you who received the law ordained by angels, yet have not kept it.”
Parallel translations
- WEB You received the law as it was ordained by angels, and didn’t keep it!”
- KJV Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.
- NKJV who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.”
- NASB you who received the Law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it.”
- NLT You deliberately disobeyed God’s law, even though you received it from the hands of angels.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
They received the law given through angels yet failed to keep it. Their boast in the law is empty because of their disobedience.
Overview
Stephen concludes that, despite receiving the law ordained through angels (Galatians 3:19; Hebrews 2:2), they did not obey it. This refutes any claim that Stephen dishonored the law; rather, his accusers are the lawbreakers. The greatest violation is their rejection of the One the law and prophets foretold.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Heb 2:2For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every transgression and disobedience received its just punishment,
- Gal 3:19Why 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 7:38He 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.
- Deut 33:2He 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 7:19Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps it. Why are you trying to kill Me?”
- Gal 6:13For the circumcised do not even keep the law themselves, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.
- Ezek 20:18–21In 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.
- Rom 2:23–25You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?
- Ps 68:17The chariots of God are tens of thousands—thousands of thousands are they; the Lord is in His sanctuary as He was at Sinai.
- Exod 19:1–20In 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.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Acts is the risen Christ continuing his work by the Spirit through the church, as the apostles preach that there is salvation in no other name under heaven.
How Acts 7:53 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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