So, for this reason the Jews looked for more [opportunities] to kill Him, because He not only broke Sabbath day [restrictions], but also He had called God His own Father, [thereby] making Himself equal with God.
Which one of the prophets did your forefathers not persecute? They [even] killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One [i.e., Jesus], whom you people betrayed and murdered.
[This will be done] so that on you may fall the guilt for shedding on the ground the blood of all those innocent people, from the blood of righteous Abel to that of Barachiah’s son Zachariah, whom you murdered between the Sanctuary and the Altar [i.e., in the Temple area].
And this is the testimony John [the Immerser] gave when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” [Note: Levites were men who assisted the priests in the Temple service].