The Greek noun diatagē (διαταγή) refers to a commandment, ordinance, or divinely ordered arrangement. It comes from diatassō (to arrange, to order through), and appears in Acts 7:53 and Romans 13:2. In Acts 7:53, Stephen declares that Israel 'received the law as delivered (diatagē) by angels,' and in Romans 13:2, Paul says those who resist authority 'resist what God has ordained (diatagē).'
Stephen's use of diatagē in Acts 7:53 is a piercing indictment: the Law was given through the most exalted of heavenly intermediaries — angels — yet Israel did not keep it. The greatness of the diatagē makes the failure more culpable, not less. Paul's use in Romans 13:2 grounds civil authority in divine ordering — governments exist within God's arrangement (diatagē), and resistance to legitimate authority is resistance to God. Both uses point to the sovereign, ordering character of God, who governs all things — angelic realms, human institutions, covenantal obligations — through His divine arrangement.