Note 1 at Acts 9:1: The first mention of Saul in scripture (Acts 7:58) simply spoke of him being present at the stoning of Stephen. This reference, along with Acts 8:3, makes it quite clear, though, that he had been actively persecuting Christians prior to this time. This chapter details his dramatic conversion to belief in Christ.

Saul immediately preached that Jesus was the Christ in the synagogues of Damascus (v. 20) but had to flee that city to save his life (vv. 23-25). Saul then came to Jerusalem but the disciples of Jesus were afraid of him and weren't convinced that he was converted (v. 26). Barnabas befriended him and finally got the Christians at Jerusalem to accept him (v. 27). However, when the Grecians sought to slay him in Jerusalem, and after he had been told by the Lord to leave Jerusalem (Acts 22:18-21), he fled to his home town of Tarsus (Acts 9:30).

Saul is not mentioned again in scripture until years later when Barnabas went to Tarsus and brought Saul with him to Antioch (Acts 11:25-26). Saul stayed with the believers in Antioch for one year, teaching the people, until they sent Barnabas and Saul to Jerusalem with a gift for the saints there.

Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem to Antioch with John Mark and then left on the first of three missionary journeys. In Acts 13:9 we find that Saul's name was changed to Paul and he became the apostle to the Gentiles (Rom. 11:13).

In Galatians 1:17-24, Paul gives us some insight into what he was doing between his conversion and the time that Barnabas come to Tarsus to seek him out. He went into Arabia, then Damascus, then three years later (after his conversion), he came and spent 15 days with the apostle Peter. He then came to the regions of Syria and Cilicia (where his home town of Tarsus was located) were he was when Barnabas found him.