⁴⁵ When the Temple guards returned without having arrested Jesus, the leading priests and Pharisees demanded, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”

³² When the Pharisees heard that the crowds were whispering such things, they and the leading priests sent Temple guards to arrest Jesus.

²¹ So at daybreak the apostles entered the Temple, as they were told, and immediately began teaching.

When the high priest and his officials arrived, they convened the high council^[a]—the full assembly of the elders of Israel. Then they sent for the apostles to be brought from the jail for trial. ²² But when the Temple guards went to the jail, the men were gone. So they returned to the council and reported, ²³ “The jail was securely locked, with the guards standing outside, but when we opened the gates, no one was there!”

²⁴ When the captain of the Temple guard and the leading priests heard this, they were perplexed, wondering where it would all end. ²⁵ Then someone arrived with startling news: “The men you put in jail are standing in the Temple, teaching the people!”

²⁶ The captain went with his Temple guards and arrested the apostles, but without violence, for they were afraid the people would stone them. ²⁷ Then they brought the apostles before the high council, where the high priest confronted them.