Acts 7:53
What does Acts 7:53 mean?
A plain-English look at Acts 7:53 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Acts 7:53 means
They received the Law as it was ordained by angels, but did not keep it. Stephen underscores the privilege and the failure. The Law’s mediated origin highlights its heavenly authority; yet possession without obedience is empty. His accusers boast in the Law but break it, especially in rejecting the One to whom it pointed. Stephen’s point is not to denigrate the Law, but to expose hypocrisy: revering the messenger while ignoring the message. The indictment closes his sermon’s logic—history, theology, and prophecy converge to show that resisting the Holy Spirit and rejecting the Righteous One is a grievous violation of the very Law they claim to honor.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000ye who received the law as it was ordained by angels, and kept it not.
KJV
King James Version · 1611Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901ye who received the law as it was ordained by angels, and kept it not.
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949You, to whom the law was given as it was ordered by angels, and who have not kept it.
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862who received the law by arrangement of messengers, and did not keep <FI>it<Fi> .'
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752Who have received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890who have received the law as ordained by [the] ministry of angels, and have not kept [it].
Context
This verse caps Stephen’s charges: resisting the Spirit, persecuting prophets, killing those who foretold the Righteous One, and failing to keep the divinely mediated Law. The narrative now shifts from speech to reaction. Verse 54 will describe the council’s rage. Verses 55–56 will recount Stephen’s vision of Jesus at God’s right hand. The clash between hardened hearts and heavenly revelation moves swiftly toward Stephen’s execution (verses 57–60).
v.52Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? and they killed them that showed before of the coming of the Righteous One; of whom ye have now become betrayers and murderers;
v.53This passage
v.54Now when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- John 7:19
Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you doeth the law? Why seek ye to kill me?
- Deuteronomy 33:2
And he said, Jehovah came from Sinai, And rose from Seir unto them; He shined forth from mount Paran, And he came from the ten thousands of holy ones: At his right hand was a fiery law for them.
- Galatians 3:19
What then is the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise hath been made; and it was ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator.
- Hebrews 2:2
For if the word spoken through angels proved stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward;
- Psalms 68:17
The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands upon thousands: The Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the sanctuary.
- Romans 2:23
thou who gloriest in the law, through thy transgression of the law dishonorest thou God?
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