Acts 6:6

Acts 6:6. When they had prayed, they laid their hands on them. The hand of ‘him who ordains is laid on the head of him who is to be ordained, but the effect of the act is from God' (Chrysostom). The earliest mention of ‘laying on of hands' occurs in Genesis 48:10. It is there connected with blessing only. It was enjoined on Moses as the form of conferring the highest office among the chosen people upon Joshua, and from that time was used on such occasions by the Jews. We find it used in the early Church. By the laying on of hands, the special gifts of the Holy Ghost were imparted (Acts 8:17), the ministerial office was conferred (1 Timothy 5:22. See also Hebrews 6:2, which speaks of the ceremony as one of the Christian institutions). Hackett's comment on this passage, which speaks of the ‘laying on of hands,' is noteworthy: ‘It was of the nature of a prayer that God would bestow the necessary gifts, rather than a pledge that they were actually conferred.'