Acts 6:9

Then there arose certain It is better to render the connecting particle But, it is no note of time.

of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines Lit. of them that were of the synagogue called, &c. The number of synagogues in Jerusalem was very great. The Libertineswere most likely the children of some Jews who had been carried captive to Rome by Pompey (b.c. 63), and had been made freedmen (libertini) by their captors, and after their return to Jerusalem had formed one congregation and used one synagogue specially. There is an interesting illustration of this severance of congregations among the Jews from a like cause in the description of the modern Jewish communities in Malabar and Cochin. It is in a MS. in the Cambridge University Library (Oo. 1. 47) which was written in 1781. "At this time are found in their dwelling-places about forty white householders, and in all the other places are black Jews found, and their forefathers were the slavesof the white Jews, and now the black Jews as found in all the places are about five hundred householders, and they have ten synagogues while the white Jews have only one. And the white Jews dwell all together and their ritual is distinct from that of the black Jews, and they will not count them [the black Jews] among the ten [necessary for forming a congregation] except a few families of them; but if any of the white Jews go to their [the black Jews"] synagogues, they will admit him as one of the ten."

and Cyrenians Read, and of the Cyrenians. On the Jews in Cyrene see Acts 2:10 note.

and Alexandrians Read, and of the Alexandrians. There were in Christ's time, and had been long before, as we learn from the account of the Septuagint translation, Jews resident in Alexandria. In the Talmud we are told that they were very numerous. Thus T. B. Succah51 b it is said, "Rabbi Jehudah said: He that hath not seen the amphitheatre at Alexandria (apparently used for the Jewish worship) in Egypt has not seen the glory of Israel. They say it was like a great Basilica with gallery above gallery. Sometimes there were in it double the number of those who went out from Egypt, and there were in it seventy-one seats of gold corresponding to the seventy-one members of the great Sanhedrin, each one of them worth not less than twenty-one myriads of talents of gold, and there was a platform of wood in the midst thereof, and the minister of the synagogue stood upon it with flags in his hand, and when the time [in the service] came that they should answer Amen, then he waved with the flag and all the people answered Amen." In spite of the exaggeration of the numbers in this story we may be certain from it that there was a very large Jewish population in Alexandria, and that they were likely to have a separate synagogue in Jerusalem. For another portion of this story see note on Acts 18:3.

and of them of Cilicia Cilicia was at the S.E. corner of Asia Minor. One of its principal towns was Tarsus, the birthplace of St Paul, and there were no doubt many other Jews there, descendants of those Jews whom Antiochus the Great introduced into Asia Minor (Joseph. Antiq. xii. 3. 4), two thousand families of whom he placed there as well disposed guardians of the country.

and of Asia See note on Acts 2:9.

disputing with Stephen The original word is used frequently of the captious questionings of the Pharisees (Mark 8:11), and the scribes (Mark 9:14), with Jesus and His disciples.