The tradition that Gamaliel was a secret Chris- tian and was baptized by St. Peter and St. Paul is purely legendary (cf. A. Neander, Hist, of the Planting and Training of the Christian Church, ed. Bohn, i. [1880] 46 ff.). He died c.A.D. 57-58.
The historical events referred to in the speech ascribed to Gamaliel in Ac 5^^^* have given rise to much discussion. According to St. Luke's narra- tive, he speaks of a rising under Theudas as tak- ing 2^1 ace before the rising of Judas of Galilee (A.D. 6). Josephus (^n^. XX. v. 1) refers to arising under a certain Theudas which was put down by the procurator Cuspius Fadus (c. A.D. 46). Is the Theudas of St. Luke identical with the Theudas of Josephus? Has one or other historian erred as to his facts, or were there two risings under two men of the same name, one in A.D. 6 and the other in 46 ? Or are we to suppose that the whole s])eecli of Gamaliel in Acts is unhistorical ? For further discussion of these questions see art. Theudas.
2. Gamaliel II., grandson of the former and the third teacher to receive the title Rabban, the most outstanding Jewish scholar at the end of the 1st century. He ]nesided over the court of Jabne, recognized as the higliest Jewish authority of tiic day. He is often confused with 1 (Schiirer, GJV* ii. 35).
GABIES
GAMES
441
3. Gamaliel III., son of E,. Juda-ha-Xasi {Ahoth ii. 2), the fifth scholar to receive the title Rabban. He is credited with having expressly recommended the combining of the study of the Law with manual labour or business activity (Schiirer, GJV* ii. 379).
i. The last Ethnarch or Patriarch of the Jews, deposed by the Emperor Theodosian II. in the year 415 (Schiirer, GJV* iii. 121).
Literature.— G. Milligran, in HDB ii. [1899] 106; C. D. Ginsburg, in Kitto's Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature'^, ii. (1-1,4] GO-ei; E. Schiirer, GJV*, 1901-11; R. J. Knowlingr, £GT, 'Acts,' 1900, p. 156. W. F. BOYD.
GAMES. — The Avord 'games,' which is not found in the AV, appears twice in the RV, viz. in 1 Co 9'-^ and 2 Ti 2^. In the former passage ayuvigofxevos, 'striving,' is the Greek term employed, and in the latter ad\^ (and ddXricrri), ' contend.' It will be seen that in each case ' in the games' is supplied in ac- cordance with the obvious sense of the verb. This provides a starting-point for the discussion of the numerous references to games that are found in the NT, the Gospels being left out of account.
1. Metaphors of St. 'Pa.ul.—ayui', with derivatives, both simple and compound, supplies most of the material. This word is itself derived from dyu, 'gather,' which reveals the spectacular nature of the games of antiquity. While private games of many kinds were known and practised, either as simple pastimes, or for the exhibition of skill, or to satisfy the gambling instinct, games of a public order predominated, and this was more than ever the rule in tlie Apostolic Age. The difference re- Tnarked by Gibbon {Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ch. xl. § ii. [ed. Bury, vol. iv.^ 1908, p. 218]) between the games of Greece and Kome was now very pronounced : ' tlie most eminent of the Greeks were actors, the Romans were merely spec- tators.' "While the demand of the age was for spectacles, a supply of competitors had still to be found ; which means that professional athletes existed, who in the case of Rome seem to have been mostly imported from Greece. It is perhaps significant of the spirit of the times that the strictly ])rofessional term (adXiu) is but rarely used in the NT (2 Ti 26 ; cf. Ph V-'' 4^, He lO^-). Degeneracy had set in, and the onlookers were out of all pro- portion to the trained athletes who provided the sport.
This being the case, it is all the more surprising to find that metaphors and similes drawn from the spliere of athletics should enter so largely into the language of the NT, in particular into the letters of St. Paul. It has been customary to explain this feature of the Apostle's writings as the outcome of his experience and from his actual presence at great athletic assemblies, but now the idea is gain- ing ground that he drew rather upon the word- treasury of past generations, and used such figures of speech because they had become stereotyped in language and arose naturally to the mind. The same fondness for the imagery of the athletic ground has been remarked in Philo {HDB v. 206'' ; W. M. Ramsay, Luke the Physician, 1908, p. 294), and the opinion is widely entertained that St. Paul owed the particular metaphor of the race {e.g. 1 Co 9^^^-) to the Stoics, with whom it was a favourite idea (C. Clemen, Primitive Christianity and its Non-Jewish Sources, Eng. tr., 1912, p. 67). Light- foot has called attention to the striking similarity in this respect, as in many others, between the language of St. Paul and that of Seneca {Philip- 2nans\ 1878, pp. 288 and 290).
Modern exegesis has brought to view the full scope of the imagery from games, obscured in the renderings of the AV, which are retained for the sake of euphony in the RV (e.g. 1 Ti e'^ and 2 Ti 4^ literally, 'strive the good strife,' *I have striven