Theos-Talk Archives (September 2004 Message tt00724)

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, samblo@c... wrote:
> Jeny,
> I was always inspired reading of Hillel and Gamaliel is
> mentors of Jesus in some works I have read.

Some books have that, but there is no evidence Jesus studied under 
either Hillel or Gamaliel. The fellow who wrote the ACTS document 
alleged that Paul studied under Gamaliel, but internal evidence in 
the letters attributed to him which are believed to ne genuine point 
to study in Alexandria (Egypt) and not Palestine. That squares well 
with a statement by his enemies that he was not even a Pharisee, but 
Samaritan, and that he went to Egypt to study magic with the 
Samaritan teachers who are known from other sources to have settled 
in Alexandria. It appears that his own statements that he was a 
Pharisee, etc., are instances of untruthfulness on his part motivated 
by a desire to conceal his true origins.

As for Jesus, his biographers strongly imply that he studied with the 
Therapeutae, who lived in a colony on the Mareotic lake just outside 
the walls of Alexandria. That he studied magic in Egypt is also a 
legend preserved among the ancient Jews and pagans. The whole flavor 
of his system is strongly Egyptian and not Palestinian. So Jewish, 
pagan, and Christian sources all three point to Egypt as the venue in 
which he was educated. Some modern writers such as Potter suggest 
that he lived with the Essenes on the Dead Sea but there is no 
historical evidence to support this idea. The Therapeutae were a 
group of Essenes, or an Essene like sect, just not located in 
Palestine.