flourished 1st century AD
Palestinian Jewish sage.
A leading representative of the Pharisee s, he helped preserve and develop Judaism in the years after the destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem (AD 70). He is said to have been smuggled out of the besieged city in a coffin and to have visited the Roman camp and persuaded the future emperor Vespasian to allow him to set up an academy at Jamnia near the Judaean coast. He established an authoritative rabbinic body there and was revered as a great teacher and scholar.