The following is the genealogy of the first Nasi:--Gamaliel ben
Simeon (Josephus, Vita, 38) ben Gamaliel (Acts v. 34, xxii. 3) ben
simeon ben Hillel. The name Gamaliel was that which occurred most
frequently among the patriarchs; see Codex Theod. xvi. 8, 22.
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The respect in which the synedrial president was held rapidly
increased; like Christian patriarchs under Mahometan rule, he was
also recognised by the imperial government as the municipal head
of the Jews of Palestine, and bore the secular title of the old
high priests (nasi, ethnarch, patriarch). Under him the Palestinian
Jews continued to form a kind of state within a state until the 5th
century. From the non-Palestinian Jews he received offerings of
money. (Compare Gothofredus on Codex Theod., xvi. 8, "De Judaeis;"
and Morinus, Exer. Bibl., ii. exerc. 3, 4).
The task of the rabbins was so to reorganise Judaism under the new
circumstances that it could continue to assert its distinctive
character. What of external consistency had been lost through the
extinction of the ancient commonwealth required to be compensated
for by an inner centralisation proportionately stronger.
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