As in the instance of the Samaritans (8.15 ff.), the Holy Spirit comes after baptism and in conjunction with the laying on of hands. If one must specify where the hands were laid, this would be presumably “on the head.”

As in the case of Cornelius (10.44-46), the presence of the Holy Spirit is attested by the ecstatic speech of the believers: they spoke in strange tongues. This “speaking in strange tongues” is not to be understood essentially as “speaking foreign languages.” Rather, it means “speaking in a strange manner” by using unknown or unrecognized sounds. Since, however, such forms of ecstatic speech are well known in so many religions in various parts of the world, it is usually not difficult to find some acceptable expression in a receptor language.

(They) proclaimed God’s message is literally (they) “prophesied,” but “to prophesy” in the biblical sense of the word primarily means “to speak God’s message.” It is perhaps better to avoid the word “prophesy” in the present context, inasmuch as the English word specifically means “to foretell,” and that meaning seems not to be present here. To speak God’s word should not be translated so as to mean “to speak God’s words”; rather, it is “to speak the message which has come from God.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Acts of the Apostles. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .