Abtalion ( ʾAbhtalyôn) or Avtalyon (Modern Hebrew) was a rabbinic sage in the early pre-Mishnaic era. He was a leader of the Pharisees during the 1st century BCE, and by tradition the vice-president of the great Sanhedrin of Jerusalem. He lived at the same time as Sh'maya. They are known as one of the zugot ("couples"): Shmaya and Avtalyon. Biography Abtalion and Shemaiah were converts to Judaism or the descendants of converts; by tradition they were descended from King Sennacherib of Assyria. Despite this, they were influential and beloved. The Talmud relates that once, when the high priest was being escorted home from the Temple by the people, at the close of a Day of Atonement, the crowd deserted him upon the approach of Abtalion and Shemaiah and followed them. However, Graetz has argued that neither Shemaiah nor Abtalion was of Gentile descent, although both were Alexandrians. Little is known about Abtalion's life. He was a pupil of Judah ben Tabbai and Simeon ben Shetach, and probably lived for some time in Alexandria, Egypt, where he and also his teacher Judah took refuge when Alexander Jannaeus cruelly persecuted the Pharisees. This gives pertinence to his maxim, "You wise men, be careful of your words, lest you draw upon yourselves the punishment of exile and be banished to a place of bad water (dangerous doctrine), and your disciples, who come after you, drink thereof and die, and the name of the Holy One thereby be profaned." He cautions the rabbis herein against participation in politics (compare the maxim of his colleague) as well as against emigration to Egypt, where Greek ideas threatened Judaism. Abtalion and Shemaiah are the first to bear the title darshan,<ref>[https://www.sefaria.org.il/Pesachim.70b.5?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en Pesachim 70b] — meaning "preacher"</ref> and it was probably by no mere chance that their pupil Hillel was the first to lay down hermeneutic rules for the interpretation of the Midrash; he may have been indebted to his teachers for the tendency toward aggadic interpretation. These two scholars are the first whose sayings are recorded in the aggadah. The new method of (Biblical interpretation) introduced by Abtalion and Shemaiah seems to have evoked opposition among the Pharisees. Abtalion and Shemaiah are also the first whose halakhot (legal decisions) are handed down to later times. Among them is the important one that the paschal lamb must be offered even if Passover falls on a Sabbath. Abtalion's academy was