Gamaliel The Elder
Rabban Gamaliel the Elder (or a name that is mentioned in the book of Numbers 1.10; 2.20 etc..), Grand-son of Hillel , high authority of Jewish Pharisee , Tanna of the Mishnah , Rabban Gamaliel is, in the eyes of Judaism , as Christians , a personage of high importance if it sometimes reaches the size of the legend.
Grand son of Hillel , son of Shimon ben Hillel, married the daughter of Shimon ben ha Nathanael Cohen , he became president of the Sanhedrin after the death of Shammai , a task that will be taken over by his son Shimon II. Many descendants bear his name to a Gamaliel VI. He died around 50 CE , before the destruction of the Temple.
Jewish tradition
Rabban Gamaliel sprinkles the pages of the Talmud (although it is sometimes difficult to tell what it is Gamaliel). Three letters have been kept from him: two relate to the tithe for the Temple, the third concerns the intercalation of the month Christian Tradition
Gamaliel appears in the Acts of the Apostles. He would have intervened in their favor as they were to appear before the Sanhedrin to have continued to preach despite the prohibition in Jewish authority:
- "A Pharisee, named Gamaliel, a doctor of law, considered all the people, stood in the Sanhedrin and ordered to leave for a moment the apostles. Then he said to them: Men of Israel, take heed what you do about these people. For it was not long ago that seemed Theudas, who gave himself for something, which rallied about four hundred men: he was killed, and all those who had followed him were defeated and reduced to nothing. After him Judas the Galilean appeared at the time of the census, and drew the world to his advantage: he also perished, and all those who had followed him were dispersed. And now, I say do not bother most of these men and let them go. If this counsel or this work be of men, it will break but if it comes from God, you can not destroy it. Do not run the risk of having fought against God. "(Acts 5: 34-39).
The text also indicates that Paul of Tarsus was his pupil, although there is no indication about this in the Pauline Epistles:
- "I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but I was raised in this city, and educated at the feet of Gamaliel in the exact knowledge of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as you 'Are all today. "(Acts 22: 3)
Christian tradition (Clement, Recognitiones, 1, 65) ready to Gamaliel a secret conversion to Christianity with his son. Both were baptized along with Nicodemus by the apostles Peter and John. In the same spirit, the body of Gamaliel was miraculously found in the fifth century in the same tomb as Saint Etienne, Saint Nicodemus and the son of Gamaliel, Abib, also held by the Catholic saint by his conversion to Christianity. St. Etienne to be based from Pisa in Italy.
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