GAMALIEL I. — Tannaite (v.) of the first generation, active between 25-50 A.D., called the “Elder” to distinguish him from his namesake grandson. He bore the honorary title of Rabban, the supreme teacher. In Acts 22:3, Paul, in his address to the Jews, says that he had been brought up and educated at the feet of G. in the strict observance of the law of the fathers, zealous with the same zeal that they all had at that time. According to Acts 5:34ff., the Apostle aroused the anger of the Jews by extolling Jesus. Then one of the council, a Pharisee named G., a doctor of the Law, honored by all the people, intervened and warned his fellow members: “Do not meddle with these men (the Apostles), and let them alone; for if this plan or this undertaking is of men, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them, and you may even be found to be opposing God!” The Apostles were then beaten and released. Later hagiography regards G. as a saint (Clement, Recogn., I, 65ff.).
VANCLO OF G. — An apocryphal work in which a pseudo-Gamaliel recounts what he claims to have seen and heard in the company of Jesus.
The work drew attention in Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique, 7 (1916), pp. 245-68, with the dissertation Apocryphes évangéliques capites; pseudo-Gamaliel; Evangile de Barthélemy. It consists of fragments published by E. Revillout in Cairo in 1904 in Mémoires publiés par les membres de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale du Caire. Therein, in fragment 15 (P. Ladeuze, p. 253; E. Revillout, p. 57), we read: “I, G., who followed him even in the midst of the crowd.” The text follows mainly the Synoptics but also uses the Gospel of Bartholomew. Although it has much in common with the Gospel of Bartholomew (v. PO 3, 210), Ladeuze nevertheless concludes: “We therefore believe that we have before us parts of a new Gospel” (p. 267). To this day, however, no edition of this apocryphon exists. Urbano Holzmeister