Acts 7:53

οἴτινες, quippe qui (“ye who,” R.V.), as often in Acts and Epistles not simply for identification, but when as here the conduct of the persons already mentioned is further enlarged upon (Alford), cf. Acts 8:15; Acts 9:35; Acts 10:41; Acts 10:47, and Winer-Schmiedel, p. 235, but see also Blass, Grammatik, p. 169. εἰς διαταγὰς ἀγγέλων : “as it was ordained by angels,” R.V. εἰς : at the appointment of, cf. its use in Matthew 12:41, or better εἰς as in Acts 7:21 = received the law as ordinances of angels (νόμον being regarded as an aggregate of single acts and so with plural “ordinances”), so Rendall, who takes εἰς = ὡς, and Page, cf. Hebrews 11:8, i.e., it was no human ordinance. But see on the other hand Wendt's note, p. 192, where he points out that the law was not received as commands given by angels but by God. This was undoubtedly the case, but St. Stephen was here probably referring to the current tradition in Philo and Josephus, and LXX, Deuteronomy 33:2. ἐκ δεξιῶν αὐτοῦ ἄγγελοι μετʼ αὐτοῦ, cf. Ps. 67:17; Philo, De Somn., p. 642 Mang., so Jos., Ant., xv., 5, 3, and also Book of Jubilees, chap. i. (see Wetstein and Lightfoot (J. B.) on Galatians 3:19). Others again take εἰς = ἐν, “accepistis legem ab angelis promulgatam” = διατασσόντων ἀγγέλων, so Blass. Certainly it does not seem possible to take διαταγή = διάταξις = agmen dispositium (cf. Jdt 1:4; Jdt 8:36), and to render “præsentibus angelorum ordinibus,” so that here also εἰς = ἐν (Meyer and others). Lightfoot (J.) takes the “angels” as = Moses and the Prophets; Surenhusius as = the elders of the people, whilst St. Chrysostom sees a reference to the angel of the burning bush. It must not be thought that St. Stephen is here depreciating the Law. From a Christian standpoint it might of course be urged that as Christ was superior to the angels, so the introduction of angels showed the inferiority of the Law to the Gospel (cf. Hebrews 2:2; Galatians 3:19), but St. Stephen's point is that although the Law had been given with such notable sanctions, yet his hearers had not kept it, and that therefore they, not he, were the real law-breakers. οὐκ ἐφύλαξατε : “cum omnibus phylacteriis vestris,” Bengel. Note the rhetorical power of the words cf. Acts 7:25 (Page).