Gamaliel the Elder

When did Gamaliel die?

Gamaliel the Elder is dated d. c. 52 in the archive, which places Gamaliel in the Apostolic Age (AD 4–70). The dating is traditional and approximate; the archive marks it as uncertain rather than fixing a year the sources do not give.

Which early sources mention Gamaliel?

Gamaliel the Elder is named in 4 primary-source passages catalogued here, drawn from Luke the Evangelist, Luke, The Clementine romance and Lucian of Caphargamala. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.

Where was Gamaliel from?

The archive associates Gamaliel the Elder with Jerusalem.

Who were Gamaliel’s contemporaries?

The archive links Gamaliel the Elder to 3 other figures, including Paul of Tarsus, Simon Peter and Nicodemus the Pharisee. Each connection is drawn from a source that places them together, not from inference.

Brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers.

…if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought: but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.

Gamaliel, who was secretly our brother in the faith, but by our advice remained among them.

[Lucian reports the vision in which Gamaliel named himself and the three buried with him at Caphargamala.]

The Epistula Luciani, the account by the priest Lucian of Caphargamala of the discovery in AD 415 of the tomb holding Stephen, Nicodemus, Gamaliel and Abibas — the founding document of the cult of Stephen's relics. It survives in two Latin versions, by Avitus of Braga and by Anianus of Celeda, printed in Migne, Patrologia Latina 41.807. No public-domain English translation exists.