Saul In Jerusalem
SAUL IN JERUSALEM
ACTS 9:26-31
Saul went back to his old friends to share the good news with them, only to discover they didn’t want to be friends any more.
Verses 26-30. This short paragraph is full of men and movement. Saul, the Jerusalem disciples and their leaders, the apostles, Barnabas and Hellenistic Jews are mentioned; and from the parallel account in Galatians 1:18-24 we can identify the apostles as Peter and James the Lord’s brother.
Saul removes from Damascus to Jerusalem (9:26) where he meets a natural suspicion on the part of those who only recently had cause to fear his bitter persecution (8:3; 9:21). How could they trust his motives? He finds an advocate in Barnabas (9:27), who disarms all criticism on the score that:
His further movements at Jerusalem are recorded. “The words ‘coming in and going out’ at Jerusalem do not mean that he visited places outside the city, but that he moved about freely and fearlessly in and out of houses in the city” (McNeile-Williams); and continued an intrepid ministry of forthright proclamation. His approach to the Greek-speaking Jews, however, met with some opposition. Like Stephen before him, he found himself embroiled in religious controversy (the bitterest sort of controversy!) (9:29: “disputed” is the same verb as in 6:9). Not for the first time (9:23), his life was threatened. Again, Christian friends came to his aid, and conducted him to Caesarea, the Mediterranean sea-town. Thence he sailed to his home city of Tarsus in Cilicia (Galatians 1:21). I wonder what his family and their friends would have made of him at this time, as he did according to Mark 5:19. 9:31: Paul leaves the stage at this point, later to re-enter at 11:25. Peter comes back into the chief rôle; and the transition is marked by this summary of the (Palestinian) church’s progress and expanding influence.
Notes 9:27: the plural “apostles” is not in conflict with the two names of Galatians 1:18f.; and “the churches of Judaea which were in Christ” describe (as in 1 Thessalonians 2:14) Jewish-Christians outside the holy city to which at that time Saul was personally unknown. 9:29: Hellenists are Jews of the Greek-speaking world (RV, Grecian Jews), like Saul himself. (See Acts 6:1 and comment.)