Acts 7:53 → Deuteronomy 33:2

Stephen closes his indictment: "'you who received the law ordained by angels, yet have not kept it'" (Acts 7:53). The tradition that the law came "ordained by angels" — drawing on the myriads of holy ones attending God at Sinai (Deuteronomy 33:2) — magnifies both the law's glory and Israel's guilt: they received the most exalted revelation and failed to keep it. Far from despising the law, the charge against him, Stephen exalts it and turns it into the measure of his accusers' failure. The unkept law testifies to the universal need Paul will name: "through the law comes knowledge of sin" (Romans 3:20). The law Israel could not keep is fulfilled by the Righteous One in their place, whose perfect obedience is credited to all who trust him — the only way a law-breaker is ever accounted a law-keeper.