9Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and others of those from Cilicia and Asia, stood up and argued with Stephen.
The term that is transliterated as “Stephen” in English is translated in American Sign Language with a sign that combines “S” and the sign for “stoned” or “rocks,” referring to Acts 7:58. (Source: Ruth Anna Spooner, Ron Lawer)
“Stephen” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor
In Spanish Sign Language it is translated with a signs for “see” + “heaven” + “open,” referring to Acts 7:55. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
The name that is transliterated as “Cilicia” in English is translated in Libras (Brazilian Sign Language) with a sign that depicts a natural wall just behind the seashore, which existed in that area. (Source: Missão Kophós )
In many English translations the Greek terms “hieron” (the whole “temple” in Jerusalem or specifically the outer courts open to worshippers) and “naos” (the inner “shrine” or “sanctuary”) are translated with only one word: “temple” (see also for instance “Tempel” in German [for exception see below] and “tempel” in Dutch, Danish, or Afrikaans).
Other languages make a distinction: (Click or tap here to see more)
Navajo (Dinė): “house in which worship is carried out” (for naos)
Balinese: “inner part of the Great Temple” (“the term ‘inner part’ denoting the hindmost and holiest of the two or three courts that temples on Bali usually possess”) vs. “Great Temple”
Telugu: “womb (i.e. interior)-of-the-abode” vs. “abode”
Thai: a term denoting the main audience hall of a Buddhist temple compound vs. “environs-of-the-main-audience-hall”
Kituba: “place of holiness of house-God Lord” vs. “house-God Lord”
Shipibo-Conibo: “deep in God’s house” vs. “God’s house” (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
Germandas Buch translation by Roland Werner (publ. 2009-2022): “inner court of the temple” (Tempelinnenhof) vs. “temple”
Languages that, like English, German, Dutch, Danish, or Afrikaans, don’t make that distinction include:
Toraja-Sa’dan: “house that is looked upon as holy, that is sacred, that is taboo and where one may not set foot” (lit. “house where-the-belly-gets-swollen” — because taboo is violated — using a term that is also applied to a Muslim mosque) (source for this and the three above: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
Aguaruna: “the house for talking to God” (source for this and above: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125.)
Guhu-Samane: “festival longhouse of God” (“The biiri, ‘festival longhouse’, being the religious and social center of the community, is a possible term for ‘temple’. It is not the ‘poro house’ as such. That would be too closely identified with the cult of poro. The physical features of the building, huge and sub-divided, lend it further favor for this consideration. By qualifying it as ‘God’s biiri’ the term has become meaningful and appropriate in the context of the Scriptures.”) (Source: Ernest Richert in The Bible Translator, 1965, p. 81ff. )
Enga: “God’s restricted access house” (source: Adam Boyd on his blog )
Another distinction that tends to be overlooked in translations is that between hieron (“temple” in English) and sunagógé (“synagogue” in English). Euan Fry (in The Bible Translator 1987, p. 213ff. ) reports on this:
“Many older translations have simply used transliterations of ‘temple’ and ‘synagogue’ rather than trying to find equivalent terms or meaningful expressions in their own languages. This approach does keep the two terms separate; but it makes the readers depend on explanations given by pastors or teachers for their understanding of the text.
“Translators who have tried to find meaningful equivalents, for the two terms ‘temple’ and ‘synagogue’ have usually made a distinction between them in one of two ways (which focus on the contrasting components of meaning). One way takes the size and importance of the Temple to make a contrast, so that expressions such as ‘sacred meeting/ worship house of the Jews’ and ‘big sacred meeting/worship house of the Jews’ are used. The other way focuses on the different nature of the religious activity at each of the places, so that expressions such as ‘meeting/worship house of the Jews’ and ‘sacrifice/ceremony place of the Jews’ are used.
“It is not my purpose in this article to discuss how to arrive at the most precise equivalent to cover all the components of meaning of ‘temple’. That is something that each translator really has to work through for himself in the light of the present usage and possibilities in his own language. My chief concern here is that the basic term or terms chosen for ‘temple’ should give the reader of a translation a clear and correct picture of the location referred to in each passage. And I am afraid that in many cases where an equivalent like ‘house of God’ or ‘worship house’ has been chosen, the readers have quite the wrong picture of what going to the Temple or being in the Temple means. (This may be the case for the word ‘temple’ in English too, for many readers.)”
Here are some examples:
Bambara: “house of God” (or: “big house of worship”) vs. “worship house” (or: “small houses of worship”)
Toraja-Sa’dan: “house where-the-belly-gets-swollen” (see above) vs. “meeting house for discussing matters concerning religious customs” (and “church” is “house where one meets on Sunday”)
Navajo (Dinė): “house in which worship is carried out” vs. “house of gathering” (source for all above: Bratcher / Nida)
Click or tap here to see a short video clip about Herod’s temple (source: Bible Lands 2012)Click or tap here to see a short video clip showing synagogues in New Testament times (source: Bible Lands 2012)
Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 6:9:
Uma: “But there were also those who rejected [him]. Those rejecting ones were members of the house of prayer that was named ‘House of Libertini’ (its meaning: the house of people released from slavery). The members of that house of prayer were Yahudi people from the towns of Kirene and Aleksandria. They along with the Yahudi people from the land of Kilikia and Asia argued with Stefanus.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “But there were some people who were against him. Those people were members (anak-apu’) of the prayer-house called Prayer-house of the Free-People. They were people from the country/place Kirene, from the city Iskandal, from Kilikiya, and also from the country/place Asiya. They argued with Estepan.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “There were also enemies of Stephen. They were the Jews who worshipped in what was called the Worship place of Slaves Who Had Been Set Free. Some of them were from Cyrene, some from Alexandria, some from Silicia, and from Asia. And they argued with Stephen.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “But there was also Jews from-Cirene and from-Alexandria who belonged to the synagogue (loan sinagoga) that was called the Synagogue of Freed Slaves. They and other Jews from-Cilicia and from-Asia, they argued with Esteban.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “But there were indeed some who opposed him who were Jews belonging to a group called The Released From Slavery. As for these Jews, there were taga Cirene, taga Alejandria, taga Cilicia and taga Asia also. They couldn’t accept that teaching by Esteban, that’s why then challenged/argued-with him.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Opposed is not actually a part of the Greek text, but that these men did oppose Stephen is immediately evident from the context and beginning the verse in this fashion enables the translator to render into intelligible English a very difficult Greek construction. The sentence itself begins with a Greek verb meaning “they got up” (used here, as in 5.6 and 17, merely to indicate the initiation of an action), which must be taken together with the participle “arguing.” The Good News Translation combines these two verbs (“they got up” and “arguing”), and translates started arguing (see also Moffatt “started a dispute” and An American Translation* “undertook to debate”).
The synagogue was used by the Jews as a place of worship on the Sabbath day and on other set days; it was also the place where Jews met for social activities, and throughout the week the building was used as a school for Jewish children. There is no unanimous opinion as to how many synagogues are referred to in this verse, but it seems most likely that the choice must be between (1) two synagogues: (a) the synagogue of the Free Men, whose members were Jews from Cyrenia and Alexandria, and (b) a synagogue whose members were Jews from Cilicia and Asia; or (2) one synagogue, the synagogue of the Free Men, whose members were Jews from Cyrenia and Alexandria; while the other Jews from Cilicia and Asia are mentioned as another group of persons, but without reference to any synagogue. If this conclusion is valid, then there is one synagogue and two groups of persons mentioned.
Free men is to be understood in the sense of “freed men,” meaning that previously they had been slaves but later obtained their freedom.
The parenthetical expression as it was called implies that this is an explanation of an otherwise foreign name. (The phrase Free Men actually comes from a Latin term.) Such an explanation may be rendered idiomatically as “that is the way people called it” or “this was the name of the synagogue.”
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Acts of the Apostles. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
But resistance arose: The Greek is more literally “And/but (they) stood/arose.” The following verses show that they stood/arose to oppose Stephen. The ending on the Greek verb indicates that “they” refers to members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen. They are introduced after this verb. For example:
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, arose and disputed with Stephen. (Revised Standard Version)
what was called the Synagogue of the Freedmen: The Greek is more literally “some of the ones from the synagogue, the-one being-called of-Freedmen.” Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:
members of the synagogue called the Synagogue of Freedmen (New Jerusalem Bible) -or-
some men from the synagogue which is called the Synagogue of Freedmen
The words “the-one being-called” are used to introduce a Latin word in this Greek sentence. Many translations will translate the meaning of the Latin word, so do not need to introduce a new name in that way. For example:
members of the Synagogue of Freedmen
what was called: The Greek is passive: “being called.” It implies that everyone called this synagogue “the Synagogue of Freedmen.” Some languages must use an active clause. For example:
⌊what people⌋ called
Some languages will not need to translate this clause. See the second note on 6:9a above.
the Synagogue of the Freedmen: These Jews were probably once slaves of the Romans but after a while the Romans freed them, so they used the label Freedmen. Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:
the Synagogue of Freed Slaves (New Living Translation (2004)) -or-
the Synagogue of Slaves Who Had Been Set Free
The Greek does not have the word that means “the” before Freedmen here. Freedmen started this synagogue (or it was started for them), but the name does not imply that all Jewish freedmen went to it or that Jewish freedmen could only go to this synagogue. For example:
Synagogue of Freedmen (New American Bible, Revised Edition)
Synagogue: Here the word Synagogue refers to a group of Jews who gather to pray, read scripture, teach, and worship. They also gathered for cultural activities. Here are some other ways to translate this word here:
group of Jews -or-
a Jewish gathering/group
6:9a–b
the Freedmen, including Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and men from the provinces of Cilicia and Asia: There are a number of ways to interpret how these names connect to each other. Here are the three main interpretations:
(1) It refers to only one group, Freedmen, from those four locations. For example:
Freedmen, comprising Cyrenians and Alexandrians and people from Cilicia and Asia (Revised English Bible)
(Berean Standard Bible, New International Version, Revised English Bible, New Living Translation (2004), God’s Word, New Century Version)
(2) It refers to two groups, first, Freedmenwho were fromCyreneandAlexandria, and second, Jews fromCiliciaand (the Roman province of)Asia. For example:
Freedmen…, which had Jews from Cyrene and Alexandria. They and other Jews from the provinces of Cilicia and Asia (Good News Translation)
(Good News Translation, New Jerusalem Bible, New American Standard Bible, Contemporary English Version, NET Bible, New American Bible, Revised Edition)
(3) It refers to four groups, theFreedmen, then Jews fromCyrene, then Jews fromAlexandria, then Jews fromCiliciaand (the Roman province of)Asia. For example:
Freedmen…, and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia (Revised Standard Version)
(Revised Standard Version, English Standard Version, King James Version)
It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1) because the Greek word for synagogue is singular and Freedmen names a different kind of thing than the other names.
6:9c
began to argue: The Greek indicates that at this time these men were arguing with Stephen. For example:
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
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