F.F. Bruce 1910-1990

Bruce: Lukes Presentation of the Spirit in Acts.

Link above is the full text. F.F. Bruce’s last written work. Excerpt below.

According to Acts, then, the reception of the Spirit might take place (I) immediately after the exercise of faith in Christ and submission to baptism in his name, (2) with the imposition of apostolic hands, a considerable time after the exercise of faith and submission to baptism, (3) while hearers listened in faith to the preaching of the gospel, before baptism and (apparently) without the imposition of hands, or (4) after baptism in the name of Jesus and the imposition of apostolic hands, in the experience of some who had in a certain measure become disciples of Jesus already. Various elements in the process of Christian initiation are mentioned: faith in Jesus, baptism in his name, imposition of hands, and receiving of the Holy Spirit. Quite evidently, however, no one sequence of these elements is presented as normative rather than any other. One of them, the imposition of hands, is not always included. The onus of proof rests on those who maintain that it must always have taken place, even when it is not mentioned. Those who maintain this generally regard the imposition of hands in the apostolic age as the precedent for the order of confirmation, in which the Spirit is imparted to believers with the laying on of hands of one who stands in the apostolic succession. But this view requires too much reading into the biblical text; moreover, it is difficult to square it with the experience of Paul himself, who received the Spirit when the hands of Ananias, not an apostle, were laid on him (Acts 9:17). (Ananias was certainly the risen Lord’s authorized messenger to Paul, but he was not an apostle in Luke’s use of the term).