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ωγῆς τῆς λεγομένης 1 Λιβερτίνων, καὶ Κυρηναίων καὶ ᾽Αλεξανδρέων, καὶ τῶν ἀπὸ Κιλικίας καὶ ᾽Ασίας,; συζητοῦντες τῷ Στεφάνῳ; 1ο. καὶ
της λεγομενης BCDEHP, Vulg. Syrr. P.H., Arm., Aeth. (Chrys.), so Lach., W.H., Weiss, Wendt; των Aeyopevww SA 13, 47, Gig., Sah., Boh., Chrys., so Tisch.
2 Actas om. AD? d, so Lach., Hilg. brackets; may easily have dropped out after
Κιλικιας. συζητονντες, BSHP.
Carthage, which has been urged as an explanation of the close juxtaposition of Cyrene, also in Africa. The existence of a town or region bearing any such name is merely conjectural, and even if its existence could be demonstrated, it is improbable that many Jews from such an obscure place should have been resi- dent in Jerusalem. There is therefore much probability that St. Chrysostom was correct in referring the word to the Libertini, Ῥωμαῖοι ἀπελεύθερο. The Libertini here were probably Roman ‘‘ freedmen ’’’ who were formerly captive Jews brought to Rome by Pompey, B.c. 63 (Suet., Tib., 36; Tac., Ann., ii., 85; Phiio, Legat. ad Gaium, 23), and after- wards liberated by their Roman masters. These men and their descendants would enjoy the rights of Roman citizenship, and some of them appear to have re- turned to Jerusalem, where they had their own community and a synagogue calied συναγ. Λιβερτίνων (according to Grimm-Thayer, sub v. Λιβερτ., some evidence seems to have been discovered of a ‘‘synagogue of the Libertines” at Pompeii), see Schirer, Fewish Temple, div. fit:;, vol:aii., »ppti'57,1'276,11277 3110. Holtzmann, Neutest. Zeitgeschichte, p. 8g; and Zéckler, Apostelgeschichte, p. 201 (second edition). But a further question arises as to the number of synagogues intended. Thus it has been maintained that they were five in number. This is Schirer’s decided view, Weiss, Meyer (in earlier editions), so Hackett, so Matthias, Handbuch zum N. T., V. Apostelgeschichte, 1897. By other writers it is thought that reference is made to two synagogues. This is the view ad- vocated by Wendt as against Meyer. Wendt admits that as in the places named there were undoubtedly large numbers of Jewish inhabitants, so it is possible that in Jerusalem itself they may have been sufficiently numerous to make up the five synagogues, but his own view is based upon the ground that τῶν before ἀπὸ Κ. καὶ ’A. is parallel with the τῶν after τινες (so Holtzmann, Fel- ten). So too Zéckler, who depends upon the simple καί before Κνυρηναίων and
Αλεξ. as pointing to one group with the Libertines; τῶν ἀπὸ K. καὶ ᾿Ασίας forming a second group. Dr. Sanday, Expositor, viii., p. 327 (third series), takes the same view of two synagogues only, as he considers that it is favoured by the Greeks (so too Dean Plumptre and Winer-Moulton, xix., 5a, note, but see also Winer-Schmiedel, p. 158; cf. critical note above). Mr, Page is inclined to think that three synagogues are intended: (1) i.e., of the Libertini, (2) another of the men of Alexandria and Cyrene, (3) an- other of the men of Cilicia and Asia; whilst many writers from Calvin, Bengel and others to O. Holtzmann and Rendall hold that only one synagogue is in- tended; so Dr. Hort maintains that the Greek suggests only the one syna- gogue of the Libertines, and that the other names are simply descriptive of origin—from the south, Cyrene, and Alexandria; from the north, Cilicia, and Proconsular Asia. On the whole the Greek seems to favour the view of Wendt as above; καὶ Κυρην. καὶ Αλεξ. seem to form, as Blass says, a part of the same appellation with Λιβερτίνων. Blass himself: has recently, Philology of the Gospels, p. 49 Π., declared in favour οί another reading, Λιβυστίνων, which he regards as the correct text, Λιβερτίνων being corrupt although differing only in two letters from the original. In the proposed reading he is following Oecu- menius and Beza amongst others; the same reading is apparently favoured also by Wetstein, who gives both the passages to which Blass refers, one from Catullus, Ix., 1, ‘‘ Leena montibus Libystinis,” and the other from the geographical Lexicon of Stephanus Byzantinus. Λιβυστίνων would mean Jews inhabitants of Libya, not Libyans, and the synagogue in question bore the name of Λιβυσ. καὶ Κυρηναίων καὶ ᾿Αλεξ., thus specifying the African Jews in the geographical order of their original dwelling-places.— Κυρηναίων, see on ii. g, and below, xi. 20, xiii. 1.—AXe§.: probably there was no city, next to Jerusalem and Rome, in which the Jewish population was so numerous and influential as in Alexan-