Jamieson, Fausset and Brown on Acts 9:26

Ac 9:26-31. Saul's First Visit to Jerusalem after His Conversion.

26. And when Saul was come to Jerusalem--"three years after" his conversion, and particularly "to see Peter" (Ga 1:18); no doubt because he was the leading apostle, and to communicate to him the prescribed sphere of his labors, specially to "the Gentiles."

he assayed to join himself to the disciples--simply as one of them, leaving his apostolic commission to manifest itself.

they were all afraid of him, &c.--knowing him only as a persecutor of the faith; the rumor of his conversion, if it ever was cordially believed, passing away during his long absence in Arabia, and the news of his subsequent labors in Damascus perhaps not having reached them.