Christ healed Saul “immediately” (v. 18); Saul began his witness “straightway.” The two adverbs are from the same Greek word.

 Textual evidence attests (cf. p. 10) the reading “Jesus” in preference to “Christ,” which was not yet generally used. The preaching that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ, their long-expected Messiah, was ever the main content of the apostle’s message to the Jews. Saul’s preaching, like that of Peter (see on ch. 2:16), would certainly have a strong prophetic background (AA 123, 125).

 Saul went, even as Christ had (see on Luke. 4:16), into the synagogues as the places most likely to furnish audiences for his gospel proclamation. As a Sabbathkeeper, he would be in the synagogues on the Sabbath. As an apostle, he would proclaim there the gospel. Instead of delivering to the presidents of the synagogues the letters he had received from the leaders in Jerusalem (Acts 9:2), he heralded to them the gospel from a far higher Authority than the chief priests. For Paul’s practice of preaching to the “children of Israel” in the synagogues see on v. 15.

 For the significance of the title see on Luke 1:35. This is the only instance where the title is used of Jesus in Acts. What Paul proclaimed was

 (1) that Christ was verily the Son of God no less than the son of David,

 (2) that Jesus of Nazareth had been shown to be the Christ.

 Not only was this a perplexity to the Jews (cf. on Matt. 22:41-46), but it seemed to them a blasphemous claim. It required much grace for the Jews to accept the message of the unique Sonship of Jesus.