The suggested purpose of persecution in Luke-Acts have included: to portray Christianity as a non-threat to the Romans by contrasting the movement with a disruptive Jewish community; to craft a polemic to discredit critics of Christianity; and to provide encouragement in times of hardship. Compared with the Acts of the Apostles, the Gospel of Luke contains few explicit examples of persecution 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. 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 of Man" and likens his followers' suffering to that of earlier prophets (6:22-23 NRSV). Jesus later says to "not fear those who kill the body and after that can do nothing more" (12:4 NRSV). The major exception to these less direct references to persecution is the Passion narrative in 22:1-23:56. Jewish chief priests and scribes plot to kill Jesus (22:1-6), arrest him (22:47-52), question him before the Sanhedrin and then take him to the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate (22:66-23:1). Jesus is questioned by Pilate (23:3-5), "Herod" (believed to be Agrippa I) (23:6-12), sentenced to death (23:21-25), crucified, died, and buried (23:26-56). Luke's depiction of Pilate is thought by scholars to be key to understanding the author of Luke-Acts' opinion of the Roman Empire. The Acts of the Apostles, which tells the story of the early Christian church, contains a multitude of episodes highlighting persecution. The majority of these conflicts occur between Christians and Jews, though there are examples of persecution by Gentiles (such as the diviner-slave's owners in 16:16-24) and Romans (28:16). While Kelhoffer and Wilson have argued there is a purposeful pattern of Jewish-led persecution in Luke-Acts, there is significant doubt over how historically accurate Luke-Acts' portrayal of Christian-Jewish relations is and how wide reaching (whether directed at specific Jewish groups or 'Jews' as a whole) and seriously this polemic was meant be taken.