Note 1 at Ac 9:1: The first mention of Saul in Scripture (Ac 7:58) simply spoke of him being present at the stoning of Stephen. This reference, along with Ac 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 (Ac 9:20) but had to flee that city to save his life (Ac 9:23-25). Saul then went to Jerusalem, but Jesus' disciples were afraid of him and weren't convinced he was converted (Ac 9:26). Barnabas befriended him and finally got the Christians at Jerusalem to accept him (Ac 9:27). However, when the Grecians sought to slay him in Jerusalem (Ac 9:29) and after he had been told by the Lord to leave there (Ac 22:18-21), he fled to his hometown of Tarsus (Ac 9:30).

Saul is not mentioned again in Scripture until years later when Barnabas went to Tarsus and took Saul with him to Antioch (Ac 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, along with John Mark, returned to Antioch from Jerusalem and then left on the first of three missionary journeys. In Ac 13:9 we find that Saul's name was changed to Paul, and he became the apostle to the Gentiles (Ro 11:13).

In Ga 1:17-24, Paul gave us some insight into what he was doing between his conversion and the time that Barnabas sought him in Tarsus. He went into Arabia, then Damascus, and then three years later (after his conversion), he spent fifteen days with the Apostle Peter. He then went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia (where his hometown of Tarsus was located), where he was when Barnabas found him.