Acts 9:26

παραγενόμενος : on its frequency in St. Luke's Gospel and Acts see Acts 5:21; apparently presupposes that Saul betook himself immediately to Jerusalem, so that the stay in Arabia cannot be inserted here (Weiss. in loco), a stay which Weiss holds was unknown to the author of Acts, see his note on Acts 9:19. παραγ. is found four times in Acts with εἰς, c. acc [231] loci, elsewhere only in Matthew 2:1 (cf. John 8:2). ἐπειρᾶτο : the verb πειράομαι only found once in N.T., viz., Acts 26:21, and the true reading here is ἐπείραζε, which is used in a similar sense in Acts 16:7; Acts 24:6, only in the active in this sense = Attic πειρῶμαι, according to Blass, in loco, and Gram., 56, 221; “he assayed,” R.V. = to essay, attempt, try, Deuteronomy 4:34 2Ma 2:23. κολλᾶσθαι, cf. Acts 5:13; Acts 10:28, and also Matthew 19:5; Luke 15:5; 1 Corinthians 6:16 evidently means that he sought to join himself to them intimately. καὶ πάντες ἐφοβ. αὐτόν καὶ “and,” R.V., not “but,” A.V.; it is not adversative, but simply introduces the unfavourable result of Saul's endeavour. This does not necessarily require that the conversion should have been recent, as Weiss maintains. If three years had elapsed, Galatians 1:16, during a portion of which at all events Saul had been in retirement, the Christians in Jerusalem might very naturally still feel apprehensive when their former persecutor was thus for the first time since his conversion actually present amongst them, and the memory of his former fierce hatred could not have been effaced. If it seems unlikely that this should have been their attitude had they known of Saul's profession of faith at Damascus, there are critics who would have expressed great surprise if the Apostle had been received with open arms, and without any credentials: “credo si contrarium exstaret, hoc rursus mirarentur” (Blass).

[231] accusative case.