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GAMALIEL (Se'So?)

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 435 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GAMALIEL (Se'So?) . This name, which in Old Testament times figures only as that of a See also:prince of the tribe of See also:Manasseh (vide Num. i. to, &c.), was hereditary among the descendants of See also:Hillel. Six persons bearing the name are known. ' 1. GAMALIEL I., a See also:grandson of Hillel, and like him designated Ha-Zagen (the See also:Elder), by which is apparently indicated that he was numbered among the Sanhedrin, the high See also:council of See also:Jerusalem. According to the tradition of the See also:schools of See also:Palestine Gamaliel succeeded his grandfather and his See also:father (of the latter nothing is known but his name, See also:Simeon) as See also:Nasi, or See also:president of the Sanhedrin. Even if this tradition does not correspond with historic, fact, it is at any See also:rate certain that Gamaliel took a leadingposition in the Sanhedrin, and enjoyed the highest repute as an authority on the subject of knowledge of the See also:Law and in the See also:interpretation of the Scriptures. He was the first to whose name was prefixed the See also:title Rabban (See also:Master, Teacher). It is related in the Acts of the Apostles (v. 34 et seq.) that his See also:voice was uplifted in the Sanhedrin in favour of the disciples of Jesus who were threatened with ,See also:death, and on this occasion he is designated as a Pharisee and as being " had in reputation among all the See also:people " (vop.o&&lcncal os TL.uO1 irapTL rw Xacu). In the Mishna (Gitlin iv. 1-3) he is spoken of as the author of certain legal ordinances affecting the welfare of the community (the expression in the See also:original is " tiqqun ha-'olam," i.e. improvement of the See also:world) and regulating certain questions as to conjugal rights.

In the tradition was also preserved the See also:

text of the epistles regarding the insertion of the See also:intercalary See also:month, which he sent to the inhabitants of See also:Galilee and the Darom (i.e. See also:southern Palestine) and to the See also:Jews of the See also:Dispersion (Sanhedrin See also:rib and elsewhere). He figures in two anecdotes as the religious adviser of the See also:king and See also:queen, i.e. See also:Agrippa I. and his wife Cypris (Pesahixo88 b). His See also:function, as a teacher is proved by the fact that the Apostle See also: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 See also: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, ch. 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 See also:scribe whose name is mentioned in the New Testament he became a subject of See also:Christian See also:legend, and a See also:monk of the 12th See also:century (See also:Hermann the Premonstratensian) relates how he met Jews in See also:Worms studying Gamaliel's commentary on the Old Testament, thereby most probably meaning the See also:Talmud. 2, GAMALIEL II., the son of See also:Simon See also:ben Gamaliel, one of Jerusalem's foremost men in the See also:war against the See also:Romans (vide See also:Josephus, Bellum See also:Jud. iv. 3, 9, Vita 38), and grandson of Gamaliel I. To distinguish him from the latter he is also called Gamaliel of Jabneh.

In Jabneh (See also:

Jamnia), where during the See also:siege of Jerusalem the See also:scribes of the school of Hillel had taken See also:refuge by permission of See also:Vespasian, a new centre of Judaism arose under the leadership of the aged Johanan ben Zakkai, a school whose members inherited the authority of the Sanhedrin of Jerusalem. Gamaliel II. became Johanan ben Zakkai's successor, and rendered immense service in the strengthening and reintegration of Judaism, which had been deprived of its former basis by the destruction of the See also:Temple and by the entire loss of its See also:political See also:autonomy. He put an end to the See also:division which had arisen between the spiritual leaders of Palestinian Judaism by the separation of the scribes into the two schools called respectively after Hillel and See also:Shammai, and took care to enforce his own authority as the president of the See also:chief legal See also:assembly of Judaism with See also:energy and often with severity. He did this, as he himself said, not for his own See also:Honour nor for that of his See also:family, but in See also:order that disunion should not prevail in See also:Israel. Gamaliel's position was recognized by the See also:Roman See also:government also. Towards the end of See also:Domitian's reign (c A. D. 95) he went to See also:Rome in See also:company with the most prominent members of the school of Jabneh, in order to avert a danger threatening the Jews from the See also:action of the terrible See also:emperor. Many interesting particulars have been given regarding the See also:journey of these learned men to Rome and their sojourn there. The impression made by the See also:capital of the world upon Gamaliel and his companions was -an overpowering one, and they wept when they thought of Jerusalem in ruins. In Rome, as at See also:home, Gamaliel often had occasion to defend Judaism in polemical discussions with pagans, and also with professed Christians. In an See also:anecdote regarding a suit which Gamaliel was prosecuting before a Christian See also:judge, a converted See also:Jew, he appeals to the See also:Gospel and to the words of Jesus in Matt. v.

17 (Shabbath 116 a, b). Gamaliel devoted See also:

special See also:attention to the regulation of the rite of See also:prayer, which after the cessation of sacrificial See also:worship had become all-important. He gave the See also:principal prayer, consisting of eighteen benedictions, its final revision, and declared it every Israelite's duty to recite it three times daily. He was on friendly terms with many who were not Jews, and was so warmly devoted to his slave Tabi that when the latter died he mourned for him as for a beloved member of his own family. He loved discussing the sense of single portions of the See also:Bible with other scholars, and made many See also:fine expositions of the text. With the words of Deut. xiii. 18 he associated the See also:lesson: " So See also:long as See also:thou thyself See also:art merciful, See also:God will also be merciful to thee." Gamaliel died before the insurrections under See also:Trajan had brought fresh unrest into Palestine. At his funeral See also:obsequies the celebrated See also:proselyte See also:Aquila (Akylas Onkelos), reviving an See also:ancient See also:custom, burned costly materials to the value of seventy minae. Gamaliel himself had given directions that his See also:body was to be wrapped in the simplest possible See also:shroud. By this he wished to check the extravagance which had become associated with arrangements for the disposal of the dead, and his end was attained; for his example became the See also:rule, and it also became the custom to commemorate him in the words of See also:consolation addressed to the mourners (Kethub. 8 b). Gamaliel's son, Simon, long after his father's death, and after the persecutions under See also:Hadrian, inherited his See also:office, which thenceforward his descendants handed on from father to son.

3. GAMALIEL III., son of Jehuda I. the redactor of the Mishna, and his successor as Nasi (See also:

patriarch). The redaction of the Mishna was completed under him, and some of his sayings are incorporated therein (Aboth ii. 2-4). One of these runs as follows: " Beware of those in See also:power, for they permit men to approach them only for their own uses; they behave as See also:friends when it is for their See also:advantage, but they do not stand by a See also:man when he is in need." Evidently this was directed against the self-seeking of the Roman government. Gamaliel III. lived during the first See also:half of the 3rd century. 4. GAMALIEL IV., grandson of the above, patriarch in the latter half of the 3rd century: about him very little is known. 5. GAMALIEL V., son and successor of the patriarch Hillel II.: beyond his name nothing is known of him. He lived in the latter half of the 4th century. He is the patriarch Gamaliel whom See also:Jerome mentions in his See also:letter to Pamachius, written in 393.

6. GAMAL1EL VI., grandson of the above, the last of the patriarchs, died in 425. With him expired the office, which had already been robbed of its privileges by a See also:

decree of the emperors See also:Honorius and See also:Theodosius II. (dated the 17th of See also:October 415). Gamaliel VI. was also a physician, and a celebrated remedy of his is mentioned by his contemporary See also:Marcellus (De Medicamentis, See also:liber 21). (W.

End of Article: GAMALIEL (Se'So?)

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