Acts 8:16

Acts 8:16. For as yet he was fallen upon none of them. It has been often asked whether this was owing to any defect in the faith of the Samaritans. Nothing, however, in the history would lead us to suppose that this was the case. The opinion of Chrysostom, followed by many modern commentators, supplies the most probable answer: ‘Philip could not bestow the Holy Ghost, because he was not an apostle.' The plain truth seems to be: none but the apostles were empowered to bestow this mighty gift. The early cessation of miraculous power in the Church is discussed briefly in the Excursus at the end of this chapter. The special duty of imposition of hands on the baptized, up to this time exclusively belonged to the apostles. It appears subsequently to have passed to the Episcopal order, which, before the close of the first century, undoubtedly arose in the Christian Church; but while the solemn right to lay hands on the baptized, and thus formally to invoke the blessed presence of the Holy Ghost, was inherited by the bishops from the apostles, it does not seem that the power of working miracles was ever communicated by the imposition of hands, by any save the apostles themselves.