Dear sir,<\/p>\n
Were the Ten Commandments delivered by angels or God Himself? I am somewhat confused by references such as Acts 7:53, Galatians 3:19, and Hebrews 2:2.<\/p>\n\t
“Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become; you who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it<\/em>” (Acts 7:52-53).<\/p>\n
“Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made<\/em>” (Galatians 3:19).<\/p>\n
“For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty<\/em>” (Hebrews 2:2).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
None of these references discusses only the Ten Commandments. They are talking about the Old Testament law as a whole.<\/p>\n
At the start of Revelation, John tells us how he received the words of Jesus: “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John<\/em>” (Revelation 1:1). In the case of Revelation, there was a chain of communication.<\/p>\n
In the Old Testament, it is mentioned: “The chariots of God are myriads, thousands upon thousands; the Lord is among them as at Sinai, in holiness<\/em>” (Psalms 68:17). When God spoke with Moses at Sinai, He was accompanied by angels. Moses also hints at this when he said, “The LORD came from Sinai, and dawned on them from Seir; He shone forth from Mount Paran, and He came from the midst of ten thousand holy ones; at His right hand there was flashing lightning for them<\/em>” (Deuteronomy 33:2). God sent an angel to lead Israel out of Egypt (Exodus 14:19; Numbers 20:16). Frequently, we find mention of angels delivering messages from God (Judges 6:12; 13:9; I Kings 13:18; 19:5; II Kings 1:3; Zechariah 1:19).<\/p>\n
The message originates with God, but angels were often involved in the delivery. The writer of the Book of Hebrews’ point is that the New Testament is superior because the Son of God came to earth and directly taught His message. If God expects men to obey the message delivered by angels, how much more does He expect us to obey the message delivered by the Son of God?<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Dear sir, Were the Ten Commandments delivered by angels or God Himself? I am somewhat confused by references such as Acts 7:53, Galatians 3:19, and Hebrews 2:2. Answer: “Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[176],"class_list":["post-88836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-ten-commandments"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":29113,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-law-and-the-gospel\/","url_meta":{"origin":88836,"position":0},"title":"The Law and the Gospel (Kiser)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 28, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by M. W. Kiser via, The Sower, Vol. 53, No. 5, Sept\/Oct. 2008. \"Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, desiring to be teachers of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9888,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-meant-by-the-worship-of-angels\/","url_meta":{"origin":88836,"position":1},"title":"What is meant by the worship of angels?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: When Paul talks about the worship of angels right after saying do not judge anyone about Sabbaths, new moon, etc. what is meant by the worship of angels? I noticed in Hebrews 2:2 and in James speech in Acts he also mentions angels giving doctrine to man (I think\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41561,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/back-to-basics-christ-and-the-law\/","url_meta":{"origin":88836,"position":2},"title":"Back to Basics: Christ and the Law","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 8, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Frank Jamerson When brethren are confused about whether Christ came to fulfill the law and prophets or to perpetuate them, it is time to get back to basics! One brother said, \"Continuity of law is evident in Matthew 5:17, in that there is nothing about following Jesus that would\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3951,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-angels-preach\/","url_meta":{"origin":88836,"position":3},"title":"Do angels preach?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 27, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do angels preach? Answer: \"God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":62966,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-law-and-the-gospel-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":88836,"position":4},"title":"The Law and the Gospel","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 29, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: I Timothy 1:1-11 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I have frequent encounters with people who do not distinguish between the Old Testament and the New Testament \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0None want to fully return to the Mosaical covenant, but each wants some feature found in the Old Testament to be binding on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19289,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/were-the-ten-commandments-nailed-to-the-cross\/","url_meta":{"origin":88836,"position":5},"title":"Were the Ten Commandments Nailed to the Cross?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 30, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Clem Thurman via Gospel Minutes, Vol. 56, No. 20, May 18, 2007 QUESTION: I understand that the Old Testament was \"nailed to the cross\" when Jesus died. \u00a0Would that\u00a0also include the Ten Commandments? \u00a0If so,\u00a0what about idolatry, murder, and the other\u00a0moral commandments? ANSWER: The first listing of the Ten\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88836\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}