Gamaliel

Drawing of Gamaliel by Lorenzo Ferri According to the indications of Maria Valtorta. Source: documentary collection of the Maria Valtorta Heritage Foundation.

One of the great figures of Judaism. He is the grandson of Hillel, himself a prominent figure. Gamaliel is of great renown among the people, as testified by the Talmud and the Acts of the Apostles. Among his Disciples are Stephen (the future martyr), Hermas and Saul (the future Apostle Paul), Joseph called Barnabas his companion, Philip of Canata, the young rich man.

The father of Gamaliel, just like his son, bear the same name: Simeon. But the latter, who sits on the Sanhedrin like Gamaliel, lacks the charisma of his ancestors.

Gamaliel usually resides in Gamala of Judea. This place, identified as Kefar Gamala (Jammāla), is today located 11 km west of Ramah (Judea)llah, north of Jerusalem.

Character and Appearance

"The eyelids almost lowered over severe eyes and, when he raises them, his very dark eyes, deep and full of thought, reveal themselves in all their severe severity, on each side of a long and fine nose and under the somewhat sparse forehead of an elderly man, tall, marked by three parallel wrinkles and where a large bluish vein draws a V in the middle of the right temple."

"Pharisee and doctor to the marrow of his bones, but also honest and just." "Deep, dark, and severe eyes."

Tall, noble in appearance, severe, with strongly Semitic features, a high forehead, very black, intelligent, penetrating eyes, long and deeply set under thick and straight eyebrows, alongside a straight, long, and fine nose that somewhat recalls that of Jesus. The color of the skin, also, the mouth with thin lips, recall those of the Christ. Only Gamaliel's mustache and beard, once very black, are now graying and longer.

Often dressed in white.

Biography

He is among the doctors who are fascinated by the young Jesus during his examination at the Temple at the age of twelve ("Bar Mitzvah"). On this occasion Jesus predicts to him a sign that he will now await:

"At the sound of my voice, the stones will tremble..."

Meeting the adult Jesus and not making the connection with the child who had fascinated him, he remains skeptical but not hostile:

"It will not be the miracles of a man of God that remove the thorn I carry in the Heart of these three unanswered questions: Is the Messiah alive? Was it him? Is it this one?" "I am for You a friend, Jesus. I do not believe you inferior to me, but greater."

He only comes to decide on conversion at the foot of the cross. This ambiguous attitude is not without favorable gestures towards Jesus: he indirectly informs Him of the plots forged against Him. Upright in spirit, he is scandalized when at the trial for rape of Eleazar, son of Anna, the latter is acquitted while his accuser, a relative of the victim, is condemned:

"Quickly let the new Samson come to destroy the corrupt Philistines."

His independence of mind is shown during the stormy session of the Sanhedrin following the resurrection of Lazarus: "I myself recognize him as the greatest Rabbi of Israel. And I am honored to be... dethroned by Him," he publicly says of Jesus. As the controversy continues, Gamaliel even briefly confesses his divinity: "He is He who is." But he admits: "As long as the light of the Most High lasted, I saw him as such," because his spirit darkened again, without sharing the hatred of the Sanhedrin.

At the trial of Jesus, he rises scandalized: "It is not permitted to proceed as we are doing, and I will make a public accusation." But it is "lying on the ground at the foot of the Cross", when the earth trembles at Jesus' last sigh, that he rushes to recognize the Messiah. Shaken, aged, he hides in his house and questions all the foundations of his knowledge. From then on, his conversion is underway: he frequents the house of Nicodemus "he now seeks, with anguish, the truth, the light, the forgiveness, the life."

During the trial of Stephen, he responds to the fanaticized Saul who asks if he is a disciple of the "malefactor" Jesus: "I am not yet. But if He was what He said, and indeed many things tend to prove that He was, I pray to God to become so." However, it is only about ten years later that, having become Confessor, he will go to find John and the Virgin Mary at the Gethhsemane to receive definitively, not sight with the eyes, but sight of The Spirit .

According to historical sources, he dies five years later, at about 75 years old.

His name

Gamaliel would mean "Reward of God".

Where is he mentioned in the work?

GRM 40 GRM 41 GRM 85

GRM 114 GRM 116 GRM 123 GRM 160 GRM 162

GRM 225 GRM 272 GRM 275 GRM 281 GRM 282

GRM 339 GRM 340 GRM 354 GRM 364 GRM 365 GRM 376

GRM 464 GRM 470 GRM 475 GRM 474 GRM 477 GRM 478 GRM 486 GRM 487

GRM 546 548 GRM 549 GRM 560 GRM 570 GRM 576 GRM 581 588 GRM 592 GRM 596 GRM 598

GRM 604 GRM 609 GRM 630 GRM 632 GRM 644 GRM 645 GRM 645 GRM 647

Learn more about this character

Extracts from the Dictionary of Gospel Characters, According to Maria Valtorta (Msgr. René Laurentin, François-Michel Debroise, Jean-François Lavère, Salvator Editions, 2012).

Saint Gamaliel is celebrated on August 3 by the Catholic Church.

According to the Talmud, he married the daughter of a priest, Simon ben Bartholomew (Nathaniel) the Apostle from whom he had two sons: Simeon and Abibas. He became president of the Sanhedrin (Nassi) at the death of Shammai.

The Acts of the Apostles report his intervention in defense of Peter and John during their trial. According to Clement I, he remained in the Sanhedrin to help the first Christians: he had secretly converted with his son Simon. According to St John Chrysostom, he would have converted before St Paul. According to Photius, he would have been baptized by St Peter and St John, as well as his son Abibas and Nicodemus.

He is said to have died in 52.

The Talmud says of him: "It is the glory of the Torah that disappears with Rabbi Gamaliel."

An apocryphal text, the gospel of Gamaliel, a fifth-century Coptic text inspired by another apocryphal, The Acts of Pilate, is attributed to him.

According to a vision seen by priest Lucien in 415, Gamaliel had Stephen buried in a tomb where he himself wished to be buried with his Family, near Kaphar Gamala.

Notes and references

Note: Quotations from the work of Maria Valtorta on this page currently use machine-translated text and will gradually be replaced by the official English translation. Until then, the official translation may be consulted through the reference link provided with each quotation.

Kilometres. 1 km = 0.621 miles. 1 mile = 1.609 km.