Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 6:9

"But there arose certain of them that were of the synagogue called [the synagogue] of the Libertines, and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and Asia, disputing with Stephen." — Acts 6:9 (ASV)

Certain individuals from the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines. The structure of the sentence makes it probable that the Libertines, the Cyrenians, and the Alexandrians attended one synagogue, while those from Cilicia and Asia attended another. Each of these names has a special interest of its own.

1. The Libertini. These were freedmen, emancipated Roman Jews, with probably some proselytes. They were descendants of those whom Pompey had led captive and who were settled in large numbers in the trans-Tiberine district of Rome, with their own oratories and synagogues. When Tacitus (Annals 2.85) describes the expulsion of the Jews under Claudius, he speaks of “four thousand of the freedmen, or Libertine class,” as banished to Sardinia. We have reason to believe that Stephen himself had come from this class. Andronicus and Junias were probably members of this synagogue (see note on Romans 16:7).

2. Cyrenians. At Cyrene, also on the north coast of Africa, lying between Egypt and Carthage, there was a large Jewish population. Strabo, quoted by Josephus, describes them as a fourth of the whole population (Josephus, Antiquities 14.7.2). They were notable for the offerings they sent to the Temple and had appealed to Augustus for protection against the irregular taxes by which the provincial governors sought to intercept their gifts (Josephus, Antiquities 16.6.5). Simon of Cyrene is a notable example of a member, probably a prominent convert, from this community (see note on Matthew 27:32). Later, clearly as a result of Stephen’s teaching, they became prominent in preaching the gospel to the Gentiles of Antioch. We may think of Simon himself, and his two sons Alexander and Rufus (Mark 15:21), as probable members of this society.

3. Alexandrians. Perhaps no city, besides Jerusalem and Rome, had as numerous and influential a Jewish population as Alexandria. Here, too, they had their own quarter, assigned to them by Ptolemy Philadelphus, and were governed, as if they were a free republic, by an ethnarch of their own (Josephus, Antiquities 14.7.2).

   They were recognised as citizens by their Roman rulers (Josephus, Antiquities 14.10.1). From Alexandria had come the Greek version of the Old Testament, known as the Septuagint (or LXX). This translation arose from the legend of the seventy translators who were all said to have been led to a supernatural agreement. The Septuagint was then in use among all the Hellenistic Jews throughout the empire and was largely read even in Palestine itself.

   Living there at this time in fame and honour was the great teacher Philo, the probable master of Apollos, unknowingly training him to be the preacher of a wisdom higher than his own. The knowledge (or lack of it) with which Apollos appears on the scene—knowing only the baptism of John (Acts 18:25)—forbids the assumption that he had been at Jerusalem after the Day of Pentecost. However, echoes of Stephen's teaching are found in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and it is probable that thoughts were carried back to Alexandria by those who had thus been brought under his influence.

4. Those from Cilicia. Here the special interest of the name is immediately apparent. The young Jew of Tarsus, the disciple of Gamaliel, was undoubtedly among the leading members of this section of the second synagogue, exercising, in the fiery energy of his zeal, a dominant influence even over the others.

5. And those from Asia. The word is used, as throughout the New Testament, in its later and more restricted sense, denoting the proconsular province of that name, which included the old Lydia and Ionia and had Ephesus as its capital. Later in the history, we find Jews from Asia prominent in their zeal for the sacredness of the Temple (Acts 21:27).

Disputing with Stephen. The nature of the dispute is not difficult to discern. Distance from sacred places connected with one's religion tends either to make people less attached to their associations, leading them to higher and broader thoughts, or to intensify their reverence. When pilgrimages are customary, the latter is almost always the result.

People measure the sacredness of what they have come to see by the labor and cost they have incurred to see it. They resent anything suggesting they have wasted their efforts, viewing it as tending toward sacrilege and impiety. Stephen's teaching, which represented the former alternative and was guided and perfected by the Spirit's teaching, was probably accepted by a few in each community.

The others, moved by their pilgrim zeal, were more intolerant of it than the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for whom the Temple ritual was a part of their everyday life. Those who were most familiar with it—the priests who ministered in its courts—were, as we have seen (Acts 6:7), among the first to welcome the new and wider teaching.