 23:31 . ὥστε , with indicative expressing result = therefore. ἑαυτοῖς , to and against yourselves. Jesus reads more meaning into their words than they intended: “our fathers”; yes! they are your fathers, in spirit as well as in blood.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Verse 31. Ye be witnesses] Ye acknowledge that ye are the children of those murderers, and ye are about to give full proof that ye are not degenerated.

There are many who think that, had they lived in the time of our Lord, they would not have acted towards him as the Jews did. But we can scarcely believe that they who reject his Gospel, trample under foot his precepts, do despite to the Spirit of his grace, love sin, and hate his followers, would have acted otherwise to him than the murdering Jews, had they lived in the same times.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(31) Ye be witnesses unto yourselves.—Their words were true in another sense than that in which they had spoken them. They were reproducing in their deeds the very lineaments of those fathers whom they condemned.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

31. witnesses unto yourselves] You call yourselves children, and indeed you are children of those who slew the prophets. You inherit their wickedness in compassing the death of the Prophet of the Lord.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Of their sins; for there were bounds and limits set how far they should proceed, and no further; as yet they had not got to the end of their iniquity: their fathers had gone great lengths in sin, but their iniquity was not yet full, as is said of the Amorites, Gen 15:16 these their sons were to fill it up. They had shed the blood of many of the prophets; and indeed there were none of them but they had persecuted and abused, in one shape or another: some they entreated shamefully, others they beat: some they stoned, and others they put to death with the sword, or otherwise; and now their children were about to fill the measure brimful, by crucifying the Son of God, which they were at this time meditating and contriving; and by persecuting and slaying his apostles, and so would bring upon them the vengeance of God. The Jews well enough understood these words, which were spoken to them in an ironical way, and expressing what they were about, and what they would hereafter do, and what would be the issue and consequence of it: they have a saying (o), that "the holy blessed God does not take vengeance on a man,

, "until his measure is filled up"; according to Job 20:22.

Which the Chaldee paraphrase renders,

"when his measure is filled up, then shall he take vengeance on him;

and that this is Christ's sense, appears from what follows,

(o) T. Bab. Sota, fol. 9. 1.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

31 Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.

Ver. 31. Wherefore ye be witnesses, &c.] Here our Saviour casts all their cost in their teeth, as if thereby they had meant to commend their fathers’ cruelty in killing the prophets, since they abetted it by persecuting him and his to the death. Malice is commonly hereditary, and runs in the blood; and (as we use to say of runnet) the older it is, the stronger; as in the deadly feud of Scotland taken away by King James.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ye be witnesses unto yourselves - The emphasis, here, lies in the words “to yourselves.” It is an appeal to their conscience. It was not by their building the tombs that they were witnesses that they were the children of those who killed the prophets; but that, in spite of all this pretence of piety, under all this cloak of profession, they knew in their consciences, and were witnesses to themselves, that it was mere hypocrisy, and that they really approved the conduct of those who slew the prophets.

Children of them ... - Resembling them; approving their conduct; inheriting their feelings. See the notes at Mat 1:1. They not only showed that they were descended from them, but that they possessed their spirit, and that, in similar circumstances, they would have done as they did.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

You (saith our Lord) confess that you are lineally descended from those who killed the prophets: you have not only their blood communicated to you, but their spirit; your behaviours and carriages towards me and my disciples have witnessed, and will yet further testify, that you are the children of those who killed the prophets in a moral as well as a natural sense; you inherit the same spirit, and are full of the same malice and rancour. They killed them, and you bury them: seeing there is no reclaiming you, go you on, fill up the measure of your fathers’ sins. There is something more to be added to make the iniquity of this nation full. You are a company of serpents, vipers, that cannot escape the damnation of hell.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ye be witnesses unto yourselves. By busying yourselves about adorning the tombs of the prophets slain by your ancestors, you show your descent and the spirit which animates you. Ye are the children; ye are sons. They were true sons of their fathers, inheriting their murderous instincts, following their steps. Like father, like son. They inherited and put in practice the same false principles which led their ancestors astray.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Wherefore ye testify against yourselves - By your smooth words as well as devilish actions: that ye are the genuine sons of them who killed the prophets of their own times, while they professed the utmost veneration for those of past ages. From the 3rd to the 30th is exposed every thing that commonly passes in the world for religion, whereby the pretenders to it keep both themselves and others from entering into the kingdom of God; from attaining, or even seeking after those tempers, in which alone true Christianity consists. As,

1. Punctuality in attending on public and private prayer, ver. 4-14. Matt. xxiii, 4-14

2. Zeal to make proselytes to our opinion or communion, though they have less of the spirit of religion than before, ver. 15.

3. A superstitious reverence for consecrated places or things, without any for Him to whom they are consecrated, ver. 16-22.

4. A scrupulous exactness in little observances, though with the neglect of justice, mercy, and faith, ver. 23, 24.

5. A nice cautiousness to cleanse the outward behaviour, but without any regard to inward purity, ver. 25, 26.

6. A specious face of virtue and piety, covering the deepest hypocrisy and villany, ver. 27, 28.

7. A professed veneration for all good men, except those among whom they live.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

31. Wherefore ye be witnesses … children of them which killed the prophets. They demonstrated by their hostility to Christ, by their plots and false charges, and would soon show by their murder of the Lord, that they had just the same spirit as their fathers who slew Isaiah, persecuted Jeremiah, and shed the blood of Zacharias between the altar and the temple. They were therefore their spiritual children as well as their descendants. It adds to the vividness of this denunciation that from the temple area where they were standing the crest of Olivet rose distinctly at the distance of half a mile, and upon it were clearly visible the white sepulchers of the prophets which they had rebuilded, among them the tomb of Zacharias, who is named just below as slain between “the temple and the altar.”

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

31. μαρτυρεῖτε ἑαυτοῖς. You call yourselves children, and indeed you are children of those who slew the prophets. You inherit their wickedness in compassing the death of the Prophet of the Lord. See note ch. Mat 3:7.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

31. So that you bear witness to yourselves, that ye are the descendants of those who killed the prophets.] Luk 11:48 has: “Therefore ye are witnesses, and consent to the deeds of your fathers: for they killed them, but ye build (their sepulchres).” “By so saying, you bear witness to the murder-taint in your blood.”

(L)

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.