Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.
Parallel translations
- WEB Therefore you testify to yourselves that you are children of those who killed the prophets.
- BSB So you testify against yourselves that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets.
- NKJV “Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.
- NASB So you testify against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.
- NLT “But in saying that, you testify against yourselves that you are indeed the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.
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
By calling themselves descendants of those who killed the prophets, they testify against themselves. It turns their own words into self-condemnation.
Overview
Their claim of descent ironically admits kinship with the prophets' murderers. Jesus shows that they share not only their ancestors' lineage but their hostility to God's word. Their proud boast becomes evidence of their guilt, for they are about to do to him what their fathers did to the prophets.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- 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.
- 1 Th 2:15–16Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men:
- 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 15:5–6For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity, and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.
- Luke 19:22And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow:
- Ps 64:8So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves: all that see them shall flee away.
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Christ at the center
Matthew presents Jesus as the promised King — son of David, son of Abraham — the new Moses and true Israel in whom every prophecy reaches 'that it might be fulfilled.'
How Matthew 23:31 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
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