MATTHEW 23:31 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.”
Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. The self-witness of the tomb-building: the very act of claiming descent from the prophets' murderers while claiming to be different witnesses against them. They are sons of those who murdered the prophets — and the next verses will show that the apple has not fallen far from the tree.
Church Fathers on Matthew 23:31
By a most subtle syllogism He proves them to be the sons of murderers, while to gain good character and reputation with the people, they build the sepulchres of the Prophets whom their fathers put to death.
Without just cause He seems to utter denunciations against those who build the sepulchres of the Prophets; for so far what they did was praiseworthy; how then do they deserve this 'woe'?
He does not blame them for building the sepulchres, but discovers the design with which they built them; which was not to honour the slain, but to erect to themselves a triumphal monument of the murder, as fearing that in process of time the memory of this their audacious wickedness should perish.
Read all 9 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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