Freedmen

Members of a Jewish synagogue in Jerusalem (Acts 6:9), descended from Jews who had been captured and taken to Rome by the general Pompey (106–48 BC), then later released. Pompey found that the Jews adhered so strictly to their religious and national customs that they were worthless as slaves.

Not all the freedmen returned to Jerusalem; some stayed in Rome. In the time of the Roman writer Pliny, a freedman was described as a “mean commoner.” The freedmen (or “Freed Slaves,” NLT) derived their name from a Latin term for one manumitted, or the son of such a former slave. See Libertines.