What Does Acts 6:6 Mean?
These they stood before the sent ones, and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Whom they set before the apostles: and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them.THE KEY
Selection becomes public and embodied: the chosen are set before the apostles, then the apostles lay their hands on them after prayer.
THE MEANING
This verse shows discernment taking visible form: people selected for service are presented before the apostles, then prayer accompanies the laying on of hands. Recognition is communal and embodied, with the selected people standing openly before those who entrust them with responsibility.
THE ROOT
ἐπέθηκαν
epethēkan
GROWS FROM
τίθημι
tithēmi
to put, place, or set
“laid their hands on them” in this verse is epethēkan. The Greek verb means to place something upon someone, making the hands a literal act of contact. The verse moves from choosing people to placing hands on them: recognition becomes something the community can see and feel.
ALSO GROWS
epithesis: a laying on; placement
ἐπίθεσις
This noun names the same placing-on action, making clear that the hands are not incidental to the scene.
thesis: a placing; a position
θέσις
The shared root carries the sense of setting something in place, echoing how the chosen are given a visible place before the apostles.
ἔστησαν
estēsan
GROWS FROM
ἵστημι
histēmi
to make stand, set upright, or stand
“These they stood before” in this verse is estēsan. The Greek says they made the chosen stand before the apostles. The scene moves from bringing them into view to placing hands upon them after prayer: presentation comes before the embodied act.
ALSO GROWS
stasis: a standing; a position
στάσις
This branch preserves the root’s sense of standing in a visible position, as the chosen do before the apostles.
anastasis: a rising; a standing up
ἀνάστασις
The shared root connects standing with rising, showing how the verb carries a bodily image rather than only the idea of being named.
THE PATTERN
Recognition and responsibility take communal form when people are presented, prayed over, and touched.
And the LORD said to Moses, Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the breath, and lean your hand upon him.And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they let them go.Do not let slip the gift of favor that is in you, which was given to you through prophesying, with the placing of hands by the council of elders.THE THREAD
When the sun was sinking, all who had anyone sick with various diseases brought them to him, and he laid his hands on each one of them, and healed them.Luke uses ἐπιτίθημι (epitithēmi, “to place upon”), the same verb used here for laying hands. His scene is healing, while Acts shows people presented for service; the shared verb makes the hands a point of embodied contact, with the purpose shaped by each scene.
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