O generation of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
All Commentaries on Matthew 12:34 Go To Matthew 12
John Chrysostom
AD 407
“If you are an evil tree, you cannot produce good fruit. I am not surprised at what you are saying. For being both ill bred and ill conceived, you have acquired an evil way of speaking.” See how precisely, and without any room for exception, Jesus defines their indictment. In a single phrase he uses their own arguments to demonstrate his point and to underscore his indictment. He calls them a “brood of vipers” because they prided themselves on their forefathers. To signify that they had no advantage thereby, Christ first throws out their exalted claims about their relation to Abraham and then assigns them to forefathers of similar disposition. He thus stripped them of their illusions. The Gospel of Matthew, Homily
