Was Gamaliel from the Hillel school or
Shammai school? ---Paul was too violent before
conversion to belong to the pacifistic Hillel school. ---The Shammai school was more positive
about Rome rather than Hellenism. Hillel was more positive about Hellenism
rather than Rome. (See Phillip J. Long, Paul: At the Feet of Gamaliel? Reading
Acts 7 September 2011. Downloaded from https://readingacts.com/2011/09/07/paul-at-the-feet-of-gamaliel/).
Long did his doctoral in New Testament at Andrews University in 2011. His
dissertation was published as Jesus the
Bridegroom by Pickwick Books in 2012. In 2019 he published a commentary. Galatians: Freedom through God’s Grace
(Wipf & Stock, 2019). ---Jewish literature do not portray
Gamaliel as been knowledgeable of the Scriptures. ---They do not portray him as a teacher. ---The chain of teachers jumped from
Hillel to Yohanan ben Zakkai and do not go through Gamaliel to Yohanan. (see
Pirkei Abot 1:2). ---Gamaliel, the Mishnah said, was
one of the greatest teachers in all the annals of Judaism.: "Since Rabban
Gamaliel the Elder died, there has been no more reverence for the law, and
purity and piety died out at the same time". (Sotah 9:15). ---The Misnah says in Pesahim 88:2 says
that the king and queen asked for his advice about rituals. It is not said who
the king and queen were. Scholars are looking at the Herods. ---Jewish literature said that he was
famous for some laws on welfare of the community and also the rights of a woman
in divorce. (Yevamot 16:7). ---A number of citations in Jewish
Literature indicates that Gamaliel was the head of Jewish Law. (Tosefta Sanhedrin 2:6; Sanhedrin 11b; Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 18d;
Jerusalem Talmud Ma'aser Sheni 56c ---Gamaliel wrote two epistles to be
distributed on the subject of first tithe. ---The third letter was sent to argue
about the need of an intercalary month for their calendar. ---Gamaliel had a saying about his
students classifying them as kinds of fish: A ritually impure fish:
one who has memorized everything by study, but has no understanding, and is the
son of poor parents A ritually pure fish: one who has learnt
and understood everything, and is the son of rich parents A fish from the Jordan River:
one who has learnt everything, but doesn't know how to respond A fish from the Mediterranean Sea:
one who has learnt everything, and knows how to respond (see Wikipaedia “Gamaliel”) ---There is a tenth century Jewish
scholar Dunash ibn Tamim who said that he saw an Arabic book translated from
the Hebrew book Sefer Yetsirah saying that Gamaliel was the same person as the
Greek Galen. Galen lived in the second century AD and Gamaliel was in the first
century AD. It seem unlikely a claim. But what if Galen took his main ideas
from a work that Gamaliel wrote in the first century? ---Galen was the famous Greek medical
expert of the second century AD. ---The name of the Hebrew book
translated to Arabic was The Book of Gamaliel the Prince (Nasi), called
Galenos among the Greeks. (See Gero, Stephen (1990). "Galen on the
Christians: A Reappraisal of the Arabic Evidence". Orientalia
Christiana Periodica. 56 (2): 393). ---There is a Christian tradition that
John the Apostle and Peter baptized Gamaliel and his son Abib (Photius, Cod.
171 (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1870). This was Photios I of
Constantinople. ---In other Christian works it is said
that Gamaliel kept his conversion secret (Recognitions of Clement 1:65–66). ---There is a claim that in the fifth
century AD his body was discovered by a miracle and he was taken to the Pisa
Cathedral. (Wikipaedia, “Gamaliel”).