Acts 5:34

As mentioned previously, the Pharisees were the minority party in the Sanhedrin, though there were more than 6,000 of them in Israel at this time. [Note: Josephus, Antiquities of . . ., 17:2:4.] 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. [Note: Ibid., 13:5:9; 18:1:2-3; idem, The Wars . . ., 2:8:14.] The 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.

"In short, theologically the Christian Jews had a lot more in common with the Pharisees than they did with the Sadducees." [Note: Witherington, p. 234.]

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 may have been Gamaliel’s grandfather. [Note: Neil, p. 98; Kent, p. 58; Witherington, p. 233.] Saul of Tarsus was one of his own promising young disciples (Acts 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." [Note: Mishnah Sotah 9:15. Cf. Bruce, Commentary on . . ., p. 124.]

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.