Acts 6:6 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

When they had prayed, they laid their hands on them. — This is the first mention of the act in the New Testament. It had had an analogous meaning in the ritual of Israel (Numbers 27:23) in acts of blessing (Genesis 48:13-14) and the transmission of functions. Its primary symbolism would seem to be that of the concentration for the moment of all the spiritual energy of prayer upon him on whom men lay their hands; and so of the bestowal of any office for which spiritual gifts are required. It had been used in the Jewish schools on the admission of a scribe to his office as a teacher. It soon became the customary outward and visible sign of such bestowal (Acts 13:3). Instruction as to what it thus meant entered into the primary teaching of all converts (Hebrews 6:2). It was connected with other acts that pre-supposed the communication of a spiritual gift (1 Timothy 5:22). Through well-nigh all changes of polity and dogma and ritual, it has kept its place with Baptism and the Supper of the Lord, among the unchanging witnesses of the Church’s universality and permanence, witnessing, as in Confirmation, to the diversity of spiritual gifts, and, as in Ordination, to their connection with every special office and administration in the Church of God.