On the Holy Spirit (in Jerome's Latin translation) 48–63

But if you wish to understand this of the Jews who crucified the Lord and Saviour and therefore embittered the Holy Spirit, what is written, "he himself fought against them", must be referred to that understanding, that they were handed over to the Romans when the wrath of God came upon them to the end. For in the whole world and in all regions they alone are exiles from their homeland and wander in a foreign land, possessing neither their ancient city nor their own dwellings; they have received what they did to the prophets and to their Saviour. For since they were bloodthirsty and always gripped by insane fury, they not only killed the prophets and stoned those sent to them, but, going on to the summit of impiety, they betrayed and crucified the Lord and Saviour, who had deigned to come down to earth for the salvation of all; and therefore they were driven out of the city which they had stained with the blood of the prophets and of Christ. In this sense, then, we must understand that they were fought against by the Lord, not for a short time but for all the age to come, to the end of the world. For, as we said, fugitives and captives, they wander among all nations, possessing no city and no land of their own. Yet since he who fought against them is by nature kind and merciful, he gives them a place for repentance if they are willing to turn to better things. That is why it is said, "He remembered the days of the age." For remembering future times, he has opened the closed door to them in part, so that after the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, then all Israel (whoever is worthy of this name) may be saved. For although they burst out into such rashness as to kill him who had been sent for their sake, saying, "His blood be on us and on our children", yet God raised up from the earth him in whose heart he had remained three days and three nights, the shepherd of his sheep. For the passage runs: "Who brought up from the earth the shepherd of his sheep."

That the shepherd of the sheep of God, now described in the prophet's words, is the Lord, we learn more plainly in the Gospel, the Saviour himself testifying: "I am the good shepherd, and I lay down my life for my sheep." And again: "My sheep hear my voice." After all this the prophet says: "Where is he who put his Holy Spirit upon them?" He marvels from how great happiness to how great miseries they have come, and in a way he says: He who had redeemed them, who had put his Holy Spirit in them, dwelling with them, where is he now? Where has he gone? He has forsaken them, because they forsook him first and provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger. God had once put his Holy Spirit in them, while they were still good and strove to obey his precepts. For the Holy Spirit is put only into those who, abandoning vices, follow the choir of virtues and live according to them and by them in the faith of Christ. But if, as negligence gradually creeps in, they begin to slide toward worse things, they stir up against themselves the Holy Spirit who dwells in them, and turn to enmity him who had given him. Something like this the Apostle too says, writing to the Thessalonians: "For God did not call us to uncleanness but to sanctification."

"Therefore whoever despises", or, as the Greek has it better, "whoever transgresses", "transgresses not against man but against God, who has given his Holy Spirit in you." For in these words God, calling to sanctification through faith, that is, so that believers might become of the Holy Spirit, gave them the Holy Spirit. And as long as they kept God's commands, the Holy Spirit whom they received remained in them. But when they fell through slippery love and slid into uncleanness, they despised, or transgressed against, the Lord who had given them the Holy Spirit, so that they should not serve uncleanness but be sanctified. So those who have committed these things will pay the penalty, as despising not a man but God. And to know that the Holy Spirit who is given to believers is Lord, let us learn from the words of the prophet Isaiah himself, who presents the Lord saying to someone: "My Spirit is in you, and I have put my words in your mouth." The present passage shows that one who has received the Spirit of God possesses with him the words of God too, namely words of knowledge and wisdom. And in another place of the same prophet God says: "I have put my Spirit upon him." He, then, who put his Holy Spirit in them records that Moses was sanctified by his right hand, whether that famous man, the initiator into God's mysteries, of whom the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, "Moses my servant", or his Law, which is written in the Old Instrument. For I remember having often read that "Moses" is used for the law, as in the Apostle: "To this very day, when Moses is read." And Abraham says to the rich man placed in torment: "They have Moses and the prophets." And there it is clearly proved that "Moses" signifies not the man mentioned above but the law.

And what is the right hand of God that led Moses, if not our Lord and Saviour? For he is the right hand of the Father, through whom he saves and exalts and does mighty deeds, as is said of God elsewhere: "His right hand and his holy arm have saved for him." And again: "The right hand of the Lord has done mighty deeds; the right hand of the Lord has exalted me; I shall not die but live, and tell the works of the Lord." That this voice is uttered in the person of the Lord's Man, whom the only-begotten Son of God deigned to assume from the virgin, is clearly proved by the passage itself, since he is the right hand of God, as is written in the Acts of the Apostles: that he was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, born of the Virgin, the Holy Spirit coming upon her and the power of the Most High overshadowing her. Of him David prophesied in the Spirit that, rising from the dead, he was taken up into heaven, lifted up by the right hand of God. It is written there thus: "Foreseeing this, David spoke of the resurrection of Christ, that he was not abandoned in hell, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Being therefore exalted by the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this gift on us, which you see and hear; for David did not ascend into heaven." No one doubts that the Lord Jesus is the one exalted by the right hand of God and rising from hell, as he himself testified in the words of Scripture. He, then, who rose from the dead says: "I lay down and slept, and I rose, because the Lord raised me up."

He, then, taken up into heaven by the word of God, is proclaimed to have been lifted up by the right hand of God of which we spoke above, and to have received the promises of the Holy Spirit from the Father, and to have poured him out on believers, so that they spoke in the tongues of all peoples the great deeds of God. For the Lord's Man too received communion with the Holy Spirit, as is written in the Gospels: "Jesus, then, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan"; and in another place: "Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee." These things we must take, without any cavilling, in a sense of piety concerning the Lord's Man, who is the whole Christ, the one Jesus, Son of God: not that he is one and another, but that we speak of one and the same as if of another, according to the nature of God and of man; and because God the Word, the only-begotten Son of God, admits neither change nor increase, since he is the fullness of all good things.

Enough and more has been said on the prophet's testimony; let us go on to the rest, so that, as we know that the Father and the Son make men holy and good by communion with themselves, so it may be taught that the Holy Spirit too makes believers good and holy by participation in himself, and from this that he is of one substance with the Father and the Son. It is said to the Lord in the Psalms: "Your good Spirit will lead me into the right land." We know that in some copies it is written, "Your Holy Spirit." In Ezra, without any ambiguity, he is called the good Spirit: "You gave your good Spirit to make them understand." That the Father sanctifies, the Apostle writes, saying: "May the God of peace sanctify you completely." And the Saviour says: "Holy Father, sanctify them in the truth, because your word is truth", plainly meaning: in me, who am your Word and your truth, sanctify them by faith and fellowship with me. And elsewhere God is called good: "No one is good but God alone." We have also shown above that the Son sanctifies, Paul agreeing in these words: "For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one", meaning by him who sanctifies Christ, and by the sanctified those who can say: "Christ became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification." He is also called the Spirit of sanctification. Hence it is said to him: "And all the sanctified are under your hands, and they are under you." Our Lord Jesus Christ is good and was begotten of a good Father, and of him we read: "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good." Let those give thanks who either beg from him pardon for sins or thank his clemency for benefits bestowed. The Holy Spirit too sanctifies those he deigns to fill, as has already been shown above, when we showed that he can be shared and received by many at once. And now in the present testimony of Paul he is shown as the giver of sanctification, when he says: "But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose us as firstfruits for salvation, in the sanctification of the Holy Spirit and faith in the truth." For in this place too God's gifts are understood to be in the Spirit, since in the sanctification of the Spirit faith and truth are possessed together.

Since, then, we have said these things rightly and piously and according to the truth, the terms holiness and goodness are applied equally to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, as is the very name "Spirit". For the Father is called Spirit, as there: "God is Spirit"; and the Son is called Spirit: "The Lord," it says, "is the Spirit." But the Holy Spirit is always reckoned under the name of Holy Spirit; not that he is placed with the Father and the Son only because they share the name "Spirit", but because, being one nature, they possess one name too. But since the word "spirit" signifies many things, we must briefly list the things to which the name is applied. Wind is called spirit, as in Ezekiel: "The third part you shall scatter to the spirit", that is, to the wind. And if you choose to take literally what is written, "With a violent spirit you will shatter the ships of Tarshish", spirit there means nothing other than wind. Solomon too, among many other gifts, received this from God, that he should know the violence of spirits, showing that what he received here was nothing other than knowing the rushing blasts of the winds and the causes on which their nature depends. The soul too is called spirit, as in the Epistle of James: "As your body without the spirit is dead", and so on. Here most plainly spirit means nothing other than the soul. In this understanding Stephen too, calling his soul spirit, says: "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." And as to what is said in Ecclesiastes, "Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes downward?", it must be considered whether the souls of beasts too are called spirits. It is also said that there is another spirit in man, besides the soul and besides our spirit, of which Paul writes: "For who among men knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man that is in him?" For if anyone wishes to argue that the soul is signified here by spirit, who is the man whose thoughts and hidden things and secrets of the heart no one knows except his spirit? For it is utterly foolish to want to understand this of the body alone.

But if someone tries to slip in with clever fraud, claiming that these words are written of the Holy Spirit, he will cease to assert the lie if he considers the words themselves carefully. For it is written thus: "For who among men knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man that is in him? So also no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God." For as man is one thing and God another, so the spirit of man, which is in him, is distinguished from the Spirit of God, who is in him, whom we have often shown to be the Holy Spirit. And in another place too the same Apostle, distinguishing the Spirit of God from our spirit, says: "The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit", meaning that the Spirit of God, that is, the Holy Spirit, bears witness to our spirit, which we have just said is the spirit of man. To the Thessalonians also he says: "May your spirit, soul and body be kept whole." For as the soul is one thing and the body another, so the spirit is other than the soul, which in its own place is specifically named. He prayed that it might be kept whole with the soul and body, since it is incredible and blasphemous that the Apostle should pray that the Holy Spirit be kept whole, who can receive neither diminution nor increase. So, as we said, the Apostle's word testifies here about the human spirit.

The higher, rational powers, which Scripture usually calls angels and powers, are also called by the name of spirit, as there: "You who make your angels spirits"; and elsewhere: "Are they not all ministering spirits?" I think that what is written in the Acts of the Apostles also belongs to this sense: "The Spirit of the Lord caught up Philip, and the eunuch saw him no more", that is, an angel of the Lord, lifting Philip on high, carried him to another place. Other rational creatures too, sliding of their own will from good to evil, are called most wicked spirits and unclean spirits, as there: "When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man"; and in what follows: "He takes seven other spirits more wicked than himself." Demons too are called spirits in the Gospels. But this too should be noted: the opposing spirit is never signified by "spirit" simply, but with some addition, as "unclean spirit" and "spirit of a demon"; whereas those spirits that are holy are called simply spirits, without any addition.

It should be known too that the name "spirit" also means a man's will and the intention of his mind. For the Apostle, wanting a virgin to be holy not only in deed but in mind, that is, not only in body but in the inner movement of the heart, says: "That she may be holy in body and spirit", meaning the will by spirit and deeds by body. Consider whether what is written in Isaiah has the same meaning: "And those who err in spirit will know understanding." For those who by an error of judgment think some things good in place of others will receive understanding, so that their error may be corrected and they may choose what is right instead of what is perverse. See whether this too shows the same: "One strength of your spirit." And above all, the word "spirit" signifies in the holy Scriptures a higher and mystical understanding, as there: "The letter kills, but the spirit gives life", calling letter the simple narrative, plain according to the history, and spirit the holy and spiritual knowledge of what is read. In this sense fits also: "We are the circumcision, who serve the Lord in spirit and do not trust in the flesh." For those who do not cut the flesh by the letter but circumcise the heart by the spirit, removing from it everything superfluous that is close and friendly to generation, are truly circumcised in spirit, Jews in secret, and true Israelites in whom there is no guile. Passing beyond the shadows and images of the Old Testament, as true worshippers they worship the Father in spirit and truth: in spirit, because they have passed beyond bodily and lowly things; in truth, because, leaving types and shadows and patterns, they have come to the substance of truth itself; and, as we have already said, despising the lowly and bodily simplicity of the words, they have reached a spiritual knowledge of the law.

For the present, according to the capacity of our understanding, we have touched on how many things "spirit" signifies; in due time, if Christ grants it, we shall discuss what each signifies. Sometimes our Lord Jesus Christ, that is, the Son of God, is also called Spirit: "For the Spirit of wisdom is kind." And in another place: "The Lord is the Spirit", as we said before, where we also added, "God is Spirit", not by a mere sharing of the name but by a fellowship of nature and substance. For as it sometimes happens that things whose substance is different are called by a common word, and these are called homonyms (ὁμώνυμα), so with things whose nature and substance are the same, equality of nature is joined to the sharing of the word, and the discipline of the dialecticians calls these synonyms (συνώνυμα). Therefore the word "Spirit", and any other that is usually used in the Trinity, for example "holy", "good", and the like, of which we spoke a little before, is a synonym.

We have necessarily come round to these points so that, since the name "spirit" is scattered frequently in the divine Scriptures, we may not slip on the name but take each instance according to the variety of places and meanings. So, examining with all zeal and care where and how the word "Spirit" is used, let us crush the sophisms and deceitful snares of those who assert that the Holy Spirit is a creature. For reading in the prophet, "I am he who makes firm the thunder and creates spirit", through ignorance of the manifold use of the word in this matter they thought that the Holy Spirit was shown by this word, whereas here the name "spirit" means wind. And hearing in Zechariah that the Lord said that he is the one who creates the spirit of man within him, they thought that the Holy Spirit was signified in this chapter too, not noticing that the name "spirit" signifies the soul of man, or the spirit which we have already said is in man. So, as we said before, let us consider how each thing is said, lest through ignorance we fall into the pit of error. For in other matters an error arising from a shared word brings confusion and shame to the one who erred; but a slip into falsehood about heavenly and divine things leads to eternal punishment and Tartarus, especially when one who has once been deceived refuses to come to his senses but shamelessly defends his error. It was fitting, too, and the size of the volume required, that the discourse should come to an end.

But since a question arises against what we argued above, which we passed over then so as not to break the thread of the discourse and set an impious dispute in the midst of pious preaching, I think it necessary to answer it as proposed and leave to the reader's judgment what he thinks of it. When we argued above that no creature can fill the soul or mind of a man by substance, but only the Trinity, since the mind is filled by created things only by way of activity, error of will, or virtue, our question arose as if overturning that statement: that a created substance, which in the Scriptures is called Satan, enters into some and is said to fill the heart of some. For to the man who, while professing otherwise, kept back for himself half the price of the field he had sold, the apostle Peter said: "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart?" And the Saviour himself says of Judas that Satan entered into him. To this we shall reply afterwards. For now let us discuss the text "Why has Satan filled your heart?", how Satan fills someone's mind and the governing part of the heart: not by entering into him and into his mind, and, so to speak, going in through the entrance of the heart, since this power belongs to the Trinity alone; but as a cunning, wicked, false, and fraudulent deceiver, he draws the human soul into the feelings of wickedness through the thoughts and incitements to vices of which he himself is full. So Elymas the magician too, a son of the devil, subsisting in malice and wickedness, full of all guile and malice, is written to have Satan as his father, this will having been turned in him, as it were, by habit of vice into nature. So the apostle Paul, rebuking and reproving him, says: "O you full of all iniquity and all guile, son of the devil, enemy of the righteousness of God." For because he was crafty and cunning, and had taken into himself every guile of deceit, he is called a son of the devil, since the devil filled his whole governing part with fraud, iniquity and all malice, deceiving and beguiling him so much that Satan himself was thought to have filled his soul and to dwell in the man whom he had prepared as his minister and servant for all the deceits of his perversity.

As to the second example we had set out, that Satan entered into Judas, this must be said. The devil, observing by certain movements and signs of action to which vices Judas's heart was most inclined, caught him open to the snares of avarice; and, having found the door of greed, he put into his mind how he might get the money he desired and, for the sake of gain, become the betrayer of his master and Saviour, exchanging piety for silver and receiving the price of the crime from the Pharisees and Jews. This occasion of thought gave Satan room to enter his heart and fill him with a most evil will. So he entered not by substance but by activity, since to enter into someone belongs to that nature alone which is shared by many. So the devil is not shareable; he is not creator but subsists as a creature. That is why, being alterable and changeable, he fell from holiness and virtue. We said above that what is shareable (μετοχικόν), that is, what is received by participation, is incorruptible and unchangeable, and consequently eternal; and that what can be changed has been made and has a beginning; and that what is incorruptible is everlasting both backward and forward. So the devil does not fill anyone, as some think, by participation in his nature or substance, nor does he become his indweller; but he is believed to dwell in the one he has filled through fraud, deception and malice. By this deceit he also entered the elders who turned to cruelty against Susanna, filling their souls with the fire of lust and the late pleasure of old age. For it is written: "And the two elders came, full of wicked thought." With these snares he also filled the whole people of the Jews, as the prophet says of it: "Woe, sinful nation, people full of sins, most wicked seed, lawless sons." For the devil is the wicked seed, and his sons, because of their iniquity and fullness, are called sinners. And if he is not received by participation of substance by those who are named his sons in the Scriptures (for it has often been shown that this is impossible in creatures), neither can anyone else receive him by participation of substance, but only by taking on a most deceitful will. For we have said that the activity and pursuit not only of good works but also of evil ones are found in creatures, but that only the nature and substance of the Trinity can enter into others.

The proposed question has, I think, been answered fully. But since it seems silly and foolish to answer fatuities and to want to refute whatever comes into the mouths of the impious (for it is not so much impiety to propose wicked things as to want to discuss wicked things with an opponent), I pass over what they usually throw out, crying out against us with sacrilegious audacity: "If the Holy Spirit is not created, he is either the brother of God the Father, or the uncle of the only-begotten Jesus Christ, or the son of Christ, or the grandson of God the Father, or himself the Son of God, and then the Lord Jesus Christ will no longer be only-begotten, since he has another brother." Wretched and pitiable men, not perceiving that about incorporeal and invisible things one may not argue according to the nature of corporeal and visible things! Brother or uncle, grandson or son, are names of bodies and words of human weakness. But the Trinity goes beyond all these designations. And whenever it falls under any of them, it is spoken of in our names and inadequate words, not according to its own nature. Since, then, holy Scripture says no more about the Trinity than that God is the Father of the Saviour and that the Son was begotten by the Father, we must think only what is written. And once it has been shown that the Holy Spirit is uncreated, we must consequently understand that he whose substance is not created is rightly joined with the Father and the Son.

Let these things suffice for the present, said according to the poverty of our speech, showing my fear at having dared to speak of the Holy Spirit. For whoever blasphemes against him will not be forgiven, neither in this age nor in the age to come; and no mercy or pardon will be reserved for one who has trampled on the Son of God and outraged the Spirit of his grace, in whom he was sanctified. This must be understood of God the Father too. For one who blasphemes against him and acts impiously will be tormented without pardon, with no one interceding with the Lord for him, as it is written: "But one who sins against the Lord God, who will pray for him?" And one who denies the Son before men will be denied by him before the Father and his angels. So, since no pardon is granted to those who blaspheme against the Trinity, every care and caution must be taken so that, discussing it even in a short and small treatise, we do not slip. Rather, if anyone wishes to read this volume, we ask that he cleanse himself from every evil work and from wicked thoughts, so that with an enlightened heart he may understand what is said, and, full of holiness and wisdom, forgive us wherever the result has not fulfilled our wish, and consider only with what intent each thing was said, not in what words it was expressed. For as we boldly claim for ourselves, according to our conscience, a sense of piety, so, as far as speaking of it is concerned, we simply confess that rhetorical charm and eloquence, in the sequence and texture of the discourse, are far from us. For our aim, discussing the holy Scriptures, was to understand what is written, and not to be unaware of the inexperience and measure of our speech.