Acts 5:34

Then stood there up one in the council Better, But there stood up, &c. See note on Acts 5:25.

a Pharisee, named Gamaliel It may very well be believed that some small sympathy towards the Christian teachers would be roused in the breast of a Pharisee, because they maintained, as he did, the doctrine of a resurrection, but there is nothing in the speech of this Pharisee beyond a policy of inactivity.

This Gamaliel, called here a doctor of the law, is no doubt the same person who is mentioned (Acts 22:3) as the teacher of St Paul. He is known in Jewish writings as Gamaliel ha-Zaken (i.e. the older), and was the grandson of Hillel. He was alive during the time when Herod was beautifying the Temple. For in Tosephta Shabbathxiv. (ed. Lemberg) we read, "Rabbi Jose said, It happened that Rabbi Khalaphta went to Rabban Gamaliel (the younger, and grandson of the Gamaliel in our text) to Tiberias, and found him sitting at the table of Rabbi Jochanan ben-Nozâph, and in his (Gamaliel's) hand was the book of Job in Targum (i.e. in the Chaldee paraphrase), and he (Gamaliel) was reading in it. Rabbi Khalaphta said to him, I remember concerning Rabban Gamaliel the elder, the father of thy father, that he was sitting on a step in the Temple mount, and they brought before him the book of Job, in Targum, and he said to the builder, "Sink it (bury it) under this course of the wall." This could only have been when the walls were in building.

Gamaliel is said to have died 18 years before the Temple was destroyed.

In T. B. Abodah Zarah11 a, in allusion to the custom of burning beds, clothes, and other things, at the funerals of great men (see Jeremiah 34:5), it is said, "When Rabban Gamaliel the elder died, Onkelos the proselyte burned in his honour the worth of 70 minæ of Tyrian money."

So great was Gamaliel's fame that we read (Mishna Sotahix. 15) when he died "the glory of the Torah ceased, and purity and sanctity died out also." We can therefore understand that he was "had in reputation among all the people."

and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space Instead of the apostles, the best authorities have the men. He wished them to be removed for a short time from the council room, that the conversation of himself and his colleagues might be the more unrestrained.