John 16:2

²²His parents said these things because they feared the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that if any man would confess him as Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue.

⁹“I myself most certainly thought that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. ¹⁰I also did this in Jerusalem. I both shut up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death I gave my vote against them. ¹¹Punishing them often in all the synagogues, I tried to make them blaspheme. Being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities.

²For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. ³For being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they didn’t subject themselves to the righteousness of God.

²⁸Don’t be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. Rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.

³“I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, instructed according to the strict tradition of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God, even as you all are today. ⁴I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women,

⁴²Nevertheless, even many of the rulers believed in him, but because of the Pharisees they didn’t confess it, so that they wouldn’t be put out of the synagogue,

⁹When he opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been killed for the Word of God, and for the testimony of the Lamb which they had.

²²Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude and mock you, and throw out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake.

⁵Hear the LORD’s word, you who tremble at his word: “Your brothers who hate you, who cast you out for my name’s sake, have said, ‘Let the LORD be glorified, that we may see your joy;’ but it is those who shall be disappointed.

¹⁹I said, ‘Lord, they themselves know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue those who believed in you. ²⁰When the blood of Stephen, your witness, was shed, I also was standing by, consenting to his death, and guarding the cloaks of those who killed him.’

²¹“He said to me, ‘Depart, for I will send you out far from here to the Gentiles.’ ”

²²They listened to him until he said that; then they lifted up their voice and said, “Rid the earth of this fellow, for he isn’t fit to live!”

²³As they cried out, threw off their cloaks, and threw dust into the air,