Gamaliel, a Pharisee who believed in the resurrection of the dead and whose sect was the only one to survive after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, was the most respected rabbi in 1st century Judaism. He was the grandson of the legendary Hillel the Elder (c.110 BC-10 AD), founder of the House of Hillel whose rabbis and sages dominated Jewish thought into the 5th century AD.
Hillel, like Moses, died at the age of 120 and for the last 40 years of his life (c.30 BC-10 AD) he led the Sanhedrin, the ruling elders who determined on political and religious cases in Jerusalem.
When Hillel died, his son Simeon assumed his position, but Simeon died shortly after he took office. In 10 AD Simeon’s son Gamaliel (c. 20 BC-c. 52 AD) took office and became the most respected rabbi in the Sanhedrin during all the years of Jesus’ life and the rise of the Early Church. It is interesting to speculate whether Gamaliel, his father Simeon and/or his grandfather Hillel were among the rabbis that reasoned in the Temple with the 12-year-old Jesus in c. 6-7 AD:
“Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom. After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, ‘Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.’ ’Why were you searching for me?’ he asked. ‘Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?’ But they did not understand what he was saying to them.” Luke 2:41-50
It was the Passover Celebration, so it is logical that all the important rabbis in Israel were in Jerusalem at that time. Gamaliel’s extended family was based in Jerusalem, so he was there in that time-frame.
We will never know whether Hillel, Simeon or Gamaliel, all living at that time and in Jerusalem at that time, ever met or were “among the teachers (rabbis)” the precocious Jesus “listened to and asked them questions” during that three day post-Passover period in c. 6-7 AD. The rabbis were all “amazed at (12 year-old Jesus’) understanding and answers” during the discussion between Him and the Teachers of the Law.
It is a chronological possibility that the young Jesus and one or more of the three revered rabbis may have met in the Temple in Jerusalem and have conversed together at that time.—Sandra Sweeny Silver