Galatians 1:21

Then I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia.

It is hard to be patient with commentators who find some big "difficulty" in equating what is said here with the Lukan account in Acts, where it is related that the brethren, fearing for Paul's life, "brought him down to Caesarea and sent him forth to Tarsus" (Acts 9:30). There is no difficulty. Tarsus is the chief city of Cilicia; and that was exactly where Luke says Barnabas found Paul and brought him to Antioch, the capital of Syria; and the fact of the order of Paul's going to those places (in Acts) was Cilicia and Syria, whereas here, it is Syria and Cilicia, is nothing but a quibble. Since it had been at Antioch in Syria where Paul had bestowed the new name on the followers of Christ (Acts 11:26), and as Antioch was the sponsoring congregation who sent him forth on his mission to the Gentiles, it was only natural that Syria should have been mentioned ahead of Cilicia in this place.