“And when Saul was come to Hierusalem, he assayed to ioyne himselfe to the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, and beleeued not that he was a disciple.”
1611 King James Version (KJV)
9:26 And coming to Jerusalem - Three years after, #Gal 1:18|. These three years St. Paul passes over, #Acts 22:17|, likewise.
Ac 9:26 And when Saul was come to Jerusalem. Three years had passed since he left the city, a proud, talented young Pharisee, with brilliant worldly prospects, the honored agent of the Sanhedrin, commissioned to stamp out Christianity at Damascus. He now returns a disciple of him whom he sought to destroy, his bright worldly prospects all forfeited, an outcast from his own nation, persecuted and hated. Why this change? No explanation is possible, save that given in this history and by himself. They were all afraid of him. Little was known in the church of the change. A great part of the three years were spent in Arabia, probably in study and preparation of his great work. They had known so much of his fury in the past that they feared him still. His appearance in the church would be much like that of Robert G. Ingersoll, "the great agnostic", in a Christian convention.