John Chrysostom

Observe them also speaking more mildly to him. "We beg," say they: and wish to speak in exculpation of those at Jerusalem. Whereas they ought to accuse them, they plead for them: by the very fact of their exonerating them, they do in fact accuse them. For this very thing was a proof that they knew themselves exceedingly in the wrong. Had they been confident, they would at any rate have done this, so that he should not have it in his power to make out his story in his own way, and besides they shrank from coming.

Homily on Acts 55 ↗

Theophylact of Ohrid

Even before Paul's arrival in Rome, the Jews had been persuaded not to accept the preaching about Christ — not only the Jews in Rome, but all Jews throughout the entire world. But how is this known? In the writings of ancient authors we find that the priests, scribes, and elders dwelling in Jerusalem wrote epistles and sent them to all countries, to the Jews living in them; in these epistles they reviled the teaching of Christ as a teaching alien to God, and urged them not to accept it. …

Commentary on Acts ↗

Cassiodorus

"But they said to him: We neither received letters concerning thee from Judea," etc. The Jews replied to Paul that they had had no opportunity to learn either by letters or by a messenger the things that he had just told; but they asked him, instead, to let them know what he had preached in other places. A day was appointed and when they came to Paul's lodgings, he spoke of the kingdom of the Lord Christ, who had clearly been promised by Moses and the Prophets. …

Complexiones on the Acts of the Apostles ↗