Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him.
Read Chapter 17
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Observe him again reasoning with Jews. By devout persons he means the proselytes. For the Jews were dispersed everywhere before (mod. text since) Christ's coming, the Law indeed being henceforth, so to say, in process of dissolution, but at the same time (the dispersed Jews) teaching men religion. But those prevailed nothing, save only that they got witnesses of their own calamities. (e) And certain philosophers, etc.
Observe how he meets with greater trials among the Jews than among the Gentiles. Thus in Athens he undergoes nothing of this kind; the thing goes as far as ridicule, and there an end: and yet he did make some converts: whereas among the Jews he underwent many perils; so much greater was their hostility against him.— His spirit, it says, was roused within him when he saw the city all full of idols. Nowhere else were so many objects of worship to be seen. But again he disputed with the Jews in the synagogue, and in the market daily with them that met with him. Then certain of the philosophers of the Stoics and Epicureans encountered him.
