Acts 5:34

‘But there stood up one in the council, a Pharisee, named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, held in honour by all the people, and commanded to put the men forth a little while.'

So wiser heads prevailed. Gamaliel a leading Pharisee and Doctor of the Law, a man of high reputation commanded that the men be put outside while the matter was being discussed. We may assume that he was impressed with what these men had said, with their general demeanour, and with the mystery that seemed to surround them, sufficiently to feel that what they were doing had to be given the opportunity to succeed. Perhaps they had something after all.

Gamaliel was a man who was greatly esteemed, even by non-Pharisees, because of his reputation for piety and wisdom. He was clearly also too a man of moderation, and someone whom others listened to. Thus he was probably held in high honour by many of the lay elders on the Sanhedrin. He was descended from the great Hillel, was called ‘Rabban' a title of high respect, and was so greatly respected by his fellow scholars that later the Mishnah would say of him that on his death reverence for the law died, and purity and abstinence died at the same time.

It is quite possible that Gamaliel, who would certainly have known of Jesus by reputation, and would have known that He was not an insurrectionist, was not too disturbed by what he had heard of the teaching of the Apostles. The Pharisees too believed in the resurrection from the dead and that the Messiah would interfere in history. Until he had grounds for thinking otherwise he was prepared to let their enthusiasm for their teacher run its course.