---
title: Acts 8:14
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/acts-8-14/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/acts-8-14.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Acts 8:14
testament: NT
section: Acts
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Acts 8:14

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them.

## JW Usage

Reasoning From the Scriptures (pp. 400-405) leans on Acts 8:14-18 to argue that miraculous gifts — including tongues — were conferred only through apostolic laying on of hands, and therefore ceased when the last apostle died. Acts 8:14 sets up the key moment: the Jerusalem apostles send Peter and John to Samaria after the Samaritan disciples have believed but have not yet received the Spirit.

## Protestant Usage

Acts 8:14-17 is a real case of Spirit-reception via apostolic mediation — yes. And Acts 19:6 is another. The Watchtower builds a universal rule on these two examples: no apostles, no gifts. The rule breaks on Acts 10:44-48. At Cornelius's house the Spirit falls on the Gentile household while Peter is still speaking — before he has prayed for them, before he has laid hands on them, before he has even finished his sermon. Peter's own reaction is to say "Can anyone forbid water so that these might not be baptised who have received the holy spirit even as we have?" (NWT). He then invokes the same event at the Jerusalem council in Acts 15:8. Luke is the author of all three narratives. On his own telling, the rs book's universal rule — "gifts came only through apostolic hands" — has three data points: Acts 8 (apostles), Acts 19 (apostle), Acts 10 (no apostolic mediation, Spirit fell anyway). A rule that its own author contradicts is not a rule.

## 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]