Acts 9:28

And he was with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(28) Coming in and going out.—The words, like the kindred phrase in Acts 1:21, are used to imply a certain undefined frequency of intercourse. From Galatians 1:18 we learn that the whole duration of the visit was not more than fifteen days.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

9:23-31 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, 1Co 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 be sent to the Gentiles: see ch. 22:21. Christ's witnesses cannot be slain till they have finished their testimony. The persecutions were stayed. The professors of the gospel walked uprightly, and enjoyed much comfort from the Holy Ghost, in the hope and peace of the gospel, and others were won over to them. They lived upon the comfort of the Holy Ghost, not only in the days of trouble and affliction, but in days of rest and prosperity. Those are most likely to walk cheerfully, who walk circumspectly.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And he was with them ... - That is, he was admitted to their friendship, and recognized as a Christian and an apostle. The time during which he then remained at Jerusalem was, however, only fifteen days, Galatians 1:18.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

28, 29. And he was with them, coming in and going out at Jerusalem—for fifteen days, lodging with Peter (Ga 1:18).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Living amongst them, and freely conversing with them; that is, with Peter, and James, and the rest of the believers, who had now no suspicion of him.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And be was with them,.... Peter and James, and the rest of the disciples; he lived with them, conversed with them, and joined with them in all religious exercises; which is signified by his

coming in and going out at Jerusalem; no one of the apostles or disciples forbidding or hindering him.

Geneva Study Bible

{7} And he was {l} with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem.

(7) The steadfast servants of God must look out for danger after danger: yet God watches out for them.

(l) With Peter and James, for he says that he saw none of the apostles but them; Ga 1:18-19.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Acts 9:28-30. Μετʼ αὐτῶν εἰσπορ. κ. ἐκπορ.] See on Acts 1:21. According to the reading εἰς Ἱερουσ., and after deletion of the following καί (see the critical remarks), εἰς Ἱερουσ. is to be attached to παῤῥησ.: He found himself in familiar intercourse with them, while in Jerusalem he spoke frankly and freely in the name of the Lord Jesus. Accordingly εἰς Ἱερουσ. is to be taken as in κηρύσσειν εἰς (Mark 1:39), λέγειν εἰς (John 8:26), μαρτυρεῖν εἰς (Acts 23:11), and similar expressions, where εἰς amounts to the sense of coram. Comp. Matthiae, § 578, 3 b; Ellendt, Lex. Soph. I. p. 534. With ἐλάλει τε κ.τ.λ. (which is only to be separated from the preceding by a comma) there is annexed to the general εἰς Ἱερουσ. παῤῥησ. a special portion thereof, in which case, instead of the participle, there is emphatically introduced the finite tense (Winer, p. 533 [E. T. 717]).

πρὸς τοὺς Ἑλλην.] with (against) the Greek-Jews, see on Acts 6:1.

ἑπεχείρουν αὐτὸν ἀνελεῖν] does not exclude the appearance of Christ, Acts 22:17-18, as Zeller thinks, since it is, on the contrary, the positive fulfilment of the οὐ παραδέξονται κ.τ.λ. negatively announced in chap. 22.

ἐξαπέστειλαν] they sent him away from them to Tarsus, after they had brought him down to Caesarea. On account of Galatians 1:2-7 it is to be assumed that the apostle journeyed from Caesarea (see on Acts 8:40) to Tarsus, not by sea, but by land, along the Mediterranean coast through Syria; and not, with Calovius and Olshausen, that here Caesarea Philippi on the borders of Syria is to be understood as meant. The reader cannot here, any more than in Acts 8:40, find any occasion in the text to understand Καισάρεια otherwise than as the celebrated capital; it is more probable, too, that Paul avoided the closer vicinity of Damascus.

How natural it was to his heart, now that he was recognised by his older colleagues in Jerusalem but persecuted by the Jews, to bring the salvation in Christ, first of all, to the knowledge of his beloved native region! And doubtless the first churches of Cilicia owed their origin to his abode at that time in his native country.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Acts 9:28. ἦν … εἰσπ.: for characteristic construction see Acts 1:10, etc. εἰς καὶ ἐκπ., cf. Acts 1:21. Hebraistic formula to express the daily confidential intercourse with the Apostles; cf. 1 Samuel 18:13, 2 Chronicles 23:7 (1Ma 13:49; 1Ma 15:14; 1Ma 15:25, for somewhat similar expressions, but see H. and R.).—ἐν: if we read εἰς, see critical note. Weiss connects closely with ἐκπ. and takes it to signify that Saul was not only associated with the Apostles privately, but openly in the town, so Wendt and Holtzmann, privatim and publice. Page connects ἦν εἰς together, and thinks εἰς probably due to the intervention of the verbs expressing motion. Zöckler compares Acts 26:20, and takes εἰς as referring to Jerusalem and its neighbourhood (but see critical notes).

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

28. And he was with them, &c.] i.e. for the fifteen days during which his visit lasted he was received into the fellowship of the Church.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 28. - Going in for coming in, A.V. Acts 9:28