Greater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 602. The Teacher

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Greater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 602. The Teacher


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The Teacher



1. Gamaliel was the grandson of the great scholar and teacher Hillel, and he belonged distinctly to the same liberal school as his great ancestor. In those days there were two schools or parties among the orthodox religious Jews-the school of Shammai, which was strict and narrow; and the school of Hillel, which was liberal and free. Gamaliel was of the school of Hillel. His learning was so eminent, and his character so revered, that he is one of the seven who alone among Jewish doctors have been honoured with the title of “Rabban.” As Aquinas, among the Schoolmen, was called Doctor Angelicus, and Bonaventura Doctor Seraphicus, so Gamaliel was called the “Beauty of the Law”; and it is a saying of the Talmud, that “since Rabban Gamaliel died, the glory of the Law has ceased.” He was a Pharisee; but he was not trammelled by the narrow bigotry of the sect. He rose above the prejudices of his party. Our impulse is to class him with the best of the Pharisees, like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathæa. Candour and wisdom seem to have been features of his character; and this agrees with what we read of him in the Acts of the Apostles, that he was “had in honour of all the people.” He died eighteen years before the destruction of Jerusalem, about the time of St. Paul's shipwreck at Malta, and was buried with great honour. Another of his pupils, Onkelos, the author of the celebrated Targum, raised to him such a funeral-pile of rich materials as had never before been known, except at the burial of a king.



What were the Rugby, the Uppingham school-books compared with the personality of an Arnold, a Thring? What were the Balliol traditions compared with the influence of a Jowett? What a story is that of Da Feltre of Mantua in the fifteenth century! Villari says of him: “His success in so immoral an age was entirely owing to the nobility and generosity of his mind.… For a long time his pupils were distinguished by a loyalty of character in strong contrast with the general corruption.” He believed evidently in Joubert's maxim: “Make truth lovely and do not try to arm her; mankind will then be far less inclined to contend with her.”1 [Note: J. Brierley, Faith's Certainties, 24.]



2. The Rabbinical schools assembled as a rule in their own buildings; but they met on special occasions within the precincts of the Temple itself-usually, perhaps, at the time of the great feasts, when the normal attendance of pupils would be swelled by the presence of pilgrims temporarily sojourning in the city. The teacher sat on a raised bench, so his hearers were quite literally “at his feet.” Of all the instruction given, the basis was the Law; the text itself was repeated until the pupils knew it by heart, and then the amplifications and interpretations given by Rabbinical tradition were expounded. To a great extent the method of teaching was catechetical, and not unlike that employed by Socrates. Knotty points would be put forward, apparently conflicting traditions compared, hard cases of conduct discussed. Questions were asked of the pupils, and they were encouraged to question their teacher freely in turn.



It is a good thing to ask questions. It was the occupation of the child Jesus in the midst of the doctors. Towards the close of his life Dr. Thomas Guthrie wrote a beautiful letter to his daughter congratulating her on her first approach to the table of the Lord. The letter simply overflows with intense affection and fatherly counsel. And it contains this pertinent passage: “I saw an adage yesterday, in a medical magazine, which is well worth your remembering and acting on. It is this wise saying of the great Lord Bacon's: who asks much, learns much. I remember the day when I did not like, by asking, to confess my ignorance. I have long given up that, and now seize on every opportunity of adding to my stock of knowledge. Now don't forget Lord Bacon's wise saying!”1 [Note: F. W. Boreham, The Luggage of Life, 235.]



3. From Jewish sources we learn something of the character of Gamaliel's teaching. Almost alone of the Rabbis, he encouraged his pupils to read Greek literature, which the others regarded as a dangerous study. So to Gamaliel possibly was due the fact that St. Paul could quote Cleanthes with such effect in his speech on Mars' hill. And in many ways he showed his liberality towards the heathen. They, he urged, should be allowed in harvest-time the same rights of gleaning as the Jews possessed, and he bade his pupils give their salutation of “Peace be with you” to them, even when they were on their way to some idolatrous feast.



A friend wrote of John Mackintosh: “However widely a man differed in opinion or sentiment from himself, it seemed he did not care to dwell on the difference, but rather to open his mind fairly to take in whatever of good or true he had to teach. This open-mindedness in one so earnest and fixed in his own mind, was very remarkable; and the whole seemed so evenly balanced, that while he was not only fair, but sympathetic towards all men, there appeared no symptom of that weakness and uncertainty of thought often visible in those whose sympathies are stronger than their heads.”2 [Note: N. Macleod, Memorials of John Mackintosh, 74.]



4. Gamaliel in his capacity as teacher laid in St. Paul the foundations of modes of thought and reasoning, the influence of which moulded the Apostle's whole soul and can be traced all through his Epistles. Analogy, allegory, illustration, form the staple elements of Eastern logic, and in their use St. Paul was elaborately trained in Gamaliel's classes, and of their use his writings furnish abundant examples. If we were to specify the three effects which the teaching and example of Gamaliel may be supposed to have produced on the mind of St. Paul, they would be as follows-candour and honesty of judgment, a willingness to study and make use of Greek authors, and a keen and watchful enthusiasm for the Jewish law.



Baur and the Tübingen school find it so difficult to reconcile Gamaliel's attitude in Act_5:1-42. with the persecuting spirit afterwards shown by Saul, then his pupil, that they pronounce the whole passage unhistorical. But do pupils never in later years diverge from their teachers' doctrines? And may not special circumstances have arisen in connexion with the appearance of Stephen which called forth a fanatic zeal in Saul little in accord with his early training?1 [Note: G. Milligan, in Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, ii. 106.]