Acts 8:3

Acts 8:3. As for Saul, he made havock of the church. We gather some notion respecting the extreme severity of this first persecution, from casual expressions in the Acts, and from the epistles of him who, during these terrible days, acted as chief inquisitor: ‘Thinking that he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth... in Jerusalem... he shut up many of the saints in prison' (Acts 26:9-10). And not only did men thus suffer at his hands, but women also, a fact three times repeated as great aggravation of his cruelty (Acts 8:3; Acts 9:2; Acts 22:4). These persecuted people were scourged ‘often' scourged in many synagogues (Acts 26:10). Nor was Stephen the only one who suffered death, as we may learn from the Apostle Paul's own confession (Acts 22:4; Acts 26:10). Every possible effort he used to make them blaspheme that holy Name whereby they were called (Acts 26:11; Galatians 1:23). His fame as an inquisitor was notorious far and wide; even in Damascus, Ananias had heard how much evil he had done to the saints of Christ at Jerusalem. He was known there ‘as he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem' (Acts 9:13-21. See, too, Galatians 1:13; Philippians 3:6; 1 Timothy 1:13; 1 Corinthians 15:9).