¹⁶ So the Jewish leaders^[a] began persecuting Jesus,^[b] because he kept doing such things on the Sabbath.

¹⁷ But Jesus^[c] answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I, too, am working.” ¹⁸ So the Jewish leaders^[d] were trying all the harder to kill him, because he was not only breaking the Sabbath but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God.