Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers - What a terrible stroke! - Ye are serpents, and the offspring of serpents. This refers to Matthew 23:31 : they confessed that they were the children of those who murdered the prophets; and they are now going to murder Christ and his followers, to show that they have not degenerated - an accursed seed, of an accursed breed. My old MS. translates this passage oddly - Gee serpentis, fruytis of burrownyngis of eddris that sleen her modris. There seems to be here an allusion to a common opinion, that the young of the adder or viper which are brought forth alive eat their way through the womb of their mothers. Hence that ancient enigma attributed to Lactantius: -
Non possum nasci, si non occidero matrem
Occidi matrem: sed me manet exitus idem
Id mea mors faciet, quod jam mea fecit origo
Cael. Firm. Symposium, N. xv
I never can be born, nor see the day,
Till through my parent's womb I eat my way
Her I have slain; like her must yield my breath;
For that which gave me life, shall cause my death
Every person must see with what propriety this was applied to the Jews, who were about to murder the very person who gave them their being and all their blessings.