Acts Chapter 9 verse 30 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 30. - And when the brethren knew it for which when the brethren knew, A.V. St. Paul gives another reason for his hasty departure from Jerusalem in his speech from the castle stairs (Acts 22:17-21). Caesarea, when standing alone, means Caesarea Stratonis, or Παράλιος, or Sebaste, the seaport and Roman garrison of that name, as distinguished from Caesarea Philippi (see Alford's note on Acts 8:30), and is always so used by St. Luke (Luke 8:40; Luke 10:1, 24; Luke 18:22; Luke 21:8, 16; Luke 23:23, 33; 25:1, 4, 6; 27:1, 2, showing it was a seaport). There is no reasonable doubt that it means the same place here. A seaport, near to Jerusalem, and with Roman protection, affording access to Tarsus either by sea or land as should seem best, was the natural place for Paul's friends to take him to. If further proof were wanting, it could be found in the phrase, "brought him down," as compared with the converse, "gone up" (Acts 18:22), "ascended "(Acts 25:1), when the journey was from Caesarea to Jerusalem. To Tarsus. A glance at the map will show that, starting from Caesarea, a person might either go by land along the sea-coast of Phoenicia, through Acre, Tyre, Sidon, Beyrout, Tripolis, Antioch, Issus, to Tarsus; or by sea to any of the intermediate ports between Caesarea and Tarsus; or rather the artificial harbor at the mouth of the Cydnus which formed the seaport of Tarsus. It is not improbable that Paul landed at Selcucia, since he says (Galatians 1:21) that he came at this time "into the regions of Syria and Cilicia," which is exactly what he would have done if he had landed at Seleucia, the seaport of Antioch.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(30) They brought him down to Caesarea.--The fact that the brethren at Jerusalem took these measures for the Apostle's safety may be noted as a proof of their friendship. At Caesarea he would probably, as afterwards in Acts 21:8, find Philip, and the friend and the accuser of the proto-martyr met face to face as brethren. In returning to his home at Tarsus, from which he had been absent at the least for four years, and possibly for a much longer period, it would be natural for him to resume his old employment as a tent-maker. (See Note on Acts 18:3.) Thence, as from a centre, he did his work as an Evangelist in the regions of Cilicia (Galatians 1:21), where, in Acts 15:41, we find churches already organised, which had not been founded in what we call the first mission journey of Paul and Barnabas, and must therefore have been planted by the former at an earlier period. Here, for the present, we lose sight of him. It need hardly be said that the Caesarea here spoken of is that on the sea-coast. Caesarea Philippi is always distinguished by its special epithet.