Acts 6:6

6. Whom they set before the apostles The people selected and elected the men; the apostles were to ratify the election by laying hands upon them, implying a veto power in an extreme case where the good of the Church was at stake.

Laid their hands This imposition of hands, the form of patriarchal benediction, was derived from Moses, (Numbers 27:18,) and was permanent in the Jewish Church. It implied the identification of that touched individual from all the world for that office, and poured, as it were, through the hands of the imposer, the official individualization. This imposition of hands, adopted from the Jewish Church, is the true type by which every Christian Church would properly authenticate its established ministry. Were a pious layman to be cast upon a pagan island and by his holy labours to convert the people and gather a Church of thousands or millions, of which the ministers were chosen and authenticated by other credentials than imposition of hands, both the Church and ministry should be accepted by others as valid in spite of the absence of the New Testament form. Doubtless such a Church ought, in Christian propriety, upon learning the biblical example, to conform thereto. The neglect to do so would be worthy of disapproval, but would not invalidate the Church or ministry. (See note on Acts 13:3.)