The Apostle Paul is represented as confirming the souls of the disciples (Acts 14:22), and again as confirming the churches (Acts 15:41); Judas and Silas did the same thing (Acts 15:32). It does not in these cases appear to have been a rite or ceremony. But there appears to have been some rite of the kind in the early church. The writer of Hebrews speaks (6:2) of "the doctrine of baptisms and of laying on of hands." He may have had reference to the laying on of hands, implying the gift of the Holy Spirit, as in Acts 8:17, and as Paul did (Acts 19:6). It seems to have been a Jewish idea of ancient date, as Jacob thus blessed Joseph's children (Gen. 48:14). The custom continued in Christ's time (see Matt. 19:13), when "there were brought unto him little children that he should put his hands on them, and pray."
