He said, “Woe to you lawyers also! For you load men with burdens that are difficult to carry, and you yourselves won’t even lift one finger to help carry those burdens. Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. So you testify and consent to the works of your fathers. For they killed them, and you build their tombs. Therefore also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles; and some of them they will kill and persecute, that the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zachariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary.’ Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation. Woe to you lawyers! For you took away the key of knowledge. You didn’t enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in, you hindered.”
Parallel Translations
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He said, “Woe to you lawyers also! For you load men with burdens that are difficult to carry, and you yourselves won’t even lift one finger to help carry those burdens.
Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them.
So you testify and consent to the works of your fathers. For they killed them, and you build their tombs.
Therefore also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles; and some of them they will kill and persecute,
that the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation;
from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zachariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary.’ Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation.
Woe to you lawyers! For you took away the key of knowledge. You didn’t enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in, you hindered.”
-
Then he sayde: Wo be to you also ye lawears: for ye lade men with burthens greveous to be borne and ye youre selves touche not the packes with one of youre fyngers.
Wo be to you: ye bylde the sepulchres of the Prophetes and youre fathers killed them:
truly ye beare witnes that ye alowe the dedes of youre fathers for they kylled them and ye bylde their sepulchres.
Therfore sayde the wisdome of God: I will send them Prophetes and Apostles and of them they shall slee and persecute:
that the bloude of all Prophetes which was sheed from the beginninge of the worlde maye be requyred of this generacion
from the bloud of Abell vnto the bloud of zachary which perisshed bitwene the aulter and the temple. Verely I saye vnto you: it shalbe requyred of this nacion.
Wo be to you lawears: for ye have taken awaye the keye of knowledge ye entred not in youre selves and them that came in ye forbade.
Show all 3 translations
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And he sayde, Wo be to you also, yee Lawyers: for yee lade men with burdens grieuous to be borne, and yee your selues touche not the burdens with one of your fingers.
Wo be to you: for ye builde the sepulchres of the Prophetes, and your fathers killed them.
Truely ye beare witnesse, and allowe the deedes of your fathers: for they killed them, and yee build their sepulchres.
Therefore said the wisedome of God, I wil sende them Prophets and Apostles, and of them they shall slaie, and persecute away,
That the blood of all the Prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation,
From the blood of Abel vnto the blood of Zacharias, which was slaine betweene the altar and the Temple: verely I say vnto you, it shall be required of this generation.
Wo be to you, Lawyers: for ye haue taken away the key of knowledge: ye entred not in your selues, and them that came in, ye forbade.
Cross-references (62)
- 2 Chronicles 24:20-22 (v51) The Spirit of God came on Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood above the people, and said to them, “God says, ‘Why do you…
- Matthew 23:13 (v52) “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and as a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you will…
- Isaiah 10:1 (v46) Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, and to the writers who write oppressive decrees;
- Malachi 2:7 (v52) For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of Yahweh of Armies.
- Matthew 23:2-4 (v46) saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees sat on Moses’ seat. All things therefore whatever they tell you to observe, observe and do, but…
Show all 62 cross-references
- Matthew 23:35 (v51) that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah son of…
- Luke 11:52 (v46) Woe to you lawyers! For you took away the key of knowledge. You didn’t enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in, you hindered.”
- Hebrews 11:4 (v51) By faith, Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he had testimony given to him that he was righteous, God…
- Acts 4:17-18 (v52) But so that this spreads no further among the people, let’s threaten them, that from now on they don’t speak to anyone in this name.” They…
- Genesis 4:8-11 (v51) Cain said to Abel, his brother, “Let’s go into the field.” While they were in the field, Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed…
- Zechariah 1:1 (v51) In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, Yahweh’s word came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet,…
- Luke 11:45-46 (v52) One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying this you insult us also.” He said, “Woe to you lawyers also! For you load men with…
- Acts 7:51 (v47) “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so you do.
- 1 Thessalonians 2:15 (v47) who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove us out, and don’t please God, and are contrary to all men,
- 1 John 3:12 (v51) unlike Cain, who was of the evil one, and killed his brother. Why did he kill him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s righteous.
- Genesis 9:5-6 (v50) I will surely require accounting for your life’s blood. At the hand of every animal I will require it. At the hand of man, even at the hand…
- Luke 11:45 (v46) One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying this you insult us also.”
- John 9:24-34 (v52) So they called the man who was blind a second time, and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” He therefore…
- 1 Corinthians 1:30 (v49) Because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption:
- Galatians 6:13 (v46) For even they who receive circumcision don’t keep the law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised, that they may boast in your…
- 2 Kings 24:4 (v50) and also for the innocent blood that he shed; for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and Yahweh would not pardon.
- 2 Chronicles 36:16 (v48) but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until Yahweh’s wrath arose against his people,…
- Isaiah 58:6 (v46) “Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen: to release the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free,…
- John 7:47-52 (v52) The Pharisees therefore answered them, “You aren’t also led astray, are you? Have any of the rulers believed in him, or of the Pharisees?…
- Colossians 2:3 (v49) in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.
- Hebrews 12:24 (v51) to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel.
- James 5:10 (v48) Take, brothers, for an example of suffering and of perseverance, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
- Revelation 18:20-24 (v50) “Rejoice over her, O heaven, you saints, apostles, and prophets; for God has judged your judgment on her.” A mighty angel took up a stone…
- Numbers 35:33 (v50) “ ‘So you shall not pollute the land where you live; for blood pollutes the land. No atonement can be made for the land, for the blood that…
- Matthew 21:35-38 (v48) The farmers took his servants, beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they…
- Matthew 23:29-33 (v47) “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and decorate the tombs of the righteous, and say,…
- Matthew 23:31 (v48) Therefore you testify to yourselves that you are children of those who killed the prophets.
- Luke 19:39-40 (v52) Some of the Pharisees from the multitude said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!” He answered them, “I tell you that if these were…
- Acts 5:40 (v52) They agreed with him. Summoning the apostles, they beat them and commanded them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.
- Acts 7:51-52 (v48) “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so you do. Which of the…
- 1 Corinthians 1:24 (v49) but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God;
- Ephesians 4:11 (v49) He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, shepherds and teachers;
- Psalms 9:12 (v50) For he who avenges blood remembers them. He doesn’t forget the cry of the afflicted.
- Proverbs 1:2-6 (v49) to know wisdom and instruction; to discern the words of understanding; to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice,…
- Proverbs 9:1-3 (v49) Wisdom has built her house. She has carved out her seven pillars. She has prepared her meat. She has mixed her wine. She has also set her…
- Isaiah 26:21 (v50) For, behold, Yahweh comes out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth also will disclose her…
- Jeremiah 7:28 (v51) You shall tell them, ‘This is the nation that has not listened to Yahweh their God’s voice, nor received instruction. Truth has perished,…
- Jeremiah 7:29 (v50) Cut off your hair, and throw it away, and take up a lamentation on the bare heights; for Yahweh has rejected and forsaken the generation of…
- Jeremiah 51:56 (v50) For the destroyer has come on her, even on Babylon. Her mighty men are taken. Their bows are broken in pieces, for Yahweh is a God of…
- Matthew 22:6 (v49) and the rest grabbed his servants, and treated them shamefully, and killed them.
- Matthew 23:34-36 (v49) Therefore behold, I send to you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify; and some of them you will scourge…
- Luke 24:47 (v49) and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
- Acts 1:8 (v49) But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and…
- Acts 7:57–8:1 (v49) But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears, then rushed at him with one accord. They threw him out of the city and stoned…
- Acts 8:3 (v49) But Saul ravaged the assembly, entering into every house and dragged both men and women off to prison.
- Acts 9:1-2 (v49) But Saul, still breathing threats and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked for letters from him…
- Acts 22:20 (v49) When the blood of Stephen, your witness, was shed, I also was standing by, consenting to his death, and guarding the cloaks of those who…
- Acts 26:10-11 (v49) I also did this in Jerusalem. I both shut up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, and when they…
- Hebrews 11:35-38 (v48) Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance, that they might obtain a better…
- Exodus 20:5 (v50) you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on…
- Joshua 24:22 (v48) Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen Yahweh yourselves, to serve him.” They said, “We are…
- Proverbs 8:1-12 (v49) Doesn’t wisdom cry out? Doesn’t understanding raise her voice? On the top of high places by the way, where the paths meet, she stands.…
- Ezekiel 18:19 (v48) “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…
- Luke 21:16-17 (v49) You will be handed over even by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends. They will cause some of you to be put to death. You will be…
- John 16:2 (v49) They will put you out of the synagogues. Yes, the time comes that whoever kills you will think that he offers service to God.
- Acts 12:1-2 (v49) Now about that time, King Herod stretched out his hands to oppress some of the assembly. He killed James, the brother of John, with the…
- 2 Corinthians 11:24-25 (v49) Five times I received forty stripes minus one from the Jews. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I suffered…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (19 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv47, 48, 49, 50, 52 Hypocrites honor those saints when they are dead, whom…
Hypocrites honor those saints when they are dead, whom they most cruelly persecute, when they were alive.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv46–52 46 And he said, Woe unto you also, ye…
46 And he said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.
Ver. 46. See Mat 23:4.
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.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv46, 47, 52 See Poole on "Mat 23:4".
See Poole on "Mat 23:4".
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On v47 The second crime which Christ reproves in these men,…
The second crime which Christ reproves in these men, is their grand hypocrisy, in pretending great honor to the saints departed, building their tombs, and garnishing their sepulchres, declaiming against their fathers’ impiety, that had they lived in their days, they would not have been partakers with them in their sins.
Now their hypocrisy appeared in three particulars:
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1. In that they continued in their own wickedness, and yet commended the saints departed; they magnify the saints, but multiply their sins, and instead of imitating their virtues, they content themselves with garnishing their sepulchres.
2. In professing great respect to the dead saints, and at the same time, persecuting the living. Palpable hypocrisy! And yet, as gross as it is, it prevails to this day. The church of Rome, which magnifies martyrs, canonizes saints departed, have added to their number, by shedding of their blood.
3. In taking false measures of their love to the saints departed, from their building their tombs, and garnishing their sepulchres. Whereas the best evidence of our love to them, is the imitating their virtues, and cherishing their followers. It is gross hypocrisy to pay respect to the relics of saints, and veneration to their images, and at the same time to persecute and hate their followers.
From the whole, note, 1. That the world has all along loved dead saints better than living ones. The dead saint’s example, how bright soever, is not scorching and troublesome at a distance, and he himself stands no longer in other men’s light; whereas the living saint’s example is a cutting reproof to sin and vice.
Note, 2. That there is a certain civility in human nature, which leads men to a just commendation of the dead; and to due estimation of their worth. The Pharisees here, though they persecuted the prophets while alive, yet did they pretend to a mighty veneration for their piety and virtue after they were dead, and thought no honor too great to be done unto them.
Note, 3. That it is the greatest hypocrisy imaginable to pretend to love goodness, and at the same time to hate and persecute good men. These Pharisees and lawyers pretended high to piety and religion, and at the same time killed the prophets.
Note, 4. That the highest honor we can pay to the saints departed, is not by raising monuments, and building tombs to their memory, but by a careful imitation of their piety and virtue, following the holiness of their lives, and their patience and constancy at their death.
Lastly learn, that it is a righteous thing with God to punish children for the impiety of their parents when they walk in their ungodly parents’ footsteps: upon you shall come the blood of all the prophets, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zacharias: yet must this be understood of temporal evils, not of eternal punishments; no man for his father’s sins shall lie down in everlasting burnings: as our fathers; faith will not let us into heaven, so neither will their impiety shut us into hell. At the day ofjudgement every man shall be separately considered according to his own deeds.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv46–52 Truly ye bear witness, that ye allow the deeds…
Truly ye bear witness, that ye allow the deeds of your fathers,.... Or "ye bear witness, and ye allow"; that is, they both witnessed that their fathers killed the prophets, and they consented to what they did, and approved of their actions:
for they indeed killed them; it must be owned, and not their sons:
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and ye build their sepulchres; which was a bearing and keeping up a testimony against them, and a continuing a remembrance of their crimes; and which looked as though they approved of them, or otherwise they should have been content to have the prophets lie buried in silence, and not erected stately monuments over them, which seemed to be raised more for the honour of those that put them to death, than of the prophets themselves. Or, whereas they did this under specious pretences of disliking their fathers' sins, which yet secretly they loved, and were of the same wicked disposition against the ministers of the word, and which they would quickly show; this discovered their hypocrisy, and confirmed the character Christ had before given of them; for it follows,
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv48–52 Whom they killed, ye build their sepulchres - Just…
Whom they killed, ye build their sepulchres - Just like them pretending great reverence for the ancient prophets, while ye destroy those whom God sends to yourselves. Ye therefore bear witness by this deep hypocrisy that ye are of the very same spirit with them.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv46–52 Verse 46. Ye lade men with burdens] By insisting…
Verse 46. Ye lade men with burdens] By insisting on the observance of the traditions of the elders, to which it appears, by the way, they paid no great attention themselves. See Clarke on Mt 23:4.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v52 Luk 11:52. Wo unto you, lawyers! for ye have…
Luk 11:52. Wo unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge — Ye have obscured and destroyed the true knowledge of the Messiah, which is the key both of the present and the future kingdom of heaven. Or, by your wrong interpretations of Scripture, you have filled the people with strong prejudices against the gospel, so that you not only reject it yourselves, but hinder others from receiving it. See on Mat 23:13.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv46, 47, 52 See the notes at Mat 23:4.
See the notes at Mat 23:4.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv47, 48, 49, 51, 52 Woe to you who build, &c. Not that the…
Woe to you who build, &c. Not that the building of the monuments of the prophets was in itself blameworthy, but only the intention of these unhappy men, who made use of this outward shew of religion and piety, as a means to carry on their wicked designs against the prince of prophets. (Challoner)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv46, 47, 49, 50, 51, 52 burdens grievous, &c.--referring not so much to the irksomeness…
burdens grievous, &c.--referring not so much to the irksomeness of the legal rites (though they were irksome, Act 15:10), as to the heartless rigor with which they were enforced, and by men of shameless inconsistency.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv47, 49 47. Build the sepulchres… killed them—They build sepulchres to…
47. Build the sepulchres… killed them—They build sepulchres to show how unlike they are to those who killed; whereas, in our Lord’s view, it would show that they are the moral as well as the bodily descendants of the murderers. Dr. Thomson remarks that, even now, were the apostles and Jesus himself alive, those who worship at the tombs would be ready to slay them or him.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv46, 47, 48, 49, 51, 52 46. burdens grievous to be borne] These burdens of…
46. burdens grievous to be borne] These burdens of the Oral Law became yearly more and more grievous, till they were enshrined in the boundless pedantry of ceremonialism which fills the Talmud. But even at this period they were an intolerable yoke (Act_15:10), and the lawyers had deserved the Woe pronounced by Isaiah on them “that decree unrighteous decrees, and write grievousness which they have prescribed,” Isa_10:1. “Gradus: digito uno attingere, digitis tangere, digito movere, manu tollere, humero imponere. Hoc cogebant populum; illud ipsi refugiebant.” Bengel.
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.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv46–52 (46) Ye lade men with burdens grievous to be…
(46) Ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne.—See Note on Mat_23:4.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv46, 47, 49, 50, 51, 52 Ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne,…
Ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers. Then the Lord turned to the accomplished Jerusalem scholar, and with withering emphasis pronounced upon his famous and influential order those scathing reproaches which for eighteen centuries have been the woeful inheritance of all hypocritical self-deceivers. How true was the expression, "burdens grievous to be borne," a very superficial study of the Talmud will amply show; for although even the earliest parts of that stupendous compilation were not committed to writing until some time after, yet very much of what we now peruse in those strange, weary treatises existed then in the oral tradition. which it was the life-work of scholars and pedants, like the lawyer to whom Jesus was then speaking, to learn, to expound, and to amplify; and these vexatious and frivolous ordinances which the lawyers and scribes pressed home upon the people with such urgency were often shirked and avoided by the learned and cultured scribe-class as a body.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv47, 52 Ye build the sepulchres of the prophets
Luk_11:47-48
Ye build the sepulchres of the prophets
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Building the tombs of the prophets
The Jews, whilst honouring the prophets and reproaching their fathers, were flattering themselves that they could never have done the like.
Would they not indeed? were they not at the very moment thirsting for the blood of Christ and contriving His destruction? Alas for the fatal facility with which those who are quick in discerning the faults of others can blind themselves to their own I Here was the fault of the Jews. They were the descendants of men who had persecuted and slain the prophets of God. But they themselves were ready to do the very same: they were plotting the death of the greatest Prophet, the greatest in all the signs or evidences of a prophet that had ever arisen in their land. And, nevertheless they could see well enough how wrong their fathers had been, and could join in showing honour to the righteous persons whom they had treated so ill; but it does not seem to have struck them that they were closely treading in their steps, and were about to imitate, or rather far surpass, what they so loudly condemned. But is there no lesson here for ourselves? Let us first fix attention on the singular fact, that what is admired in the dead may be execrated in the living. There was no essential difference between the preaching of Christ, which excited the fierce anger of the Jews, and that of the prophets, which had similarly displeased and irritated their fathers. In both cases the preaching was that of the necessity of repentance, and of the certainty of vengeance, if not averted through the forsaking of sin. And the Jews, in the time of our Lord, could profess a high admiration of the preachers who had pressed these truths on their fathers, though, all the while, they were full of indignation against those who laboured to press them on them selves. The same takes place in our own day and generation. Call to mind the names of martyrs, and confessors, and preachers, who, whilst they lived, drew on themselves almost universal detestation by their zeal in the publication of truth and the exposure of error. Gather opinions as to these martyrs, confessors, and preachers, and you will obtain well nigh an unqualified verdict, pronouncing them amongst the worthiest of men, ornaments to their own age, and examples to every succeeding. Open a subscription for some testimonial in their honour; and money will flow in for the building their tombs and garnishing their sepulchres, just as though there were a general anxiety to evince a sense of their worth, and of the injustice of their contemporaries. But now go on to examine what the principles were which these dead worthies upheld, what the doctrines which they published, what the practices which they denounced. And do you think you will find that these principles are in general repute, these doctrines generally esteemed, these practices generally shunned? Oh, not so. The principles are still those which excite opposition, the doctrines are disliked, the practices are cherished. And it is by the feelings entertained towards the things taught, and not by those expressed towards the dead who were their teachers, that we are to judge whether men would have joined in persecuting the prophets. I care nothing for the stately mausoleum. I have no faith in the laboured panegyric. I am not to be persuaded, because sculpture and painting may devote themselves to the representing the magnanimous dead, or poetry consecrate its richest melodies to the story of their deeds and their wrongs. If the truth for which the dead died be not beloved by the living, there is no evidence that the living would not have aided in their destruction. But we may identify our own case yet more closely with that of the Jews. There is perhaps no more common feeling than that of amazement and indignation at the treatment which our Lord received from His countrymen. If ever there moved upon the earth the Being who seemed likely to disarm all enmity, and attract towards Himself universal affection, that Being undoubtedly was Jesus of Nazareth. He had so evidently no object but that of benefiting ethers, and He gave such evidences of ability to compass this object, that we might have supposed that all classes would have eagerly welcomed Him as a Prophet and Deliverer. And the apparent improbability of the rejection of Christ may easily induce a persuasion that, had we been in the days of the Jews, we could never have shared in their crime. But how ought such passages as our text to stagger us, showing us, as they do, that the Jews equally flattered themselves that they were incapable of the sin of putting a great Prophet to death! We make no doubt that, had we been contemporary with Christ, had we beheld His miracles and listened to His preaching, we should never have been of the number of those who sought His destruction. But what is this persuasion but the very persuasion of the Jews, who sat in judgment on their fathers as slayers of the prophets, and determined that they could never have joined them in their crime, and this too at the moment when they thirsted for Christs blood, and bent themselves to compass His death? It may seem to me almost impossible that I should have conspired against Christ, that I should have helped to weave the crown of thorns and to drive the nails into His hands and His feet. But am I so unlike the Jew, is there any such radical difference between myself and the Jew, that I am warranted in believing that his wickedness could never have been mine? Ah, there is at least one point of similarity between us; and this ought to make me fearful of hastily concluding that there cannot be more. And what is this point? why, that the Jew and myself are equally ready to plead too much goodness to allow of joining in killing a prophet, My way of judging and deciding was precisely his, the reference to a crime which others committed, and determining against the possibility of any participation. And where there is the same assurance of inability to perpetrate a sin there is probably the same ability. Let us trust to no verdict of acquittal which we may be disposed to pass on ourselves after listening to that which the murderers of Christ so complacently uttered. So far, therefore, we may safely take the text, and give it as descriptive of what occurs amongst ourselves. But may we also denounce the woe which it contains? That woe is evidently denounced on account of the hypocrisy of those whose actions are described, on account of their conspiring against the living Christ, whilst joining to do honour to the murdered prophets. And is there anything parallel to this amongst ourselves? Indeed there is; for it is very easy to be indignant against those who put Jesus to death and all the while to overlook our own share in the guilty transaction. It is very easy to give up to universal execration the Roman and the Jew, and to be unmindful of the causes which brought round the Crucifixion. It is very easy to take the narrative of Christs sufferings, just as you would the narrative of some doleful occurrence that happened in a remote age, and which has little more than its sadness to give it interest with your feelings. But who slew the Lamb of God? who drove the nails? who reared the cross? Not the Roman and the Jew. These were but agents and instruments. Christ died for the sins of the world: the sins of the world were really His murderers, though they used the Roman and the Jew as His executioners. And no man regards the death of Christ under a just point of view who does not charge himself with a share in the perpetration. He who does not make himself one of the murderers can scarcely have faith in the propitiation. And who will dare to assert that he is innocent of the blood of Jesus Christ? The Son of God is now virtually crucified afresh, whenever men turn away from the Redeemer, refusing to accept the mercy which He proffers, because they will not quit the sins which He abhors. It is virtually done by every wilful act of rebellion, by unbelief, by pride, by hardness of heart, by resistance to the strivings of the Spirit, by disobedience to the precepts of the gospel. The wilful transgressor does all which he can do towards rendering necessary a second crucifixion: he commits more and more of that which crucified Christ, and therefore, so far as his own guiltiness is concerned, may literally be charged with crucifying Him again. And, over and above this, you are to consider that Christ is continually coining to the impenitent and obdurate in and through the ordinances of religion, presenting Himself to them as their Redeemer, and beseeching them to receive Him, as they would hope to escape eternal destruction. But they treat Him with contempt. He calls, but they refuse: He stretches out His hand, but they will not regard. And what is all this if not the repetition of the Jewish denial and rejection of Christ. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
Ignorance of our own depravity
The Jews may have believed and boasted themselves incapable of taking part in the killing a prophet, little suspecting that they needed only the being placed in the same circumstances as their fathers in order to their imitating their crimes. And this is but the illustration of a general truth that, whilst men are not tempted to a sin, they cannot judge whether or act they would commit it if they were. With singular propriety are we instructed to pray, Lead us not into temptation; for only temptation may be needed to our perpetrating the worst crimes that disgrace human nature. They say that the earth contains varieties of seed, and that according to concurrent circumstances is there one production at one time and another at another. And this I am sure is the case with the heart, out of which, according to Christ, proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. The seeds of all these iniquities are deposited in the heart; and a certain state, so to speak, of the moral atmosphere, or a certain combination of exciting causes, is all that is required to develop them in the practice. It does, therefore, but argue great ignorance of ourselves to suppose that this or that sin is too bad for us to commit. And the persuasion that we could not commit it is but an evidence of the likelihood of our being betrayed into the commission; for it shows a measure of self-confidence, as well as of ignorance, which God may be expected to punish by withdrawing His grace--and if that be withdrawn, where is human virtue? We are bound, as believers in Revelation, to believe that nothing of evil is beyond our power, and nothing of good within it, if we be left to ourselves, and are not acted on by an influence from above. And our only security against becoming perpetrators of crimes at whose very mention we perhaps shudder, lies in such a consciousness of our own depravity as leads to a prayerful, continual dependence on the preventing and restraining grace of God. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
The tombs of the prophets
I. THESE PHARISAIC WORTHIES DID CHEAP AND OSTENTATIOUS HOMAGE TO DEAD AND DISTANT VIRTUE. They built the tombs of the prophets, and garnished the sepulchres of the righteous. Monuments of the illustrious and pious dead were common in Jerusalem. These memorials the Pharisees held in most officious veneration, repairing, ornamenting, or building them anew. Pious acts, one might deem. Could such grave-visaged votaries be other than God-fearing men? Alas for poor human nature! A certain homage to virtue it doubtless was, this rearing of monumental honours to prophets long dead. Even in the worst of men, such acts are not without their value in testifying to a conscience within them, and a God above them. We blame not the instinct for monuments, nor need we, for it is as deep as human nature, as old as history: witness the pyramids, Assyria, Egypt, Greece, Rome. We see it in the rude stone or cairn that marks some hard-fought field, or the spot where some old mailed king grimly bit the ground. It continues to fill our squares with statues, our graveyards with sculptures, our cathedrals with storied urn and animated bust. Yea, it fills our houses with portraits and other relics of the dear departed, over whom memory contests it stoutly with the very grave, and makes it give us back the dead, even in the loveliest looks they wore. Need I add that Christianity, too, which has a true and kindly side for everything natural, has its monumental institutions? But, with all this, monumental zeal is but a cheap, and often vulgar homage. Stone memorials may be projected and erected by very stony hearts. The tomb-building rage is often symptomatic of a degenerate time, in which the nation has passed its zenith, has stopped producing heroes, and now produces only their statues, or it may be, like Jerusalem, their persecutors and killers. Illustrations of this tendency are not far to seek, though we are very far from calling ours a degenerate age. In one of our minor capitals, any visitor may find in a certain spacious street, standing in a row, the express image of royal sensuality, supported on the one side by that of political tyranny, and on the other by that of political corruption. Some years ago, twenty-five thousand pounds were subscribed to erect a statue to a public person whose only known accomplishment was railway gambling, and whose only public virtue was success. The old prophets, persecuted through life, and at last stoned out of it, did come, in a future age, to get recognition. The memory of the just is blessed, while the memory of the wicked shall rot; and thus, even from foes, the good may get posthumous instalments of the honours that await them in full measure before assembled worlds. But this homage they never get till they are fairly out of the way. A dead prophets tomb called only for the cheap surrender of a little pelf. The living prophet himself would have demanded the right hand or the right eye, the immolation of the darling lust, the consecration of the whole man. To deny due honour to the prophet, and pay mock honours to his tomb, was truly a lie in livery. So is it still. Wesley is lauded by many in our day who, were he alive, would brand him, as did even his pious contemporary Toplady, as an inveterate troubler of Israel. Why? Because Wesley is out of their way--he has ceased from troubling; and thus be whom, living, men classed among troublers, may, now that he is dead, be enrolled among the saints. Thus death or distance lends enchantment to the view. The noblest monument we can rear to a prophet, is to gather up his teachings into our experience, and reproduce his character in our life. For the real monument of the heroes and martyrs that founded Englands greatness--circumspice!--if you ask where it is, we answer, Where is it not? The true Wallace monument is not the rock-dwarfed thing which, under that name, disfigures a picturesque and memorable spot, but is seen in a nation of patriots who had the good sense to be indifferent to that structural anachronism, and who have often contributed many times its cost, in one of their cities alone, for modern patriotic objects common and dear to the United Kingdom. No tribute to such men as Watt and the Stephensons could equal that which thunders in every factory and steams on every sea.
II. THOSE PHARISEES BORE CHEAP AND OSTENTATIOUS TESTIMONY AGAINST DEAD AND DISTANT SIN. They said, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Pious men! Blushing crimson for being sons of prophet-murdering sires! Such was their profession in regard to the dead. What now was their actual practice in regard to the living? You may read it here (Luk_11:33) in the words serpents, vipers. Our Lord thereby describes them as men whose hearts were venom-bags, whose mouths were open sepulchres, whose tongues were rooted, and floated, in the poison of asps. There had already come among them a prophet, yea, and more than a prophet, even the Son of the Highest. And how did those saintly tomb-builders receive Him? It is certain that a Herod and a Herodias to John the Baptist, would have been an Ahab and a Jezebel to Elijah. Let this bring home to us the humiliating lesson of our fatal proneness to glide into the delusive persuasion that this or that sin is what we, for our parts, are wholly incapable of committing--that, though all men should fall into it, yet will not we. Where is the Bible reading youth who has not in his inexperience marvelled at Israels murmurings in the desert, and at the sad falls of some of the most eminent of the Old Testament saints? But riper views, and deeper spiritual experiences, not only correct this mistake, but let us see in the very facts we once deemed so stumbling, striking evidence of the truth and divinity of the book that records them. The holiest man will be the least disposed to declare himself incapable of this or that sin.
III. BY ALL THIS THESE PHARISEES EXPOSED AND CONDEMNED THEMSELVES (see Luk_11:30-31). In conclusion, note one thing they ought to have done, but left undone; nay, did the opposite; that of humbly owning their oneness with the prophet-killing fathers. Paradoxical as it may sound, this was the first step to standing out from their fathers crime. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)
The vanity and wickedness of honouring dead saints, and persecuting the living
I. WHAT IS HERE MEANT BY THE WISDOM OF GOD. Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, &c. In St. Matthew, our Saviour speaks this in His own name--Wherefore, behold I send unto you prophets : for which reason, some think that by the wisdom of God our Saviour here designed Himself; as if He had said, Therefore I, who am the wisdom of God, declare unto you. But this is not very probable, our Saviour nowhere else in the Gospel speaking of Himself in any such style; though St. Paul calls Him the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Others think that our Saviour here refers to some prophecy of the Old Testament to this purpose: Therefore, the Wisdom of God hath said; that is, the Holy Spirit of wisdom, which inspired the prophets in the Old Testament. But this conceit is utterly without ground, for we find no such passage. But the most plain and simple interpretation is this: Therefore hath the wisdom of God said; that is, the most wise God hath determined to send among you such messengers and holy men, and I foresee that ye will thus abuse them, and thereby bring wrath and destruction upon yourselves. And whereas our Saviour says, in St. Matthew, behold I send unto yon prophets; it is very probable He speaks in Gods name, and that it is to be understood, Behold, says God, I send unto you. By apostles is here meant all sorts of Divine messengers; for so St. Matthew expresseth it, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes; that is, several holy and excellent men, endowed with all sorts of Divine gifts.
II. WHO THIS ZACHARIAS WAS HERE MENTIONED BY OUR SAVIOUR.
III. IN WHAT SENSE, AND WITH WHAT REASON AND JUSTICE IT IS HERE THREATENED, THAT THE BLOOD OF ALL THE PROPHETS AND RIGHTEOUS MEN, SHED FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD, SHOULD BE REQUIRED OF THAT GENERATION.
1. That it hath been the lot of holy and righteous men, in most ages of the world, to meet with very bad usage, to be persecuted and slain. The devil began this work early.
2. We may observe likewise, hence, how great a sin they are guilty of who persecute the righteous, and how terrible a vengeance from God waits on them.
3. From this whole passage of our Saviour, which I have been explaining to you, we may learn how vain it is for men to pretend to honour the dead saints, when they persecute the living. (Archbishop Tillotson.)
The worlds treatment of its guides
Hannibal, the Carthaginian conqueror, when sailing from Italy to Carthage, suspected his pilot of treachery, and when the latter told him that a high mountain which appeared in the distance was a promontory of Sicily, believing himself imposed upon, he killed him on the spot, but afterwards buried him splendidly, and called the promontory by his name. Thus he illustrated the way of the world with its true prophets.
Unique tombs
The tombs of Egypt are among the grandest and most striking of its monuments. The pyramids were tombs, and they are still wonders of the world. The rock-hewn sepulchres, however, which surround the pyramids, and which dot the mountain gorges of Thebes and Bene-Hassan, are now probably the most instructive. Their chambers are so many museums, containing not merely the embalmed remains, but, on the inscribed and sculptured walls, the whole history of the mighty dead. Nothing is overlooked or forgotten that would throw light on their lives and labours. In this way we have a most vivid picture of ancient Egypt; the victories of kings; processes in law courts; the building of cities; the hewing and transport of colossal statues and obelisks; the embalming of the dead; funeral rites and processions; marriage ceremonies; every department of household work and family life, such as cooking, washing, dressing, shaving the head and beard, eating; trades of all kinds--goldsmiths, painters, potters, glass-blowers, bakers, weavers; games and amusements--jugglers, music, dancing; tilling the soil; irrigating the fields; feeding andmilking cows; watering flax, reaping, threshing, grinding--all these and many other things are delineated with singular, and not unfrequently amusing, minuteness of detail. In examining those unique tombs one can study the manners and customs, the private life and public acts, the religious rites and ceremonies, the features and dress of those who lived in cottage and palace in that country from three to four thousand years ago, with almost as much advantage as if he had lived among them. The perfect preservation of the paintings and papyri is astonishing. In this Western land of rain and frost half a century of neglect would destroy them; hut in Upper Egypt rain and frost are unknown. The dry and equable climate is the grand curator; and this has been materially assisted by the desert sand, which has partially covered some of the monuments, and for long ages hermetically sealed many of the finest tombs. The figures and brilliant colouring on the walls, and written characters upon the papyrus have been thus preserved as fresh as if only finished yesterday. Looking at them one can scarcely believe that their age has to be reckoned by thousands of years. (Cassells Family Magazine.)
Costly posthumous offerings
At the entrance are two sentry-box looking constructions with glass windows. These are lamps kept perpetually lighted, the flame not having been allowed to die out for many years. The sanctum is very splendid, the roofs and walls being lined with gold brocade, and the frames of the door inlaid with carved ivory. The air is oppressive with the perfume of flowers and spices. Flowers especially are a favourite offering at Buddhas shrine, and are always present in great profusion. On one occasion no less than 6,480,320 flowers were counted at the shrine, and it is recorded that in the fifteenth century a royal devotee sent 100,000 flowers a day for a considerable time, and each day the flowers were of a different kind. The karundua, or vessel containing the tooth, stands covered on a table of massive silver, richly chased, in the midst of a profusion of valuable articles of jeweilery, which are either relies or offerings. The most beautiful in the collection is a bird with wings spread. It is formed entirely of diamonds, rubies, blue sapphires, &c., set in gold, which is hid by a profusion of gems. While we were all admiring this magnificent offering, the priests or monks removed several folds of muslin from the karundua, and discovered a sort of dome of gilded silver, about five feet high, studded with a few gems. When this was removed, another was found underneath, made of beautifully carved gold. This was festooned with jewelled chains, and literally incrusted with all the glittering gems for which Ceylon is so celebrated--sapphires and emeralds of extraordinary size, cats eyes (much prized), rubies, amethysts, and pearls. Another similar covering, and still another, were taken off, when at last was reached a small case of gold, covered externally with rubies, emeralds, and diamonds, in which, resting on the leaves of a gold lotus, was the tooth itself. (Cassells Family Magazine.)
The hypocrisy of posthumous honours
I never saw the honours of this world in their hollowness and hypocrisy so much as I have seen them within the last few days, as I have been looking over the life and death of that wonderful man just departed, Charles Sumner. Now that he is dead the whole nation takes off the hat. The flags are at half-mast and the minute-guns on Boston Common throb, now that his heart has ceased to beat. Was it always so? While he lived, how censured of legislative resolutions, how caricatured of the pictorials, how charged with every motive mean and ridiculous; how, when struck down in Senate-chamber, there were hundreds of thousands of people who said, Good for him, served him right! O Commonwealth of Massachusetts I who is that man that sleeps to-night in your public hall, covered with garlands and wrapped in the stars and stripes? Is that the man whom, only a few months ago, you denounced as the foe of Republican and Democratic institutions? Is that the same man? You were either wrong then or you are wrong now--a thing most certain, O Commonwealth of Massachusetts! When I see a man like that pursued by all the hounds of the political kennel so long as he lives, and then buried under garlands almost mountain high, and amid the lamentations of a whole nation, I say to myself, What an unutterably hypocritical thing is all human applause and all human favour! You took twenty-five years in trying to pull down his fame, and now you will take twenty-five years in trying to build his monument. You were either wrong then, or you are wrong now. My friends, was there ever a better commentary on the hollowness of all earthly favour? (Dr. Talmage.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v49 The last woe and its effect:
The last woe and its effect:
v. 49. Therefore also said the Wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute;
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v. 50. that the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation,
v. 51. from the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the Temple. Verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.
v. 52. Woe unto you, lawyers! For ye have taken away the key of knowledge; ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.
v. 53. And as He said these things unto them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge Him vehemently, and to provoke Him to speak of many things,
v. 54. laying wait for Him, and seeking to catch something out of His mouth, that they might accuse Him.
Jesus here revealed to the lawyers the counsel of God; for He Himself, the personal Wisdom, was the representative of the council of the Trinity. The children had inherited the character, the evil disposition, of their fathers, and therefore the iniquity of the fathers was visited upon the children. The blood of all the righteous people and of all the prophets since the beginning of the world, from the blood of Abel, the son of Adam, to the blood of Zechariah, 2Ch 24:20-21, would be required at the hands of the present generation. Most solemn and impressive is the prophecy of Jesus, which was fulfilled so terribly in the destruction of the city. The Jews of the time of Jesus had received a greater measure of God’s mercy than the Jews of old. They had seen and heard the Messiah Himself, and would have an opportunity to hear also the apostles. But their hatred and bloodthirstiness was even greater than that of their fathers; they utterly despised and rejected God’s visitation of grace. What a warning to them that despise the preaching of the Gospel in our days! And still Jesus continues His rebuke. The lawyers had taken away the key of understanding of Scriptures. The words of prophecy concerning the Messiah were so plain that the people might have gained the proper understanding themselves, if they had been permitted to study without hindrance. But here the teachers stepped in with their false, carnal interpretation of the Bible and deprived the people of the knowledge of salvation. They themselves did not enter, and they hindered such as were anxious to enter. How like the sectarian teachers of our days, especially among the Papists!
Small wonder that the scribes and Pharisees began to be very angry at the Lord. wherever they could, they plied Him with crafty questions, in the hope that He would give ill-considered answers. They were literally lying in wait, assiduously watching every word out of His mouth, in order to find some reason for accusing Him. That is the hatred which the truth, and he that speaks the truth, must expect at all times. The example of Christ is encouraging.
Summary.Jesus gives His disciples a lesson in prayer, casts out a dumb devil, and rebukes the Pharisees, issues a warning to all the Jews, and utters a series of woes against the Pharisees and lawyers.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv47, 49, 52 So you are witnesses and you consent
So you are witnesses and you consent
Jesus is rebuking the Pharisees and teachers of the law. They know about the murder of the prophets, but do not condemn their ancestors for killing them. AT: "So, rather than denouncing them, you confirm and agree" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
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translationWords
woe
prophet
grave
testimony
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv46, 48, 49, 51, 52 11:46 unbearable religious demands: This refers to the oral…
11:46 unbearable religious demands: This refers to the oral tradition with all its intricate details on living according to torah (God’s instruction in the books of Moses). The oral tradition placed a great burden upon the Jewish people.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.