Acts 26:11

And I punished them oft in every synagogue The Gk. continues with a participial construction, represented in Rev. Ver."and punishing … in all the synagogues." This closer representation of the original seems to add strength to the description of Saul's former zeal as a persecutor. Of the synagogues as places where offenders were accused and punished, cp. Matthew 10:17; Matthew 23:34; Mark 13:9; Luke 12:11; Luke 21:12.

and compelled them to blaspheme Rev. Ver."I strove to make them blaspheme." The verb is that which is frequently rendered "constrain" or "compel," but being in the imperfect tense, it seems to signify that the attempt was repeated often, and needed to be so, for it was not in some cases successful. Saul kept on with his constraint. "To blaspheme," i.e. the name of Jesus into which they had been baptized. They were to be forced to renounce the belief in the divinity of Jesus. Cp. on blasphemy of the divine Name, Leviticus 24:11-16.

even unto strange[R. V.foreign] cities That is, cities outside the country of the Jews proper. So that, as it appears, Damascus was but one among several cities to which Saul had gone on his errand of punishment.