Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres.
Parallel translations
- WEB So you testify and consent to the works of your fathers. For they killed them, and you build their tombs.
- BSB So you are witnesses consenting to the deeds of your fathers: They killed the prophets, and you build their tombs.
- NKJV In fact, you bear witness that you approve the deeds of your fathers; for they indeed killed them, and you build their tombs.
- NASB So you are witnesses and you approve of the deeds of your fathers; because it was they who killed them, and you build their tombs.
- NLT But in fact, you stand as witnesses who agree with what your ancestors did. They killed the prophets, and you join in their crime by building the monuments!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Jesus says they testify to and approve their fathers' deeds, killing the prophets while building their tombs. They share in the guilt of rejecting God's messengers.
Overview
By honoring the slain prophets yet sharing their fathers' unbelief, they consent to the murders. The tomb-building becomes evidence against them, not for them. This generation will climax such opposition by rejecting and crucifying the Lord of the prophets himself.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Jas 5:10Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.
- 2 Chr 36:16But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, till there was no remedy.
- Matt 23:31Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.
- Matt 21:35–38And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another.
- Acts 7:51–52Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
- Heb 11:35–38Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:
- Ezek 18:19Yet say ye, Why? doth not the son bear the iniquity of the father? When the son hath done that which is lawful and right, and hath kept all my statutes, and hath done them, he shall surely live.
- Josh 24:22And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen you the LORD, to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses.
- Job 15:6Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I: yea, thine own lips testify against thee.
- Ps 64:8So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves: all that see them shall flee away.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Luke shows Jesus the Savior for all — outsiders, the poor, the nations — the one who, on the Emmaus road, opened all the Scriptures to show they were about himself.
How Luke 11:48 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.