Gamaliel's advocacy of moderation is the main point and reason for Luke's record of the apostles' second appearance before the Sanhedrin. Whereas the Sadducees "rose up"against the apostles (v. 17), Gamaliel "rose up"against the Sadducees (v. 34). He proved to be God's instrument for preserving the apostles, and perhaps all the early Christians in Jerusalem, at this time.
5:34 As mentioned previously, the Pharisees were the minority party in the Sanhedrin. They were, notwithstanding, far more influential with the masses than the Sadducees were. The Pharisees looked for a personal Messiah. They believed in the resurrection of the dead and the existence and activity of angels and demons. They tried to live a simple life in contrast to the Sadducees' luxurious living.276The name "Pharisee"evidently comes from the Aramaic verb peras, meaning "to separate."They considered themselves to be separated to holiness and dedicated entirely to God. Most of the scribes, the Bible expositors of that day, were Pharisees. Consequently the Sadducees listened to the Pharisees and especially to Gamaliel.
Gamaliel was the leader of the more liberal school of Hillel, one of the two most influential parties within Pharisaism. He had been a protégé of Hillel, who was his grandfather,277and Saul of Tarsus was one of his own promising young disciples (22:3). People called him Rabban Gamaliel. Rabban (lit. "our teacher") was a title of higher honor than rabbi (lit. "my teacher"). Gamaliel was the most respected Pharisee of his day. The Mishnah, a collection of commentaries on the oral laws of Israel published toward the end of the second century A.D., contains the following statement about him.
"Since Rabban Gamaliel the elder died there has been no more reverence for the law; and purity and abstinence died out at the same time."278
Gamaliel was able to direct the Sanhedrin as he did through his personal influence, not because he had any superior official authority within that body.
5:35-36 After the apostles had left the meeting room, Gamaliel addressed his colleagues with the traditional designation "Men of Israel"(cf. 2:22). He warned his brethren to do nothing rash. He pointed to two similar movements that had failed when their leaders had died. Historians do not know anything about this Theudas, though he may have come to prominence shortly after Herod the Great's death (c. 4 A.D.).279
5:37 Judas of Galilee led a revolt against Rome in 6 A.D.280The census in view was probably the one that Quirinius, legate of Syria, took in 6 A.D. when Archelaus was deposed and Judea became part of the Roman province of Syria.281Judas founded the Zealot party in Israel that sought to throw off Roman rule violently.
"Judas was a fanatic who took up the position that God was the King of Israel; to Him alone tribute was due; and that all other taxation was impious and to pay it was a blasphemy."282
His influence was considerable, though it declined after his death. Gamaliel seems to have been playing his influence down a little more than it deserved.
5:38-39 Gamaliel's point was that if God was not behind the apostles their efforts would prove futile in time. Obviously Gamaliel believed this was the case or he would have become a Christian. He offered the theoretical option that if the apostles were of God the Sanhedrin would find itself in the terrible position of fighting against God. Obviously Gamaliel believed in the sovereignty of God. He advised his brethren to wait and see. He did not believe that the apostles presented as serious a threat to the leaders of Judaism as the Sadducees believed they did. Saul of Tarsus took a different view of how the Jews should respond to the growing threat of Christianity. He executed many Christians, but that was after the number and influence of the Christians had increased dramatically (cf. chs. 6-7).
"The point made . . . by Gamaliel . . . has already been made by the narrator through the rescue from prison and the ensuing scene of discovery. Here we have an instance of reinforcement through reiteration. A message is first suggested by an event and then clearly stated in the interpretive commentary of a story character."283
Gamaliel's counsel helps us understand how objective unbelieving Jews were viewing the apostles' claims at this time. There had been others beside the apostles who had insisted that their leaders were great men. Yet their claims had eventually proved false. Many of the Jews, whom Gamaliel represented, likewise viewed the apostles' preaching as well-meaning but mistaken. Jesus was no more someone special than Theudas or Judas of Galilee had been. Other than their ideas about Jesus being the Messiah, the apostles held views that did not challenge fundamental Pharisaic theology.
5:40 Gamaliel convinced his fellow Sanhedrin members. They decided to settle for flogging the apostles, probably with 39 lashes (Deut. 25:3; Acts 22:19; 2 Cor. 11:24),284for disobeying their former order to stop preaching (4:18). This is the first instance of Christians receiving a physical beating for witnessing that Luke recorded in Acts. The rulers also threatened the apostles again and then released them (cf. 4:21). The official ban against preaching in Jesus' name remained in force.
