Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text: Ideas
The customs, offices and ideas a first reader knew without being told, what each meant then, and the nearest thing you already know.
Laying on of hands
Hands laid on a person to bless, to heal, or to set someone apart for a task, the way Moses laid hands on Joshua. In the early church it went with prayer, the gift of the Spirit and sending people out.
Before the young pastor left for his first church, the elders gathered round, put their hands on his shoulders and prayed. In the Old Testament people laid hands on someone to bless them, and Moses laid his hands on Joshua to hand on his task. Jewish teachers later used the gesture to recognize a new teacher. In Acts the apostles and church leaders lay hands on people while they pray: to heal, when the Spirit is given, and when someone is sent out to a new work.
Laying on hands could pass on a blessing (Genesis 48:14). The closer model for Acts 6:6 is Moses laying his hands on Joshua (Numbers 27:18, 23), who was then filled with the spirit of wisdom (Deuteronomy 34:9). Later rabbis ordained their successors in this way. Keener calls the act in Acts 6 something like ordination, comparable to the later semikah. The rabbis, he notes, laid hands only on sacrifices and on scholars they ordained, and laying on hands in prayer is rare in ancient Jewish sources, with one example in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The ESV Study Bible sorts its uses in Acts into three: commissioning for ministry (6:6; 13:3), healing (9:17) and the giving of the Spirit (8:18; 19:6). The CSB Study Bible reads the laying on of hands on the Seven as recognition that God had called them. By early Christian times seasoned Jewish teachers often recognized new teachers by this act. Wright says modern confirmation broadly matches what Peter and John do in Samaria, but warns that the earliest documents show no single pattern of Christian initiation. Oracles had long been used to confirm the right of kings and officials, and Keener reads the prophecies at Timothy's commissioning that way. Whoever laid hands on an untested elder, he adds, shared the blame if that man fell. The ESV Study Bible names the council of elders as those who laid hands on Timothy.
An analogy: a retiring captain handing the armband to the new one in front of the whole team. The gesture is small, and everyone watching knows who now carries the responsibility and who gave it to him.
Hands laid on the Seven in Acts 6:6, and later on Barnabas and Saul, mark people set apart for a task, as Moses set apart Joshua. In 1 Timothy 4:14 the elders laid hands on Timothy, and Hebrews 6:2 lists the laying on of hands among the church's first teachings.
Not a handover between two people. The captain gives away what was his. In Acts hands are laid on with prayer, the healing or the Spirit comes from God, and a council of elders could commission together. Simon is rebuked for thinking the power could be bought.
Two points. Were the Seven the first deacons? The ESV Study Bible sets out both sides. The noun deacon does not occur in Acts 6, but the verb for serving does. The same verb is used of deacons in 1 Timothy 3:10 and 13, though it is a common word for service. Second, whether Timothy's laying on of hands (1 Timothy 4:14; 2 Timothy 1:6) was an ordination. The ESV Study Bible names the council of elders, and the Zondervan dictionary places it at Lystra. Carson, Moo and Morris note that 1 Timothy never calls it ordination and that 2 Timothy 1:6 may be nearer the later confirmation.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/2timothy-1-1-7\/","n":"2 Timothy 1:1-7, Lois, Eunice and the laying on of hands","s":"Writing from custody, Paul greets Timothy as his dear son, thanks God as he remembers him in prayer night and day, recalls the faith of Timothy's grandmother Lois and mother Eunice, and urges him to fan into flame the gift given when Paul laid hands on him.","r":"2 Timothy 1:1-7"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/hebrews-5-11-6-12\/","n":"Hebrews 5:11-6:12, Milk, solid food and no way back","s":"The readers should be teachers by now but still need milk, so the writer urges them past the elementary teachings. Those who have been enlightened and shared in the Holy Spirit and then fall away cannot be brought back to repentance, though he is confident of better things for his readers.","r":"Hebrews 5:11-6:12"}
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Acts 6:6, and notes on 1 Timothy 4:14 and Hebrews 6:2
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Acts 6:6 and 8:17
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on Acts 6:6 and 13:3
- CSB Study Bible, note on Acts 6:5-6
- N. T. Wright, Acts for Everyone, Part One, comment on Acts 8:4-25
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on 1 Timothy 4:14 and 5:22
- ESV Study Bible, study note on 1 Timothy 4:14
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 15, The Pastoral Epistles, The Ecclesiastical Organization, and The Contribution of 1 Timothy
- J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entry Timothy
