Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 23:30

"and 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." — Matthew 23:30 (ASV)

If we had been in the days... —There is no need to assume that the Pharisees did not mean what they said. It was simply an instance of the unconscious hypocrisy that every generation has been guilty of, more or less, when it condemns the wrongdoing of the past—its bigotry, luxury, or greed—and then yields to the same sins itself.