100 Reasons to Believe New Testament History
90. Theodotus Synagogue Inscription
Acts 6:9 describes a dispute which arose between Stephen and those of the Synagogue of the Libertines (freedmen). R. Weill discovered an intriguing inscription during excavations at the south end of Ophel in 1913-1914, which may shed light on this event. The synagogue inscription discovered was dated to pre-70 A.D. and reads:
“Theodotus, son of Vettenus, priest and synagogue- president, son of a synagogue president and grandson of a synagogue president, has built the synagogue for the reading of the law and the teaching of the commandments and [he has built ] the whole hostelry and the chambers and the cisterns of water in order to provide lodgings for those from abroad who need them – [the synagogue] which his fathers and the elders and Simonides had founded.”
The name Vettenus is significant. Many have argued that Theodotus was the son or grandson of a Jewish slave who received his freedom from the well-known Roman Vetteni family. It was a common custom to take the family name of his liberator. We may suppose than the synagogue of the freedmen was founded some time in the early first century, when Christ lived in Nazareth, and that it was the men from this synagogue that violently opposed Stephen.
90. Theodotus Synagogue Inscription - Notes and References
A. J.A. Thompson, “The Bible and Archaeology”, Eerdmans Publishing, 1962, p.315