One christian character that has always interested me is Paul of Tarsus and his master Gamaliel the Elder,a leading authority in the sanhedrin
According to Jewish history,Gamaliel was a pharisee doctor of Jewish law and a presbyter in the council of Sanhedrin's in the early 1st century,he was grandson of Hillel the Elder,who was a reknown Jewish teacher of great charisma.
According to the Jewish Talmud,Gamaliel was described as the leader of the Great Sanhedrin in Jerusalem.Gamaliel is known to be one of the greatest teachers in all the annals of Judaism.
Gamaliel was a colleague of the great rabbi Nicodemus,as they were both sanhedrins,many of the acts of Gamaliel are documented in the Acts of Llatzer.
But there is a question that bothers the mind of m,ost Christian scholars and bible addicts(myself included): acts 5:37_
Acts 5:37-39 tells the story of Gamaliel pleading with his fellow sanhedrins to set the arrested apostles free.If Gamaliel was such a benign man,why then did his student,Paul of tarsus hate the Christians so much?.Was Paul a religious fanatic?,was he an heretic?.This prompted me to read some of Paul's work,Galatians 1:8-21 was an eye opener to the way Paul thought,Paul believed that his knowledge of Christ was divine and not taught to him by a man.This showed that Paul did not avail himself to be taught by the disciples before starting his ministry.No wonder the Talmud described Gamaliel as teaching a student who displayed "impudence in learning".
Paul openly rebuked the apostles of christ(especially Paul,James and barnabas),in Galatians 2:13-14,by mocking their habit of eating with gentiles as "behaving like gentiles,instead of jews",perhaps he didn't know that Jesus feasted with zacchius,a reknown corrupt tax collector?,or did he mean "gentiles" as "non-jewish"?, this seem to show a flaw in his purported " knowledge of Christ".
In Matthew 19:27-28,Christ promised his 12 disciples 12 thrones in heaven,but in 2 corinthians 12:11 Paul said "in nothing am I behind the chiefest apostles,though I am nothing".It seem ironic that Paul thought himself equal to the apostles he met there without taking into consideration their personal relationships with christ,right?.Perhaps Paul was not a Jewish bigot who thought himself more educated than the illiterate fishermen who ruled the early church,but he certainly had an ego
In Galatians 5:14,Paul insisted that "for all the law is fulfilled in one word,even this; thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself", this is indeed very intriguing because Jesus said in Matthew 22:37-40 that there are TWO governing laws;
1. Love thy God with all thine heart
2. Love thy neighbour as thyself
Why then does Paul claim that there is only one law when Christ himself said there are two laws of love?.
Paul's view on slaves is another rather interesting topic; the onesimus saga comes to mind.But all in all,Paul was one of the great disciples whose works were aimed at teaching the gospel of Christ to all nations in a Jewish way.He was the most resilient of all the disciples and this makes him one of my favourite bible character.

Your post is jam-packed, why don't you modify and space it for easier comprehension.