In looking at the doctrine of the laying on of hands, let us first look to how it is practiced in the Bible.  What I would like to do in this part of our discussion is to cite and comment upon various passages in the Hebrew scriptures that look at the laying on of hands and that give us some idea as to what it looked like and in what contexts it appeared in.  This is by no means intended to be an exhaustive examination, but it should reveal at least the range of laying on of hands as a practice from the very beginning of the Bible, and therefore something that is worthy of considerable thought and reflection.  Once we understand the sort of purposes that the laying of hands serves, we can then get a sense of what ties together these various purposes together.

One of the first contexts in which the laying on of hands can be found in the Bible relates to the passing on of blessings.  We find this most notably with regards to the patriarchs.  First, let us look at the scene in Genesis 27:21-29:  “Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.”  So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, and he felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”  And he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands; so he blessed him.  Then he said, “Are you really my son Esau?”  He said, “I am.”  He said, “Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son’s game, so that my soul may bless you.” So he brought it near to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank.  Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come near now and kiss me, my son.”  And he came near and kissed him; and he smelled the smell of his clothing, and blessed him and said:  “Surely, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field which the Lord has blessed.  Therefore may God give you of the dew of heaven, of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine.  Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you.  Be master over your brethren, and let your mother’s sons bow down to you.  Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be those who bless you!””

We see this same dynamic of the importance of the laying on of hands when Jacob, as an elderly man, blesses the two young sons of Joseph in Egypt in Genesis 48:8-22:  “Then Israel saw Joseph’s sons, and said, “Who are these?”  Joseph said to his father, “They are my sons, whom God has given me in this place.”  And he said, “Please bring them to me, and I will bless them.”  Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age, so that he could not see. Then Joseph brought them near him, and he kissed them and embraced them.  And Israel said to Joseph, “I had not thought to see your face; but in fact, God has also shown me your offspring!”  So Joseph brought them from beside his knees, and he bowed down with his face to the earth.  And Joseph took them both, Ephraim with his right hand toward Israel’s left hand, and Manasseh with his left hand toward Israel’s right hand, and brought them near him.  Then Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim’s head, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh’s head, guiding his hands knowingly, for Manasseh was the firstborn.  And he blessed Joseph, and said:  “God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has fed me all my life long to this day, the Angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; let my name be named upon them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.”  Now when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him; so he took hold of his father’s hand to remove it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head.  And Joseph said to his father, “Not so, my father, for this one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head.”  But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great; but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations.”  So he blessed them that day, saying, “By you Israel will bless, saying, ‘May God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh!’ ” And thus he set Ephraim before Manasseh.  Then Israel said to Joseph, “Behold, I am dying, but God will be with you and bring you back to the land of your fathers.  Moreover I have given to you one portion above your brothers, which I took from the hand of the Amorite with my sword and my bow.””

Nor is this the only context in the Hebrew scriptures in which we see the laying on of hands.  Let us examine the case of the ordination of Saul as king in 1 Samuel 10:1-10:  “Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his head, and kissed him and said: “Is it not because the Lord has anointed you commander over His inheritance?  When you have departed from me today, you will find two men by Rachel’s tomb in the territory of Benjamin at Zelzah; and they will say to you, ‘The donkeys which you went to look for have been found. And now your father has ceased caring about the donkeys and is worrying about you, saying, “What shall I do about my son?”’  Then you shall go on forward from there and come to the terebinth tree of Tabor. There three men going up to God at Bethel will meet you, one carrying three young goats, another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a skin of wine.  And they will greet you and give you two loaves of bread, which you shall receive from their hands.  After that you shall come to the hill of God where the Philistine garrison is. And it will happen, when you have come there to the city, that you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with a stringed instrument, a tambourine, a flute, and a harp before them; and they will be prophesying.  Then the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man.  And let it be, when these signs come to you, that you do as the occasion demands; for God is with you.  You shall go down before me to Gilgal; and surely I will come down to you to offer burnt offerings and make sacrifices of peace offerings. Seven days you shall wait, till I come to you and show you what you should do.”  So it was, when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, that God gave him another heart; and all those signs came to pass that day.  When they came there to the hill, there was a group of prophets to meet him; then the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them.”  We see this anointing in brief when Samuel anointed David in 1 Samuel 16:11-13:  “And Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all the young men here?” Then he said, “There remains yet the youngest, and there he is, keeping the sheep.”  And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and bring him. For we will not sit down till he comes here.”  So he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, with bright eyes, and good-looking. And the Lord said, “Arise, anoint him; for this is the one!”  Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel arose and went to Ramah.”

Nor was this anointing limited to kings.  Aaron and his sons the priests were to be anointed this same way, as it is written in Exodus 29:1-9:  ““And this is what you shall do to them to hallow them for ministering to Me as priests: Take one young bull and two rams without blemish, and unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil (you shall make them of wheat flour).  You shall put them in one basket and bring them in the basket, with the bull and the two rams.  “And Aaron and his sons you shall bring to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and you shall wash them with water.  Then you shall take the garments, put the tunic on Aaron, and the robe of the ephod, the ephod, and the breastplate, and gird him with the intricately woven band of the ephod.  You shall put the turban on his head, and put the holy crown on the turban.  And you shall take the anointing oil, pour it on his head, and anoint him.  Then you shall bring his sons and put tunics on them.  And you shall gird them with sashes, Aaron and his sons, and put the hats on them. The priesthood shall be theirs for a perpetual statute. So you shall consecrate Aaron and his sons.”  There is, moreover after this a lengthy set of sacrifices that was to take place–ordination is something that the Bible takes very seriously and has from the very beginning.

Nor do these exhaust the purposes for which we find the laying on of hands in the scriptures.  In 2 Kings 4:29-37 we have a story of healing that involves the laying on of hands both symbolically through a staff and then quite literally:  “Then he said to Gehazi, “Get yourself ready, and take my staff in your hand, and be on your way. If you meet anyone, do not greet him; and if anyone greets you, do not answer him; but lay my staff on the face of the child.”  And the mother of the child said, “As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.” So he arose and followed her.  Now Gehazi went on ahead of them, and laid the staff on the face of the child; but there was neither voice nor hearing. Therefore he went back to meet him, and told him, saying, “The child has not awakened.”  When Elisha came into the house, there was the child, lying dead on his bed.  He went in therefore, shut the door behind the two of them, and prayed to the Lord.  And he went up and lay on the child, and put his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands; and he stretched himself out on the child, and the flesh of the child became warm.  He returned and walked back and forth in the house, and again went up and stretched himself out on him; then the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.  And he called Gehazi and said, “Call this Shunammite woman.” So he called her. And when she came in to him, he said, “Pick up your son.”  So she went in, fell at his feet, and bowed to the ground; then she picked up her son and went out.”

It should be admitted that not all occasions where hands are laid are necessarily pleasant ones.  In Leviticus 24:10-16, we read a story and then a law about blasphemy and its penalty:  “Now the son of an Israelite woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel; and this Israelite woman’s son and a man of Israel fought each other in the camp.  And the Israelite woman’s son blasphemed the name of the Lord and cursed; and so they brought him to Moses. (His mother’s name was Shelomith the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.)  Then they put him in custody, that the mind of the Lord might be shown to them.  And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,  “Take outside the camp him who has cursed; then let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him. “Then you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin.  And whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly stone him, the stranger as well as him who is born in the land. When he blasphemes the name of the Lord, he shall be put to death.”  We find the same negative overtones to the laying on of hands in Leviticus 16:21 concerning the ritual of the Azazel goat on the Day of Atonement:  “Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man.”  Through these examples, we may see that the laying on of hands was not always a good thing to receive, but it was a matter of considerable importance.