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.
Parallel translations
- WEB So you testify and consent to the works of your fathers. For they killed them, and you build their tombs.
- KJV Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres.
- 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.
- 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, brothers, for an example of suffering and of perseverance, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
- 2 Chr 36:16but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until Yahweh’s wrath arose against his people, until there was no remedy.
- Matt 23:31Therefore you testify to yourselves that you are children of those who killed the prophets.
- Matt 21:35–38The farmers took his servants, beat one, killed another, and stoned another.
- Acts 7:51–52“You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so you do.
- Heb 11:35–38Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.
- Ezek 18:19“Yet you say, ‘Why doesn’t the son bear the iniquity of the father?’ When the son has done that which is lawful and right, and has kept all my statutes, and has done them, he shall surely live.
- Josh 24:22Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen Yahweh yourselves, to serve him.” They said, “We are witnesses.”
- Job 15:6Your own mouth condemns you, and not I. Yes, your own lips testify against you.
- Ps 64:8Their own tongues shall ruin them. All who see them will shake their heads.
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.