Rabban Gamaliel V רבן גמליאל החמישי
the patriarch whose papers became a case at the imperial court
Son and successor of Hillel II, father of Judah IV. The Geonic sources preserved only his name and the names of two successors—there the notices end.
The one contemporary testimony is Jerome's. In his letter to Pammachius, written about 395, he says that the former consul Hesychius fraudulently seized the papers of the patriarch Gamaliel, that the patriarch laid a charge against him, and that Theodosius sentenced Hesychius to death. Theodosius died in January 395, so the affair was earlier; Jerome names no exact year.
The Jewish Encyclopedia opens its article on him with words about the perfecting of the calendar in 359, but does not explain the connection; with a patriarchate beginning in 365 that looks inconsistent, and we do not repeat the claim after it.
On the timeline
Places
Related
Sources
Documents of the period
- Jerome, letter of 393 — the case of the patriarch Gamaliel's papers under Theodosius
- Jerome, Letter 57 (to Pammachius) — the affair of the consul Hesychius and the patriarch's papers
Scholarship
- The Jewish Encyclopedia (1906) — the years of the patriarchate and the scantiness of the Geonic notices
Basis: Talmud and midrash.