whereupon the high priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. "Whatever is to be done?" they said. "The fellow is performing a number of Signs.

"What are we to do with these men?" they said. "It is plain to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem that a miracle has admittedly been worked by them. That we cannot deny.

Delight

You belong to your father the devil, and you want to do what your father desires; he was a slayer of men from the very beginning, and he has no place in the truth because there is no truth in him: when he tells a lie, he is expressing his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

though they know God's decree that people who practise such vice deserve death, they not only do it themselves but applaud those who practise it.

Begone, you dogs, you sorcerers, you vicious men, you murderers, you idolaters, you who love and practise falsehood, everyone of you!"

Bless

So watching their chance they sent spies who pretended to be honest persons, in order to seize on what he said and get him handed over to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor.

Inwardly

but the Lord said to him, "You Pharisees do clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but your inner life is filled with rapacity and malice.

I cordially agree with God's law, so far as my inner self is concerned,

General references

The Jews joined in the attack, declaring that such were the facts of the case.