Acts 9:30 - Printer Friendly

ESV: And when the brothers learned this, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

NIV: When the believers learned of this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

NASB: Now when the brothers learned of it, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him away to Tarsus.

CSB: When the brothers found out, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

NLT: When the believers heard about this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him away to Tarsus, his hometown.

KJV: Which when the brethren knew, they brought him down to Caesarea, and sent him forth to Tarsus.

NKJV: When the brethren found out, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him out to Tarsus.

The last recorded time a Christian teacher irritated the Greek-speaking Jews in Jerusalem, they killed him (Acts 7:54–60). The apostles are afraid Saul will face the same fate. He is a Hellenist Jew from Tarsus, the capital of the Roman province of Cilicia, but educated in Jerusalem by the famous Pharisee Gamaliel (Acts 22:3). For years, Saul zealously persecuted the church, but has since come to realize that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah promised in the Jewish Scriptures (Acts 9:1–19). Since then, he has doggedly proved his point, first in Damascus and now in Jerusalem (Acts 9:20, 28). Like in Damascus, some of the faithful Jews are less than receptive to his point of view and want to kill him (Acts 9:23, 29). Both the apostles and God (Acts 22:17–18) are telling him it's time to go.

While much of Saul's religious training was completed in Jerusalem, his hometown of Tarsus is known as a significant center of philosophy and academia; the teachers of both Augustus and Tiberius were from there. Tarsus is on the southeastern coast of modern-day Asia Minor, facing south into the Mediterranean. It's possible Saul converted his family at this point, as we know he was later on good terms with his sister's son (Acts 23:16–17).

There are several cities named "Caesarea" as naming a city after the Emperor was a good way to get into his graces. This one is Caesarea Maritima on the coast of Samaria and was dedicated by Herod the Great for Caesar Augustus. In AD 6, it became the home of the Roman procurators of Judea and Samaria. Since it is one of the few good ports in the district, it's a fairly easy sail up the coast to Tarsus. Later, Saul will be held there before going to Rome (Acts 23:31—26:32).

Acts 9:26–31 draws a curtain on the persecution of the church at the hands of the Pharisee-trained Saul. The young man who ''[breathed] threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord'' (Acts 9:1) has chosen to follow Jesus instead. He has spent several years learning more about how Jesus is the Jewish Messiah and sharing his new-found understanding at synagogues in Damascus. Now, he returns to Jerusalem—not to the Sanhedrin who gave him his orders, but to the leaders of the church he once tried to destroy.

Acts 9 sets the stage for the spread of the gospel to the Gentiles. Saul continues the persecution of the church by traveling to Damascus to arrest Jesus-followers. Before he reaches the city, Jesus confronts him. Saul realizes Jesus is the Messiah and immediately starts spreading the news, first in Damascus and later in Jerusalem. Meanwhile, Peter travels to modern-day Tel Aviv to heal a paralyzed man and bring a dead woman back to life. The miracles aren't unusual, but the story leaves him in Joppa, poised to take the next step in Jesus' mandate to be His witness (Acts 1:8).

The murder of the Jesus-follower Stephen has ignited a fierce persecution against the church, led by a young Pharisee-trained man named Saul (Acts 7:54—8:3; 9:1–2). When he realizes Jesus truly is the Messiah, that fervor fuels his own evangelism (Acts 9:3–30). Meanwhile, Peter travels to the coast of Judea. Soon, he will teach a prominent Gentile household about Jesus and discover that Gentiles can be saved (Acts 10). The stage will be set for Saul to spread the saving news of Jesus to ''the end of the earth'' (Acts 1:8) under the Greek version of his name: Paul.

The summary of the book of Acts is provided in Jesus' words in Acts 1:8: ''But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.'' In Acts 2:1–13, the Christ-followers receive the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:14—7:60 describes the rapid growth of the church in Jerusalem. Chapters 8—12 find Jewish persecution inadvertently spreading the gospel throughout Judea and Samaria. And in chapters 13—28, Paul and his companions spread the good news throughout the Roman Empire.