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12:39 Jesus has harsh words for the Pharisees and scholars, whose love for the Scriptures causes them to “build the memorials of the prophets,” and yet who do not realize that they are persecuting and destroying the prophets of their own day. Cain killed Abel because Abel’s sacri ce had been received, while Cain’s had been rejected (Genesis 4:4). That destructive pattern has continued through the ages. Do we recognize the prophets in our midst? Or do we repeat the pattern of the past?
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Cain killing Abel, by Guido Reni, 1572-1642
LUKE 
40You fools! Did not the maker of the outside also make the inside? 41But as to what is within, give alms, and behold, everything will be clean for you. 42Woe to you Pharisees! You pay tithes of mint and of rue and of every garden herb, but you pay no attention to judgment and to love for God. These you should have done, without overlooking the others.w 43Woe to you Pharisees! You love the seat of honor in synagogues and greetings in marketplaces.x 44Woe to you! You are like unseen graves* over which people unknowingly walk.”y
45Then one of the scholars of the law* said to him in reply, “Teacher, by saying this you are insulting us too.”z 46And he said, “Woe also to you scholars of the law! You impose on people burdens hard to carry, but you yourselves do not lift one finger to touch them. 47a Woe to you! You build the memorials of the prophets whom your ancestors killed. 48Consequently, you bear witness and give consent to the deeds of your ancestors, for they killed them and you do the building. 49b Therefore, the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles;* some of them they will kill and persecute’ 50in order that this generation might be charged with the blood of all the prophets
shed since the foundation of the world, 51from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah* who died between the altar and the temple building. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be charged with their blood!c 52Woe to you, scholars of the law! You have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves did not enter and you stopped those trying to enter.”d 53When he left, the scribes and Pharisees began to act with hostility toward him and to interrogate him about many things,e 54for they were plotting to catch him at something he might say.f
*[11:44] Unseen graves: contact with the dead or with human bones or graves (see Nm 19:16) brought ritual impurity. Jesus presents the Pharisees as those who insidiously lead others astray through their seeming attention to the law.
* [11:45] Scholars of the law: see note on Lk 10:25.
* [11:49] I will send to them prophets and apostles: Jesus connects the mission of the church (apostles) with the mission of the Old Testament prophets who often su ered the rebuke of their contemporaries.
* [11:51] From the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah: the murder of Abel is the rst murder recounted in the Old Testament (Gn 4:8). The Zechariah mentioned here may be the Zechariah whose murder is recounted in 2 Chr 24:20–22, the last murder presented in the Hebrew canon of the
Old Testament.
w. [11:42] Lv 27:30; Mt 23:23.
x. [11:43] 20:46; Mt 23:6; Mk 12:38–39. y. [11:44] Mt 23:27.
z. [11:45] Mt 23:4.
a. [11:47–48] Mt 23:29–32.
b. [11:49–51] Mt 23:34–36.
c. [11:51] Gn 4:8; 2 Chr 24:20–22. d. [11:52] Mt 23:13.
e. [11:53] 6:11; Mt 22:15–22.
f. [11:54] 20:20.