Gamaliel
VIEW:56 DATA:01-04-2020
recompense of God; camel of God
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary
GAMALIEL.1. The son of Pedahzur, and prince of the children of Manasseh (Num_1:10; Num_2:20, etc.). 2. Gamaliel i., the grandson of Hillel, was a Pharisee, and regarded as one of the most distinguished doctors of the Law of his age. He was a member of the Sanhedrin during the years of our Lords ministry. His views were tolerant and large-hearted; he emphasized the humaner side of the Law, relaxing somewhat the rigour of Sabbatical observance, regulating the customs of divorce so as the more to protect helpless woman, and inculcating kindness on the part of Jews towards surrounding heathen. The advice given by him to the chief priests (Act_5:34-40) in reference to their dealing with the Apostles shows similar tolerance and wisdom. At his feet St. Paul was brought up (Act_22:3).
The Clementine Recognitions absurdly state that by the advice of the Apostles he remained among the Jews as a secret believer in Christ. The Mishna deplores that with the death of Gamaliel i. the reverence for Divine Law ceased, and the observance of purity and piety became extinct.
Charles T. P. Grierson.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
1. Num_1:10; Num_2:20; Num_7:54-59; Num_10:23.
2. A Pharisee and eminent doctor of the law, who advised the council wisely to let the apostles alone (Act_5:34, etc.), "for if this counsel or work be of men it will come to nought; but if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it, lest haply ye be found even to fight against God." He was Paul's teacher, "at whose feet he was brought up and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers" (Act_22:3). The Jews celebrated him as "the glory of the law," the first designated Rabban "our master."
Son of rabbi Simeon, and grandson of Hillel; president of the Sanhedrin under Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius; he died 18 years before the fall of Jerusalem. His counsel as to the apostles was not from any leaning to Christianity, but from opposition to Sadduceeism in a case where the resurrection was the point at issue, and from seeing the folly of unreasoning bigotry (Act_23:6-9). Saul his pupil was a leading persecutor when Stephen opposed Pharisaism; and probably Gamaliel would not altogether disapprove of his zeal in such a cause, though his own tendency was to leave the claims of Christianity to be tested by time.
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.
Gama'liel. (recompense of God).
1. Son of Pedahzur; prince or captain of the tribe of Manasseh, at the census at Sinai, Num_1:10; Num_7:54; Num_7:59; Num_20:20, and at starting on the march through the wilderness. Num_10:23. (B.C. 1490).
2. A pharisee and celebrated doctor of the law, who gave prudent worldly advice in the Sanhedrin, respecting the treatment of the followers of Jesus of Nazareth. Act_5:34. Ff. (A.D. 29). We learn from Act_22:3, that he was the preceptor of St. Paul. He is generally identified with the very celebrated Jewish doctor Gamaliel, grandson of Hillel, and who is referred to as an authority, in the Jewish Mishna.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863
a celebrated rabbi, and doctor of the Jewish law, under whose tuition the great Apostle of the Gentiles was brought up, Act_22:3. Barnabas and Stephen are also supposed to have been among the number of his pupils. Soon after the day of pentecost, when the Jewish sanhedrim began to be alarmed at the progress the Gospel was making in Jerusalem, and consequently wished to put to death the Apostles, in the hope of checking its farther progress, they were apprehended and brought before the national council, of which Gamaliel seems to have been a leading member. It is very probable that many zealots among them would have despatched the affair in a very summary manner, but their impetuosity was checked by the cool and prudent advice of Gamaliel; for, having requested the Apostles to withdraw for a while, he represented to the sanhedrim that, if the Apostles were no better than impostors, their fallacy would quickly be discovered; but on the other hand, if what they were engaged in was from God, it was vain for them to attempt to frustrate it, since it was the height of folly to contend with the Almighty. The assembly saw the wisdom of his counsel, and very prudently changed the sentence, upon which they were originally bent against the Apostles' lives, into that of corporal punishment.
2. It may here also be remarked, that the sanhedrim could not themselves believe that tale which they had diligently circulated among the people, that the disciples had stolen away the body of Jesus, and then pretended that he had arisen from the dead. If the Jewish council had thought this, it would have been very absurd in Gamaliel to exhort them to wait to see whether the counsel and work was of God, that is, whether the Apostles related a fact when they preached the resurrection, and grounded the divine authority of their religion upon that fact. Gamaliel's advice was wholly based upon the admission, that an extraordinary, and to them an inexplicable, event had happened.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.
ga-mā?li-el (גּמליאל, gamlı̄'ēl, ?reward or recompense of God?; Γαμαλιήλ, Gamaliḗl):
(1) The son of Pedahzur, and ?prince of the children of Manasseh,? chosen to aid in taking the census in the Wilderness (Num_1:10; Num_2:20; Num_7:54, Num_7:59; Num_10:23).
(2) A Pharisee who at the meeting of the ?council? succeeded in persuading its members to adopt a more reasonable course when they were incensed at the doctrine of Peter and the rest of the apostles and sought to slay them (Act_5:33-40). That he was well qualified for this task is attested by the fact that he was himself a member of the Sanhedrin, a teacher of the law, and held in high honor among all the people. In his speech he pointed out to his fellow-councilors the dire consequences that might ensue upon any precipitous action on their part. While quoting instances, familiar to his hearers, of past insurrections or seditions that had failed, he reminded them at the same time that if this last under Peter ?is of God, ye will not be able to overthrow them; lest haply ye be found even to be fighting against God.? As a result of his arguments, the apostles, after being beaten and admonished to speak no longer in the name of Jesus, were released. In the speech which he was permitted by Lysias to deliver from the stairs of the palace after the riot in Jerusalem, Paul referred to Gamaliel as the teacher of his youth, who instructed him rigidly in the Mosaic law (Act_22:3).
The toleration and liberality displayed by Gamaliel upon the occasion of his speech before the Sanhedrin were all the more remarkable because of their rarity among the Pharisees of the period. Although the strict observance by the Christians of temple worship, and their belief in immortality, a point in dispute between Pharisees and Sadducees, may have had influence over him (Knowling), no credence is to be attached to the view that he definitely favored the apostles or to the tradition that he afterward became a Christian. The high place accorded him in Jewish tradition, and the fact that the title of Rabban, higher even than Rabbi or Master, was first bestowed upon him, testify that he remained a Pharisee to the end. His speech is rather indicative of one who knew the deeper truth in the Old Testament of the universal fatherhood of God, and who recognized that the presence of His power was the. deciding factor in all human enterprise. His social enactments were permeated by the same broad-minded spirit. Thus his legislation on behalf of the poor was formulated so as to include Gentiles as well as Jews. The authenticity of his speech has been questioned by Wendt and others, chiefly on account of the alleged anachronism in regard to Theudas (see THEUDAS); but the internal evidence is against this view (compare Knowling in The Expositor Greek Test., II, 161). It has also been objected by Baur and the T?bingen school that the liberal, peace-loving Gamaliel could not have been the teacher of the fanatical Saul. To this, reply has been made, firstly, that the charges against Stephen of destroying the temple and subverting the laws of Moses were not brought against Peter and the other apostles, and, secondly, that the doctrines of any teacher, however moderate he himself may be, are liable to be carried to extremes by an over-zealous pupil.
Literature
Conybeare and Howson, Life and Epistles of St. Paul, chapter ii; Kitto, Cyclopaedia of Biblical Lit., 1866, article ?Gamaliel? (Ginsberg).
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
Gama?liel (God is my rewarder), a member of the Sanhedrim in the early times of Christianity, who, by his favorable interference, saved the Apostles from an ignominious death (Act_5:34). He was the teacher of the Apostle Paul before the conversion of the latter (Act_22:3). He bears in the Talmud the surname of 'the old man,' and is represented as the son of Rabbi Simeon, and grandson of the famous Hillel: he is said to have occupied a seat, if not the presidency, in the Sanhedrim during the reigns of Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius, and to have died eighteen years after the destruction of Jerusalem.
There are idle traditions about his having been converted to Christianity by Peter and John; but they are altogether irreconcilable with the esteem and respect in which he was held even in later times by the Jewish Rabbins, by whom his opinions are frequently quoted as an all-silencing authority on points of religious law. Neither does his interference in behalf of the Apostles at all prove?as some would have it?that he secretly approved their doctrines. He was a dispassionate judge, and reasoned in that affair with the tact of worldly wisdom and experience, urging that religious opinions usually gain strength by opposition and persecution (Act_5:36-37), while, if not noticed at all, they are sure not to leave any lasting impression on the minds of the people, if devoid of truth (Act_5:38); and that it is vain to contend against them, if true (Act_5:39). That he was more enlightened and tolerant than his colleagues and contemporaries, is evident from the very fact that he allowed his zealous pupil Saul to turn his mind to Greek literature, which, in a great measure, qualified him afterwards to become the Apostle of the Gentiles; while by the Jewish Palestine laws, after the Maccabean wars, even the Greek language prohibited to be taught to the Hebrew youth.
Another proof of the high respect in which Gamaliel stood with the Jews long after his death, is afforded by an anecdote told in the Talmud respecting his tomb, to the effect that Onkelos (the celebrated Chaldean translator of the Old Testament) spent seventy pounds of incense at his grave in honor of his memory.
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.
Gamaliel
(Heb. Gamliel', גִּמְלִיאֵלreward of God; Sept. and N.T. Γαμαλιήλ), the name of two men in Scripture.
1. Son of Pedahzur, and chief (נָשׂיא) of the tribe of Manasseh at the census at Sinai (Num_1:10; Num_2:20; Num_7:54; Num_7:59), and at starting on the march through the wilderness (10:23). B.C. 1657.
2. A Pharisee and celebrated doctor of the law, who gave prudent and humane advice in the Sanhedrim respecting the treatment of the followers of Jesus of Nazareth (Act_5:34 sq.), A.D. 29. We learn from Act_22:3 that he was the preceptor of the apostle Paul. He is generally identified with the very celebrated Jewish doctor Gamaliea, who is known by the title of "the glory of the law," and was the first to whom the title "Rabban," "our master," was given. The time agrees, and there is every reason to suppose the assumption to be correct. He bears in the Talmud the surname of הזקן, "the elder" (to distinguish him from a later rabbin of the same name), and is represented as the son of Rabbi Simeon, and grandson of the famous Hillel: he is said to have occupied a seat, if not the presidency, in the Sanhedrim during the reigns of Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius, and to have died eighteen years after the destruction of Jerusalem (see Lightfoot, Centuria chorographica Matthaeo praemissa, chapter 15). But, as this statement would give him an extreme old age, it may perhaps refer to the later Gamaliel; and the elder probably died about A.D. 50. Ecclesiastical tradition makes him become a Christian, and be baptized by Peter and Paul (Phot. Cod. 171, page 199), together with his son Gamaliel, and with Nicodemus; and the Clementine Recognitions (1:65) state that he was secretly a Christian at this time. But these notices are altogether irreconcilable with the esteem and respect in which he was held even in later times by the Jewish rabbins, by whom his opinions are frequently quoted as an all-silencing authoritv on points of religious law (see Thilo, Codex. Apoc. page 501; Neander, Planting and Training, 1:46, Bohn). Neither does his interference in behalf of the apostles at all prove as some would have it that he secretly approved their doctrines. He was a dispassionate judge, and reasoned in that affair with the tact of worldly wisdom and experience, urging that religious opinions usually gain strength by opposition and persecution (Act_5:36-37), while, if not noticed at all, they are sure not to leave any lasting impression on the minds of the people, if devoid of truth (Act_5:38); and that it is vain to contend against them, if true (Act_5:39). That he was more enlightened and tolerant than his colleagues and contemporaries is evident from the very fact that he allowed his zealous pupil Saul to turn his mind to Greek literature, which, in a great measure, qualified him afterwards to become the apostle of the Gentiles; while by the laws of the Palesn tinian Jews, after the MaccabEean wars, even the Greek language was prohibited to be taught to the Hebrew youth (Mishna, Sotah, 9:14). Another proof of the high respect in which Gamaliel stood with the Jews long after his death is afforded by an anecdote told in the Talmud respecting his tomb, to the effect that Onkelos (the celebrated Chaldaean translator of the Old Testament) spent seventy pounds of incense at his grave in honor of his memory (Yuchasin, 59). These last notices, however, have been shown to refer to Gamaliel II, the grandson of the apostle's teacher (comp. Gratz, in Frankel's Monatschrift, 1:320; Geschichte der Juden [Lpz. 1856], 3:289; 4:114, 152; Jost, Gesch. der Judenthums [Lpz. 1857], 1:281; and especially Frankel's Hodegetien in Mischnam [Lips. 1859], page 57 sq., where all the fragments about Gamaliel are collected). See Kitto's Daily Bible Illust. in loc.; Pfaffreuter, Diss. de conisil. Ganzal. (Jen. 1680); Conybeare and Howson, St. Paul, 1:56, 67; Graun, Hist. Gamalielis (Vitemb. 1687); Baier, De consilio Gamalielis (Jen. 1680); Bucher, De θεομάχοις (Viteb. 1681); Chladenius, De θεομάχοις (Viteb. 1715); Lange, Judicium Ganmalielis (Hal, 1715); Menlengracht, De religione Gamalielis (Hafn. 1698); Palmer, Paulus u. Gamaliel (Giess. 1806).
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary
GAMALIEL.1. The son of Pedahzur, and prince of the children of Manasseh (Num_1:10; Num_2:20, etc.). 2. Gamaliel i., the grandson of Hillel, was a Pharisee, and regarded as one of the most distinguished doctors of the Law of his age. He was a member of the Sanhedrin during the years of our Lords ministry. His views were tolerant and large-hearted; he emphasized the humaner side of the Law, relaxing somewhat the rigour of Sabbatical observance, regulating the customs of divorce so as the more to protect helpless woman, and inculcating kindness on the part of Jews towards surrounding heathen. The advice given by him to the chief priests (Act_5:34-40) in reference to their dealing with the Apostles shows similar tolerance and wisdom. At his feet St. Paul was brought up (Act_22:3).
The Clementine Recognitions absurdly state that by the advice of the Apostles he remained among the Jews as a secret believer in Christ. The Mishna deplores that with the death of Gamaliel i. the reverence for Divine Law ceased, and the observance of purity and piety became extinct.
Charles T. P. Grierson.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
1. Num_1:10; Num_2:20; Num_7:54-59; Num_10:23.
2. A Pharisee and eminent doctor of the law, who advised the council wisely to let the apostles alone (Act_5:34, etc.), "for if this counsel or work be of men it will come to nought; but if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it, lest haply ye be found even to fight against God." He was Paul's teacher, "at whose feet he was brought up and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers" (Act_22:3). The Jews celebrated him as "the glory of the law," the first designated Rabban "our master."
Son of rabbi Simeon, and grandson of Hillel; president of the Sanhedrin under Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius; he died 18 years before the fall of Jerusalem. His counsel as to the apostles was not from any leaning to Christianity, but from opposition to Sadduceeism in a case where the resurrection was the point at issue, and from seeing the folly of unreasoning bigotry (Act_23:6-9). Saul his pupil was a leading persecutor when Stephen opposed Pharisaism; and probably Gamaliel would not altogether disapprove of his zeal in such a cause, though his own tendency was to leave the claims of Christianity to be tested by time.
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.
Gama'liel. (recompense of God).
1. Son of Pedahzur; prince or captain of the tribe of Manasseh, at the census at Sinai, Num_1:10; Num_7:54; Num_7:59; Num_20:20, and at starting on the march through the wilderness. Num_10:23. (B.C. 1490).
2. A pharisee and celebrated doctor of the law, who gave prudent worldly advice in the Sanhedrin, respecting the treatment of the followers of Jesus of Nazareth. Act_5:34. Ff. (A.D. 29). We learn from Act_22:3, that he was the preceptor of St. Paul. He is generally identified with the very celebrated Jewish doctor Gamaliel, grandson of Hillel, and who is referred to as an authority, in the Jewish Mishna.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863
a celebrated rabbi, and doctor of the Jewish law, under whose tuition the great Apostle of the Gentiles was brought up, Act_22:3. Barnabas and Stephen are also supposed to have been among the number of his pupils. Soon after the day of pentecost, when the Jewish sanhedrim began to be alarmed at the progress the Gospel was making in Jerusalem, and consequently wished to put to death the Apostles, in the hope of checking its farther progress, they were apprehended and brought before the national council, of which Gamaliel seems to have been a leading member. It is very probable that many zealots among them would have despatched the affair in a very summary manner, but their impetuosity was checked by the cool and prudent advice of Gamaliel; for, having requested the Apostles to withdraw for a while, he represented to the sanhedrim that, if the Apostles were no better than impostors, their fallacy would quickly be discovered; but on the other hand, if what they were engaged in was from God, it was vain for them to attempt to frustrate it, since it was the height of folly to contend with the Almighty. The assembly saw the wisdom of his counsel, and very prudently changed the sentence, upon which they were originally bent against the Apostles' lives, into that of corporal punishment.
2. It may here also be remarked, that the sanhedrim could not themselves believe that tale which they had diligently circulated among the people, that the disciples had stolen away the body of Jesus, and then pretended that he had arisen from the dead. If the Jewish council had thought this, it would have been very absurd in Gamaliel to exhort them to wait to see whether the counsel and work was of God, that is, whether the Apostles related a fact when they preached the resurrection, and grounded the divine authority of their religion upon that fact. Gamaliel's advice was wholly based upon the admission, that an extraordinary, and to them an inexplicable, event had happened.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.
ga-mā?li-el (גּמליאל, gamlı̄'ēl, ?reward or recompense of God?; Γαμαλιήλ, Gamaliḗl):
(1) The son of Pedahzur, and ?prince of the children of Manasseh,? chosen to aid in taking the census in the Wilderness (Num_1:10; Num_2:20; Num_7:54, Num_7:59; Num_10:23).
(2) A Pharisee who at the meeting of the ?council? succeeded in persuading its members to adopt a more reasonable course when they were incensed at the doctrine of Peter and the rest of the apostles and sought to slay them (Act_5:33-40). That he was well qualified for this task is attested by the fact that he was himself a member of the Sanhedrin, a teacher of the law, and held in high honor among all the people. In his speech he pointed out to his fellow-councilors the dire consequences that might ensue upon any precipitous action on their part. While quoting instances, familiar to his hearers, of past insurrections or seditions that had failed, he reminded them at the same time that if this last under Peter ?is of God, ye will not be able to overthrow them; lest haply ye be found even to be fighting against God.? As a result of his arguments, the apostles, after being beaten and admonished to speak no longer in the name of Jesus, were released. In the speech which he was permitted by Lysias to deliver from the stairs of the palace after the riot in Jerusalem, Paul referred to Gamaliel as the teacher of his youth, who instructed him rigidly in the Mosaic law (Act_22:3).
The toleration and liberality displayed by Gamaliel upon the occasion of his speech before the Sanhedrin were all the more remarkable because of their rarity among the Pharisees of the period. Although the strict observance by the Christians of temple worship, and their belief in immortality, a point in dispute between Pharisees and Sadducees, may have had influence over him (Knowling), no credence is to be attached to the view that he definitely favored the apostles or to the tradition that he afterward became a Christian. The high place accorded him in Jewish tradition, and the fact that the title of Rabban, higher even than Rabbi or Master, was first bestowed upon him, testify that he remained a Pharisee to the end. His speech is rather indicative of one who knew the deeper truth in the Old Testament of the universal fatherhood of God, and who recognized that the presence of His power was the. deciding factor in all human enterprise. His social enactments were permeated by the same broad-minded spirit. Thus his legislation on behalf of the poor was formulated so as to include Gentiles as well as Jews. The authenticity of his speech has been questioned by Wendt and others, chiefly on account of the alleged anachronism in regard to Theudas (see THEUDAS); but the internal evidence is against this view (compare Knowling in The Expositor Greek Test., II, 161). It has also been objected by Baur and the T?bingen school that the liberal, peace-loving Gamaliel could not have been the teacher of the fanatical Saul. To this, reply has been made, firstly, that the charges against Stephen of destroying the temple and subverting the laws of Moses were not brought against Peter and the other apostles, and, secondly, that the doctrines of any teacher, however moderate he himself may be, are liable to be carried to extremes by an over-zealous pupil.
Literature
Conybeare and Howson, Life and Epistles of St. Paul, chapter ii; Kitto, Cyclopaedia of Biblical Lit., 1866, article ?Gamaliel? (Ginsberg).
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
Gama?liel (God is my rewarder), a member of the Sanhedrim in the early times of Christianity, who, by his favorable interference, saved the Apostles from an ignominious death (Act_5:34). He was the teacher of the Apostle Paul before the conversion of the latter (Act_22:3). He bears in the Talmud the surname of 'the old man,' and is represented as the son of Rabbi Simeon, and grandson of the famous Hillel: he is said to have occupied a seat, if not the presidency, in the Sanhedrim during the reigns of Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius, and to have died eighteen years after the destruction of Jerusalem.
There are idle traditions about his having been converted to Christianity by Peter and John; but they are altogether irreconcilable with the esteem and respect in which he was held even in later times by the Jewish Rabbins, by whom his opinions are frequently quoted as an all-silencing authority on points of religious law. Neither does his interference in behalf of the Apostles at all prove?as some would have it?that he secretly approved their doctrines. He was a dispassionate judge, and reasoned in that affair with the tact of worldly wisdom and experience, urging that religious opinions usually gain strength by opposition and persecution (Act_5:36-37), while, if not noticed at all, they are sure not to leave any lasting impression on the minds of the people, if devoid of truth (Act_5:38); and that it is vain to contend against them, if true (Act_5:39). That he was more enlightened and tolerant than his colleagues and contemporaries, is evident from the very fact that he allowed his zealous pupil Saul to turn his mind to Greek literature, which, in a great measure, qualified him afterwards to become the Apostle of the Gentiles; while by the Jewish Palestine laws, after the Maccabean wars, even the Greek language prohibited to be taught to the Hebrew youth.
Another proof of the high respect in which Gamaliel stood with the Jews long after his death, is afforded by an anecdote told in the Talmud respecting his tomb, to the effect that Onkelos (the celebrated Chaldean translator of the Old Testament) spent seventy pounds of incense at his grave in honor of his memory.
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.
Gamaliel
(Heb. Gamliel', גִּמְלִיאֵלreward of God; Sept. and N.T. Γαμαλιήλ), the name of two men in Scripture.
1. Son of Pedahzur, and chief (נָשׂיא) of the tribe of Manasseh at the census at Sinai (Num_1:10; Num_2:20; Num_7:54; Num_7:59), and at starting on the march through the wilderness (10:23). B.C. 1657.
2. A Pharisee and celebrated doctor of the law, who gave prudent and humane advice in the Sanhedrim respecting the treatment of the followers of Jesus of Nazareth (Act_5:34 sq.), A.D. 29. We learn from Act_22:3 that he was the preceptor of the apostle Paul. He is generally identified with the very celebrated Jewish doctor Gamaliea, who is known by the title of "the glory of the law," and was the first to whom the title "Rabban," "our master," was given. The time agrees, and there is every reason to suppose the assumption to be correct. He bears in the Talmud the surname of הזקן, "the elder" (to distinguish him from a later rabbin of the same name), and is represented as the son of Rabbi Simeon, and grandson of the famous Hillel: he is said to have occupied a seat, if not the presidency, in the Sanhedrim during the reigns of Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius, and to have died eighteen years after the destruction of Jerusalem (see Lightfoot, Centuria chorographica Matthaeo praemissa, chapter 15). But, as this statement would give him an extreme old age, it may perhaps refer to the later Gamaliel; and the elder probably died about A.D. 50. Ecclesiastical tradition makes him become a Christian, and be baptized by Peter and Paul (Phot. Cod. 171, page 199), together with his son Gamaliel, and with Nicodemus; and the Clementine Recognitions (1:65) state that he was secretly a Christian at this time. But these notices are altogether irreconcilable with the esteem and respect in which he was held even in later times by the Jewish rabbins, by whom his opinions are frequently quoted as an all-silencing authoritv on points of religious law (see Thilo, Codex. Apoc. page 501; Neander, Planting and Training, 1:46, Bohn). Neither does his interference in behalf of the apostles at all prove as some would have it that he secretly approved their doctrines. He was a dispassionate judge, and reasoned in that affair with the tact of worldly wisdom and experience, urging that religious opinions usually gain strength by opposition and persecution (Act_5:36-37), while, if not noticed at all, they are sure not to leave any lasting impression on the minds of the people, if devoid of truth (Act_5:38); and that it is vain to contend against them, if true (Act_5:39). That he was more enlightened and tolerant than his colleagues and contemporaries is evident from the very fact that he allowed his zealous pupil Saul to turn his mind to Greek literature, which, in a great measure, qualified him afterwards to become the apostle of the Gentiles; while by the laws of the Palesn tinian Jews, after the MaccabEean wars, even the Greek language was prohibited to be taught to the Hebrew youth (Mishna, Sotah, 9:14). Another proof of the high respect in which Gamaliel stood with the Jews long after his death is afforded by an anecdote told in the Talmud respecting his tomb, to the effect that Onkelos (the celebrated Chaldaean translator of the Old Testament) spent seventy pounds of incense at his grave in honor of his memory (Yuchasin, 59). These last notices, however, have been shown to refer to Gamaliel II, the grandson of the apostle's teacher (comp. Gratz, in Frankel's Monatschrift, 1:320; Geschichte der Juden [Lpz. 1856], 3:289; 4:114, 152; Jost, Gesch. der Judenthums [Lpz. 1857], 1:281; and especially Frankel's Hodegetien in Mischnam [Lips. 1859], page 57 sq., where all the fragments about Gamaliel are collected). See Kitto's Daily Bible Illust. in loc.; Pfaffreuter, Diss. de conisil. Ganzal. (Jen. 1680); Conybeare and Howson, St. Paul, 1:56, 67; Graun, Hist. Gamalielis (Vitemb. 1687); Baier, De consilio Gamalielis (Jen. 1680); Bucher, De θεομάχοις (Viteb. 1681); Chladenius, De θεομάχοις (Viteb. 1715); Lange, Judicium Ganmalielis (Hal, 1715); Menlengracht, De religione Gamalielis (Hafn. 1698); Palmer, Paulus u. Gamaliel (Giess. 1806).
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.
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