Gamaliel

The Righteous Gamaliel was a Pharisee and teacher of the Law in Jerusalem in the first half of the first century, known from the Acts of the Apostles as the man who urged the Sanhedrin to prudence toward the apostles, and at whose feet Saint Paul the Apostle was taught. The Church commemorates him as righteous, together with his son Abibus, on 2 August (old style), with the finding of the relics of Saint Stephen.

Family and standing

Gamaliel the Elder was the son of Simeon ben Hillel and grandson of the great Jewish teacher Hillel the Elder. His name means, in Hebrew, “God’s reward”. According to the Talmud he bore the titles “nasi” (prince) and “rabban” (“our master”) and presided over the Great Sanhedrin in Jerusalem; even if some doubt this, it is certain that he held a senior place in the Supreme Court. The Mishnah says that since Rabban Gamaliel died, reverence for the Law has ceased, and purity and piety have died out with him. He had a son, Simeon, named for his grandfather, and a daughter, connected by marriage to a priest, Simon ben Nathanael. He is thought to have died in the year 52.

In the Acts of the Apostles

Acts presents Gamaliel as a Pharisee and teacher of the Law, honoured by all the people. When Peter and the other apostles were brought before the Sanhedrin for preaching Jesus, though they had been ordered not to, Gamaliel rose and asked that they be left alone. He recalled the revolts of Theudas and Judas of Galilee, which collapsed after the deaths of their leaders, and said that if this work was of men it would come to nothing, but if it was of God they could not overthrow it. His advice was accepted. Later Saint Paul says that, though born in Tarsus, he was brought up in Jerusalem at the feet of Gamaliel and taught according to the strictest manner of the law of the fathers.

Tradition of the Church

According to a tradition of a legendary character, Gamaliel was baptized near the end of his life by the apostles Peter and Paul and remained a hidden Christian. According to tradition, he found and buried the body of the first martyr Stephen on his own land at Caphargamala (“Gamaliel’s village”), near Jerusalem; the relics were found in the fifth century, and the Church commemorates this on 2 August. He is the only saint in the New Testament who also has authority in Judaism.

In Jewish tradition

The Mishnah credits him with several rulings on the welfare of the community and on the relations of husband and wife. He asked that the law protect women in divorce, and held that, for remarriage, a single witness to a husband’s death is enough. Several rabbinic sources say that he sent three epistles with new rulings: two about the first tithe, to Galilee and to southern Judea, and one to the Jews of the diaspora, about an intercalary month. Two stories in the Mishnah say that “the king and queen” asked his advice about certain rituals.