Acts 8:3

But Saul laid waste the church, entering into every house, and dragging men and women committed them to prison.

The New Testament record of Saul's persecution of the church leaves no doubt of the savagery and brutality with which it was carried forward. There was no consideration of age, sex, or other circumstances. The youth, ability, and energetic zeal of the leading persecutor, revealed here as Saul, testify to the bitterness and fury with which the Sanhedrin sought to exterminate Christianity. God be praised that they were not merely defeated in this; but, writing long afterward, the beloved Paul said, "Their loss is the riches of the Gentiles?" (Romans 11:12), the word "loss" in that passage actually carrying the meaning of "their defeat."

Satan has his own "providences," no less than the righteous, and the evil one certainly took advantage of a circumstance that arose in the Roman government at the time of this persecution. About the year A.D. 37, there was no Roman governor in Jerusalem for a time; and, as Boles said:

The Jewish factions reigned supreme ... the opponents of Christianity thrust men and women into vile prisons, and brought them before elders in the synagogues, who tried to force them to deny Jesus; upon their refusal, some of them were put to death, others beaten; and all suffered many outrages (Acts 22:14; 26:10,11, etc.).[8]