⁷ “But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’

²⁷ The people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus,^(A) yet in condemning him they fulfilled the words of the prophets^(B) that are read every Sabbath. ²⁸ Though they found no proper ground for a death sentence, they asked Pilate to have him executed.^(C)

⁵² Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute?^(A) They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him^(B)—

²⁸ “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,”^(A) he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.”^(B)

²³ This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge;^(A) and you, with the help of wicked men,^[a] put him to death by nailing him to the cross.^(B)

⁴⁷ Then the chief priests and the Pharisees^(A) called a meeting^(B) of the Sanhedrin.^(C)

“What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many signs.^{(D) 48} If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.”

⁴⁹ Then one of them, named Caiaphas,^(E) who was high priest that year,^(F) spoke up, “You know nothing at all! ⁵⁰ You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”^(G)

¹² Then the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders looked for a way to arrest him because they knew he had spoken the parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd;^(A) so they left him and went away.^(B)

¹⁶ When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.

³ When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. ⁴ When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. ⁵ “In Bethlehem^(A) in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

⁷ Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. ⁸ He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

⁹ After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰ When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. ¹¹ On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him.^(C) Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts^(D) of gold, frankincense and myrrh. ¹² And having been warned^(E) in a dream^(F) not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

The Escape to Egypt

¹³ When they had gone, an angel^(G) of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream.^(H) “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”^(I)