Bible Strands
Acts 7:53
you who received the law ordained by angels, yet have not kept it.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Stephen addresses the Sanhedrin immediately after accusing them of betraying and murdering the Righteous One. He speaks this indictment while they are listening to his defense before the council.
The words — The Greek οἵτινες (oitines) translates literally as "who," introducing a descriptive clause about the listeners. The phrase εἰς διατάγας ἀγγέλων (eis diatagas angelōn) means "by ordinances of angels," specifying the manner of the law's delivery.
The thread — The connection between the law and angelic mediation appears in Hebrews 2:2 and is echoed in Acts 7:38 regarding the wilderness assembly. Galatians 3:19 similarly notes the law was given because of transgressions.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that receiving a divine standard does not guarantee obedience. It confronts the reader with the gap between instruction and practice.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.
Cross-references
- Hebrews 2:2 For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every transgression and disobedience received its just punishment,
- Galatians 3:19 Why then was the law given? It was added because of transgressions, until the arrival of the seed to whom the promise referred. It was administered through angels by a mediator.
- Acts 7:38 He was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. And he received living words to pass on to us.
- Deuteronomy 33:2 He said: “The LORD came from Sinai and dawned upon us from Seir; He shone forth from Mount Paran and came with myriads of holy ones, with flaming fire at His right hand.
- John 7:19 Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps it. Why are you trying to kill Me?”
- Galatians 6:13 For the circumcised do not even keep the law themselves, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.
- Ezekiel 20:18 In the wilderness I said to their children: ‘Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers or keep their ordinances or defile yourselves with their idols.
- Romans 2:23 You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?
- Psalms 68:17 The chariots of God are tens of thousands—thousands of thousands are they; the Lord is in His sanctuary as He was at Sinai.
- Exodus 19:1 In the third month, on the same day of the month that the Israelites had left the land of Egypt, they came to the Wilderness of Sinai.