Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 9:28

"And he was with them going in and going out at Jerusalem," — Acts 9:28 (ASV)

Saul’s arrival at Jerusalem as a Christian was three years after his conversion (Galatians 1:18). Being persona non grata among his former associates and suspected by Christians, he probably stayed at his sister’s home in the city (cf. 23:16). We can understand why his reception by his former colleagues might have been less than welcome. But that the apostles and other Christians in Jerusalem were leery of him does raise questions. Certainly they must have heard of his conversion and his preaching in Damascus. Yet, it seems, they never knew him personally, either as a persecutor or as a Christian; and stories about his motives and activities during a three-year period might well have become distorted. Many might, in fact, have asked why, if Saul had really become a Christian, he remained aloof from the Twelve and the Jerusalem congregation for such a long time. We may wish, and might even have expected, that there had been more openness toward Saul the convert on the part of the Jerusalem Christians. History, however, has shown that minority movements under persecution frequently become defensive and suspicious of news that sounds too good.

It was Barnabas, Luke says, who was willing to risk accepting Saul as a genuine believer and who built a bridge of trust between him and the Jerusalem apostles. This is certainly in character with what is said about him elsewhere in Acts (cf. 4:36–37; 11:22–30; 13:1–14:28; 15:2–4, 12, 22). In presenting Saul to the apostles, Barnabas told what Saul had seen and heard on the road and that he was now preaching “in the name of Jesus” in Damascus itself—thus summarizing Luke’s account of Saul’s conversion and explicitly using his activity in Damascus to support the genuineness of his conversion. So with Barnabas’s help, Saul and the Jerusalem apostles were brought into fellowship.

In light of Paul’s own insistence in Gal 1:18–20 that he saw only Peter and James on this first Jerusalem visit, Luke’s use of the term “apostles” must be considered a generalizing plural to be taken more broadly than “the Twelve.” Likewise, in view of Paul’s statement in Gal 1:18 that he stayed with Peter for fifteen days, Luke’s claim that he “stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem” must be seen as somewhat overstated. Probably we are not far wrong in reconstructing the situation as follows: Saul resided with his sister’s family on his first visit to Jerusalem as a Christian; through the aid of Barnabas he came to visit with Peter for fifteen days and to meet James as well; broadly speaking, his reception by the Christians he met was cordial, though there undoubtedly still existed some fears about him within the Christian congregation.