Paul preached first in Damascus (9.19-25) and then in Jerusalem (9.28-29). There is a great deal of difficulty regarding the grammatical form of the phrase in the whole country of the Jews, though from the standpoint of translation it should be construed in the way in which the Good News Translation has rendered it. Though the geographical locations of Paul’s preaching are emphasized in this verse, in many languages it is necessary to place the verb of “preaching” first—for example, “I preached first in Damascus and then in Jerusalem and then in the whole country of the Jews and also to the Gentiles.”

As with the earlier part of the book of Acts, the content of Paul’s preaching is to tell people they must repent of their sins and turn to God; to this has been added the affirmation that they must do the things that would show they had repented (see Luke 3.8). The purpose of Paul’s remarks is to show that his preaching was exactly the same that any Jewish missionary would have used in trying to convert the heathen.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Acts of the Apostles. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .