When Saul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to join himself to the disciples; but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple.
World English Bible
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When Saul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to join himself to the disciples; but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple.
World English Bible
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Acts 9:26 says that when Saul came to Jerusalem after his conversion he tried to join the disciples, and the Lukan narrative places this trip very close to the Damascus event. Galatians 1:16-17, written by Paul himself, flatly denies it: he says immediately after his calling he did *not* go up to Jerusalem to confer with anyone, but went into Arabia and back to Damascus first, only going up to Jerusalem three years later (1:18).
Critical scholarship: Widely regarded as a genuine contradiction.
Chronology
The proposed answers and sources for each reading are on the question page.
Acts 9:26-28 has Paul, after his conversion, mingling freely with the disciples in Jerusalem, going in and out among them. Paul's own first-person account in Galatians 1:18-19 says he went to Jerusalem only after three years, stayed fifteen days with Peter, and saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord's brother.
Critical scholarship: Widely regarded as a genuine contradiction.
Historical detail
The proposed answers and sources for each reading are on the question page.
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This citation refers to this GEBible page — the verse and the analysis gathered here. To cite the underlying scholarship, cite those sources directly.
"Acts 9:26 — Scripture Analysis" GEBible, https://gebible.app/analysis/verse/acts/9/26?version=WEB (retrieved 27 August 2026).