ACC ~ Galatians 1 v17b

WHY ARABIA? AMBROSIASTER: He set out from Damascus to Arabia, therefore, to preach where none of the apostles had been and where Judaizing had not been promoted through the intrigues of pseudoapostles. And from there he returned again to Damascus so that he could attend to those who were still immature when he preached to them the gospel of God’s grace. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.17.2.

HIS MODESTY. CHRYSOSTOM: And let me point out to you his humility. For, having said “I went up to Arabia,” he has added “and I returned to Damascus.” He does not recount his conversions or what people and how many he instructed, even though he showed such zeal after his baptism that the Jews were enraged against him, and their animosity became so intense that they laid an ambush for him and wanted to kill him, along with the Greeks. … But he says nothing of these things here, nor would he have spoken of them in that place had he not seen that the occasion demanded that he recount his own history. HOMILY ON GALATIANS 1.17.

COULD THERE BE A DEEPER MEANING? JEROME: How are we to explain this narrative, if we read later that Paul went immediately to Arabia after the revelation of Christ? … He teaches that the Old Testament, that is, the son of the bondwoman, was established in Arabia. And so, as soon as Paul believed, he turned to the Law, the Prophets and the symbols of the Old Testament that were then lying in obscurity and sought in them the Christ whom he was commanded to preach to the Gentiles. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.1.17.