Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 8:17

"Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit." — Acts 8:17 (ASV)

Then laid they their hands on them.—The act had already appeared as both the symbol and the channel for the communication of spiritual gifts and offices in the appointment of the Seven (See Note on Acts 6:6). Historically, the act recorded here is notable as the starting point of what afterwards developed into the rite known as Confirmation.

Taking the narrative of Acts by itself, a question might be raised: to what extent was what we read normal or exceptional? Was it connected only for a time with the bestowal of new and marvelous powers, or was it powerful throughout the entire history of the Church as a means of grace, strengthening spiritual life after those powers had been withdrawn?

In any case, it was probable that no hard and fast line marked the disappearance of the special and marvelous forms of spiritual power which were first manifested in connection with the laying-on of hands. Consequently, the practice had time to become part of the fixed order of the Church.

When these powers ceased altogether, we can understand the reluctance of people to give up a rite that had come down from the days of the Apostles.

They would feel that the prayer of faith was still mighty to prevail and that the Spirit would still be given in answer to prayer joined with the symbolic act, though no longer in the same form. They believed it would confirm and strengthen the work which had been begun in baptism. Thus, the primitive laying-on of hands passed into Confirmation and was accompanied by other symbolic acts, such as anointing.

The thought that it is so called because in it adults confirm the promises made for them when baptized as infants is entirely modern and cannot be traced further back than the sixteenth century.