“Whom they set before the apostles: and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them.”
King James Version (KJV)
6:4 We will constantly attend to prayer, and to the ministry of the word - This is doubtless the proper business of a Christian bishop: to speak to God in prayer; to men in preaching his word, as an ambassador for Christ.
6:5 And they chose - It seems seven Hellenists, as their names show. And Nicholas a proselyte - To whom the proselytes would the more readily apply.
6:7 And the word of God grew - The hinderances being removed.
Ac 6:6 Whom they set before the apostles. There has been some discussion whether these seven were deacons, and whether this is the origin of the deacon's office in the church. They are never called deacons, but the Greek word "diakoneo", rendered "to serve" (Ac 6:2), is the verb form of which the Greek word "diakonos", "deacon", is the noun. The usual view is that they were deacons. And when they had prayed, they laid [their] hands on them. The scriptural method of inducting into office. The prayer and imposition of hands was an appeal to God to give the necessary gifts rather than their impartation. See Nu 27:23 Ge 48:13.