Persecution of Christians in the New Testament against Christians. There are, however, several passages that mention coming difficulties for Jesus' followers and Jerusalem, which scholars believe foreshadow the hardships Christians will face in Acts. For instance, while Matthew (13:53-58) and Mark (6:1-6) have versions of Jesus' rejection in his hometown, Luke (4:14-30) devotes much more time to the episode than the other gospels. S. G. Wilson suggests that this might give a glimpse of later persecution by Jews and rejection of the Jewish mission for a Gentile mission in Acts (13:46). In Luke Jesus speaks of "people [who] hate" and "defame you on account of the Son
Matthew 3:2 Matthew 3:2 Matthew 3:2 is the second verse of the third chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. John the Baptist has just been introduced and this verse describes the message that he is preaching. In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads: The New International Version translates the passage as: For a collection of other versions see BibRef Matthew 3:2 Clarke notes that this is the first of twenty-nine references to the Kingdom of Heaven in the Gospel of Matthew. Luke and Mark tend to prefer the term "kingdom of God." That Matthew