to abstain from food (religiously) · verb — aorist active participle, nominative plural masculine
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
prayed
προσευξάμενοιproseuxamenoi
G4336
to pray to God · verb — aorist middle deponent participle, nominative plural masculine
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
laid
ἐπιθέντεςepithentes
G2007
to impose (in a friendly or hostile sense) · verb — second aorist active participle, nominative plural masculine
hands
χεῖραςcheiras
G5495
the hand (literally or figuratively (power) · noun — accusative plural feminine
them
αὐτοῖςautois
G846
the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — dative plural masculine
sent
ἀπέλυσαν.¶apelusan
G630
to free fully · verb — aorist active indicative, 3rd person plural
away
ἀπολύωapolýō
G630
to free fully
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Acts 6:6 Whom they set before the apostles: and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them.
Acts 14:26 And thence sailed to Antioch, from whence they had been recommended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled.
2 Timothy 2:2 And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also…
Acts 13:2 As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.
Acts 14:23 And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.
1 Timothy 4:14 Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.
Numbers 27:23 And he laid his hands upon him, and gave him a charge, as the LORD commanded by the hand of Moses.
Romans 10:15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and br…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Acts 13:1-3
We have here a divine warrant and commission to Barnabas and Saul to go and preach the gospel among the Gentiles, and their ordination to that service by the imposition of hands, with fasting and prayer.
I. Here is an account of the present state of the church at Antioch, which was planted, Act 11:20.
1. How well furnished it was with good ministers; there were there certain prophets and teachers (Act 13:1), men that were eminent for gifts, graces, and usefulness. Christ, when he ascended on high, gave some prophets and some teachers (Eph 4:11); these were both. Agabus seems to have been a prophet and not a teacher, and many were teachers who were not prophets; but those here mentioned were…
laid their hands on them--(See on Act 6:6) --"recommending them to the grace of God for the work which they had to fulfil" (Act 14:26).
sent them away--with the double call--of the Spirit first, and next of the Church. So clothed, their mission is thus described: "They being sent forth by the Holy Ghost." Have we not here for all time the true principle of appointment to sacred offices?
Adam Clarke on Acts 13:3
And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them -
1. They fasted: this was probably done by the whole Church.
2. They prayed, that God would bless and prosper them in their work.
3. They land hands upon them; thus solemnly appointing them to that particular work.
But was it by this fasting, praying, and imposition of hands that these men were qualified for this work? No. God had already called them to it, Act 13:2, and he who called them had qualified them. Both their call and their qualification came from God; but he chose that they should have also the sanction of that Church of which they had been members; and therefore he said, Separate me, etc. The ordination of elder…
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…
The Church Fathers
"And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away." Seest thou what a great thing fasting is? A great, yes a great good is fasting: it is circumscribed by no limits. When need was to ordain, then they fast: and to them while fasting, the Spirit spake.
The Lord, upon appearing to Paul from heaven, said, "Go to Damascus, and you shall be told that you are my chosen vessel," because [the Lord] had established him as the herald of the gospel to all the world. Then Ananias said to him, when he arrived in Damascus, "Brother Saul, see once more: the God of the fathers has preordained you."8 And lest you think this word [i.e., God] refers to Christ, he adds, "to do his will and to know his just one Jesus." [Paul], making this calling and preordaining a title, says, "Paul a slave of Jesus Christ, called apostle."10 Then he says something else regarding this calling, "Set aside for the gospel of God." The Acts of the Apostles taught that the Spirit directed the setting aside, for it says, "While the apostles were fasting and praying, the Holy Spirit said, 'Set aside for me Paul and Barnabas for the work to which I have called them.' " If the Lord, the God of the fathers, chose him whom he had preordained, while the Son called him forth, and the Spirit, using the operation of [the divine] nature, set the same one aside, how is there a difference of nature in the Trinity in which an identity of operation is found?
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Fast — The sole fast required by the law of Moses was that of the great Day of Atonement (q.v.), Lev. 23:26-32. It is called “the fast” (Acts 27:9). The only other mention of a periodical fast in the Old…
Simeon — Hearing. (1.) The second son of Jacob by Leah (Gen. 29:33). He was associated with Levi in the terrible act of vengeance against Hamor and the Shechemites (34:25, 26). He was detained by Joseph in…
Call · .PAUL — .PAUL
Fasting · Ordination of ministers — Ordination of ministers
Missionary Work By Ministers · Exemplified: Apostles — Exemplified: Apostles
Missions · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Prayer, Public · Exemplified: Teachers and Prophets, at Antioch — Exemplified: Teachers and Prophets, at Antioch
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Acts 13:1-3
1. And there were in the church which was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, and Simeon, called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, who had been brought up with Herod and Saul. 2. And as they ministered unto the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate to me Barnabas and Saul unto the work whereto I have called them. 3. Then after they had fasted and prayed, and laid the hands upon them, they let them go.
Here followeth an history, not only worthy to be remembered, but also very profitable to be known, how Paul was appointed the teacher of the Gentiles; for his calling was, as it were, a key whereby God opened to us the kingdom of heaven. We know that…
the men laid their hands on them: This solemn act was only done after more fasting and prayer; the Pastoral Epistles warn against laying hands on a person to appoint that person as a Christian leader without due care and diligence (1 Tim 5:22). At this point, Barnabas and Saul were sent . . . on their way as missionaries of the church at Antioch.
