'Ac 9:20-31

Back to Acts~

Back to Contents

In Damascus, Arabia, Jerusalem and Tarsus (Ac 9:19b-31)

People throughout Damascus soon knew of Saul’s conversion. He openly joined with the Christians and argued convincingly against the Jews (Ac 9:19b-22).

Part of the next three years he spent in Arabia, after which he returned to Damascus (Gal 1:17-18). His activities there stirred up such violent opposition that he fled to save his life (Ac 9:23-25; 2 Cor 11:32-33).

When Saul arrived in Jerusalem, the Christians did not welcome him. They feared that he was only pretending to be a Christian, so that when he found out who the true Christians were he could imprison them. Barnabas apparently knew him better and introduced him to the two leading apostles who were in Jerusalem at the time, Peter and James the Lord’s brother (Ac 9:26-27; Gal 1:18-19).

Saul made good use of his two weeks in Jerusalem by preaching the good news of Jesus Christ. Not surprisingly, this made the Jews angry, as they were the ones who three years previously had sent him to crush Christianity. When they made plans to kill him, Saul escaped to his home town of Tarsus in Cilicia (Ac 9:28-30; Gal 1:21).

At that time the rest of the churches in Judea did not know Saul personally, but they certainly knew of his conversion, because without his fiery leadership the persecution had died down and the churches were left in peace (Ac 9:31; Gal 1:22-24).