Acts 7:53

Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it. WHO HAVE RECEIVED, [ Hoitines (G3748) elabete (G2983)] - rather 'Who [are the parties that] received the law;' thus identifying those who had just killed the Prince of life with those who had at the beginning of their economy received the law at Mount Sinai, as one corporate personality-one in privilege, responsibility, and guilt. BY THE DISPOSITION OF ANGELS, [ eis (G1519) diatagas (G1296) angeloon (G32)]. This expression is special, and has occasioned some discussion. Literal...

53._Who have received the law. _They called that fury wherewith they raged against Stephen zeal of the law, as if he had been a forsaker of the law, and a revolt (470) and had enforced others to fall away in like sort. Although he was determined to clear himself of this false accusation, yet he did not go through with his answer. For he could not be heard, and it was to no end to speak to deaf men. Therefore, he is content, at a word, to take from them their false color and pretense. It is evident, saith he, that you lie, when you pretend the zeal of the law, which you transgress and break without ceasing; and as he objected unto them in the words next going before, the treacherous murder of the Just, so now he upbraideth unto them their revolting from the law. Some man will say that Stephen’s cause is no whit bettered hereby, because the Jews break the law. But as we have already said,...

51-53 Stephen was going on, it seems, to show that the temple and the temple service must come to an end, and it would be the glory of both to give way to the worship of the Father in spirit and in truth; but he perceived they would not bear it. Therefore he broke off, and by the Spirit of wisdom, courage, and power, sharply rebuked his persecutors. When plain arguments and truths provoke the opposers of the gospel, they should be shown their guilt and danger. They, like their fathers, were stubborn and wilful. There is that in our sinful hearts, which always resists the Holy Ghost, a flesh that lusts against the Spirit, and wars against his motions; but in the hearts of God's elect, when the fulness of time comes, this resistance is overcome. The gospel was offered now, not by angels, but from the Holy Ghost; yet they did not embrace it, for they were resolved not to comply with God, e...

Verse 53. _BY THE DISPOSITION OF ANGELS_] εις διαταγας αγγελων. After all that has been said on this difficult passage, perhaps the simple meaning is, that there were _ranks_, διαταγαι, _of angels_ attending on the Divine Majesty when he gave the law: a circumstance which must have added greatly to the grandeur and solemnity of the occasion; and to this Psalms 68:17 seems to me most evidently to allude: _The chariots of God_ are _twenty thousand, even_ _many thousands of angels: the Lord is among them as in SINAI, in_ _the holy place_. It was not then by the _mouths_ nor by the _hands_ of angels, as _prime agents_, that Moses, and through him the people, received the law; but God himself gave it, accompanied with _many_ _thousands_ of those glorious beings. As it is probable they might be _assisting_ in this most glorious sole...

WHO HAVE RECEIVED THE LAW - The Law of Moses, given on Mount Sinai. BY THE DISPOSITION OF ANGELS - There has been much diversity of opinion in regard to this phrase, εἰς διαταγὰς ἀγγέλων eis diatagas angelōn. The word translated “disposition” does not occur elsewhere in the New Testament. It properly means the “constituting” or “arranging” of an army; disposing it into ranks and proper divisions. Hence, it has been supposed to mean that the Law was given “amidst” the various ranks of angels, being present to witness its promulgation. Others suppose that the angels were employed as agents or instruments to communicate the Law. All that the expression fairly implies is the former; that the Law was given amidst the attending ranks of angels, as if they were summoned to witness the pomp and ceremony of giving “law” to an entire people, and through

EXPOSITION ACTS 7:1 _And the high priest said _for then _said the high priest, _A.V. The high priest spoke as president of the Sanhedrim (see Acts 9:1. Acts 9:1 and Matthew 26:62). Theophilus the son of Annas or his brother Jonathan is probably meant. ACTS 7:2 _Brethren and fathers _for _men, brethren, and fathers, _A.V. _Haran _for _Charran, _A.V. BRETHREN AND FATHERS. The Greek is ἄνδρες ἀδελφοὶ (_i.e. _"men who are also my brethren") καὶ πατέρες. H

WHO HAVE RECEIVED THE LAW, BY THE DISPOSITION OF ANGELS,.... Who attended the angel that spake to Moses on Mount Sinai, Acts 7:38 who is the head of all principality and power, and whom he might make use of in giving the law to Moses: hence the law is said to be ordained by angels, in the hand of a Mediator, and is called the word spoken by angels, Galatians 3:19 and certain it is, that there were great numbers of angels on Mount Sinai, when the law was given, Deuteronomy 33:2 And so the Jews say m, that "when the holy blessed God descended on Mount Sinai, there came down with him many companies of angels, Michael and his company, and Gabriel and his company'' Indeed they often say n,...

ANGELS (_ See Scofield) - (Hebrews 1:4). _...

CHAPTER 7 _ 1. The Address of Stephen (Acts 7:1)._ 2. The Martyrdom of Stephen (Acts 7:54). This is the largest chapter in this book and concludes the first section. Stephen is the chosen instrument to deliver the final testimony to the nation. He was not permitted to finish it. We notice at once a marked difference between the previous preaching by the Apostle Peter and the address of Stephen. The testimony of Peter was marked on the day of Pentecost and at the other occasions by great brevity. Stephen's address is the longest discourse reported in the New Testament. The name of Jesus is prominent in all the addresses of Peter. The fact that He was rejected by the people, crucified and that He rose from the dead, and the call to repentance, were the leading features of Peter's preaching.

STEPHEN'S DEFENCE (Acts 7:1-7) When Oliver Cromwell was outlining the education he thought necessary for his son Richard, he said, "I would have him know a little history." It was to the lesson of history that Stephen appealed. Clearly believing that the best form of defence was attack, he took a bird's eye view of the history of the Jewish people and cited certain truths as condemnation of his own nation. (i) He saw that the men who played a really great part in the history of Israel were the men who heard God's command, "Get thee out," and were not afraid to obey it. With that adventurous spirit Stephen implicitly contrasted the spirit of the Jews of his own day, whose one desire was to keep things as they were and who regarded Jesus and his followers as dangerous innovators. (ii) He insisted that men had worshipped God long before there ever was a Temple. To the Jews the Te