Though the NIV suggests that there was only one synagogue, it is possible that there were more (cf. Acts 24:12). Either way, the reference is to a synagogue which was attended by diaspora Jews.1 Diaspora Jews were Jews who had spent some time outside of Israel. They tended to be very loyal to the law of Moses and the temple, seeing as they had suffered for their faith and spent most of their life as a minority.2 The fact that they were freedmen
means that they were set free by their owners or were descendants of those who were freed by their owners.3 The Roman general Pompey took many Jews captive in 63 BC.4 They were later released in Rome. It is possible that they are the freedmen
in view.5
9 Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen.