QUESTION: You mention in your book "Did Jesus Exist?" that Paul started his persecution of Christians in the early 30s. If he was tasked with hunting down Christians by the Sanhedrin he must have had a fairly high position among the Sanhedrin (I don't mean that he was a member). How come he didn't witness the crucifixion or why didn’t he in some way have firsthand knowledge of the events in immediate connection with the crucifixion?   RESPONSE: Ah, an interesting question.  So, it’s part of a much, much larger issue.  Let me explain. We have two sources of information about the life of Paul: his own letters and the book of Acts.  There are lots of reasons for thinking that the book of Acts is not always reliable when it comes to describing events in Paul’s life.  I may devote an entire post – or maybe even a series of posts – to the question.  For now, suffice it to say that whenever you can compare what Paul has to say about his own [...]