it's not likely that any of the authors knew "him" first hand,
Which is why I added:
being among those... , nearest in space and time, to those who knew the man himself
If you want, when I'm dead, I'll have some of my family and friends send you a letter telling you my name. You can, of course, continue after you get the letter, to wonder what my actual name was and, if you're especially skeptical, I suppose you could even argue that I never existed.
As for "witnessing events", I wasn't there, but when the author of 2nd Peter wrote:
- 17 For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased”—
- 18 and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.
Somebody was there and heard the Bat Kol, and I choose to believe that whoever it was, he/she did..
And when the author of I Corinthans 15 wrote:
- 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died ... ,
- 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised ...,
- 5 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
- 6 After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep;
- 7 then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles;
- 8 and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also
although Paul never claims to have met Jesus before Jesus' death and resurrection,
- Paul admits to witnessing the stoning of Stephen, which is said to have taken place roughly in the mid 30s CE, not more than a few years after the death of Jesus.
So, IMO, if Paul was old enough to be standing nearby when Stephen was stoned, then it seems entirely possible that he was at least a young boy during Jesus' lifetime, and possibly even in his teens. In other words, whether or not Paul "met" Jesus or ever laid eyes on him personally, the fact that he encountered the resurrected Jesus not too many years after Stephen's death strongly suggests to me that there's a very high probability that he actually met a good number of folks who were companions of and witness to the existence of Jesus, some of whom are named in Chapter 15 of I Corinthians.