Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 9:30

"And when the brethren knew it, they brought him down to Caesarea, and sent him forth to Tarsus." — Acts 9:30 (ASV)

They brought him down to Caesarea.—The fact that the brethren at Jerusalem took these measures for the Apostle’s safety may be noted as a proof of their friendship. At Caesarea he would probably, as afterwards in Acts 21:8, find Philip, and the friend and the accuser of the proto-martyr met face to face as brethren.

In returning to his home at Tarsus, from which he had been absent at least for four years, and possibly for a much longer period, it would be natural for him to resume his old employment as a tent-maker. (See Note on Acts 18:3.)

From there, as from a centre, he did his work as an Evangelist in the regions of Cilicia (Galatians 1:21), where, in Acts 15:41, we find churches already organised, which had not been founded in what we call the first mission journey of Paul and Barnabas, and must therefore have been planted by the former at an earlier period. Here, for the present, we lose sight of him. It hardly needs to be said that the Caesarea spoken of here is that on the sea-coast. Caesarea Philippi is always distinguished by its special epithet.