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 .