Acts 13:3

Acts 13:3. And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them. This their final consecration took place on another occasion. Ewald suggests it was performed at one of the usual public assemblies held always on the first day of the week.

This simple ceremony of ordination was well known in the story of Israel; the disciples of Antioch, after fasting and prayer, laid their hands on the heads of the chosen two, and sent them forth to the work to which the Holy Ghost had called them. This act at Antioch in the year 45 was the solemn ordination of Paul and Barnabas to the apostleship. Before this public ceremony, we find them placed among the ‘prophets' and ‘teachers' of the Church; after, they were known as apostles (Acts 14:4; Acts 14:14). They ranked then with the original Twelve who had been chosen by Christ; so Paul writes to the Corinthian church ‘how he was not behind the very chiefest of the apostles.' Barnabas for years had held a prominent position in the church of Jerusalem; he was the most distinguished of the Antioch prophets and teachers; and Paul, who had been called by the Lord Himself, had seen visions and had received revelations. These two were specially designated to the Antioch Christians by the Holy Spirit, to be set apart for a peculiar work; and the Antioch church, following out the Divine command, publicly ordained them to the apostleship by the solemn and ancient ceremony of laying on of hands.