The Law was given by angels

The Law Was Given By Angels

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The apostle Paul went even further to show the superiority of “the unwritten Law of Christ” compared to the older Law of God, also called the Law of Moses. Though God allowed the earlier Law to be given to Israel directly, according to Paul and 1st century Jews, it was given through a mediator who was a powerful angel (with the help of many other angels). When the apostle Paul surveyed these historical facts, he was inspired to write that the old Law given to Israel at Mount Sinai was much inferior to “the Law of Christ” taught by apostles commissioned by Christ.

This later Law of Christ was of greater importance, in Paul’s understanding, than the earlier Law of God codified as the Ten Commandments, along with the subsidiary laws given to Moses. This is because Israel was given that early Law (designed for Israel’s infant stage of spiritual development) through the mediatorial role played by these angels. This prompted Paul to classify the earlier Law itself as inferior when compared to the direct teachings of the Father given by His firstborn Son Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul was clear on this matter and it is essential we recognize his teachings in precise detail.

Angels and the Law

Paul taught more on the role of angels in the giving of the Law of Moses than has been imagined by many students of the Bible. Entire sections of Paul’s teachings concern the role of angelic mediation (both in the early history of the world and the giving of the Law to Moses) concerning the conduct of individual peoples and nations in the 1st century. This included angelic roles in future events destined to affect the lives of people at the end of the age. This subject is most important for biblical students to understand, and attention should be directed to these essential teachings of Paul.

Yes, angels gave the earlier Law for Israel at Mount Sinai. It was common knowledge among the Jewish people in the 1st century that the Law of God was presented to Moses by angels — and not directly by God himself. Josephus, the Jewish priest/historian of the 1stcentury and an expert in Jewish beliefs at the time, said: “We have learned the noblest of our doctrines and the holiest of our laws from the ANGELS sent by God.” 1When the evangelist Stephen rebuked the Jewish authorities in Jerusalem for going against the Law, he said they were those: “Who have received the Law by the disposition ofANGELS, and have not kept it” (Acts 7:53).

Speaking about the Law of God, the apostle Paul in the Book of Hebrews said,

“The word spoken by ANGELS was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward.”

• • Hebrews 2:2

And Paul had further to say,

“Wherefore then serves the Law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by ANGELS in the hand of a mediator”

• • Galatians 3:19

But wait! In spite of what the Jewish priest/historian Josephus, the evangelist Stephen and the apostle Paul had to say, are we not informed in the Book of Exodus that it was God (Elohim in Hebrew) who gave the Law to Moses? Yes, indeed. But what is not recognized by many people is that the word “Elohim” can refer also to ANGELS.

In Psalm 97:7 the word “gods” is Elohim and in Hebrews 1:6 Paul said it referred to angels. 2 There is not the slightest doubt from the New Testament, and even from common Jewish usage in the 1st century, that the “God” (Elohim) who gave the Ten Commandments and the other laws to Moses was a powerful angel who was God’s agent (or mediator) to give the divine laws to Moses. Later we will discover from the Scripture just who this powerful angel really was. It will surprise many students of the Bible.

The Law of God and the Law of Moses Are the Same

We need to understand what the Holy Scriptures define as the Law of God. Is the Law of Moses as much a part of the Law of God as is the Ten Commandments? Some people mistakenly think there is a great difference between the two. The Bible, however, has teaching contrary to this false assumption.

Let us allow the Holy Scriptures to tell us what represents the “Law of the Lord” (that is, “God’s Law”). The “Law of Moses” is called nothing less that the “Law of the Lord” in the New Testament itself, and this designation included the sacrifice of animals at the Temple in Jerusalem.

“When the days of her purification according to THE LAW OF MOSES were accomplished, they brought him [Christ Jesus] to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord; as it is written in THE LAW OF THE LORD, every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord; and to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in THE LAW OF THE LORD a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.”

• • Luke 2:22–24

To make sure that people did not distinguish between the Law of Moses and the Law of the Lord, Luke finally states:

“And when they [Joseph and Mary] had performed all things [animal sacrifices, etc.] according to THE LAW OF THE LORD they returned into Galilee, to their own city of Nazareth.”

• • Luke 2:39

It is time to get rid of the nonsense interpretation that the Law of Moses and the Law of the Lord are two different laws. Indeed, the laws that governed Adam, Noah, and then the Patriarchs were also the “Law of the Lord.” All these laws were “God’s Law” (no matter to whom given) and they were applicable for those to whom they were intended.

The Law of the Lord Given by Angels

The apostle Paul gives more information about the Law being given by angels in the Book of Colossians. Here Paul’s principal theme of the Mystery of Christ is dependent upon knowledge that angels (very powerful and influential angels) were responsible for issuing the Law to Moses. If one does not recognize what Paul was teaching regarding angelic powers giving the Law to Moses, then one remains ignorant of some of the most sublime teachings on the role of Christ in obtaining a salvation for Christians. Christ released all Christians from the bondage required by this angelic Law.

Note this: Paul stated that a very sophisticated philosophical teaching was being taught to the Colossian Gentile Christians. This teaching was trying to lead them astray from the doctrines of Christ Jesus. He spoke of it as,

“philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the elements [the real Greek meaning] of the world, and not after Christ.”

• • Colossians 2:8

Some early commentators thought by Paul’s use of the word “elements” that he meant elementary or rudimentary teachings, as the King James Version has it translated. In no way is this what Paul meant.

The context shows that “rudimentary teachings of the world” were NOT what Paul had in mind. How can elementary doctrines — immature, primitive and formative teachings — be called a “philosophy,” teachings discussing sophisticated subjects of the “Godhead” and the “principalities and powers” in the heavens? These philosophical doctrines concerned “will worship” and ascetic practices that were found among the “wise” of the world. Such were the doctrines that Paul was talking about in Colossians.

Paul was clearly concerned about highly developed philosophies of men in which an inquiring individual would be “intruding in those things which he has not seen”(Colossians 2:8–23). Paul reckoned these teachings as “scientific” discussions and speculations among so-called “wise men” (philosophers) or, as he called their investigations, “science falsely so called” (1 Timothy 6:20).

Paul was concerned about a system of theological and philosophical beliefs the very opposite of “rudimentary” teachings, as the King James Version has it. Granted, these advanced teachings were based on the Law of God given to Moses, but they were far and away more sophisticated in the 1st century than what Moses gave to Israel through the mediatorial agency of the angels. There was nothing elementary (or immature, as we understand the word “elementary” to mean) about these highly philosophical beliefs Paul was referring to. We will see that the “elements” that Paul was talking about were actually the “principalities and powers” themselves — he made reference to them in Colossians 2:10 and 15.

Careful study shows that Paul was speaking in Colossians about angelic beings that went by the name “elements.” True, these angelic groups were responsible for giving the Law to Moses, but they were now building new philosophical beliefs based on that earlier Law that changed the very character of the former legislation. But what kind of angels were these “elements” Paul was talking about? They were a class of angels that God placed in charge of multitudes of natural and spiritual facilities, with various functions on earth and throughout the universe.

The apostle mentioned them within several contexts of his writings. In Romans 8:38 he mentioned them as “angels, principalities and powers.” In Ephesians 1:21 he reckoned them as highly exalted spiritual beings who were just below the Godhead in authority. Indeed, these principalities and powers were created by Christ (Colossians 1:16) and He is still head of them (Colossians 2:10). These are spiritual powers who govern many of the affairs on earth, and sometimes Christians trying to follow God find themselves at odds with them (Ephesians 6:12). They are powerful beings, and God allows them to exercise their authority for the time being.

To the apostle Paul, these spiritual “elements” were the “principalities and powers” who went by the generic name, angels. But in spite of their glorious existence, Paul showed that they were not omnipotent or omniscient. He remarked that they are deficient in knowledge in some of the higher purposes of God (Ephesians 3:10). Even the apostle Peter admitted that angels lacked sufficient understanding in God’s plans for humanity — “which things the angels desire to look into” (1 Peter 1:12).

Christ himself echoed the same theme. He said that the angels were kept from knowing the exact periods of time associated with the Second Advent. “But of that day and hour knows no man, no, not the angels of heaven” (Matthew 24:36). These scriptures show the real inferiority of angels compared to Christ.

With these matters in mind, we can realize what Paul was talking about in Colossians. He was showing how much more glorious was the Gospel of Christ than the Law of Moses dispatched by the “elements” — angelic authorities called “principalities and powers.”These angels were now stretching the meaning of the Law to include the most sophisticated type of spiritual (and erroneous) teachings. These angels actually based their false teachings on many basic principles found in the earlier Law of Moses. Paul selected as an example some of the principal teachings of these angels that were now redundant to Christians. They were the angelic teachings about “eating and drinking” and about Mosaic “festivals, new moons and sabbaths” (Colossians 2:16).

These ritualistic regulations and dogmas (King James: “ordinances”) given to Moses by the principalities and powers, were denominated by Paul as “the religion of angels”(Colossians 2:18). And that is exactly what Paul accounted the ritualistic system of festivals, new moons and sabbaths to be (along with circumcision, animal sacrifices, Temple worship, etc.). Paul considered that requirement of religious beliefs of “the religion of angels” had nothing to do with the teachings of Christianity found in Christ.

In the King James Version the word “religion” (in Greek: threeskia) is translated “worshipping” as though Paul meant that angels were being worshipped. But in no way does the word (either in meaning or in this context within the Book of Colossians) signify a “worshipping” of angels. The Greek word is a noun that means a “form of worship” or “ritual,” or simply what we called today “religious practices.” In the other three references where this Greek word (threeskia) appears in the New Testament, even the King James translators were forced to translate it in the true meaning “religion” (Acts 26:5; James 1:26–27). Paul was informing the Colossians that the Law of Moses was in fact “the religion of angels” (religious practices derived from angels).

Paul was upset with them for beginning to give heed again to religious beliefs engendered by angels, which some with Jewish leanings were attaching to sophisticated principles based on the Mosaic Law. Paul told them,

“Let no man therefore judge you in eating, or in drinking, or in part of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbaths. ...

Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and religion of the angels. ...

Wherefore if you be dead with Christ from the elements of the world, why, as though living in the world, are you subject to dogmas (touch not; taste not; handle not) after the commandments and doctrines of men.”

• • See Greek in Colossians 2:16, 18, 20–21

The truth is, men were using the dogmas ordained on Mount Sinai by angels to continue their rule over God’s people, and were using philosophical terms to do it. Paul would have none of it. Christ came to earth and kept the Law perfectly. He fulfilled it as He said He would. Christians are now reckoned to have kept the Law perfectly in Christ. They have died with Christ (Colossians 3:3) and are already accounted by God to be resurrected with Christ (Colossians 3:1). So, why were Christians going back to the practice of the Law of Moses (even in a sophisticated way) by returning to the Law intended for Israel when they were spiritual infants? To Paul, it was an inferior law compared to that of Christ. The teachings of Christ needed no mediators.

As far as Paul was concerned, such submission to “the religion of angels” at the insistence of certain men had the Colossians submitting to “the commandments and doctrines of men” (Colossians 2:22). It was men who were demanding that the Colossians retain the teachings of those angelic “elements of the world.” (And there are people today who insist that their members do the same thing.)

Men were telling the Colossians that the regulations of Moses concerning “eating, drinking, holy days, new moons and sabbaths,” still had to be kept. They were placing the Colossians back under the Law of Moses in a “modern” philosophical way. This was nothing more, in Paul’s eyes, than bringing them back into subjection to the“principalities and powers” — the angels (or the “elements”) that gave their “religion of angels” to Moses and the Israelites. This is what Paul meant.

The apostle Paul said in no uncertain terms that through the life, death and resurrection of Christ — Christians are identified with Christ in all these things and being with Christ in His keeping of the Law — Christians are now “alive from the dead” (Colossians 3:1). Christians are no longer subject to the “religion of angels.” This is why he asked the Colossian Christians:

“Wherefore, if you be dead with Christ from the elements of the world, why, as though living in the world, are you subject to dogmas?”

• • Colossians 2:20

Paul means the ordinances, decrees or regulations given to Moses by the angels. It was the commandments and doctrines of men inspired by angels that demanded such subjection, and Paul was vehemently against this erroneous teaching.

The Angels Are Spirits

Let us look closer at the role of these angels, these principalities and powers, as revealed in the Holy Scriptures. We are told in the Book of Hebrews:

“But to which of the angels said he at any time, ‘Sit on my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool?’ Are they not all ministeringSPIRITS, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?”

• • Hebrews 1:13–14

Indeed, the New Testament shows that all angels are spirits and have various responsibilities given them throughout the heavens and on earth by God and Christ Jesus.

To understand more about the many tasks carried out by these angelic spirits, we need to examine the word that the apostle Paul used to designate them. He called all of them the “elements” (Greek: stoikion). These “elements” brought in the “philosophy” that demanded the Colossians observe Mosaic ritualistic teachings in a new philosophic manner. It was common in the 1st century to refer to the religion of the Jews as a “philosophy” (as did Paul). We find the various denominations of Judaism were reckoned to be “philosophies.” Josephus, the Jewish historian, referred to this in his writings about the Jews and their customs.

“The Jews, from the most ancient times, had three philosophiespertaining to their traditions, that of the Essenes, that of the Sadducees, and, thirdly, that of the group called the Pharisees.” 3

The philosophy that the apostle Paul was talking about in the Book of Colossians was a “Jewish philosophy” that demanded strict adherence to the ritualistic teachings and the religious taboos of the Mosaic Law concerning “eating, drinking, holy days, new moons and sabbaths” (Colossians 2:16). This was also the 1st century Jewish way of reckoning those laws in their highly developed traditional teachings. Christ called this the commandments of men (Matthew 15:9). As far as the apostle Paul was concerned these restrictions and festival periods were reckoned as belonging to “the elements of the world” (Galatians 4:3).

The “Elements” Were Angelic Spirits

The elements Paul referred to in the Book of Colossians were the angels themselves. They were spirit beings called the principalities and powers. Modern scholars and translators of the New Testament realize this. Notice how some modern translations have rightly caught the meaning of Paul’s teaching about the “elements” (Greek: stoikion).

Here is how the Revised Standard Version translates Colossians 2:8:

“See to it that no one makes a prey of you by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spiritsof the universe and not according to Christ.”

And then in Colossians 2:20:

“If with Christ you have died to the elemental spirits of the universe,why do you live as if you still belong to the world? Why do you submit to regulations?”

What were those regulations given by the elemental spirits? Paul said they were“questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a sabbath” (Colossians 2:16). The Revised Standard Version shows that Paul taught that such rituals were a part of the “religion of angels” (Colossians 2:18) — not of the mature doctrines of Christ.

Other modern authorities of the Greek language have similar understandings of what the apostle Paul meant by “elements.” In reference to the above verses just mentioned, the New English Bible also says that Paul meant “the elemental spirits of the universe.”The Moffatt Version says: “elemental spirits of the world.” And the New American Catholic Bible refers to those “elements” as the “cosmic powers” or the “cosmic forces.” There can be no doubt that Paul was speaking about the teachings of angelic spirits (the principalities and powers) when he mentioned the dogmas of those “elements.” And recall, he plainly stated that such ritualistic teachings were “the religion of angels” (Colossians 2:18). Adult Christians are no longer subject to such angelic laws.

This fact is further strengthened in Paul’s reference to these same “elements” in the Book of Galatians. In the clearest of terms Paul said the Law of Moses was “ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator” (Galatians 3:19). Paul then discussed certain aspects of the Law given to ancient Israel by the angels. He said the Law of God given to Moses was like a schoolmaster to lead people to Christ, but once individuals recognize what Christ did for them, they are no longer under that Law as a legal means to obtain salvation (Galatians 3:23–25).

But, before the time of Christ, Paul said that the Jews were under the Law of Moses and under bondage to it. This was the Law given by angels even before the Jewish authorities elaborated on it with their own teachings in the 1st century. Thus, he continued: “Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world” (Galatians 4:3). These were the same “elements” he referred to in Colossians.

Now note how modern translations render Galatians 4:3.

• • The Revised Standard Version says, again: “the elemental spirits of the universe.” 

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  • The New English Bible: “the elemental spirits of the universe.” 

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  • Moffatt: “the elemental spirits of the world.”

And since the apostle Paul just stated in the context of Galatians that the Law was given by the angels (Galatians 3:19), there can be no doubt that these “elemental spirits”mentioned by him were angels (principalities and powers) who gave the Law to Moses.

Let me now clear up a point that has confused many interpreters of the Bible. Some have thought that the “days, months, times and years” of Galatians 4:10 might be heathen festival seasons. In no way is this true. While it is certain that the Gentile Galatians were once under the domination of “principalities and powers” (because all nations have angelic powers supervising them), in Galatians 4:10 the apostle Paul was referring to the festival days and periods mentioned in the Law of Moses. This is certainly the case because in Galatians 4:21 he chastised these Galatian Gentiles for wanting to be back under the Law. To show what Law he meant, Paul cited as that particular Law the one containing the account of Hagar and Sarah in the Book of Genesis (Galatians 4:22–26). Plainly, the Law, which the Galatians wanted to be under, was the Mosaic Law, of which the first book of Genesis was a part.

So, what we find the apostle Paul teaching was that the Law of God given to Moses was delivered by angels. It was not given directly by God. When it says that God (that is, an Elohim) was the one who presented the Law to Moses, the term (in this case) refers to a powerful angel who could legitimately be called an Elohim in the Bible. This angel and the other angels associated with him in the giving of the Law are identified even in the Old Testament. Let us be aware of his mediator’s role in giving the Law.

The Angel of the Lord

We now enter a most interesting part of this study. It can be shown clearly in the Old Testament itself that it was not God the Father or Christ Jesus before His incarnation who gave the Law to Moses. Many modern students of the Bible have not observed this plain teaching of the Old Testament. We find that it was, as Paul, Stephen, and the Jewish historian Josephus attest, an angel with multitudes of other angels who gave the Ten Commandments and the other subsidiary laws to Moses in their period of spiritual infancy. It shows why the apostle Paul adopted the principle that the Law of Moses was much inferior compared to the teachings of early Christianity that he called “the Law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2).

In fact, Paul showed that the Law of Moses and Christianity were not compatible to one another regarding salvation. While faith was important even within the Old Testament period, there were numerous laws and regulations that were necessary to be observed in Old Testament times before one could be considered a righteous person. But something more than rituals was essential to attain salvation from God.

That necessary ingredient upon which faith could flourish was Jesus Christ and His substitutionary role in matters of keeping the Law. And while that Law of God was a steppingstone to the full and mature Gospel of Christ, it can only be reckoned as being like the caterpillar stage of a butterfly’s development. Something else had to be given for salvation. And that was the Gospel of Christ. That Gospel proves to be as different from the earlier Law of God as a butterfly is from a caterpillar larva.

Who Revealed the Law to Israel?

The prime spiritual entity (or Elohim) who gave the Law to Moses was not God the Father or Jesus Christ. He was actually an angel, with his angelic helpers, who spoke the Law to Moses (the Law was “the word spoken by angels” — Hebrews 2:2). This makes it certain that the angelic personality was not Jesus Christ before His incarnation.

The apostle Paul in the Book of Hebrews took the first two chapters to show that Christ Jesus was not an angel, but was far higher in station and authority.

“Being made so much better than the angels, as he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto which of the angels said he at any time, ‘You are my Son, this day have I begotten you?’ And again, ‘I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son’.”

• • Hebrews 1:4–5

“But to which of the angels said he at any time, ‘Sit on my right hand, and I will make your enemies your footstool’.”

• • Hebrews 1:13

There was no controversy about this matter to the apostle Paul. Christ was not an angel because He was far higher in power and esteem than any angel, no matter how exalted in rank the angel might be.

It is time to identify that particular angel as revealed in the Old Testament by giving a compendium of scriptural texts about the role of this angel in various historical contexts of the Old Testament. We find that this Elohim (this single angel) was very active in human affairs from the time of Abraham to the period of the Judges (especially with righteous people). Professor J.M. Wilson in The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (New Edition) admirably presents this historical survey on page 125 under the article titled: “Angel,” the section titled “Angel of the Theophany.” Note his comments:

“Angel of the Theophany. This angel is spoken of as ‘the angel of the Lord [Yahweh].’ The following passages contain references to this angel: