And when they had fasted and prayed
Not when they had done fasting and praying, at the time the Holy
Ghost made an impulse on their minds, to separate two of their
brethren to a work they were appointed to; but at another time,
which was fixed for that purpose; when they fasted and prayed,
not for direction, who they were to set apart and send; for the
persons were before pointed out to them, but that they might have
every needful gift and qualification for the work, and be
succeeded in it:
and laid their hands on them;
not as ordaining them, for this was not an ordination; the
Apostle Paul particularly was not ordained an apostle by man, but
by Jesus Christ; who personally appeared to him, and made and
ordained him his minister and apostle; and much less by men
inferior to himself, as Simeon, Lucius, and Manaen were; but this
was a gesture and ceremony used among the Jews, when they wished
any blessing or happiness to attend any persons; and so these
prophets, when they separated Paul and Barnabas from their
company, and were parting from them, put their hands on them, and
wished them all prosperity and success: could this be thought to
be an ordination, as it cannot, since both of them were stated
and authorized ministers of the word, and one of them an apostle
long before this; there might seem some likeness between it and
the Jewish ordination of elders, which was done by three
F2, as here were Simeon, Lucius, and
Manaen; but then this was not done without the land of Israel, as
here, nor by imposition of hands F3: now when they had thus
prayed for them, and wished them well, they sent them away; to do
the work they were called unto; not in an authoritative way, but
in a friendly manner they parted with them, and bid them
farewell.