The Apostles Meet Opposition

¹⁷ The high priest and his officials, who were Sadducees, were filled with jealousy.

⁴⁵ But when some of the Jews saw the crowds, they were jealous; so they slandered Paul and argued against whatever he said.

⁵ But some of the Jews were jealous, so they gathered some troublemakers from the marketplace to form a mob and start a riot. They attacked the home of Jason, searching for Paul and Silas so they could drag them out to the crowd.^[a]

⁹ “These patriarchs were jealous of their brother Joseph, and they sold him to be a slave in Egypt. But God was with him

2 So get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech.

¹⁰ Then the leading priests decided to kill Lazarus, too,

⁴⁷ Then the leading priests and Pharisees called the high council^[a] together. “What are we going to do?” they asked each other. “This man certainly performs many miraculous signs. ⁴⁸ If we allow him to go on like this, soon everyone will believe in him. Then the Roman army will come and destroy both our Temple^[b] and our nation.”

⁴⁹ Caiaphas, who was high priest at that time,^[c] said, “You don’t know what you’re talking about!

¹⁸ (He knew very well that the religious leaders had arrested Jesus out of envy.)

⁴ Then I observed that most people are motivated to success because they envy their neighbors. But this, too, is meaningless—like chasing the wind.