I mistakenly posted this in the Gospels forum:

Acts 7 depicts a meeting of the Sanhedrin at which Stephen delivers a fiery and inflammatory rebuke of the council members present. The council becomes a raging mob and the members present drag Stephen out and stone him. Saul is a witness but not a participant in the killing. I am wondering how Saul came to be in the place where the stoning occurred. Was he a member of the Sanhedrin? An advisor to the Sanhedrin, perhaps in the capacity of a disciple/assistant of Gamaliel? A passer-by on a path outside the chambers?

I next read of Saul in Chapter 9 where he is threatening the members of the Jesus Movement. Threatening with what? Jail time? Trial? Death? How would Saul have gained the authority to make these threats, and is it likely that he had a militia at his disposal? Would he have had to charge the suspects with something? He is said to have an order from the High Priest authorizing him to seize individuals in the synagogues in Damascus. Again, it sounds like he would have needed to be commanding some soldiers to carry this out. What kind of soldiers? Would the Temple in Jerusalem be recognized as an entity that could arrest people in a different province of the Empire outside of Judea? Who were the men travelling with Saul (Acts 9:7) and how many might I suppose there were?

For a non-historian, there is a lot of wondering going on here.