Acts 9:26

Saul visits Jerusalem. He is sent away to Tarsus. The Churches have rest

26. And when Saul[he] was come to Jerusalem The oldest MSS. omit the proper name. Saul had never visited Jerusalem since the day when he set out on his inquisitorial journey to Damascus, and he could only be known at that time to the Christians as their determined enemy.

he assayed to join himself to the disciples If as a Jew he had gone to Alexandria or any other city where Jews were numerous, his first thought would have been to search out his co-religionists; so he acts now. He seeks to join the Christian community. But his own language (Galatians 1:16) shews us that he had made no attempt to spread the news of his changed feelings among the Christian congregations. "I conferred not with flesh and blood," he says, "but I went into Arabia, and returned to Damascus." An absence of three years, mainly in a region whence little news could come of his conversion and labours, and the memory of what evil he had done in days gone by, were enough to justify some hesitation about receiving him, on the part of the disciples.

but[and] they were all afraid of him The conjunction is the ordinary copulative, and connects the two clauses, Saul's desire and the behaviour of the disciples. In Galatians 1:18 St Paul says his wish was to see Peter, and this we can very well understand, for though Saul had received his commission directly from Jesus, there were many things in the history of the life of Christ which could be best learned from the lips of him who had been with Jesus from the commencement of His ministry. But at first Saul came to the Christians at Jerusalem as an ordinary believer.

and believed not that he was a disciple Here we see how little was known in Jerusalem of the history of Saul since his conversion, and we can understand those words of his own (Galatians 1:22), "I was unknown by face unto the Churches of Judæa which were in Christ." God had been training him for his work among the Gentiles, and although he was brought to Jerusalem that all might know that the Gospel was one, and that Saul was sent forth even as the twelve, yet no attempt is made by St Luke at this point, where it might have been most expected, to set forth the unanimity of Paul and Peter. It is left for St Paul himself to tell us of his desire to see Peter, and the historian only says they all were afraid of him.