Acts 7:3

3. Saul… made havoc The fierce cruelty of this Sauline persecution appears in every clause. Havoc, in the Greek, is a term that designates ravage done by a beast of prey; every house indicates that no single Christian was permitted to escape; haling (old English for hauling) describes the brutal violence done to persons in apprehending; women implies the disregard not only of the tender sex, but of any respected character; prison implies probably the inquisitorial prison belonging to the temple for religious heretics. Paul in many passages refers with deep contrition to these cruelties, (Acts 26:9-11; Acts 22:3-4.)

But while the detail of cruelty is so severe, and the dispersion so total, there is one most interesting feature of forbearance in the statement. Besides the martyrdom of Stephen, Luke intimates no other murder. A later martyrologist would have pictured a score of bloody executions. But in fact the Jewish authorities had no power for capital punishment. A single murder like that of Stephen might be overlooked by the Roman government; but persistence in a series of executions on their own authority would have brought the Roman procurator from Cesarea to exact an account, or even have roused Vitellius, the Roman prefect of all Syria, at Antioch, to appear with his army at Jerusalem.