Homilies on Matthew — Homily 74

St. John Chrysostom

1. 0. Greeting
2. Chapter 2
3. Chapter 3
4. Chapter 4
5. Chapter 5

Woe unto you, because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish their sepulchers, and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.

Not because they build, nor because they blame the others, does He say, woe, but because, while both thus, and by what they say, they are pretending to condemn their fathers, they do worse. For in proof that the condemnation was a pretense, Luke says, you do allow because ye build; for, Woe unto you, says He, for you build the sepulchers of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. Truly ye bear witness, and you allow the deeds of your fathers, for they indeed killed them, and you build their sepulchers. [[Luke 11.47]]-48 For here He reproves their purpose, wherewith they built, that it was not for the honoring of them that were slain, but as making a show of the murders, and afraid, lest, when the tombs had perished by time, the proof and memory of such daring should fade away, setting up these glorious buildings, as a kind of trophy, and priding themselves in the daring deeds of those men, and displaying them.

For the things that you now dare to do, show that you do these things also in this spirit. For, though ye speak the contrary, says He, as condemning them, as, for instance, We should not, if we had been in their days, have been partakers with them; yet the disposition is evident wherewith ye say these things. Wherefore also unfolding it, though darkly, still He has expressed it. For when He had said, you say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we should not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets; He added, Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that you are the children of them that slew the prophets. And what blame is it to be a murderer's son, if one partake not in the mind of one's father? None. Whence it is evident, that for this same thing He brings it forward against them, hinting at their affinity in wickedness.

And this is manifest too by what comes after; He adds at least, You serpents, you generation of vipers. [[Matthew 23.33]] For as those beasts are like their parents, in the destructiveness of their venom, so also are you like your fathers in murderousness.

Then, because He was searching their temper of mind, which is to the more part obscure, He does, from those things also which they were about to perpetrate, which would be manifest to all, establish His words. For, because He had said, Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves that you are the children of them which killed the prophets, making it evident, that of their affinity in wickedness He is speaking, and that it was a pretense to say, We should not have been partakers with them, He added, Fill ye up therefore the measure of your fathers, [[Matthew 23.32]] not commanding, but declaring beforehand, what was to be, that is, His own murder.

Therefore, having brought in their refutation, and having shown that they were pre