Bible Character Explorer
New Testament • 1st century AD
Gamaliel
The Cautious PhariseeA respected Pharisee and teacher of the law whose caution before the Sanhedrin spared the apostles, and who trained the young Saul of Tarsus.
"Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought: But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it."
Acts 5:38-39 (KJV)
Overview
Gamaliel was a Pharisee and doctor of the law, held in reputation among all the people, who sat as a member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council. When the apostles were arrested for continuing to preach Christ after being previously warned, and the council was minded to kill them, Gamaliel stood up and urged caution, citing past movements led by men like Theudas and Judas of Galilee that had collapsed once their leaders were removed, and reasoning that if the apostles' movement were of human origin it would likewise fail on its own, but if it were of God, the council would find itself fighting against God. His counsel persuaded the Sanhedrin to have the apostles beaten and released rather than executed. Gamaliel is also identified in Acts as the teacher at whose feet the young Saul of Tarsus, later the apostle Paul, was trained in the law, taught, as Paul says, 'according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers.'
Gospel Connection
Gamaliel's warning that the council might find itself 'fighting against God' if the apostles' preaching were truly divine was borne out in the unstoppable spread of the gospel across the Roman Empire in the decades that followed, a spread carried forward remarkably by his own former student Paul, whose life stands as one of history's clearest demonstrations that no human opposition can overturn a work that God himself has ordained.
Discover More
See how this life points to Christ in the Gospel Connection section above.