Acts 5:33-42 Gamaliel

Acts 5:33-39 Gamaliel's counsel. Apparently Gamaliel was a Pharisee, not a Sadducee. The minority party in this case, but still with the right to speak in the Sanhedrin. His advice, while not necessarily born of the Holy Spirit, nevertheless carries a great deal of wisdom.  He cites two examples (apparently in the recent past) in which people rose up as leaders of various groups, but their rebellion came to nothing and their followers were scattered. Most likely he was reflecting on the contrast to what had happened during the Maccabean rebellion, in which God granted supernatural victory to free the Jews from Greek domination; these leaders had likely intended to recreate this success but as their efforts came to naught, they were obviously not being led by God. But they must not forget that the Maccabees were themselves supernaturally gifted for success. So from Gamaliel's human perspective, the priests would be well-advised to pay close attention to the evidence; if this was from God, they had best not oppose it.

          The only other reference to Gamaliel is in Paul's defense in the Temple in Jerusalem (Acts 23:2) in which he states that he sat at the feet of Gamaliel. When we read the scholarship and the logical thoroughness with which Paul constructed his epistles, we can infer that Gamaliel was indeed an honest and gifted scholar, who understood both the scriptures and the way that God had worked with the Jews over the course of their history. He was respected by all - apparently even the Sadducees. Whether he became a follower of Christ would be speculation. Was he ever influenced by Nicodemus?

Acts 5:40-42 The disciples are flogged and continue teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. The priests repeated their orders that the apostles stop speaking in Jesus' name. Most likely at this point no one thought the apostles would obey this order, but for the record the priests had to repeat it. The apostles rejoiced that they had been considered worthy to suffer for Jesus' name. The battle lines continue to be drawn. But we shall see that God has a way of building His kingdom despite the opposition of those who claim to speak for Him. It is not that the church directly confronts the Jewish priesthood; rather, they become irrelevant to the work of God in the new covenant. They didn't have to become irrelevant, but they marginalized themselves by rejecting what God was doing.