for Herod feared John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man, and he protected him. And having heard of him--the many things he was doing--he even heard of him gladly.
His parents spoke these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had agreed already, that if any man confessed him as Christ, he should become excommunicated from the synagogue.
And the chief priests and the scholars sought to throw hands on him in the same hour. And they were afraid, for they knew that he spoke this parable against them.
And they sought to seize him. And they feared the multitude, for they knew that he spoke the parable against them. And having left him, they went away.
And of whom have thou been afraid and in fear, that thou lie, and have not remembered me, nor laid it to thy heart? Have I not held my peace even of long time, and thou do not fear me?
The immersion of John, from where was it, from heaven or from men? And they deliberated with themselves, saying, If we should say, From heaven, he will say to us, Why then did ye not believe him?