---
title: Acts 19:6
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/acts-19-6/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/acts-19-6.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Acts 19:6
testament: NT
section: Acts
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Acts 19:6

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> And when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.

## JW Usage

Together with Acts 8:14-18, this is the Watchtower's strongest proof-text for the view that tongues were conferred only through apostolic laying on of hands and therefore ceased with the apostles. "When Paul laid his hands on them, the holy spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying."

## Protestant Usage

Acts 19:6 is indeed a case where tongues come with apostolic mediation — nobody disputes that. The question is whether this is the *only* way gifts ever came. The rs book answers yes; Acts 10:44-48 answers no. At Cornelius's house, while Peter is still speaking and before he has laid hands on anyone, the Spirit falls on Gentiles who then speak in tongues. The rule Paul confirms at Ephesus (Acts 19:6) is the rule Peter's own report contradicts at Caesarea (Acts 10:46). A universal cessation rule cannot be built on two confirming narratives when a third, equally Lukan narrative falsifies it. That is why Reformed cessationists like B.B. Warfield do *not* argue from apostolic-laying-on-of-hands — they argue from the completion of revelation. The rs book is offering a cessationism no serious Protestant cessationist holds.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Tongues — The Watchtower Case Breaks on Acts 10](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/tongues-cessationism-rebuttal.md) — Acts 10:44-48 / 1 Corinthians 14:39 / 14:2 [Practice]