Various in the Scriptures is the imposition of hands, which by the Greeks is called χειροθεσία [cheirothesia]. For both God is sometimes said to impose hands (as 4 Kings 3, v. 15), and men impose [them]. And they [do so] either upon the heads of brute animals — of a calf, a ram, or a he-goat — as is explained in the rites of the sacrifices (Exod. 29:15; Lev. 1:4; ch. 3, vv. 2 & 8; ch. 4, vv. 4 & 15; ch. 8, v. 14; ch. 16; 2 Paralip. 29, v. 23); or upon men. And that indeed either upon themselves — as for the cause of grief (Thamar, 2 Kings [Sam.] 13, v. 19), [or] for the cause of silence, another [passage] (Eccles. 5, v. 14) — or upon others. And in our text indeed “to impose hands” signifies at one [place] to cast violent hands upon someone (4 Kings 11, v. 16); at another, also, to close the eyes of some dying [person] (Gen. 46, v. 4); but elsewhere, always to affect and adorn someone with some signal good. But this, again, [is] exceedingly manifold. For first, while the ancients prayed [for] good [things] for [their] children or grandchildren, they were wont to impose hands on them (Gen. 48, vv. 14 & 17); and the same [thing] I see the Jews still practicing today, when the little sons or little daughters ask a blessing from them. For, both hands being placed upon their heads, to the little son indeed they say: “God set thee as Ephraim and Manasseh”; but to the little daughter: “God set thee as Sara and Rebecca” — as R. Elias Levita also noted at the end of the booklet Shemot Devarim. And to this [head] can be referred that imposition of hands by which God well prayed [for] the little child (Matt. 19); and that which is applied, together with exorcisms, to those to be baptized — of which [see] Dionysius the Areopagite (Eccl. [Hierarchy]); Jerome (Council 4 of Carthage, canon 85); Cyprian (in the Acts of the Council of Carthage); St. Augustine (book On the Merits of Sins, ch. 26); Bellarmine (book 1, On Sacred Baptism, ch. 26). Secondly, by imposing hands also, men illustrious in the power of working miracles drove away various sicknesses of bodies (as 4 Kings 4, v. 34, Elisha); and in the New Testament, most frequently, CHRIST the Lord and the Apostles (Matt. 9:18; ch. 19:13 & 15; Mark 5, v. 23; ch. 6, v. 5; ch. 7:32; ch. 8:23 & 25; ch. 10, vv. 16, 18; Luke 4, v. 40; Acts 9, vv. 12 & 17; ch. 28, v. 8). Thirdly, that the sacrament of sacred Confirmation might be given, the imposition of hands used to be made—
(col. 194)
—[the imposition] of hands used to be made (Acts 8, vv. 12 & 17; ch. 19, v. 6) — so much so that some of the ancients called Confirmation itself “the imposition of hands” (St. Augustine, tract 6 on the Canon of John, and bk. 15 On the Trinity, ch. 26; St. Jerome, Against Lucifer; Emissenus [Eusebius of Emesa], Pentecost sermon; St. Cyprian, epistle 73; also the most ancient and most holy Pontiffs — Fabian, in [his] epistle; Urban, in [his] epistle; Eusebius, in epistle 3; Melchiades, in epistle 6; Leo, epistle 88; and the Councils — Elvira, canon 77; the Parisian, canon 45; the Arelatensian [Arles] 1, canon 8, and 2, canon 17; the Meldense [Meaux], On Consecration, dist. 5, canon “Episcopum”). Fourthly, another certain imposition of hands is discerned also in the Christian Church, when by the priests, over those whose past life they repent, prayers are conceived, and they [the penitents] are absolved — of which [see] St. Augustine (bk. 3 On Baptism, ch. 16, and bk. 5, chs. 20 & 23); Council of Carthage 4, canons 78 & 80; as Bellarmine shows (bk. 2 On Confirmation, ch. 7). Fifthly, another, likewise, is the imposition of hands in sacred ordination — either of deacons (Acts 6, v. 6), or of Priests and Bishops (Acts 13, v. 3; 1 Tim. 4, v. 14, and ch. 5, v. 22); and by the Greeks it is called χειροτονία [cheirotonia] — of which [see] more in Bellarmine (bk. 1 On the Sacrament of Order, ch. 9). Sixthly, finally, in the inauguration of a prince it was employed, in this very place (Num. 27), with the same ceremony of hands; and perhaps hither can be referred that [imposition] by which the Rabbis of the Jews are created, as the same R. Elias writes in Tishbi, and my former Rabbinus, ch. 21.