Acts 9:28-29

While Saul was in Jerusalem he resumed Stephen’s work of debating the Hellenistic Jews. He was himself a Hellenist, as Stephen apparently was, having been born and reared in Tarsus. Paul described himself as a Hebrew of the Hebrews (Philippians 3:5; cf. 2 Corinthians 11:22) by which he meant that his training in Jerusalem and his sympathies were more in line with the Hebrews than with the Hellenists. At first he enjoyed freedom in the city, but soon the unbelieving Jews tried to silence him too. Evidently Saul continued evangelizing in Jerusalem until it became obvious to the other believers that he must leave immediately or suffer death as Stephen had. They probably envisioned a recurrence of the persecution of the disciples that followed Stephen’s martyrdom.