Matthew Poole and continuators on Acts 23:14

14 And they came to the chief priests and elders, and said, We have bound our selves under a great curse, that we will eat nothing until we have slain Paul.

Whose Place and Office it was to have disswaded such an abominable Murder: For the priests lips should preserve knowledg, Malachi 2.7. And they could not but have been guilty of the Blood of St. Paul, had it been shed, who by encouraging the Design, became accessary unto it. But they had drank Blood very largely before now; viz. the Blood of St. Stephen, and the Blood of our Saviour; and 'tis no wonder that they thirst for more: Such wild Beasts (rather than Men) when they have once tasted of Blood, are never satisfied with it. But at what a low ebb was Religion, when the Chief Priests themselves combine with Assassinates?