Now because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began persecuting him.

I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to force them to blaspheme. Because I was so furiously enraged at them, I went to persecute them even in foreign cities.

For you have heard of my former way of life in Judaism, how I was savagely persecuting the church of God and trying to destroy it.