Because of his proximity to Jesus and his interactions with Jesus` followers, Saul is probably the best link to the historical Jesus that we have, according to Donald Harman Akenson. Akenson painstakingly reconstructs first-century Israel, according to the letters of Saul--the only parts of the New Testament that were written before the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 B.C.E.--and in so doing portrays a very real Jesus Christ.