Acts 9:26-31
26 And when he [Saul] had come to Jerusalem he attempted to join the disciples; and they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. 27 But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. 28 So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, 29 preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists; but they were seeking to kill him. 30 And when the brethren knew it, they brought him down to Caesare′a, and sent him off to Tarsus.
31 So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samar′ia had peace and was built up; and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit it was multiplied.
1. Throughout the book of Acts, Saint Luke is intent on showing that the Christian community—not just heroic individuals like Peter and Paul—is a crucial dimension of mission. The Lord may have revealed himself to Paul in an extraordinary way, but the community was left with the task of discerning how and when to use his gifts—or not. They had realistic fears that were only overcome by testimony from one of their own, Barnabas. They are also tasked with exerting themselves to give needed help without waiting for God’s intervention. Saul’s (Paul’s) motivation, inspiration and preaching may have been bold and true, but this wasn’t enough.
Saint John Chrysostom picks up on this role for community discernment and action as well, even with someone so grace-filled and chosen as Paul.
But observe, I pray you, how far it is from being the case that everything is done by (miraculous) grace; how on the contrary, God does in many things leave them to manage for themselves by their own wisdom and in a human way; so to cut off the excuse of idle people. For if it was so in the cause of Paul, much more in theirs…
Do you observe how both there (at Damascus) and here, the rest take care of him, and provide for him the means of departure, and that we nowhere find him thus far receiving (direct supernatural) aid from God?
The community’s discernment said that his tone and timing were off. So they sent him home to Tarsus for his protection (and theirs.) Sometimes even good people have to leave for peace and progress to be restored. We won’t hear about Paul again until Acts 11:25, when Barnabas goes to Antioch and makes a side trip to Tarsus to fetch him back after many years.
2. The Hellenists were Greek-speaking Jews, and some of them had become followers of Christ. This led to the martyrdom of Stephen (himself a Hellenist) and the persecution Saul helped foster. Saul too, coming from the Jewish diaspora in Asia Minor (Tarsus) was most comfortable in this Jewish-Greek setting. Again, as in Damascus, they regarded his preaching of Christ as blasphemous, divisive and deserving of death.
3. Saint John Chrysostom is perplexed—just as modern New Testament scholars—at the apparent discrepancy between the Luke’s account and Paul’s own testimony in Galatians 1:15-20 of his visit to Jerusalem after being in Damascus. After reviewing possible arguments he concludes that Luke has condensed the history, “For the historian for conciseness, often omits incidents, and condenses the times.”
Update
Today Father Leonid Kishkovsky is coming in to meet with Metropolitan Tikhon and the officers to go over the coming year’s plans for the OCA’s Office of External Affairs and Interchurch Relations, of which he is the long-time director (Bishop Alexander is the Chairperson.) We will also be taking steps to plan a meeting of advisors in the next few months to discuss the OCA’s approach to relating to other Orthodox Churches, other Christian churches, other religions and government bodies.