Deuteronomy 33:2

33:2 He said:

A Historical Review

The Lord came from Sinai

and revealed himself ¹  to Israel ²  from Seir.

He appeared in splendor ³  from Mount Paran,

and came forth with ten thousand holy ones. ⁴ 

With his right hand he gave a fiery law ⁵  to them.

Acts 7:53

7:53 You ⁶  received the law by decrees given by angels, ⁷  but you did not obey ⁸  it.” ⁹ 

Hebrews 2:2

2:2 For if the message spoken through angels ¹⁰  proved to be so firm that every violation ¹¹  or disobedience received its just penalty,

Hebrews 2:5

Exposition of Psalm 8: Jesus and the Destiny of Humanity

2:5 For he did not put the world to come, ¹²  about which we are speaking, ¹³  under the control of angels.

¹ tn Or “rose like the sun” (NCV, TEV).

² tc Heb “to him.” The LXX reads “to us” (לָנוּ [lanu] for לָמוֹ [lamo]), the reading of the MT is acceptable since it no doubt has in mind Israel as a collective singular.

³ tn Or “he shone forth” (NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

⁴ tc With slight alteration (מִמְרִבַת קָדֵשׁ [mimrivat qadesh] for the MT’s מֵרִבְבֹת קֹדֶשׁ [merivvot qodesh]) the translation would be “from Meribah Kadesh” (cf. NAB, NLT; see Deut 32:51). However, the language of holy war in the immediate context favors the reading of the MT, which views the Lord as accompanied by angelic hosts.

⁵ tc The mispointed Hebrew term אֵשְׁדָּת (’eshdat) should perhaps be construed as אֵשְׁהַת (’eshhat) with Smr.

⁶ tn Grk “whose betrayers and murderers you have now become, who received the law” The two consecutive relative clauses make for awkward English style, so the second was begun as a new sentence with the pronoun “You” supplied in place of the Greek relative pronoun to make a complete sentence in English.

⁷ tn Traditionally, “as ordained by angels,” but εἰς (eis) with the accusative here should be understood as instrumental (a substitute for ἐν [en]); so BDAG 291 s.v. εἰς 9, BDF §206. Thus the phrase literally means “received the law by the decrees [orders] of angels” with the genitive understood as a subjective genitive, that is, the angels gave the decrees.

⁸ tn The Greek word φυλάσσω (fulassw, traditionally translated “keep”) in this context connotes preservation of and devotion to an object as well as obedience.

⁹ tn Or “did not obey it.”

¹⁰ sn The message spoken through angels refers to the OT law, which according to Jewish tradition was mediated to Moses through angels (cf. Deut 33:2; Ps 68:17-18; Acts 7:38, 53; Gal 3:19; and Jub. 1:27, 29; Josephus, Ant. 15.5.3 [15.136]).

¹¹ tn Grk “through angels became valid and every violation.”

¹² sn The phrase the world to come means “the coming inhabited earth,” using the Greek term which describes the world of people and their civilizations.

¹³ sn See the previous reference to the world in Heb 1:6.