Gamaliel I

Gamaliel I or Gamliel I was a grandson of Hillel, and like him designated HaZaqen (the Elder), by which is apparently indicated that he was numbered among the Sanhedrin, the high council of Jerusalem. According to the tradition of the schools of Palestine Gamaliel succeeded his grandfather and his father (of the latter nothing is known but his name, Simeon) as Nasi, or president of the Sanhedrin. Even if this tradition does not correspond with historic fact, it is at any rate certain that Gamaliel took a leading position in the Sanhedrin, and enjoyed the highest repute as an authority on the subject of knowledge of the Law and in the interpretation of the Scriptures. He was the first to whose name was prefixed the title Rabban (Master, Teacher). It is related in the Acts of the Apostles (v. 34 et seq.) that his voice was uplifted in the Sanhedrin in favor of the disciples of Jesus who were threatened with death, and on this occasion he is designated as a Pharisee and as being had in reputation among all the people. In the Mishna he is spoken of as the author of certain legal ordinances affecting the welfare of the community (the exprecsion in the original is tiqqun ha-olam, i.e. improvement of the world) and regulating certain questions as to conjugal rights. In the tradition was also preserved the text of the epistles regarding the insertion of the intercalary month, which he sent to the inhabitants of Galilee and the Darom (i.e. southern Palestine) and to the Jews of the Dispersion (Sarihedrin II b and elsewhere). He figures in two anecdotes as the, religious adviser of the king and queen, i.e. Agrippa I. and his wife Cypris (Pesahirri 88 ii). His function as a teacher is proved by the fact that the Apostle Paul boasts of having sat at the feet of Gamaliel (Acts. xxii. 3). Of his teaching, beyond the saying preserved in Aboth i. 16, which enjoins the duty of study and of scrupulousness ,in the observance of religious ordinances, only a very remarkable characterization of the different natures of the scholars remains (Aboth di R. Nathan, cb. xl.). His renown in later days is summed up in the words (Mishna, end of Sotah):

When Rabban Gamaliel the Elder died, regard for the Torah (the study of the Law) ceased, and purity and piety died. As Gamaliel I. is the only Jewish scribe whose name is mentioned in the New Testament he became a subject of Christian legend, and a monk of the 12th century (Hermann the Premonstratensian) relates how he met Jews in Worms studying Gamaliels conimentary on the Old Testament, thereby most probably meaning the Talmud.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)