Luke 11:45

Then answered one of the lawyers, and said unto him, Teacher, thus saying you reproach us also.
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Ambrose of Milan

AD 397
This is a good answer to the foolish superstition of the Jews, who in building the tombs of the prophets condemned the deeds of their fathers, but by rivaling their fathers 'wickedness, throw back the sentence upon themselves. For not the building but the imitation of their deeds is looked upon as a crime. Therefore He adds, Truly you bear witness that you allow The wisdom of God is Christ. The words indeed in Matthew are, Behold I send to you prophets and wise men. Those also are even now condemned under the name of Jews, and made subject to future punishment, who, while usurping to themselves the teaching of divine knowledge, both hinder others, and do not themselves acknowledge that which they profess.

Ambrose of Milan

AD 397
It is also a good argument against the vainest superstition of the Jews, who by building the tombs of the prophets condemned the actions of their ancestors. Then, by imitating their ancestors’ actions, they turned the judgment back on themselves. By building the tombs of the prophets, they accused those who had killed them of their crime. By the imitation of similar acts, they declared themselves heirs of their ancestors’ iniquity. Not the building but the imitation is an offense. Those who by crucifying the Son of God added a crime worse than their ancestors’ wrongdoing cannot be absolved of their hereditary wickedness. He fittingly added elsewhere, “Fill up then the measure of your fathers,” because there is no worse sin that they can commit than the assault on God. Wisdom sends the apostles and the prophets to them. Who is Wisdom if not Christ? Exposition of the Gospel of Luke–.

Athanasius the Apostolic

AD 373
Now if they kill, the death of the slain will cry out the louder against them; if they pursue, they send forth memorials of their iniquity, for flight makes the pursuit of the sufferers to redound to the great disgrace of the pursuers. For no one flees from the merciful and gentle, but rather from the cruel and evil-minded man. And therefore it follows, That the blood of all the prophets who have been slain from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation.
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Augustine of Hippo

AD 430
But the key of knowledge is also the humility of Christ, which they would neither themselves understand, nor let be understood by others. Now all these things Matthew records to have been said after our Lord had come into Jerusalem. But Luke relates them here, when our Lord was yet on His journey to Jerusalem. From which they appear to me to be similar discourses, of which Matthew has given one, Luke the other.
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Basil the Great

AD 379
This word woe, which is uttered with pain intolerable, is suited to those who were shortly after tobe cast out into grievous punishment
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Bede

AD 735
In what a grievous state is that conscience, which hearing the word of God thinks it a reproach against itself, and in the account of the punishment of the wicked perceives its own condemnation. Now they are rightly told that they would not touch the burdens of the Law even with one of their fingers, that is, they fulfill not in the slightest point that law which they pretend to keep and transmit to the keeping of others, contrary to the practice of their fathers, without faith and the grace of Christ. They pretended indeed, in order to win in the favor of the multitude, that they were shocked at the unbelief of their fathers, since by splendidly honoring the memories of the prophets who were slain by them they condemned their deeds. But in their very actions they testify how much they coincide with their fathers' wickedness, by treating with insult that Lord whom the prophets foretold. Hence it is added, Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, an...

Cornelius a Lapide

AD 1637
Then answered one of the lawyers, and said unto Him, Master, thus saying Thou reproachest us also. ύβζίζεις, blamest or dishonourest. Thou accusest us, and that openly, of much wickedness. But Christ exposed the wickedness of the Scribes, not to disgrace them, but to lead them to amend their lives; or, if that were impossible, to prevent others from following their evil example. So S. Cyril says, "To be convicted of error is to the proud intolerable, but to the humble a great means of advancement." Bede: How wretched is that conscience which thinks itself insulted whenever it may happen to hear the word of God." Yet even now the wicked, when a preacher attacks vices which they are conscious of committing, think themselves aggrieved and persecute the man who warns them of their sin.

Cyril of Alexandria

AD 444
A reproof which exalts the meek is generally hateful to the proud man. When therefore our Savior was blaming the Pharisees for transgressing from the right path, the body of Lawyers were struck with consternation. Hence it is said, Then answered one of the lawyers, and said to him, Master, thus saying you reproach us also. But Christ brings a severe charge against the Lawyers, and subdues their foolish pride, as it follows, And he said, Woe to you also, you Lawyers, for you lade men He brings forward an obvious example for their direction. The Law was burdensome to the Jews as the disciples of Christ confess, but these Lawyers binding together legal burdens which could not be borne, placed them upon those under them, taking care themselves to have no toil whatever. Having then condemned the burdensome dealing of the Lawyer, He brings a general charge against all the chief men of the Jews, saying, Woe to you who build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. Although the...

Cyril of Alexandria

AD 444
We consider that the key of knowledge means the law itself, and by faith in him, I mean justification in Christ. Although the law was in shadow and type, yet those types show to us the truth, and those shadows depict to us in many ways the mystery of Christ. A lamb was sacrificed according to the law of Moses. They ate its flesh. They anointed the lintels with its blood and overcame the destroyer. The blood of a mere sheep could not turn away death. Christ was typified under the form of a lamb. He endures to be the victim for the life of the world and saves by his blood those who are partakers of him. One might mention many other instances as well, by means of which we can discern the mystery of Christ sketched out in the shadows of the law. When speaking to the Jews, he once said, “There is one that accuses you, even Moses, whom you trusted. For if you had believed Moses, you should have also believed me, because he wrote of me.” “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in t...

Cyril of Alexandria

AD 444
What wicked act were they guilty of in building the tombs of the saints? Were they not rather doing them a distinguished honor? What doubt can there be of this? It is necessary to see what Christ teaches us. From time to time, the ancestors of the Jews put to death the holy prophets who were bringing them the word of God and leading them into the right way. Their descendants, acknowledging that the prophets were holy and venerable men, built tombs over them, as bestowing on them an honor suitable to the saints. Their ancestors murdered them, but they, believing that they were prophets and holy men, became the judges of those who murdered them. By determining to pay honor to those who were killed, they accused the others of doing wrong. They, who condemned their ancestors for such cruel murders, were about to become guilty of equal crimes and commit the same, or rather more abominable, offenses. They murdered the Prince of life, the Savior and Deliverer of all. They also added to their ...

Cyril of Alexandria

AD 444
The Savior of all was rebuking the Pharisees as men who were wandering far from the right way and fallen into unbecoming practices.… The band of wicked lawyers was indignant at these things, and one of them stood up to contradict the Savior’s declarations. He said, “Teacher, in saying these things, you reproach us also.” … These men subject themselves to blame. Rather, the force of truth showed that they were liable to the same accusations as the Pharisees and were of one mind with them. They are partners of their evil deeds if they consider that what Christ said to the others was spoken also against them. Commentary on Luke, Homily

Ephrem The Syrian

AD 373
He said, “That all the blood of the just may come on you,” because they killed the Avenger of the righteous ones’ deaths. The vengeance for their deaths is sought from their hands. One who kills the judge is indeed a friend of murderers, because in killing the judge, he has suppressed vengeance and opened the way for murderers. The Lord also said, “From the blood of Abel, the righteous one, to the blood of Zechariah,” and not only until then but even until this day. Although still among them, he did not avenge his own blood until after they killed him, lest they say that it had been predetermined that he do this. He pronounced the sentence of judgment in relation to the righteous who had gone before, so that they might respect the righteous who were to follow. He gave them an opportunity to do penance for having put him to death, although according to the law, there could be no opportunity for repentance for one who murders the prophets. The law says, “Let the one who kills die,” and n...

Ephrem The Syrian

AD 373
Woe to you, lawyers, because you have hidden the keys! That is, because they had hidden the knowledge of our Lord’s manifestation which was in the prophecies. If our Lord is the door, as he has said, it is clear that the keys of knowledge belong to him. The scribes and Pharisees did not want to enter through this door of life, in keeping with what he had said, “See, the kingdom is among you.” [He was referring to] himself, for he was standing in their midst. Commentary on Tatian’s Diatessaron
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George Leo Haydock

AD 1849
Then one of the lawyers Correction, which turns to the advantage of the meek, appears always more intolerable to the wicked. Christ denounces woes against the Pharisees for deviating from the right path, and the doctors of the law found them equally applicable to themselves. (St. Cyril in St. Thomas Aquinas) How miserable is the conscience which, upon hearing the word of God, thinks itself insulted, and always hears the punishment of the reprobate rehearsed as the words of its own condemnation. (Ven. Bede)
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Greek Expositor

AD 1000
But others give another reason for the destruction of Zacharias. For at the murder of the children the blessed John was to be slain with the rest of the same age, but Elizabeth, snatching up her son from the midst of the slaughter, sought the desert. And so when Herod's soldiers could not find Elisabeth and the child, they turn their wrath against Zacharias, killing him as he was ministering in the temple.
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Gregory of Nyssa

AD 394
So also are there now many severe judges of sinners, yet weak combatants; burdensome imposers of laws, yet weak bearers of burdens; who wish neither to approach norto touch strictness of life, though they sternly exact it from their subjects. But some say that Zacharias, the father of John, by the spirit of prophecy forecasting the mystery of the immaculate virginity of the mother of God, in no wise separated her from the part of the temple set apart for virgins, wishing to show that it was in the power of the Creator of all things to manifest a new birth, while he did not deprive the mother of the glory of her virginity. Now this part was between the altar and the temple, in which was placed the brazen altar, where for this reason they slew him. It is said also, that when they heard the King of the world was about to come, form fear of subjection they designedly attacked him who bore witness to His coming, and slew the priest in the temple.

Jerome

AD 420
John says in the book of Revelation, “He who has the key of David, he who opens and no one shuts, and who shuts and no one opens.” The scribes and Pharisees held this key in the law. The Lord warns them in the Gospel, “Woe to you lawyers, who hold the key of the kingdom of heaven.” O you Pharisees, who hold the keys of the kingdom and do not believe in Christ who is the gate of the kingdom and the door. The promise is made to you, but it is granted to us. You have the flesh, but we have the spirit. Since you deny the spirit, you have lost the flesh with the spirit. ().

John Chrysostom

AD 407
But if He means that the Jews are about to suffer worse things, this will not be undeserved, for they have dared to do worse than all. And they have been corrected by none of their past calamities, but when they saw others sin, and punished, they were not made better, but did likewise; yet it will not be that one shall suffer punishment forthe sins of others.
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Maximus of Turin

AD 423
This key is Christ the Lord, by whom the hidden places of our hearts are unlocked to believing faith. The Pharisees lost this key, and the apostles found it. The Lord says to Peter, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” The hand of the synagogue, abandoning Christ, withered up among the leaders of the Jews. The hand of the synagogue grew unhealthy, for whoever deserts the source, which is Christ, immediately gets sick and is found sicker than all the other members.
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Theophilus of Antioch

AD 184
Now the Lawyers were different from the Pharisees. For the Pharisees being separated from the rest had the appearance of a religious sect; but those skilled in the Law were the Scribes and Doctors who solved legal questions. As often also as the teacher does what he teaches, he lightens the load, offering himself for an example. But when he does none of the things which he teaches others, the loads appear heavy to those who learn his teaching, as being what even their teacher is notable to bear. But our Lord shows that the Jews have inherited the malice of Cain, since headds, From the blood of Abel, to the blood of Zacharias Abel, inasmuch as he was slain by Cain; but Zacharias, whom they slew between the temple and the altar, some say was the Zacharias of old time, the son of Jehoiadah the Priest. For when several are questioning a man on different subjects, since he can not reply to all at once, foolish people think he is doubting. This also was part of their wicked design against Hi...

Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation - 2 Peter 1:20

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