Acts 9:26

And when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples: but they were all afraid of him, and believed not that he was a disciple. AND WHEN SAUL - or 'when he' [omitting ho (G3588) Saulos (G4569), as Lachman and Tischendorf do, though on scarcely preponderating authority], WAS COME TO JERUSALEM, [ eis (G1519) and en (G1722) have nearly equal support]. The special object of this his first visit to Jerusalem after his conversion was-as he himself tells the Galatians (Galatians 1:18) - to "see Peter;" not...

26._When Saul was. _These were yet hard entrances (617) for Paul, who was as yet but a freshwater soldier, in that, when he had hardly escaped the hands of the enemies, the disciples would not receive him. For he might have seemed to have been so tossed to and fro, as it were, in mockery, that he could have no resting place. All his own nation was set against him for Christ’s cause. The Christians refuse him. Might he not have been quite discouraged and out of hope as one expelled out of men’s company? First, what remaineth but that he fall away from the Church, seeing he is not received? But when he remembereth the life which he had led aforetime he marvelleth not that they are afraid (618) of him. Therefore, he doth patiently suffer the brethren to refuse his company, seeing they had just cause of fear. This was true conversion, that whereas he raged horribly before, he do

23-31 When we enter into the way of God, we must look for trials; but the Lord knows how to deliver the godly, and will, with the temptation, also make a way to escape. Though Saul's conversion was and is a proof of the truth of Christianity, yet it could not, of itself, convert one soul at enmity with the truth; for nothing can produce true faith, but that power which new-creates the heart. Believers are apt to be too suspicious of those against whom they have prejudices. The world is full of deceit, and it is necessary to be cautious, but we must exercise charity, 1 Corinthians 13:5. The Lord will clear up the characters of true believers; and he will bring them to his people, and often gives them opportunities of bearing testimony to his truth, before those who once witnessed their hatred to it. Christ now appeared to Saul, and ordered him to go quickly out of Jerusalem, for he must...

Verse Acts 9:26. _HE ASSAYED TO JOIN HIMSELF TO THE DISCIPLES_] επειρατο κολλασθαι, He _endeavoured to get closely united to them_, to be in religious fellowship with them. _BELIEVED NOT THAT HE WAS A DISCIPLE._] They did not suppose it possible that such a person could be converted to the faith of Christ. The full power of Divine grace, in the conversion of the soul, was not yet completely known....

WAS COME TO JERUSALEM - He did not go to Jerusalem immediately after he escaped from Damascus. He first went into Arabia, where he spent a considerable part, or the whole of three years. For the reasons why he went there, and why this fact is omitted by Luke in the Acts , see the notes on Galatians 1:18. HE ASSAYED - He attempted; he endeavored. TO JOIN HIMSELF - To become connected with them as a fellow-Christian. BUT THEY WERE ALL AFRAID OF HIM - Their fear, or suspicion, was excited probably on these grounds: (1) They remembered his former violence against Christians. They had an instinctive shrinking from him, and suspicion of the man that had been so violent a persecutor....

EXPOSITION ACTS 9:1 _But _for _and, _A.V.; _breathing _for _breathing out, _A.V.; _threatening _for _threatenings, _A.V. THREATENING AND SLAUGHTER. The phrase ἐμπνέων ἀπειλῆς κ.τ.λ., is rather a difficult one, and is variously explained. Schleusner takes the genitives in "threatening and slaughter" as genitives of the thing desired, "punting after threatening and slaughter" (comp. Amos 2:7). Meyer explains it "out of the threatenings and murder [in his heart] breathing hard at the disciples"—an expression indicating passion. Alford, taking nearly the sense of the A.V., makes "threatenings and slaughter" to be as it were the very material of his breath, whether breathed out or breathed in. Considering that ἐμπνέω means "to br

AND WHEN SAUL WAS COME TO JERUSALEM,.... After he had escaped out of Damascus, in the manner before related, and which was three years after his conversion: HE ASSAYED TO JOIN HIMSELF TO THE DISCIPLES; not to the private members of the church, or ordinary disciples, as distinct from the apostles, but to the whole society, as consisting of apostles and private Christians; for his chief view in going to Jerusalem was to see Peter; and the Ethiopic version reads, "to the apostles": the sense is, that he tried either to get into a free and familiar conversation with them, or to become one of their body, and a member of the church. He did not return to the high priest from whom he had received letters to Damascus, to give him an account of the execution of his commission, or what use he had made of the letters he gave him, but to the disciples, against whom he had breathed out threatenings a...

Acts 9:1. _And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest,-_ Notice that little word «yet.» «Saul yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord;» but there was to be a point beyond which he could not go. I pray God that there may be such a «yet» as that put into the histories of any here who are opposing God and his Christ. «Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter,» as if they were his very breath, as if he only lived to blaspheme the name of Christ, and to persecute his followers, «went unto the high priest,» Acts 9:2. _And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem._

GONE TO JERUSALEM The Acts records four visits of Paul to Jerusalem after conversion: (1) (Acts 9:23). This seems identical with the visit of (Galatians 1:18); (Galatians 1:19). The "apostles" of verse (Acts 9:27) were Peter, and James, the Lord's brother. (2) (Acts 11:30). Paul may have been in Jerusalem during the events of (Acts 12:1); (Acts 12:25). (3) ...

ACTS 9:26 evpei,razen The reading evpeira/to, which is from the usual verb in classical Greek meaning “to try [to do something],” was introduced into the later text (E H L P many minuscules, followed by the Textus Receptus) in place of evpei,razen (î74 a A B C 61 81 _al_). The substitution was made because the latter verb, which is much more common in the New Testament, ordinarily has a different sense (“to make trial of, tempt”) from its meaning here....