¹³ But when the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea,^(A) some of them went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up.

¹⁴ For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators^(A) of God’s churches in Judea,^(B) which are in Christ Jesus: You suffered from your own people^(C) the same things those churches suffered from the Jews ¹⁵ who killed the Lord Jesus^(D) and the prophets^(E) and also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to everyone ¹⁶ in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles^(F) so that they may be saved. In this way they always heap up their sins to the limit.^(G) The wrath of God has come upon them at last.^[a]

Paul Arrested

²⁷ When the seven days were nearly over, some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul at the temple. They stirred up the whole crowd and seized him,^(A)

⁵ But other Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city.^(A) They rushed to Jason’s^(B) house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd.^[a]

² But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the other Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers.^(A)

¹² So they stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin.^(A)

Seven Woes on the Teachers of the Law and the Pharisees

¹³ “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!^(A) You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.^(B)

⁵¹ Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.