The “Synagogue of the Freedmen”

■ Among those who disputed with Stephen were men from the “so-called Synagogue of the Freedmen.” (Acts 6:9) Who might these men have been? A freedman was an emancipated slave. Hence, those associated with the “Synagogue of the Freedmen” may have been freed slaves who had become Jewish proselytes, or Jews taken captive by the Romans but later set at liberty.