‘And when many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel together to kill him, but their plot became known to Saul. And they watched the gates also day and night in order that they might kill him, but his disciples took him by night, and let him down through the wall, lowering him in a basket.'
On his returning from Arabia he continued his ministry so effectively that in the end the Jews from the various synagogues came together and determined that they must get rid of him. This High Priest's representative was doing them no good. We may assume that they did not wish to cause an uproar by trying to stone him when it would be among those who would support him and stand up for him. They knew that he had very popular. So knowing that he would try to leave because he knew of their intentions they arranged for the gates to be watched day and night so as to prevent his escape, and so that they could stone him once he tried to do so. 2 Corinthians 11:32 suggests that this was when Aretas, the king of Nabataea, an Arabian king, had jurisdiction over Damascus, and that the governor or ethnarch who was under Aretas, was in the plot. It is even possible that Aretas' soldiers assisted in this attempt to apprehend Saul. (We know that Nabataean kings possibly had jurisdiction over Damascus a number of times around this period If this was so here the governor or ethnarch would be responsible to him). What Saul had been preaching in Arabia may have played a part in his decision, for he would take every opportunity to present the Good News. Saul was learning from the other side of the fence what it meant to be hated and persecuted for His name's sake everywhere he went.
Saul, however, learned of the plot, and not one to court martyrdom for the sake of it, was lowered in a basket from one of the windows in the city wall and escaped. He recognised that this would as much assist the infant church as save himself. His presence could only mean trouble for the people of God as a whole (especially if it partly resulted from his activity in Arabia).
‘His disciples.' This need not mean official disciples, but those who had gathered around Saul's ministry in order to learn from him.
‘A basket.' This would be a large woven or network bag or basket suitable for carrying such things as hay, straw and bales of wood.
So for eighteen months or more Saul had successfully proclaimed Christ in Damascus, apart from when he took his break in Arabia. Due to that break, and to the fact that he had moved from synagogue to synagogue, the severe opposition would have taken time to build up. Now it had crystallised and it was clearly time to move on. But the fact that he then immediately went back to Jerusalem clears him of any charge of cowardice. He knew that he was going out of the frying pan into the fire. There he would have to face the opposition of those who had once trusted him, and would be furious at having been betrayed. But now he felt that it was time for him to confirm to himself that his teaching conformed to that of the Apostles.