»For this reason I am sending to you Prophets and wise men and Scribes. Some of them you will put to death–nay, crucify; some of them you will flog in your synagogues and chase from town to town;«
Whenever they persecute you in one town, escape to the next; for I solemnly tell you that you will not have gone the round of all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.
»Therefore,« He said, »remember that every Scribe well trained for the Kingdom of the Heavens is like a householder who brings out of his storehouse new things and old.«
You will be excluded from the synagogues; nay more, the time is coming when any one who has murdered one of you will suppose he is offering service to God.
and yet you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judaea and Samaria and to the remotest parts of the earth.«
Now there were in Antioch, in the Church there –as Prophets and teachers– barnabas, Symeon surnamed `the black,' Lucius the Cyrenaean, Manaen (who was Herod the Tetrarch's foster-brother), and Saul.
But now a party of Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and, having won over the crowd, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the town, believing him to be dead.
His advice carried conviction. So they called the Apostles in, and –after flogging them– ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and then let them go.
Yet when we are among mature believers we do speak words of wisdom; a wisdom not belonging, however, to the present age nor to the leaders of the present age who are soon to pass away.
In discharge of the task which God graciously entrusted to me, I –like a competent master-builder– have laid a foundation, and others are building upon it. But let every one be careful how and what he builds.
Him we preach, admonishing every one and instructing every one, with all possible wisdom, so that we may bring every one into God's presence, made perfect through Christ.
for they still try to prevent our preaching to the Gentiles so that they may find salvation. They thus continually fill up the measure of their own sins, and God's anger in its severest form has overtaken them.
They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tried by temptation, they were killed with the sword. They went from place to place in sheepskins or goatskins, enduring want, oppression and cruelty.
The inhabitants of the earth rejoice over them and are glad and will send gifts to one another; for these two Prophets had greatly troubled the inhabitants of the earth.«