Acts 19:6

6 And [when] Paul laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them and they began to speak in tongues and to prophesy.

Acts 19:6 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 19:6

And when Paul had laid his hands upon them
They having been before baptized, not by him, but by John, or one of his disciples, in the name of the Lord Jesus; just as Peter and John laid their hands upon the believing Samaritans, who had been before baptized by Philip, ( Acts 8:14-17 ) and the same extraordinary effects followed:

the Holy Ghost came on them;
in his extraordinary gifts, whose special grace they had before an experience of:

and they spake with tongues;
with other tongues, or in other languages, which they had never learned, or had been used to, as the disciples did at the day of "Pentecost": and prophesied; preached, having an extraordinary gift at once, of explaining the prophecies of the Old Testament, and also foretold things to come.

Acts 19:6 In-Context

4 And Paul said, "John baptized [with] a baptism of repentance, telling the people that they should believe in the one who was to come after him--that is, in Jesus."

5 And [when they] heard [this], they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

6 And [when] Paul laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them and they began to speak in tongues and to prophesy.

7 (Now the total [number] [of] men was about twelve.)

8 So he entered into the synagogue [and] was speaking boldly for three months, discussing and attempting to convince [them] concerning the kingdom of God.

Footnotes

• [a]. *Here "[when]" is supplied as a component of the temporal genitive absolute participle ("laid")
• [b]. Some manuscripts have "placed his hands"
• [c]. *The imperfect tense has been translated as ingressive here ("began to speak")