How long Paul and Barnabas remained in Jerusalem at the time of Paul's second visit there we do not know, though they must have had a friendly reception not only from the leaders of the church but also from those whom their gifts had supported in time of need (see Acts 11: 29, 30). Even the Jews could scarcely fail to appreciate the public-spirited relief work of these men.
It may have been at this time—if not at his first visit after his conversion—that Paul received the revelation referred to in Acts 22:17-21. When he "was come again to Jerusalem," he tells a Jewish mob in that account, he saw, while praying in the temple, a vision of Christ Jesus, who bade him leave the city at once, for his testimony there would not be accepted. Paul dared to remonstrate with the vision, pointing out that the Jews well knew of his former persecution of the Christians, how he had imprisoned and beaten them and had consented to the stoning of Stephen. Surely, he implied, they would be impressed by the complete change in his convictions. But the only answer was a still clearer command, which could not be unheeded: "Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles."
This vision, whatever its occasion, presents in dramatic form Paul's recognition of his mission to the Gentiles, a recognition which may well have come into sharper focus during his second Jerusalem visit. Hitherto, in his return to Tarsus and even at Antioch, he had been gradually preparing himself for his special ministry, becoming more and more acquainted with the problems and needs of the Gentiles without attempting to reach their more distant provinces and cities. Now he had proved to the satisfaction of the other apostles that Christianity was not to be gauged by the acceptance or rejection of the Jewish rite of circumcision, and the time was ripe for a wider, more universal mission to the Gentile world.
