Acts 8:17
in Acts 8Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
KJV
Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.
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This verse in Acts 8
Commentary
5 notes on this verseThis is why the passage fitly applies to the Holy Spirit, because he will dwell not in all people or in those who are flesh but in those whose "earth has been renewed." Finally, it was for this reason that the Holy Spirit was bestowed through the laying on of the apostles' hands after the grace and renewal of baptism.
This site's exposition
sent unto them Peter and John
on Acts 8:14-17
News that Samaria had received the word of God brings Peter and John down from Jerusalem, the mother church confirming rather than withholding what the Spirit had already begun through Philip's preaching. The parenthesis is pointed, as yet the Spirit was fallen upon none of them, only baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, so that the gift comes distinctly through the apostles' prayer and laying on of hands rather than at the moment of baptism itself. The bench reads the delay as tied to this specific hinge in salvation history, binding the historically hostile Samaritan believers visibly to the apostolic Jerusalem church rather than establishing a fixed order that must repeat at every conversion; the gift itself remains the church's living inheritance, and the scene's lesson is God visibly knitting a divided people into one church.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
They laid their hands on them, to signify that their prayers were answered, and that the gift of the Holy Ghost was conferred upon them; for, upon the use of this sign, they received the Holy Ghost, and spoke with tongues. The laying on of hands was anciently used in blessing, by those who blessed with authority.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Then laid they their hands ... - This was an act of “prayer,” expressing an invocation to God that he would impart the blessing to “them.” On “how many” they laid their hands is not said. It is evident that it was not on “all,” for they did not thus lay hands on Simon. Perhaps it was done on a few of the more prominent and leading persons, who were to be employed particularly in bearing witness to the truth of the gospel.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
on Acts 8:14-17
In the present case an important object was served by it--"the sudden appearance of a body of baptized disciples in Samaria, by the agency of one who was not an apostle, requiring the presence and power of apostles to perform their special part as the divinely appointed founders of the Church" [ALFORD]. Beautiful, too, was the spectacle exhibited of Jew and Samaritan, one in Christ.
The words behind it
10 Greek wordsEvery Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Greek | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| τότε | tote | Then | G5119 → | 160 times |
| ἐπετίθεσαν | epetithesan | they were laying | G2007 → | 38 times |
| τὰς | tas | the | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| χεῖρας | cheiras | hands | G5495 → | 175 times |
| ἐπ᾽ | ep᾽ | upon | G1909 → | 883 times |
| αὐτούς, | autous | them | G846 → | 5565 times |
| καὶ | kai | and | G2532 → | 9120 times |
| ἐλάμβανον | elambanon | they were receiving | G2983 → | 257 times |
| πνεῦμα | pneuma | [the] Spirit | G4151 → | 378 times |
| ἅγιον.¶ | hagion | Holy. | G40 → | 220 times |
τότεThen
toteG5119 →160 times
ἐπετίθεσανthey were laying
epetithesanG2007 →38 times
τὰςthe
tasG3588 →19766 times
χεῖραςhands
cheirasG5495 →175 times
ἐπ᾽upon
ep᾽G1909 →883 times
αὐτούς,them
autousG846 →5565 times
καὶand
kaiG2532 →9120 times
ἐλάμβανονthey were receiving
elambanonG2983 →257 times
πνεῦμα[the] Spirit
pneumaG4151 →378 times
ἅγιον.¶Holy.
hagionG40 →220 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
2 Timothy 1:6For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
it leads to
- 1 Timothy 4:14
Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given you through the prophecy spoken over you at the laying on of the hands of the elders.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- 1 Peter 4:10–11
As good stewards of the manifold grace of God, each of you should use whatever gift he has received to serve one another.
- Romans 12:6–8
We have different gifts according to the grace given us. If one’s gift is prophecy, let him use it in proportion to his faith;
- 1 Thessalonians 5:19
Do not extinguish the Spirit.
- 2 Peter 3:1
Beloved, this is now my second letter to you. Both of them are reminders to stir you to wholesome thinking
- 1 Timothy 4:14
Through
Acts 2:4And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
it leads to
- Mark 16:17
And these signs will accompany those who believe: In My name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues;
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Acts 13:52
And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.
- Acts 4:31
After they had prayed, their meeting place was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
- Mark 16:17
Where this verse is studied
About Acts
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on Acts; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentary upon the Acts of the Apostles; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Origen of Alexandria, ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.3.7.