6:6 These [seven candidates for the diaconate] they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands upon them. Taken for granted here rather than explained, 6:6 is the first of several references in the book of Acts to a ritual laying-on of hands,6 which is designated by the technical term χειροτονεῖν (14:23); the grammatical antecedent of “they laid their hands” in this verse, Bede explains, is not those who “set them before the apostles,” but “the apostles.”7