Acts 9:30

Brethren knew. They now know Saul, and the plot that is being laid against him. Their knowledge spurs them to immediate action. They take him down to the seacoast, whence he can flee the country.

Caesarea. Not Caesarea Philippi (at the foot of Mt. Hermon), but the seaport that lay about 64 mi. northwest of Jerusalem. This was a place from which Tarsus could easily be reached either by sea or by the road that ran northward along the coast of Syria. At Caesarea he would probably find Philip. The two men, one the friend and the other the erstwhile opponent of Stephen, would thus come face to face as brethren. See on ch. 8:40.

Sent him forth. Gr. exapostello, literally, “to send away out of.” This seems to imply that the disciples sent Saul away by ship to Tarsus. There is no irreconcilable conflict between this and Paul’s own statement: “Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia” (Gal. 1:21). Syria and Cilicia together formed one Roman province at that time, and by going to Tarsus, Saul entered that district. Alternative interpretations are that (1) his boat called at Syrian ports on its way to Tarsus in Cilicia, (2) Saul went first to Tarsus and then made missionary trips into nearby territories in Cilicia and Syria. This last suggestion may account for the presence of Christian churches in that area, which must have been established independently of Paul’s First Missionary Journey (see on Acts 15:36, 41).

Tarsus. This, Saul’s home town (see on v. 11), may not have been the most comfortable refuge for the apostle. Christ’s saying that “a prophet hath no honour in his own country” (John 4:44) was likely to be painfully true in Saul’s case. Not only was he returning to his birthplace; he was going back as a renegade Jew, an apostate from the faith of his fathers, a leader of the despised and persecuted sect of the Christians. His reception may be imagined, and may help to account for his silence on the subject of his family. At this point the narrative leaves Saul until Barnabas seeks him out for a more extensive ministry (Acts 11:25).