Libertines

The Libertines (Greek Libertinoi) were members of a synagogue in Jerusalem who opposed Stephen and brought about his arrest and martyrdom (Acts 6:9). The term most likely refers to freedmen — Jews who had been taken captive to Rome at some point (perhaps under Pompey in 63 B.C. or subsequent campaigns) and later freed, or their descendants, who maintained a distinct synagogue in Jerusalem.

Acts 6:9 mentions the "Synagogue of the Freedmen (Libertines) and of the Cyrenians and Alexandrians and those from Cilicia and Asia," which may represent a single synagogue composed of these diverse diaspora Jewish communities or possibly several synagogues listed together. These Hellenistic Jews stirred up the people against Stephen, produced false witnesses, and dragged him before the Sanhedrin — where his defense speech, the longest in Acts, culminated in his vision of the glorified Christ and his stoning.