The Holy Spirit in the early church

The person, divinity, and work of the Holy Spirit, including the Spirit's gifts and indwelling. Part of Trinity.

Ascension of Isaiah 9.36Anonymous · late 1st–2nd century
Epistle of Barnabas 1.3Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · Seeing the Spirit poured out on them fills him with joy.
Odes of Solomon 36Anonymous · ca. 100–200
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 10.1.2 (40.2)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Sorrow is the worst spirit: it crushes the Holy Spirit, yet can also save.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 10.2.2 (41.2)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Sorrow after failure grieves the Holy Spirit.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 10.2.4 (41.4)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Both doubt and anger grieve the Spirit.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 10.2.5 (41.5)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Do not afflict the Holy Spirit within you.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 10.2.6 (41.6)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · God's Spirit cannot bear sorrow.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 5.6.5 (59.5)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · God made the pre-existent Holy Spirit dwell in chosen flesh, which served the Spirit purely.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 5.6.6 (59.6)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Because this flesh stayed pure, God made it a partner of the Holy Spirit.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 5.7.2 (60.2)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Defiling the flesh defiles the Spirit.
Dialogue with Trypho 87.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Trypho asks how a pre-existent God could need the gifts of the Spirit listed in Isa 11:1–3.
Dialogue with Trypho 87.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The gifts “rested” on Christ, meaning they ceased in Israel after him.
Dialogue with Trypho 87.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Each prophet had one or two of the Spirit's powers.
Oration to the Greeks 13Tatian · ca. 165–172 · The soul is not immortal by nature; united with the divine Spirit and knowing God it lives, but without the Spirit it dies and is raised only for punishment.
Diatessaron, section 46Tatian · ca. 160-180
To Autolycus 2.13Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · Theophilus explains the first days of creation: God began with heaven, not with foundations as a builder does; the Spirit moved over the waters to give life; the Word shone like a lamp.
Fragment 24Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 170–200
A Plea for the Christians 10Athenagoras · ca. 176–180 · Christians worship one God, together with his Son, the eternal Word, and the Holy Spirit, distinct in order yet one in power; there are also angels who serve God.
Fragment 17Clement of Alexandria · late 2nd–early 3rd century · Further fragments ascribed to Clement: on generation and death, the definition of spirit, the true temple of Christ's body, definitions from On Providence, short scattered sayings, and notes on 2 Cor 6:11–13 and on Paul's silence about his name in Hebrews.
Adumbrations on 1 Peter, paragraph 6Clement of Alexandria · original ca. 200; Latin translation 6th century · On 1 Pet 4:6–5:13: those who fall away are corrected so that they may repent; the Spirit of glory rests on sufferers; and Mark, Peter's follower, wrote his Gospel from Peter's preaching at Rome, as Luke wrote Acts and translated Hebrews.
Against Heresies 3.9.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · At the baptism the Spirit anointed the Word made flesh; Christ and Jesus are not two but one, as Isaiah foretold.
Against Heresies 3.12.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Peter's words at the choice of Matthias and at Pentecost show that the God of the prophets sent the promised Spirit.
Against Heresies 3.12.15Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The apostles' careful observance of the law, and Peter's hesitation with Cornelius, show that they knew the law came from the same God.
Against Heresies 3.17.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The apostles taught that the Holy Spirit, not a higher Christ, descended on Jesus, the same Spirit promised by the prophets and given to the church.
Against Heresies 3.17.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Gideon’s fleece foreshadows the Spirit passing from Israel to the whole earth; the Good Samaritan’s two denarii signify the image of the Father and the Son received through the Spirit.
Against Heresies 3.24.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The Church’s preaching is everywhere constant; the Spirit is given to the Church, and those outside it cut themselves off from life.
Against Heresies 5.8.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The Spirit we now receive is a pledge that already makes us cry “Abba, Father”; the full grace of the Spirit at the resurrection will make man in God’s image and likeness.
Against Heresies 5.9.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom” refers to those who lack the Spirit; man is flesh, soul, and Spirit, and without the Spirit he is mere flesh and blood.
Against Heresies 5.9.4Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The flesh does not inherit but is inherited by the Spirit, as a bride is taken by the bridegroom; without the Spirit, mere flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom.
Against Heresies 5.10.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The grafted wild olive shows that men who receive the Spirit by faith bear fruit and enter God’s paradise, while those who reject him remain mere flesh and blood.
Against Heresies 5.10.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · As grafting changes the fruit but not the wood, the Spirit changes man’s works but not his flesh; Paul rejects the lusts of the flesh, not its substance.
Against Heresies 5.11.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Paul names the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit, showing that “flesh and blood” means those who live by the flesh, while the name of Christ and the Spirit save.
Against Heresies 5.12.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The breath of life given to all is temporary, but the life-giving Spirit given to those who tread down earthly desires is everlasting; the natural comes first, then the spiritual.
Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching 42Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–200
Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching 59Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–200
Hortatory Address to the Greeks 32Anonymous · 2nd–3rd century (disputed) · Plato's virtue given "by divine allotment" is the Holy Spirit of the prophets under another name.
Excerpts from Theodotus 16.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The dove at Christ's baptism was seen as a body; the church says it was the Holy Spirit, while the Basilideans and Valentinians gave other interpretations.
Excerpts from Theodotus 24.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Clement answers that the Spirit at work in the church is the same Spirit who worked in the old covenant.
Miscellanies 5.13.88Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The Greeks said mind comes to humans by divine gift, but Christians say the Holy Spirit is breathed upon the believer, as Joel foretold, though not as a part of God.
Miscellanies 7.2.9Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Under the Son, the great High Priest, all creation is ranked in order; as a magnet draws a chain of iron rings, the Holy Spirit draws the virtuous upward, while the wicked fall away through their passions.
To the Martyrs 1Tertullian · ca. 197 · Tertullian encourages Christians imprisoned and awaiting martyrdom to feed their spirits, not to grieve the Holy Spirit, and to keep peace among themselves so that the devil finds no foothold.
On the Shows 15Tertullian · ca. 197–202 · The Holy Spirit is to be kept in peace, but every show stirs up eagerness, rivalry, anger, and grief, and Christians must not keep company with those who do such things.
On Baptism 4Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · The Spirit who hovered over the waters at creation sanctified the element, so that any water, when God is invoked, becomes a means of sanctification that cleanses both spirit and flesh.
On Baptism 6Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Baptism in water prepares for the Holy Spirit, as John prepared Christ's way; faith is sealed in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the church, the body of the three, is confessed with them.
On Baptism 8Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · After baptism comes the laying on of hands, by which the Holy Spirit descends like the dove on Christ and the dove after the flood, bringing God's peace to the newly baptized.
On Baptism 10Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · John's baptism was divine in commission but human in nature: a baptism of repentance preparing for the forgiveness and gift of the Spirit that come only through Christ.
On Patience 15Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · God rewards patience, which supports every virtue; Tertullian pictures Patience as a serene figure sitting on the throne of the gentle Holy Spirit, who cannot dwell in us without her.
Acts of Thomas 156Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Thomas prays to Christ, crucified, descended to Hades, and risen, to gather Vazan, Tertia, and Mnesara into his flock and make them temples of the Holy Spirit.
Didascalia 6.14 (English)Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 6.21Anonymous · first half of the third century · Christians must not keep the Levitical purity rules about menstruation, seminal flow, and intercourse, as though the Holy Spirit received in baptism left them, and so abstain from prayer, the eucharist, and the Scriptures.
Against Noetus 12Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–230 · The Word who spoke through the prophets is the Word made flesh, through whom the Father is known; the Son is believed and the Spirit worshipped.
On Proverbs, fragment 16Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–235 · On Prov 9:1: Wisdom's house is the new Jerusalem and Christ's holy flesh, and its seven pillars the sevenfold Spirit resting on him.
On the Holy Theophany 9Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–235 · The Spirit who moved over the waters at creation, inspired the prophets, came on Christ and the apostles, and established the church is sent to make the believer a child of God.
On the resurrection, to the Empress Mammaea, Syriac fragment IVHippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · Hippolytus interprets the treasure in earthen vessels as the knowledge and gift of the Spirit placed in our fragile flesh.
On the resurrection, to the Empress Mammaea, Syriac fragment VHippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · Hippolytus argues that the body that has received the Spirit does not finally perish, citing Rom 8:10–11.
Apostolic Tradition 4Hippolytus of Rome · early third century · After the kiss of peace the new bishop offers the eucharistic prayer: thanksgiving for Christ's incarnation and passion, the words of institution, the remembrance and offering, and the prayer for the Spirit.
Letters to Virgins 1.8.4Anonymous · 3rd century · Whoever has these vices is fleshly, without God’s Spirit.
Letters to Virgins 1.8.5Anonymous · 3rd century · Without Christ’s Spirit one is not his.
Letters to Virgins 1.9.1Anonymous · 3rd century · The spiritual man puts to death the deeds of the body.
Letters to Virgins 1.9.2Anonymous · 3rd century · God dwells in the man who bears the Spirit’s fruit.
Prescription against Heretics 22Tertullian · ca. 203 · Heretics say the apostles did not know everything, or did not teach everything to all; but Christ taught them fully and promised the Spirit would lead them into all truth, as Acts shows he did.
Commentary on Daniel 2.19Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · The youths encourage one another from Israel's history to endure; the Maccabean martyrs are adduced; only those who share the Spirit can despise death and follow Christ.
3 (continued)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · Nebuchadnezzar proclaims God's deeds and tells of his second dream, which only Daniel, taught by the Spirit, could interpret; the king calls him a man of God, as the Egyptians named Moses.
Commentary on Daniel 4.59Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · On Daniel 12:8–13: the things after the resurrection are sealed until the end; the chosen, the whitened and the tried by fire are those found worthy, cleansed by baptism and the Spirit, and proved through trials.
The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity 1Anonymous · 203 · The editor explains why new acts of the Spirit, such as recent martyrdoms and visions, should be written down and read like the ancient examples.
On the Flesh of Christ 19Tertullian · ca. 206–211 · John 1:13, read as “he was born … of God”, denies only that Christ was conceived by intercourse, not that he took flesh from Mary's womb; otherwise the Spirit entered the womb for nothing.
Against Marcion 3.17Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Christ's lowly appearance, his fullness of the Spirit, his meekness, and his work of preaching and healing all match Isaiah's prophecies of the Creator's Christ.
Against Marcion 4.28Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Christ's warnings against hypocrisy, his call to fear the one who can cast into Gehenna and to confess him before men, and his refusal to divide an inheritance all fit the Creator, who judges and who inspired Balaam and Moses.
On the Veiling of Virgins 1Tertullian · ca. 208–213 · Tertullian argues that virgins should be veiled from puberty because truth, not custom, must rule; the rule of faith never changes, but discipline is being brought to maturity by the Paraclete.
On the Soul 11Tertullian · ca. 210 · The soul may be called “spirit” because it breathes, but it is one simple substance; the Spirit of God or an evil spirit comes upon it later, as with Adam, Saul, and Judas.
On the Soul 41Tertullian · ca. 210 · The soul's inherited corruption overshadows but cannot extinguish the good God gave it; in the new birth of baptism it recovers its light and is wedded to the Holy Spirit.
On Flight in Persecution 14Tertullian · ca. 208–213 · Christians can meet safely by faith and prudence, at night or in small groups, rather than by bribery; the teaching is hard, but those who have received the Paraclete neither flee nor buy off persecution.
On Monogamy 2Tertullian · ca. 210–217 · Tertullian defends the New Prophecy's discipline: Jesus promised that the Spirit would later teach new and hard things, and a true revelation of the Paraclete can be recognized by its agreement with the rule of faith.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 46Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · In Romans 8 Paul condemns the works and mind of the flesh, not the flesh itself, and promises that God will raise our mortal bodies through his indwelling Spirit.
Against Praxeas 9Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · Father, Son, and Spirit are distinct but not divided: the Son is “another” by distinction, not separation; Christ himself calls the Paraclete “another Advocate.”
Against Praxeas 25Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · In John's Gospel Christ promises “another” Paraclete, calls the Father the vinedresser, and after the resurrection speaks of ascending “to my Father and your Father”; the Gospel itself says it was written so that we might believe that Jesus is the Son.
Against Praxeas 26Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · The other Gospels confirm that Christ is the Son: the angel announces the Spirit and power of the Most High coming upon Mary, and Jesus throughout speaks of the Father as another, ending with baptism into three names, by triple immersion.
On First Principles 1.3.1Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Philosophers know of God and even of his Word, but the Holy Spirit is known only from Scripture; the Father is known from creation, the Son from both Testaments.
On First Principles 1.3.2Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Scripture teaches the Spirit's existence and dignity: he is named with the Father and the Son in baptism, and blasphemy against him is unforgivable.
On First Principles 1.3.4Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Like the Son, the Holy Spirit reveals the Father; he did not come from ignorance to knowledge, but was always the Holy Spirit within the unity of the Trinity.
On First Principles 1.3.5Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Salvation requires the whole Trinity: the Father and the Son work in all things, but the Holy Spirit only in those who turn to the good and walk in Christ's ways.
On First Principles 1.3.7Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The Holy Spirit is given to the saints alone, yet this does not make him greater than the Father and the Son; the one power of the Trinity works in the different gifts.
On First Principles 1.3.8Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Rational beings receive existence from the Father, reason from the Word and holiness from the Spirit, and so advance toward the blessed life; but even the perfect may, through satiety, gradually slip.
On First Principles 2.7.1Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The same Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, was in the prophets and the apostles; not even the heretics who divide God and Christ claim two Holy Spirits.
On First Principles 2.7.3Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The Holy Spirit gives different gifts to each; some who misunderstood his title Paraclete compared him to base spirits and forbade marriage.
On First Principles 2.7.4Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The Spirit is called Paraclete from consolation, teaching what cannot be uttered, while the Saviour is called Paraclete as advocate with the Father.
On First Principles 4.2.7Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The Spirit revealed to the prophets and apostles the mysteries of God, of the incarnation, of rational creatures, of the world and of evil, and they wrote them down figuratively for those who seek with discipline.
Eclogae on Exodus-Judges, column 943Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on Judges: Jephthah's rash vow was his own, not the Spirit's; shibboleth; Samson's hair and Nazirite vow; ephod and teraphim; why Israel was first defeated by Benjamin.
Fragments on Luke, column 319Origen · ca. 220-254 · The angel came to Mary, not Joseph, and John leaped in the womb at her greeting, receiving the Spirit before his mother.
Fragments on Luke, column 357Origen · ca. 220-254 · God forgets no sparrow, though the soul that sinks to earthly things falls like one; the leaven hidden in three measures is the Holy Spirit given through Wisdom to body, soul and spirit.
Fragment on Matthew 7:10Origen · ca. 220-254 · The bread and fish of Matt 7:9–11 are read as kinds of knowledge, and the “good gifts” are identified with the Holy Spirit of Luke 11:13.
PG 12:1123 (Ps 3 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · On Ps 3:4 Origen asks why the prayer is reported after the thanksgiving, and explains the saints’ “cry” as the intense, intelligible voice of the soul, uttered by the Spirit and by the Savior himself.
PG 12:1213 (Ps 15 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · On Ps 16:5–7 (LXX 15:5–7): the Father is the portion of Christ the high priest, and the restored people his inheritance; the Lord as bread and cup; the “lines” as the measure of the receiver, not of the Spirit; the kidneys that instruct as the soul’s generative thoughts.
PG 12:1611 (Ps 118 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on Psalm 119:125–133 (LXX 118): understanding as the wage of God's servant, the time to act for the Lord, the wonderful testimonies searched out, and the Spirit drawn in through an open mouth.
PG 12:1645 (Ps 132–133 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on Psalm 133 (LXX 132) and Psalm 134 (LXX 133): the ointment as the Holy Spirit, Hermon and the tradition of the rebel angels, baptism as dew, and hands lifted in prayer.
Refutation of All Heresies 4.49.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The Swan, which sings at death, symbolizes the divine Spirit.
Fragment 18 on John 1:31Origen · ca. 226-254 · On John 1:31–33: John knew Christ only by revelation; his seeing the Spirit descend as a dove and the heavens open was an intellectual, not sensible, vision; the Spirit remained on Jesus alone because he alone was sinless; and divine things must be understood spiritually.
Fragment 34 on John 3:5Origen · ca. 226-254 · On John 3:5: to be born of water and Spirit is to be born from above; the water may be the Spirit itself, or cleansing teaching, but the body too is sanctified by the washing of regeneration, water made holy by invocation and joined to teaching and the Trinity; and ‘kingdom of God’ and ‘kingdom of heaven’ name the same reality.
Fragment 35 on John 3:8Origen · ca. 226-254 · On John 3:8: the Spirit visits only the virtuous; it is a willing, acting essence, not merely an activity of God, as the Scriptures show; one who reads Scripture without understanding hears only its voice.
Commentary on John 2.73Origen · ca. 230–248 · Origen asks whether the Holy Spirit came to be through the Word, since all things did.
Commentary on John 2.74Origen · ca. 230–248 · A third view denies that the Holy Spirit has its own being distinct from Father and Son.
Commentary on John 2.75Origen · ca. 230–248 · Origen holds three subsistences, Father, Son, and Spirit, with the Spirit first of all that came through the Word.
Commentary on John 2.76Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Spirit is not called Son, since only the Only-begotten is Son by nature; the Spirit receives its qualities through Christ.
Commentary on John 2.77Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Spirit supplies the “material” of God's gifts, worked by the Father and ministered by Christ.
Commentary on John 2.79Origen · ca. 230–248 · Origen raises the difficulty that Scripture sometimes seems to rank the Spirit above Christ.
Commentary on John 2.80Origen · ca. 230–248 · Sin against the Spirit is unforgivable not because the Spirit is greater than Christ, but because those who have received the Spirit have no excuse.
Commentary on John 2.83Origen · ca. 230–248 · Origen suggests the Spirit, unable itself to undertake the incarnation, joined the Father in sending the Son and promised to descend on him.
Commentary on John 2.84Origen · ca. 230–248 · At Jesus' baptism the Spirit descended like a dove and remained on him, as it had not remained on others.
Commentary on John 2.85Origen · ca. 230–248 · The sign given to John was the Spirit's remaining on Jesus, not only its descent.
Commentary on John 2.86Origen · ca. 230–248 · Origen concludes that the Spirit came to be through the Word and is lower than him.
Commentary on John 2.87Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Gospel according to the Hebrews calls the Holy Spirit Christ's mother, which raises a question.
Commentary on John 2.88Origen · ca. 230–248 · Whoever does the Father's will is Christ's mother, so the Spirit may be called his mother above all.
Commentary on John 2.127Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Spirit is taught by the Son, but whether it receives all the Son knows needs inquiry.
Commentary on John 2.217Origen · ca. 230–248 · The fifth testimony is John's witness to the Spirit's descent on Jesus.
Commentary on John 6.67Origen · ca. 230–248 · Scripture distinguishes spirit and power and speaks of a prophet's spirit resting on another, so John can be called Elijah because he had Elijah's spirit.
Commentary on John 6.68Origen · ca. 230–248 · As God is called God of Abraham, the Holy Spirit can be called the spirit of Elijah.
Commentary on John 6.125Origen · ca. 230–248 · Elijah did not himself pour the water on the altar, nor does Christ baptize with water; he baptizes with the Spirit and fire.
Commentary on John 6.162Origen · ca. 230–248 · In Matthew, John's water baptism prepares for Christ's spiritual baptism with the Holy Spirit and purifying fire.
Commentary on John 6.167Origen · ca. 230–248 · Acts shows the Spirit visibly coming on the baptized, so that Simon the magician tried to buy this grace with money.
Commentary on John 6.169Origen · ca. 230–248 · The washing of new birth belongs to Jesus' baptism, with renewal by the Spirit, though not all who receive the water receive the Spirit.
Commentary on John 6.220Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Jordan is the incarnate Word; the humanity he assumed was washed and received the Spirit permanently, so that he can baptize others with the Spirit.
Commentary on John 6.222Origen · ca. 230–248 · Someone may object that John distinguishes his water baptism from Christ's baptism with the Spirit.
Commentary on John 6.292Origen · ca. 230–248 · Christ ascended to be cleansed by the Father and came down with gifts: the tongues of fire and the protecting angels.
Commentary on John 10.105Origen · ca. 230–248 · The lamb must be roasted with the fire of the Spirit, as Jeremiah's words burned in him and the disciples' hearts burned on the road to Emmaus.
Commentary on John 10.213Origen · ca. 230–248 · Heracleon saw the whip, like linen and the shroud, as an image of the Holy Spirit's power.
Commentary on John 13.112Origen · ca. 230–248 · True worship is present now in the pledge of the Spirit and will be complete when the whole Spirit is received.
Commentary on John 13.140Origen · ca. 230–248 · God is called spirit because he gives true, divine life, as breath gives bodily life; the letter kills by separating the soul from God.
Commentary on John 13.143Origen · ca. 230–248 · God's Spirit dwells in the souls of the holy, as the promise says.
Commentary on John 20.263Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Holy Spirit does not speak from its own but from Christ.
Commentary on John 28.121Origen · ca. 230–248 · Does everyone who prophesies do so by the Holy Spirit?
Commentary on John 28.122Origen · ca. 230–248 · David feared losing the Spirit after sin, and Wisdom says the Spirit flees deceit.
Commentary on John 28.123Origen · ca. 230–248 · Can the Spirit dwell in sinners, since only by the Spirit can one call Jesus Lord?
Commentary on John 28.125Origen · ca. 230–248 · Sinning while the Spirit is present is blasphemy against the Spirit.
Commentary on John 28.126Origen · ca. 230–248 · Hebrews 6 also speaks of those who fall away after sharing in the Spirit.
Commentary on John 28.127Origen · ca. 230–248 · On the other hand, the Spirit was “not yet” given before Jesus' glorification.
Commentary on John 28.128Origen · ca. 230–248 · If not even the apostles had the Spirit before the resurrection, Caiaphas surely did not.
Commentary on John 28.151Origen · ca. 230–248 · The power behind Caiaphas aimed to provoke the council to kill Jesus, which the Holy Spirit would never do.
Commentary on John 28.153Origen · ca. 230–248 · If “it is expedient for us” were false, the Holy Spirit could not have spoken it.
Commentary on John 28.187Origen · ca. 230–248 · Which spirit spoke through Caiaphas, the Holy Spirit or another?
Commentary on John 32.79Origen · ca. 230–248 · How much more beauty comes to those whom Jesus baptizes wholly in the Spirit and fire.
Commentary on John 32.128Origen · ca. 230–248 · Whoever says “Jesus is Lord” in the Holy Spirit says it well.
Commentary on John 32.129Origen · ca. 230–248 · How could the apostles say it well before the Spirit was given?
Commentary on John 32.352Origen · ca. 230–248 · God is glorified also in the Holy Spirit and in all who see his glory.
Commentary on John 32.399Origen · ca. 230–248 · Without the Spirit, not yet given, they could not yet follow and confess Jesus.
On Prayer 1.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Things impossible for human nature, such as wisdom and knowledge of God's mind, become possible by God's grace through Christ and the Spirit.
On Prayer 2.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · Paul confessed he did not know how to pray as he ought, but the Spirit intercedes for the saints with groanings too deep for words.
On Prayer 2.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · The mind cannot pray rightly unless the Spirit prays first; so a disciple, though trained in Jewish prayer, asked Jesus to teach them to pray as John had.
On Prayer 28.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · Above all we owe God wholehearted love, Christ the price of our redemption, the Holy Spirit fruit that does not grieve him, our guardian angels their due, and the watching world a worthy performance.
Homily on Luke 4Origen · ca. 233–250 · The angel’s promise of John shows true greatness to be greatness of soul before God, and the spirit and power of Elijah in John still go before Christ’s coming into every believer’s soul.
Homily on Luke 9Origen · ca. 233–250 · Mary’s three-month stay trained the unborn John; Scripture speaks of a “fulfilled time” only at the births of the righteous; and Zechariah’s tongue, bound by unbelief, was loosed to prophesy.
Homily on Luke 15Origen · ca. 233–250 · Simeon, led by the Spirit, held the Christ who alone frees from the prison of the body, so that he could depart in peace; whoever comes to the church in the Spirit may likewise take Jesus in his arms.
Homily on Luke 24Origen · ca. 233–250 · Christ’s baptism with the Spirit is invisible, and his baptism with fire is a purifying river after death, given only to those who have kept their baptism of water and the Spirit.
Homily on Luke 26Origen · ca. 233–250 · Christ is spirit to those who turn to him and fire to sinners; his winnowing wind is temptation, which does not make but reveals chaff and wheat, so the foundations must be laid before persecution comes.
Homily on Luke 27Origen · ca. 233–250 · John preached more than is written and showed prophetic freedom in rebuking Herod; at Christ’s baptism heaven was opened for the remission of the world’s sins, and the Spirit in the form of a dove is the gentle, soaring Spirit given to believers.
Homily on Isaiah 1Origen · ca. 235–250 · Origen reads Uzziah's death as the death of sin's rule in the soul, interprets the two seraphim as the Son and the Holy Spirit covering God's beginning and end, and applies the cleansing of Isaiah's lips to the hearers.
Homily on Isaiah 3Origen · ca. 235–250 · Origen reads the seven women of Isa 4:1 as the sevenfold Spirit of Isa 11:2, reproached by false wisdom, which rested fully only on Jesus, the shoot of Jesse, whose name they take.
Homily on Isaiah 4Origen · ca. 235–250 · Origen returns to Isaiah's vision: God's beginning and end are hidden, the seraphim proclaim the threefold holiness, God's glory fills the earth through holy lives, and the burning coal from the altar is Christ's purifying word.
Address of Thanksgiving 15Gregory Thaumaturgus · ca. 238–245 · Origen taught them to heed God and the prophets above all men, and by the Spirit interpreted the dark places of Scripture; his school was a paradise.
Homilies on Exodus 5.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · God protects those who follow his law: the pillar of cloud stands between them and the pursuing Egyptians, and the faithful are taught not to doubt but to cry to God in the heart.
Homilies on Exodus 12.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · “The Lord is the Spirit” calls hearers to turn to the Word as spirit, so that the veil over the law is taken away, and true freedom comes only from the Son.
Homilies on Joshua 3.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The two and a half and nine and a half tribes show that the faithful under the law knew the Trinity only in part, and that perfection comes only with the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Homilies on Judges 3.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Othniel, filled with the Spirit, figures the angels sent to help the saved and is a model for the church's judges, who judge souls.
Homilies on Leviticus 1.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · As the Word was clothed in flesh, so Scripture is clothed in the letter; the spiritual sense of Leviticus must be sought, or the church would be bound to offer animal sacrifices.
Homilies on Leviticus 2.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The 'man' who offers animals is the rational person made in God's image; the 'soul' offering only flour is Paul's natural man; the first fruits point to Pentecost; it is the soul, not the spirit, that sins.
Homilies on Leviticus 6.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Moses, that is, the law, first washes and then clothes the priest; so those seeking baptism must first be purified by the law, and the priestly garments of incorruption replace Adam's tunics of skin.
Homilies on Numbers 3.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Like the manna, the word of God nourishes some and condemns others, and neither baptism nor the catechumenate guarantees possession of the Holy Spirit.
Homilies on Numbers 6.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · God's sharing of Moses' spirit with the seventy elders is like lighting many lamps from one, which loses nothing of its light.
Homilies on Numbers 6.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The Spirit rested on the seventy elders and the prophets only for a time and left them in sin, but he remained permanently on Christ alone, who committed no sin.
Homilies on Numbers 11.8Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Only the Trinity is holy by nature; creatures are “sanctified holy,” and the firstfruits we offer are the highest forms of the Spirit's fruits, such as loving God with the whole heart and rejoicing in God's word.
Homilies on Numbers 12.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The many wells and one spring of Proverbs signify the three persons and one substance of the Trinity; the soul's wells must be dug clear of earth, and the law gathers us to the well that is Christ.
Homilies on Numbers 15.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · At his hearers' request Origen turns to Balaam's prophecy and asks why Scripture both blames and praises him; he then notes how rarely Scripture says the Spirit “came upon” a prophet, and reads Balaam's coming from Mesopotamia and the eastern mountains as coming from the rivers of Babylon and the false light of the devil.
Homilies on Numbers 18.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Origen reads “I give you counsel” as “I make known to you God’s counsel,” comparing Paul’s “who has been his counsellor?”, which he applies to the Son and the Holy Spirit as sharers in the Father’s counsel.
Homilies on Numbers 23.8Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The feast of New Fruits is kept by sowing in the Spirit and reaping the fruit of the Spirit, beginning with joy.
Homilies on Numbers 26.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Since the narrator of the Pentateuch is the Holy Spirit, the account of Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh settling east of the Jordan must hold a meaning worthy of him that helps the reader escape the rich man’s torments; Origen asks his hearers to pray for its unveiling.
Homilies on Jeremiah 8.5Origen · ca. 240 · Lightning comes when two “clouds,” saints like Moses and Joshua or Paul and Silvanus, speak together; the “winds” from God's treasuries are the gifts of the Spirit stored in Christ.
Homilies on Jeremiah 15.4Origen · ca. 240 · Christ laments over human sin as man, in his human soul, and the angels lament with him; the “mother” he addresses may be Mary, or, according to the Gospel of the Hebrews, the Holy Spirit.
Homilies on Jeremiah 18.9Origen · ca. 240 · The three waters of the text, from the rock, from Lebanon, and driven by the wind, are Christ, the Father, and the Holy Spirit; Jews, heretics, and despisers of prophecy each fail to drink because they thirst for only one or two, and God never withdraws from us, but we from him.
On the Trinity 29Novatian · ca. 240–250 · The rule of faith next requires belief in the Holy Spirit, promised by the prophets and given by Christ, who adorns the church with gifts, gives the new birth in baptism, sanctifies believers, and guards the church's truth.
Commentary on the Song of Songs 0.74Origen · ca. 240–245 (Rufinus's translation ca. 410) · Perfect charity endures all things; the Song is the church's wedding song to Christ, and only the Son knows charity, which the Spirit reveals to worthy souls.
Commentary on the Song of Songs 1.100Origen · ca. 240–245 (Rufinus's translation ca. 410) · Christ's ointment is the Spirit, the oil of gladness; for the soul, the 'spices' are moral and natural philosophy, surpassed by the mystical understanding; Origen keeps the Septuagint's 'breasts' over a variant 'words'.
Commentary on the Song of Songs 3.173Origen · ca. 240–245 (Rufinus's translation ca. 410) · The dove-eyes signify spiritual understanding of Scripture, given by the Holy Spirit.
Commentary on the Song of Songs 3.224Origen · ca. 240–245 (Rufinus's translation ca. 410) · Those who receive the Spirit become doves; when the winter of vices passes the soul flowers, is pruned, hears hidden wisdom (the turtledove), and puts forth the first shoots of the Spirit's fruit.
Against Celsus 1.46Origen · ca. 248 · The Spirit who came on Jesus at his baptism still works among Christians in exorcisms, healings, prophecies, and sudden conversions; Isaiah foretold that the Father would send both Christ and the Spirit.
Against Celsus 1.48Origen · ca. 248 · The prophets' visions and Jesus' opened heavens are perceived by a spiritual "divine sense," not the bodily senses; and Jesus did not boast of his own baptismal vision, which John witnessed.
Against Celsus 6.70Origen · ca. 248 · God's Spirit is not a body but is shared with the worthy; Scripture calls God fire and spirit figuratively, and Jesus taught worship in spirit and truth rather than through bodily rites.
Against Celsus 7.51Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus ignores the distinction between the spirit given to all and the fuller gift of the Holy Spirit; Christians, seeing with the soul's eyes, pray to guide the blind to the Word and be light to the world.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 87Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · The disciples stumbled in the night because the Holy Spirit had not yet been given; those who have confessed Jesus in the Spirit have no excuse if they deny him, for they walk in the day; the scattered sheep were gathered by the risen Christ in Galilee.
Commentary on Matthew 12.42Origen · ca. 246–248 · God answers Peter’s three tents with a better tent, the bright cloud, a pattern of the resurrection; Origen suggests it may be the Father’s power, the Holy Spirit, the Saviour, or the shared light of Father, Son, and Spirit over the true disciples.
Commentary on Matthew 13.2Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen argues that John was “Elijah” not by the same soul but by Elijah's spirit and power, distinguishes spirit from soul, and asks who “did to him whatever they wished.”
Commentary on Matthew 13.18Origen · ca. 246–248 · As a further interpretation, offered “as doctrine or for exercise,” Origen suggests that the child Jesus set among the disciples is the Holy Spirit, who humbled himself for human salvation.
Commentary on Matthew 13.19Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen compares Mark and Luke on the dispute about greatness, reads the child Jesus took as the Holy Spirit, and discusses receiving the kingdom “as a child.”
Commentary on Matthew 15.30Origen · ca. 246–248 · Only one who has “the mind of Christ” and is taught by the Paraclete can explain this parable; Matthew knew its mysteries but deliberately did not write down its explanation.
Commentary on Romans 1.8Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Paul's greeting of grace and peace is a Spirit-given blessing like those of the patriarchs, received by the worthy; Origen notes how the greetings vary between the letters.
Commentary on Romans 6.11Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen explains that no condemnation remains for those wholly in Christ, a state reached gradually as each virtue claims its share, and that the Spirit of life and Christ set free with one freedom.
Commentary on Romans 6.13Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen identifies the Spirit of God with the Spirit of Christ, explains what it is to have the Spirit of Christ, how the Spirit is received in various ways and increased by merit, and how the virtues that Christ is show his Spirit in us.
Commentary on Romans 7.1Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Opening Book 7, Origen distinguishes the many senses of “spirit” in Scripture: the Holy Spirit, the spirit of servitude, the human spirit, angelic and evil spirits, and winds.
Commentary on Romans 7.2Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen contrasts the spirit of servitude, a pedagogue for beginners, with the Spirit of adoption by which the perfect cry “Abba, Father,” and explains being heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ through suffering with him.
Commentary on Romans 7.5Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen explains the groaning of those who have the “firstfruits of the Spirit,” offering three readings of the phrase (the Holy Spirit above ministering spirits, the apostles’ highest gifts, or the Spirit as firstfruits of many spirits), and teaches that adoption and redemption are now held in hope.
Commentary on Romans 7.6Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen explains how the Spirit helps our weakness in prayer, like a teacher stooping to a beginner, interceding with unutterable groanings, and warns against praying for worldly prosperity.
Commentary on Romans 10.1Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · To press converts from Judaism or Encratism to eat all foods as if salvation required it brings the faith into disrepute; the kingdom of God, where there is no food or drink, consists in righteousness, peace and joy in the Spirit, the virtues by which we serve Christ.
Commentary on Romans 10.9Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Paul calls on the 'God of hope' because the Gentiles hope in Christ, whose blood made peace in heaven and earth; fullness of peace belongs to those reconciled to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, believing in the fullness of the Trinity.
To Donatus 5Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 246 · God's Spirit is given without measure to those who remain faithful, and gives power to heal and to drive out demons.
Letter 57.4Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Martyrdom is a baptism in blood, but only one armed by the church's peace and the Eucharist is fit for it; and pastors who fail their sheep will answer to God, as Ezekiel warns.
Letter 58.5Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Believers should imitate Abel, Abraham, the three youths who refused Nebuchadnezzar's statue, and Daniel before Bel, trusting the Spirit to speak through them.
Letter 63.8Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Where Scripture names water alone it signifies baptism, received once; the cup of the Lord, drunk continually in the church, is another thing.
Letter 69.11Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Only those who have the Holy Spirit can forgive sins; since heretics lack the Spirit, converts from them must be baptized by the church.
Letter 70.3Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · One cannot accept heretical baptism in part: there is one baptism, one Spirit, one church founded on Peter, and whatever Christ's adversaries do is void.
Letter 74.5Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · If the name of Christ made heretical baptism valid, it would also give the Spirit; since the Spirit is not there, neither is baptism.
On Rebaptism 2Anonymous · ca. 250–258 (disputed) · Starting from John the Baptist's promise that Christ would baptize in the Holy Spirit, the writer distinguishes baptism in the Spirit alone, in Spirit and water, and in the Spirit through one's own blood.
On Rebaptism 3Anonymous · ca. 250–258 (disputed) · The writer grants that water and Spirit belong together in the church's normal practice, but points out that in the New Testament they are sometimes given separately, as with the Samaritans and the apostles.
On Rebaptism 4Anonymous · ca. 250–258 (disputed) · Many are baptized and die without the bishop's laying on of hands, like the Ethiopian eunuch, yet are counted complete believers; so the laying on of hands can likewise complete a baptism given in Christ's name outside the church.
On Rebaptism 5Anonymous · ca. 250–258 (disputed) · If only the full rite saved, bishops could never reach every dying believer; and Cornelius's household received the Spirit and forgiveness before water baptism, which then added the invocation of Jesus' name.
On Rebaptism 15Anonymous · ca. 250–258 (disputed) · From 1 John's three witnesses, the outpouring of the Spirit, and the Spirit's free action in the Old Testament, the writer concludes that the Spirit may precede, accompany, or follow water baptism, so a baptism in Jesus' name is to be completed, not repeated.
On Rebaptism 17Anonymous · ca. 250–258 (disputed) · The heretics' forged Preaching of Paul has Christ confess sin, go reluctantly to John's baptism, and see fire on the water; but the fire of which John spoke is the Holy Spirit, as at Pentecost.
On Rebaptism 18Anonymous · ca. 250–258 (disputed) · The Spirit, now invisible, was seen at Christ's baptism and at Pentecost; the Gospels show that faith cleanses the heart, the Spirit washes the soul, water the body, and martyrdom reaches salvation soonest.
To Fortunatus 10Cyprian of Carthage · 253 or 257 · Persecution is not to be feared, because God, who is greater than the devil, protects his servants and gives them words to speak before their judges.
Symposium 10.5Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · The devil counterfeited the fig and the vine, but under the reign of chastity the true vine (Christ) and fig (the Spirit) bear fruit, as Joel, Isaiah, Paul, and Micah show.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 1.6Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The seven stars in Christ's right hand are the sevenfold Spirit given to him by the Father.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 4.6Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The lightnings, voices, thunders, and torches from the throne signify Christ's coming, the Gospel, and the gift of the Spirit restored by the cross.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 8.3Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The eagle in mid-heaven is the Holy Spirit warning through the two prophets.
On the Making of the World 7Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The seven heavens correspond to the seven gifts of the Spirit on Christ, and the Word, the author of creation, bears these seven names in the seven days.
Fragment 3Lactantius · ca. 290-325 · Jerome reports that Lactantius, in his letters to Demetrianus, held that Scripture often calls the Holy Spirit the Father or the Son.
Fragment 4Lactantius · ca. 290-325 · Jerome reports that Lactantius, especially in his letters to Demetrianus, denied that the Holy Spirit is a distinct substance, yet defends reading his Divine Institutes.
Acta Archelai (Latin) 30Hegemonius · early to mid 4th century (Greek original) · Archelaus turns from the two natures to Manes's claim to be the Paraclete, and tells a parable of a man who comes to a sealed storehouse without keys or seals and is driven off as a thief.
Acta Archelai (Latin) 31Hegemonius · early to mid 4th century (Greek original) · Archelaus tells a parable of a rich man's steward and his will, and argues that a Paraclete who came three hundred years late, under Probus, would make Jesus a liar.
Acta Archelai (Latin) 38Hegemonius · early to mid 4th century (Greek original) · Archelaus distinguishes senses of "father," argues that Christ did not delay in sending the Paraclete but sent him at once to the apostles and above all to Paul, and cites Paul's letters as his testament.
Acta Archelai (Latin) 59Hegemonius · early to mid 4th century (Greek original) · Manes argues that the Son needed no mother or baptism, and that if Jesus was a real man the dove must be a real dove; Archelaus answers that a spirit dwells in a true man, as Manes himself claimed of the Paraclete.
Recognitions 3.11Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · In the bracketed passage, Peter teaches that the Son is the image of the unbegotten power, like the sun shown in a mirror, and that the Holy Spirit was made through the Son and is numbered after Father and Son.
Testament of Our Lord 1.1Anonymous · ca. 350–500
Apology for Origen 4.1Pamphilus of Caesarea · ca. 308–310 (Rufinus's Latin about 397) · Pamphilus quotes Origen on the Holy Spirit as unchangeable, never a creature, and always known within the Trinity; on the limits of every creature's knowledge of God; and on the spread of the faith as proof of Christ's divinity.
Preparation for the Gospel 7.15.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The Holy Spirit is third, like the moon, and supplies the beings below.
Preparation for the Gospel 7.15.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The Hebrew theologians honor the Holy Spirit as divine, who inspired them.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.20.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Scripture places the Holy Spirit third; Plato hints at a triad.
Demonstration of the Gospel 3.2.39Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Isaiah, like Moses, foretells the shoot from Jesse’s root on whom the Spirit rests.
Demonstration of the Gospel 3.7.23Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Jesus promised to be with the disciples, breathed the Spirit into them, and gave them power to heal.
Demonstration of the Gospel 4.15.19Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Only the Son reaches the Father directly; others receive good only through the Son, and the anointing symbolized the Spirit.
Demonstration of the Gospel 4.15.20Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Priests, prophets, and kings were to share the one Spirit on behalf of the whole nation.
Demonstration of the Gospel 4.16.31Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Thunder is the gospel, the wind is the Spirit given to the apostles, and dawn and mist are the light received or refused at Christ’s coming.
Demonstration of the Gospel, Book 5, preface 24Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Spirit inspired the prophets to teach the theology of Father and Son, true piety, and the coming Savior who would bring that piety to all nations.
Demonstration of the Gospel, Book 5, preface 27Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Holy Spirit enlightened the prophets’ minds, keeping them sober and aware.
Demonstration of the Gospel, Book 5, preface 30Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Spirit dwells only in virtuous souls like the Hebrew prophets, for purposes that benefit the whole world.
Demonstration of the Gospel 5.3.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Holy Spirit in the prophet calls the Son its own Lord, second after the Father, whom the Hebrews named with the unpronounced four-letter name.
Demonstration of the Gospel 7.1.97Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The one who “went in to the prophetess” is the Holy Spirit, fulfilled at the Annunciation.
Demonstration of the Gospel 9.6.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The river is the Spirit that waters God’s city and now flows into the church of the nations; to it are given the glory of Lebanon and Carmel.
Letter 1.9Alexander of Alexandria · ca. 319–324 · The Son is eternally from the Father and his exact image, yet only the Father is unbegotten; Alexander also confesses one Holy Spirit who inspired both Testaments.
Letter 1.5Antony the Great · before 356 · Antony describes how the Spirit teaches the mind to heal the soul's sicknesses, member by member, beginning with the eyes, the ears, and the tongue.
Letter 1.6Antony the Great · before 356 · Antony continues with the hands, the belly, sexual desire, and the feet, which the Spirit sanctifies, so that the body already shares something of the spiritual body of the resurrection.
Letter 3.6Antony the Great · before 356 · Antony ends his third letter by contrasting John's baptism with the Spirit's sanctification in Christ, urging purity for the baptism of Jesus and worship in spirit and truth.
On the Paschal Feast 3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337 · Eusebius argues that the spring season of the Passover, the season of creation itself, was also the season of Christ's saving Pascha, the sun of righteousness who brought the spring of the Spirit's gifts to all nations.
Book 2, lines 623–647Juvencus · ca. 330 · Blasphemy against the Spirit is unforgivable; men are judged by their words; the Son does the Father's works and receives all judgment.
Letter to Marcellinus 9Athanasius of Alexandria · uncertain, after 335 · The one Spirit inspires every book, so prophecy, law, history, and song appear in all of them; the Psalter in turn legislates, narrates, and prophesies.
Letter to Marcellinus 30Athanasius of Alexandria · uncertain, after 335 · Every human need is provided for in the Psalms; they should be used in their own words, not embellished, so that the saints and the Spirit who spoke in them may pray with us.
Demonstration 1.9Aphrahat · 337-345
Demonstration 6.12Aphrahat · 337-345
Demonstration 6.13Aphrahat · 337-345
Demonstration 6.14Aphrahat · 337-345
Demonstration 6.15Aphrahat · 337-345
Demonstration 6.16Aphrahat · 337-345
Demonstration 6.18Aphrahat · 337-345
Demonstration 21.21Aphrahat · 337-345
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.2.11Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Spirit existed before Pentecost; “create” there means “send,” as “create a clean heart” means “renew.”
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.4.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus argues the Spirit's relation to Father and Son shows an expanded monad.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.4.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus makes Father, Son and Spirit three names of one hypostasis.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.4.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Spirit, standing by God's throne, was sent on the Son and on prophets and apostles.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.4.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Spirit receiving from the Son shows that the Spirit is other than the Son.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.5.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Christ calls the Spirit “another Paraclete,” distinct from himself.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.5.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Christ breathed and then gave the Spirit, showing the giver is other than the gift.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.5.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Giver, gift and recipients are distinct.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.5.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Christ speaks of himself and the Father as “we,” distinct from the Spirit.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.5.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Christ speaks of the Spirit as another, who will teach.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.5.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Paraclete, about whom Christ taught, is other than he.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.5.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Spirit will teach what the disciples could not yet bear.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.5.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Spirit sent by Christ and bearing witness to him is other than he.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.5.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Paraclete comes only after Christ departs.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.5.11Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Father and Son both send the Spirit, the Son acting by the Father's will.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.5.14Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The breath gave a partial gift for forgiving sins; the full power came at Pentecost.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.5.21Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · “Paraclete” marks the Spirit off from angelic spirits; it alone belongs to the Trinity.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.6.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Eusebius holds that the Spirit sanctifies, while the Son, alone sharing the Father's divinity, made all things including the Spirit.
Oration I Against the Arians 46Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Athanasius turns to Ps 45:6–7 and argues that the Son is anointed with the Spirit as man, for our sake, since he is himself the giver of the Spirit.
Oration I Against the Arians 47Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Athanasius explains that Christ's anointing with the Spirit at the Jordan was for us, so that in him we too are washed, anointed, and sealed; the Word himself gives the Spirit.
Oration I Against the Arians 48Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Athanasius concludes that Christ gives as the Word and receives as man, so that what he receives, including his anointing and baptism, is for us.
Oration I Against the Arians 50Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Athanasius compares the anointing with Christ's saying that he casts out demons by the Spirit: both are said of him as man, so that we might receive the Spirit through his flesh.
Oration II Against the Arians 18Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Peter who calls Christ “made Lord” also says that he pours out the Spirit, which no creature can give; Athanasius reviews the Arian questions already refuted and turns to Prov 8:22.
Oration II Against the Arians 59Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Human beings are made by nature and become sons by grace, through receiving the Spirit of the true Son; the Word became flesh so that humanity could receive Godhead.
Oration III Against the Arians 15Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · The sun-and-radiance image shows one principle, not three gods as Greeks charge; it is the Arians, with a created Son and Spirit, who fall into polytheism, while the church confesses one Godhead in the Trinity.
Oration III Against the Arians 24Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · According to 1 John 4:13, 15, we are in God by participating in the Spirit, whom the Son gives; the Son is in the Father by nature and does not receive the Spirit to be joined to him.
Oration III Against the Arians 25Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Christ's prayer that believers be one “in us” asks the Father to give them the Spirit through the Son; our being in God is the Spirit's gift, which the sinner can lose, as Saul did.
Letter 8Ammonas · ca. 340-360 · Ammonas urges his disciples to ask for the Holy Spirit without doubting, promising that those who receive him live as though already in the kingdom and pray for others as Moses did.
Letter 9Ammonas · ca. 340-360 · Temptation follows every blessing, as with Jacob, Abraham and the saints; those who keep praying through the Spirit’s withdrawal receive a greater joy.
Letter 10Ammonas · ca. 340-360 · Temptations lead the soul upward through orders of light; the first, unruly fervour must give way to a calmer second fervour, recovered by self-rebuke and prayer.
Letter 13Ammonas · ca. 340-360 · The Spirit, given only to the pure, is the Gospel’s pearl and treasure; those who receive him are tested as Christ and Joseph were, and the four faces of Ezekiel’s creature picture the perfect soul.
Oration IV Against the Arians 21Athanasius of Alexandria · 4th century (disputed) · The author argues from the command to believe in the Son and from baptism into Father, Son, and Spirit that the Word is the Son, and refutes the view that Word and man together are the Son.
Oration IV Against the Arians 29Athanasius of Alexandria · 4th century (disputed) · The author argues that, as the Holy Spirit and the Paraclete are one though “Paraclete” is not in the Old Testament, so the Word and the Son are one; and he shows from Homer that “beloved” means “only son.”
Historical Fragments 1.3.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · Germinius confesses the judgment and the Holy Spirit given through the Son.
Catechetical Lecture 3.5Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Water cleanses the body and the Spirit seals the soul; both are needed, as Christ’s words and Cornelius’s baptism show.
Catechetical Lecture 4.15Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Christ will come again from heaven, not as the antichrists from the earth, and his kingdom has no end; the Holy Spirit, one and indivisible, is honored with the Father and the Son.
Catechetical Lecture 16.3Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · There is one Holy Spirit, the same in the Old and New Covenants, honoured with the Father and the Son and named with them in baptism.
Catechetical Lecture 16.4Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Father, Son and Spirit are confessed as one God without division or confusion; the Spirit who came at Pentecost in Jerusalem's upper church shares the glory of the Crucified.
Catechetical Lecture 16.11Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Turning to Scripture, Cyril explains Christ's sayings about living water as referring to the Holy Spirit.
Catechetical Lecture 16.12Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Spirit is called water because, like rain, he is one yet works in many ways in different people; but “spirit” in Scripture can also mean angels, the soul, wind, virtue or demons.
Catechetical Lecture 16.13Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Scripture calls angels, wind and Christ's teaching “spirit,” but the Holy Spirit is a living person who himself speaks.
Catechetical Lecture 16.14Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Spirit speaks, calls and sends, as Acts and Ezekiel show; he is the Church's sanctifier and teacher, whose teaching is Christ's own.
Catechetical Lecture 16.15Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Scripture qualifies the word “spirit” when it means sin, wind or demons; a demon's coming is violent and destructive, quite unlike the Holy Spirit's.
Catechetical Lecture 16.16Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Holy Spirit comes gently to save, heal and enlighten, giving the soul a vision of heavenly things as he did to the prophets.
Catechetical Lecture 16.20Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Spirit inspires virginity, poverty and victory over demons, and as Paraclete strengthens martyrs with the vision of paradise.
Catechetical Lecture 16.23Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Spirit rules, teaches and sanctifies all the angelic orders; no creature is his equal, for he searches the depths of God.
Catechetical Lecture 16.24Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Spirit who spoke in the prophets seals souls in baptism; the Father gives all to the Son, who shares it with the Spirit.
Catechetical Lecture 16.25Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The gifts of Father, Son and Spirit are one; the Spirit who came on the seventy elders and on the absent Eldad and Medad shows that the gift is his, not Moses'.
Catechetical Lecture 16.30Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Isaiah and Ezekiel speak often of the Spirit; the Spirit gave the young Daniel wisdom to rescue Susanna and to interpret Nebuchadnezzar's dream.
Catechetical Lecture 17.2Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The lectures on the Holy Spirit are divided, but the Spirit is one, and faith in him is undivided.
Catechetical Lecture 17.3Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The one Spirit, called by many names, lives, subsists, works, and sanctifies all rational creatures.
Catechetical Lecture 17.4Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The many names of the Spirit do not make many spirits; he is the Spirit of the Son and of Christ.
Catechetical Lecture 17.5Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Spirit has many names but is one, living and subsistent, the same in both Testaments; he came upon the Virgin Mary.
Catechetical Lecture 17.8Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · John baptized the Lord, on whom the Spirit descended as a dove, a figure of the pure church.
Catechetical Lecture 17.10Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Cyril gathers the Savior's own sayings about the Holy Spirit from the Gospels.
Catechetical Lecture 17.12Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Christ breathed the Spirit on the apostles after the resurrection, promising a fuller clothing with power at Pentecost.
Catechetical Lecture 17.13Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · At Pentecost, in Jerusalem itself, the Paraclete came down, the guardian and guide of the church.
Catechetical Lecture 17.19Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Peter explains the apostles' "drunkenness" as the sober drunkenness of the Spirit foretold by Joel, poured out at the third hour by the crucified Christ.
Catechetical Lecture 17.33Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Paul's letters show the Spirit as living and personal; the order of the creed's articles excludes Sabellius' error even though "spirit" is said of Father, Son, and Spirit alike.
Catechetical Lecture 17.35Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Candidates must come to baptism sincerely, looking not to the minister but to the Holy Spirit, who gives a seal the demons fear.
Catechetical Lecture 17.37Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Paraclete guards the faithful and gives gifts to those who do not grieve him; Cyril prays that the Spirit be sent on the candidates as at Pentecost.
Long recension, Ephesians 8Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius praises the Ephesians for refusing false teachers, contrasts the Spirit of truth with the spirit of error, and urges them to pray for and answer their opponents with gentleness.
Commentary on Matthew 15Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · After rebuking the Pharisees’ traditions, Jesus heals the Canaanite woman’s daughter, a figure of the proselytes and the nations; the feeding of the four thousand with seven loaves signifies the nations nourished by the sevenfold Spirit.
On the Trinity 1.36Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The work ends by teaching about the Holy Spirit, who must not be counted among creatures.
On the Trinity 2.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary surveys the errors of Sabellius, Ebion, and the Arians of his day, and how they also corrupt the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.
On the Trinity 2.29Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Holy Spirit exists, is given to believers, and belongs with the Father and the Son in the confession of faith, as Paul's letters show.
On the Trinity 2.30Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The words “holy spirit” are sometimes used of the Father or the Son, since each is spirit and holy.
On the Trinity 2.31Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Jesus' words “God is spirit” to the Samaritan woman teach that God is not confined to a place, and do not abolish the distinct name and gift of the Holy Spirit.
On the Trinity 2.32Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Paul's “the Lord is Spirit” distinguishes God's spiritual nature from the Spirit who belongs to him, the one Spirit who inspired the prophets and the apostles.
On the Trinity 2.33Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Christ promised the Spirit as Advocate to guide believers into all truth and enlighten their faith.
On the Trinity 2.34Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Paul describes the Spirit's work: making believers sons of God, enabling the confession of Jesus as Lord, and distributing gifts.
On the Trinity 8.19Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Unanimity follows from unity of nature; John 15:26 shows the Son sending from the Father the Spirit who proceeds from the Father.
On the Trinity 8.20Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Spirit, proceeding from the Father, receives from the Son because all that is the Father's is the Son's (John 16:12–15), which proves unity of nature.
On the Trinity 8.21Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Romans 8:9–11 calls the same indwelling Spirit both the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ.
On the Trinity 8.22Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary asks whether "Spirit of God" signifies the nature itself or a thing belonging to the nature.
On the Trinity 8.23Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · "Spirit of God" in Scripture can signify the Father or the Son, as Luke 4:18, Matt 12:18, and Matt 12:28 show.
On the Trinity 8.25Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · "Spirit of God" signifies the Father at Christ's anointing, the Son in casting out demons, and the Paraclete at Pentecost.
On the Trinity 8.26Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Since the one Spirit is both the Spirit of God and of Christ, the natures of Father and Son cannot differ.
On the Trinity 8.27Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · John 14:23 and Paul's teaching show one indwelling Spirit of God and of Christ, so Christ is God, one Spirit with God.
On the Trinity 8.28Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · 1 Cor 12:3 shows that calling Christ a creature, and Lord only by an adoptive name, is not speaking in the Holy Spirit.
On the Trinity 8.30Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The manifestation of the Spirit promised in Acts 1 is seen in the profitable gifts of 1 Cor 12.
On the Trinity 8.31Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · In 1 Cor 12:11 the one who works and divides the gifts is God, working through Christ, the gifts being given in the Holy Spirit.
On the Trinity 9.69Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · As the Spirit searches the depths of God (1 Cor 2:10–11), the Son, one with the Father, is not shut out from the Father's knowledge.
On the Trinity 12.55Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary will not call the Holy Spirit a creature either: the Spirit who searches God's depths and intercedes for us (1 Cor 2:10; Rom 8:26) is God's own.
On the Trinity 12.56Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · As the Spirit's working in rebirth is beyond knowing (John 3:7–8), Hilary will say of the Spirit only what Scripture says: that he is God's Spirit, not created.
On Not Sparing Those Who Sin against God 25Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer argues that the Arian denial of the true Son shows that the Spirit who spoke in the prophets and apostles is not in Constantius, calls him a wolf and a brood of vipers, and warns him from Jesus' words to Peter that those who take the sword perish by it.
On Not Sparing Those Who Sin against God 28Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer argues that, as the spirit of divination stirred up Philippi against Paul and Silas, so unclean spirits drive Constantius, who cannot have the Holy Spirit without faith in the Son, and that like Saul he persecutes Christ in his servants.
Letters to Serapion 1.1Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Writing from the desert, Athanasius answers Serapion’s report that some who left the Arians now call the Holy Spirit a creature, one of the ministering spirits.
Letters to Serapion 1.2Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Those who call the Spirit a creature divide the Triad into creator and creature, and so err about the Son and the Father too.
Letters to Serapion 1.3Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · The opponents base their view on Amos 4:13, “who creates spirit,” but the text says simply “spirit,” not the Holy Spirit, and they interpret Prov 8:22 more carefully.
Letters to Serapion 1.4Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Scripture never calls the Holy Spirit simply “spirit” without an addition such as “of God,” “Holy,” or the article, unless the context has already made the reference clear.
Letters to Serapion 1.5Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Old Testament passages always mark the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of God or of the Lord, or as Holy, never simply as “spirit.”
Letters to Serapion 1.6Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · In the New Testament too the Holy Spirit is always marked as the Spirit of God, of Christ, the Holy Spirit, or the Paraclete.
Letters to Serapion 1.7Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Scripture uses “spirit” of the human spirit and of the winds, so Amos 4:13 need not refer to the Holy Spirit.
Letters to Serapion 1.8Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · “Spirit” can also mean the spiritual sense of Scripture or a person’s disposition, as with Caleb; a created “spirit” is better taken as one of these or as wind.
Letters to Serapion 1.9Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Amos’s “creates spirit,” beside the announcing of Christ, refers to the renewal of the human spirit through the incarnation, not to the Holy Spirit, in whom we are renewed.
Letters to Serapion 1.10Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · The “thunder” of Amos is the gospel word; Athanasius names his opponents “Tropici” for their figurative exegesis, and rejects their claim from 1 Tim 5:21 that the Spirit is an angel.
Letters to Serapion 1.11Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Scripture never calls the Spirit an angel; Zechariah’s speaking angel is distinct from God’s Spirit, and baptism joins us to Father and Son in the Spirit, not in a creature.
Letters to Serapion 1.12Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Moses refused to be led by an angel and was given God’s own Spirit instead; so the Spirit is above creation and belongs to God’s Godhead.
Letters to Serapion 1.13Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Paul’s naming of angels after Christ no more makes the Spirit an angel than Exodus naming Moses after God makes Moses divine; the Triad is one and indivisible.
Letters to Serapion 1.19Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Scripture’s images—Father as fountain and light, Son as river and radiance—show the Spirit in the Son, in whom we are enlightened and from whom we drink.
Letters to Serapion 1.22Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · The Spirit is from God, sanctifies, renews, and deifies, and is the image of the Son; so he cannot be a creature, and to call him one slanders the Son and the Father too.
Letters to Serapion 1.25Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Unlike changeable creatures and angels, who can fall and are present only where sent, the Spirit is unchangeable and fills all things, and so is proper to God.
Letters to Serapion 1.27Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Creatures partake of the Spirit and can fall, while the Spirit is partaken of and is one, not many; so he is of the same essence as the Son and the Father.
Letters to Serapion 1.29Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · If the Spirit were a creature, baptism into the Triad would mix a creature into the Godhead, and the Tropici, like the Arians, would be worshiping the creature.
Letters to Serapion 1.30Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Baptism and faith are one because the Triad is one; calling the Spirit a creature would make two baptisms, while Paul shows that every gift comes from the Father through the Son in the Spirit.
Letters to Serapion 1.31Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · The Triad has one activity: the Father works through the Word in the Spirit, so that the prophets, the apostles, and Paul spoke in the Spirit with Christ speaking in them.
Letters to Serapion 1.32Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Scripture shows the Spirit to be proper to the Word and the Father’s Godhead; the Tropici, hated even by the Arians, are fighters against the Spirit.
Letters to Serapion 1.33Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Athanasius closes the letter: true worshipers worship the Father in Spirit and truth, and those who make the Spirit a creature risk the unpardonable sin.
Letters to Serapion 3.1Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Athanasius explains why his short third letter begins with the Son: the Spirit stands to the Son as the Son to the Father, so what shows the Son is not a creature shows the same of the Spirit.
Letters to Serapion 3.3Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · The Spirit is the anointing and seal that impresses Christ’s form, makes us God’s temple, and is one, not many; so he is not a creature.
Letters to Serapion 3.4Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · The Son is everywhere and is Creator; the Spirit likewise fills all things and creates, so neither is a creature.
Letters to Serapion 3.5Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · The Father creates through the Word in the Spirit, and the prophets and Paul spoke the Word’s message in the Spirit, so the Spirit is inseparable from the Son.
Letters to Serapion 3.6Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · The grace given in the Triad is one, as the annunciation and the baptismal command show; the Lord would not have ranked a creature with the Father.
Letters to Serapion 3.7Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · If the Spirit were a creature, the Triad would once have been a Dyad and grown by change; but the Triad is eternal, so the Spirit is not a creature.
Letters to Serapion 4.3Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Athanasius turns the opponents’ question (“Is the Spirit a son, and the Father a grandfather?”) back on them: Scripture names the Son and the Spirit as it does, and the Godhead of the Triad is one.
Letters to Serapion 4.4Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · The Spirit is the Spirit of the Son and proper to God; why one is called Son and the other Spirit is not ours to search out, as the names of creatures are fixed by God.
Letters to Serapion 4.6Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Among men a son becomes a father, but in God the Father is always Father, the Son always Son, and the Spirit always Holy Spirit; the names cannot be exchanged.
Letters to Serapion 4.8Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Athanasius turns hesitantly to Serapion’s question: why is blasphemy against the Son forgiven but not blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?
Letters to Serapion 4.9Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Origen and Theognostus held that blasphemy against the Spirit is sin after baptism, citing Heb 6:4–6.
Letters to Serapion 4.10Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Origen held that the Spirit dwells only in the baptized, so their sin is against him; Theognostus that rejecting the third “boundary,” the teaching on the Spirit given to the perfected, leaves no pardon.
Letters to Serapion 4.12Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Since the Pharisees addressed by Christ were not baptized, the unforgivable blasphemy cannot simply be sin after baptism; it was their blasphemy against the Godhead itself.
Letters to Serapion 4.17Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Both blasphemies were against Christ himself: the lesser against his humanity, the greater, unpardonable one against his divinity, not against a Spirit greater than the Son.
Letters 8, 9Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil explains his withdrawal to the Caesareans and defends the Trinity against Anomoean arguments from Scripture; a damaged second letter to Maximus judges Dionysius of Alexandria and accepts “like in essence” only with “without difference.”
Letter 38Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · A treatise in letter form distinguishing essence (what is common) from hypostasis (what is particular), applied to the Trinity, with the rainbow as an illustration and an explanation of Heb 1:3.
Letter 52Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil, reassured by Bosporius, explains to a community of canonesses why the Nicene homoousios is sound, against objections from the council against Paul of Samosata, and warns against ranking the Spirit above the Son or the Father.
Letter 105Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil praises Terentius's daughters for keeping the apostolic faith and sets out a short confession of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit against those who make the Son or Spirit a creature.
Letter 113Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil urges the presbyters of Tarsus to receive into communion all who accept the Nicene faith and do not call the Holy Spirit a creature, and to ask no more.
Letters 114, 115Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil asks the church at Tarsus to receive brothers who accept the Nicene faith and deny that the Spirit is a creature; the ref ends with the close of Basil's invective against Simplicia's eunuchs.
Letter 125Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · A statement of faith drawn up by Basil and signed by Eustathius of Sebasteia: the Nicene creed, read as distinguishing essence from hypostasis, with anathemas against those who call the Holy Spirit a creature.
Letters 140, 141Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil encourages a persecuted church to endure, sets out the Nicene creed as the only creed he accepts, and (Letter 141) tells Eusebius that illness and unwilling colleagues, not carelessness, have hindered him.
Letters 156, 157, 158, 159Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil tells Evagrius why he cannot settle the schism at Antioch himself; greets Antiochus twice; and answers Eupaterius and his daughter with the Nicene faith and a defence of the Holy Spirit's divinity.
Letter 226Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil writes to his own ascetics, breaking three years of silence about the slanders of Eustathius's party, exposing their shifts of allegiance, defending the Nicene homoousios and his teaching on the Holy Spirit, and urging them not to believe one-sided accusations.
Letter 243Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil appeals to the bishops of Italy and Gaul to make the persecution of the orthodox in the East known to the Western emperor or to send visitors, describing exiled bishops, closed churches, and congregations drawn into Arian communion, and sends the presbyter Dorotheus.
Letter 251Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil thanks the church of Evaesae for rejecting slanders against him, exposes the inconsistency of Eustathius and his party, who now court the very bishops whose deposition they once rejected, and states that his own faith, baptism, and doxology in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have never changed.
Against the Arians 11Phoebadius of Agen · ca. 357-358 · Phoebadius argues that the Son’s birth has been revealed through the Spirit and Scripture, and describes it as an eternal birth of whole from whole, one from one, true from true.
Against the Arians 20Phoebadius of Agen · ca. 357-358 · Phoebadius argues that Father and Son are one God in two persons, distinct but not divided, and that the Son is the Word, Wisdom, and Spirit of God, a real substance, not an empty sound.
Against Arius 1.8Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus reads John 7:37–39 to show the Spirit flowing from the Son as the Son from the Father's bosom, so that the three are homoousios, and adds further texts from John 8–10.
Against Arius 1.11Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus cites John 12 and 14 to show that Father and Son are two from one substance, and that the Spirit, “another Paraclete”, is the power of Christ.
Against Arius 1.12Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues from John 14 that the Spirit comes from Christ as Christ from God, speaking openly what Christ spoke in figures, so that the three are one and homoousion.
Against Arius 1.13Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus explains how the Son is both equal to the Father and lower, and how the Spirit, the hidden power of the Word, receives from Christ as Christ from the Father.
Against Arius 1.16Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus answers Valentinus from John 1:18 and argues from the sin against the Holy Spirit that the Spirit is God's, so that the three are of one substance with distinct subsistence by action.
Against Arius 1.17Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus cites Matthew 22 and Romans 2, 4 and 8 to show that Christ is God and that the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ and Christ are one substance in three.
Against Arius 1.18Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus reads Romans 11:36 of Father, Son and Spirit, admits that the generation is beyond understanding, and argues from 1 Corinthians 2 and 12 that the one Spirit is God, Christ and the Holy Spirit.
Against Arius 1.58Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus calls the Holy Spirit the “mother” of Jesus above and below, and reads Luke 1:35 as the Spirit and the Word together bringing about the incarnation for the liberation of soul and flesh.
Against Arius 3.8Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues that the Son is the one motion from the Father, life and knowledge, and that the Spirit exists as the knowledge within that one motion, receiving all from the Son as the Son from the Father.
Against Arius 3.9Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus concludes that Father, Son and Spirit are being, life and knowledge, one substance in three subsistences, and supports the Spirit's role as knowledge from Romans 8–9 and 1 Corinthians 2.
Against Arius 3.10Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus shows from Romans, Ephesians and John that Father, Son and Spirit are knowledge and life, one substance and one will, and that to believe in Christ, the Word of life, is to know God and have the Spirit.
Against Arius 3.12Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus explains that the soul is the image of the Word, of like substance, which the Word, as life, takes up in the incarnation and lays down in death, and identifies the Spirit who came after Christ's departure as the one motion of the Word.
Against Arius 3.14Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus reads John 14:15–26 to show that Christ and the Holy Spirit are two Paracletes but one motion, Christ the Spirit made open in the flesh and the Holy Spirit the same Spirit hidden.
Against Arius 3.15Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus explains Christ's “going to the Father” as the sanctifying of the risen humanity, and reads John 15:26 and 16:8–11 to show the Father, Son and Spirit joined in sending and in convicting the world.
Against Arius 3.16Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus explains the Spirit's work as giving knowledge and testimony, distinguishes baptismal sanctification from the gift of the Spirit for knowledge in Acts, and traces the apostles' witness to Christ's resurrection and ascension.
Against Arius 3.18Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus ends Book 3 by explaining how Father and Son are two as one, Christ and Spirit two in one motion, and the Trinity one God, recalling the Spirit's role in Christ's conception and baptism.
Against Arius 4.16Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus explains that God is being, spirit and light, and that living and understanding are one motion from that being, so that Christ is life and the Holy Spirit knowledge, receiving from Christ as Christ from the Father.
Against Arius 4.17Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus explains that life and understanding go forth from God's inner motion as Christ and the Spirit, and that Christ gives life through faith while the Spirit adds the knowledge that completes salvation.
Against Arius 4.18Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus argues from John 16, Matthew 28 and Sirach 1 that the Spirit, the wisdom and knowledge of God, completes the faith Christ sowed, and that Father, Son and Spirit are homoousia; he then raises the question of how inner life and understanding appear outwardly.
Against Arius 4.33Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus ends the work by restating that the pre-existent Word became flesh, that the Holy Spirit is the hidden, inward Christ, and that Father, Son and Spirit, each with his own existence, are one substance, a faith on which salvation rests.
On the Generation of the Divine Word 31Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus rejects the view that the Holy Spirit is a creature and affirms one divinity in three, distinct by their actions.
Hymns on the Trinity 1Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus's first hymn invokes Father, Son and Holy Spirit and sets out in verse his teaching that the Son is the motion and life of the Father's rest, one substance with him, and the Spirit the bond who returns all to the Father.
Hymns on the Trinity 3Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus's third hymn is a litany to the blessed Trinity, naming Father, Son and Spirit through triads such as substance, form and knowledge, love, grace and communion, and fountain, river and watering.
On the Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia 25Athanasius of Alexandria · 359 (additions 361) · The Dedication Council numbered ninety bishops; a few months later a fourth creed was sent to the emperor Constans in Gaul.
On the Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia 29Athanasius of Alexandria · 359 (additions 361) · After suppressing the Dated Creed, the Acacians issued a new creed at Seleucia rejecting both “of the same essence” and “of like essence” and condemning “unlike.”
Homilies on the Psalms 32.4Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · Basil explains that on earth God's mercy works without judgment, since Christ came to save, while at the judgment there will be no judgment without mercy.
Homilies on the Psalms 44.1Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · Basil explains the title of Psalm 44 (45): “those who will be changed” are human beings, changing in body and soul and finally at the resurrection; the song is for the beloved, Christ, known only by perfect love; and he reads verses 1–2 as the prophet's own word, inspired by the Spirit, the swift scribe.
Homilies on the Psalms 44.8Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · On Ps 45:7–8 Basil explains the anointing of Christ's flesh with the Holy Spirit, the oil of gladness given to him fully and not in part, his natural love of righteousness, which we too can learn, and the myrrh, stacte and cassia as signs of his burial.
Homilies on the Psalms 45.4Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · On Ps 46:4–5 Basil makes the quiet river that gladdens God's city the Holy Spirit, whom the righteous drink now in part and later in fullness; the city is the Church or the heavenly Jerusalem, the tabernacle is Christ's flesh, and the morning help is the rising of Christ, the Sun of righteousness, in the soul.
Moral Rules (Moralia) 34Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-370 · Basil's thirty-fourth rule, that each should set a good example, with Rules 35 (on blaspheming the Holy Spirit by crediting his fruit to the adversary) and 36 (on receiving those who keep the Lord's teaching), whose headings the scan lost.
On the Holy Spirit 1Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Because blasphemy against the Spirit is unforgivable and some speak rashly about him, Didymus sets out from Scripture what is to be believed about the Holy Spirit.
On the Holy Spirit 2Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The Holy Spirit is known only from Scripture, which speaks of him in both Testaments.
On the Holy Spirit 3Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The same Holy Spirit spoke in the prophets and the apostles, as the use of the Greek article shows.
On the Holy Spirit 4Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The Holy Spirit is not a creature: he gives sanctification and every good gift rather than receiving them, and he is the fullness of God's gifts.
On the Holy Spirit 5Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Only God and his Son are unchangeable and are received rather than receiving; the Holy Spirit, who seals and sanctifies others, belongs with the Father and the Son.
On the Holy Spirit 6Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Unlike any creature, the Holy Spirit is uncircumscribed: he dwelt at once in apostles scattered across the world, and he sanctifies angels as well as men.
On the Holy Spirit 7Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Angels are holy only by sharing in the Trinity, so they are of a different substance from the Holy Spirit who sanctifies them.
On the Holy Spirit 8Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Scripture speaks of people being filled with the Holy Spirit but never with a creature, which shows that the Spirit is not a creature.
On the Holy Spirit 9Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The one Holy Spirit is called by the names of many gifts according to his workings, as Stephen, full of the Spirit, had faith, wisdom, grace and power.
On the Holy Spirit 10Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Christ's promise that the Spirit will give the disciples words shows that wisdom and every spiritual blessing are contained in the Holy Spirit.
On the Holy Spirit 11Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The Spirit is the source of righteousness, peace and joy, is given and poured out by God on all flesh, and the language of pouring out fits only what is shared, not a creature.
On the Holy Spirit 12Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The language of pouring out marks the Spirit as received by many and therefore unchangeable and uncreated, whereas every creature, angels included, is changeable.
On the Holy Spirit 13Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Since angels are changeable creatures and ministering spirits, while the Holy Spirit is distributed by God's will to all, the Spirit is neither a corporeal nor an incorporeal creature.
On the Holy Spirit 14Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The opponents' proof-text "I create spirit" (Amos 4:13) refers in context to the wind, among thunder, dawn and mist, not to the Holy Spirit.
On the Holy Spirit 15Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Amos's "I create spirit" means the wind, created continually, and its sequel refutes heretics who separate the Creator from the Father of Christ; the Greek article also marks the Holy Spirit off from created spirit.
On the Holy Spirit 17Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Communion with the Holy Spirit is communion with the Father and the Son; one working shows one substance.
On the Holy Spirit 18Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Peter's words to Ananias show that lying to the Holy Spirit is lying to God, and Christ's promise of the Spirit's words and of his own wisdom shows the Spirit's oneness with the Son.
On the Holy Spirit 21Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The image of hand and finger shows unity, not measure; and as God alone is wise by nature, so the Spirit is wisdom itself, not wise by participation.
On the Holy Spirit 22Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The Spirit is wisdom and truth by nature, one in substance with the Son and the Father; as the Son is God's image, the Spirit is God's seal and distributes his gifts.
On the Holy Spirit 23Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Scripture shows the Spirit acting and speaking as a person, not a mere activity; his sending of the apostles and baptism in the threefold name show the Trinity's equality.
On the Holy Spirit 24Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Baptism without any one of the three names is incomplete; the Spirit appoints the church's leaders as Christ and the Father do, and like them he dwells in the heart, which no creature can.
On the Holy Spirit 25Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · As the temple of God the believer is indwelt by the Spirit as by the Father and the Son, which no creature can do; the Spirit, the Comforter, goes forth from the Father, not by change of place.
On the Holy Spirit 26Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The Spirit's going forth from the Father, like the Son's from God, is beyond place and speech; when the Son sends the Spirit, the Father sends him too.
On the Holy Spirit 27Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The Spirit is "another Paraclete" not by nature but by activity: Christ intercedes as high priest, the Spirit comforts, yet the Spirit too intercedes for the saints.
On the Holy Spirit 28Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The Son and the Father also comfort; where the Spirit is, the Son and the Father are, as the word of God came to the prophets who had the Spirit.
On the Holy Spirit 29Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The prophets spoke by the Holy Spirit; what Isaiah says the Lord spoke, Paul says the Holy Spirit spoke, so the Spirit is Lord and God.
On the Holy Spirit 30Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Only the Son comes in the Father's name, and the Spirit is sent in the Son's name; servants such as Moses and the prophets came in the name of God or the Lord.
On the Holy Spirit 31Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Sent in the Son's name, the Spirit shares the Son's divine character and makes adopted sons; he teaches by nature, not acquired skill, and with the power of the Most High formed Christ's body in the Virgin.
On the Holy Spirit 32Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The Spirit is creator with the Father and the Son, as the Psalm shows; Didymus then introduces Christ's words that the Spirit will guide into all truth.
On the Holy Spirit 33Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Christ left much untaught because the disciples could not bear it before the Spirit was given; the Spirit leads from the letter of the law to the truth of Scripture.
On the Holy Spirit 36Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Divine speaking and hearing mean one nature and will: as the Son does nothing apart from the Father, not as Sabellius confuses them, so the Spirit speaks nothing apart from the Son.
On the Holy Spirit 37Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The Spirit's receiving from the Son, like the Son's from the Father, signifies one substance, not a transfer of something lacking.
On the Holy Spirit 38Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Human words fit God only improperly; the Spirit glorifies the Son, the Son the Father and the Spirit, and all that the Father has belongs to the Son and so to the Spirit.
On the Holy Spirit 39Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Exposition of Rom 8:4-9: walking by the Spirit rather than the flesh means following God's commands, not escaping the body; the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ.
On the Holy Spirit 40Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The Spirit is called both the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of God; where he is, Christ and the Father are, which shows the Trinity's undivided substance.
On the Holy Spirit 42Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Exposition of Rom 8:13-17: those who put to death the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit are adopted as sons of God and heirs with Christ.
On the Holy Spirit 43Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The Spirit's grace was in the saints of both Testaments; Didymus introduces Isa 63:7-11, which speaks of Israel provoking God's Holy Spirit.
On the Holy Spirit 47Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Israel's unbelief embittered God's Holy Spirit, and indignation at sin is ascribed alike to the Spirit and to the Holy One of Israel.
On the Holy Spirit 50Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Whoever despises the Spirit given for sanctification despises God; the Spirit brings God's words, and "Moses" in Isaiah may mean either the man or the law.
On the Holy Spirit 52Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Christ, exalted by God's right hand, poured out the Spirit; the Spirit's filling of Jesus is said of his humanity, for the one Christ as God the Word admits no change or increase.
On the Holy Spirit 53Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Father, Son and Holy Spirit alike make believers good and holy, which shows the Spirit's one substance with them.
On the Holy Spirit 54Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The name "spirit" is shared by Father, Son and Holy Spirit as one nature, but in Scripture it also means wind, the soul, and the spirit within a man.
On the Holy Spirit 58Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The Son too is called Spirit; the name is used of the Persons of the Trinity as a synonym, signifying shared nature, not as a homonym.
Apology 25Eunomius of Cyzicus · ca. 360 · Eunomius teaches that the Holy Spirit is third in nature as well as in order, the first and greatest work of the Only-begotten, without Godhead or creative power but with power to sanctify and teach.
Apology 28Eunomius of Cyzicus · ca. 360 · A closing creed-like summary: one unbegotten God who by his will made the Son, and through the Son the Holy Spirit and all things.
Letter 115Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · The monk charges that Basil, unlike Gregory, does not openly call the Holy Spirit God; Gregory defends Basil's reserve as a prudent economy in dangerous times.
Letter 117Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · The end of Gregory's account of the dinner: the company rejected his defence of Basil's reserve; he asks Basil how far to go in calling the Spirit God.
Letter 191Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory rejects the Apollinarians' expectation of a restored Judaism and their graded Trinity (great, greater, greatest), confessing Father, Son and Spirit as one in nature, essence and power.
Letter 193Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory ends his first letter to Cledonius, mocking the Apollinarians' new psalms; in a second letter he declares he holds the faith of Nicaea, adding that the Holy Spirit is God.
Treatise on the Mysteries 1.14.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · The dove's three flights signify the Spirit's mission, the disciples' desertion, and his lasting indwelling in believers.
Tractates on the Psalms 64.14Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The river of God is the Holy Spirit poured into believers; the prepared food is the communion of Christ's holy body, which saves now and prepares for future fellowship with God.
Tractates on the Psalms 64.15Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The prophet prays that the streams of grace in the baptized be made to overflow; the first drops of the Spirit's gifts grow into streams and rivers.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.17.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The "mouth" opened to draw in the Spirit is the heart, which must be widened by faith to receive God's word, lest the evil one snatch it away.
Tractates on the Psalms 120.6Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · In verse 3 the Holy Spirit, the other Advocate, speaks through the prophet to bless the one who confesses God as his help.
Tractates on the Psalms 125.7Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · We are now only "as those comforted", having the Spirit, the other Comforter, while full comfort awaits the revelation of the sons of God.
Tractates on the Psalms 138.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · All prophecy comes from the Spirit, and Christ himself taught that the psalms speak of him; so this psalm is referred to Christ.
Sermon on Baptism 6Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian explains that Christians are born of Christ’s union with the church through the Spirit in baptism, chrism, and the bishop’s ministry, and so are renewed for eternal life.
Three Letters to Sympronianus 3.15Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian answers that mourning for sin is not limited to martyrs and that the unforgivable sin is ascribing the Spirit’s works to the devil, so every other sin may be forgiven the penitent.
Against the Manichees, Greek continuation of book 3, Lagarde p. 95Titus of Bostra · ca. 360s · Law and Gospel agree on Father, Son and Holy Spirit; the Manichees call the Old Testament harsh, citing Elisha’s bears and Elijah’s fire.
Commentary on Ephesians 1.13Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Paul applies the general teaching to the Ephesians, who heard the gospel, believed, and were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.
Commentary on Ephesians 1.14Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · The Holy Spirit is the pledge of the heavenly inheritance and of adoption, a gift of grace beyond merit whose glory belongs to the giver.
Commentary on Ephesians 1.18Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Victorinus distinguishes the spirit of wisdom, by which we understand divine things inwardly, from the spirit of revelation, which shows them as if from outside, and explains the hope of the calling and the inheritance of the sons.
Commentary on Ephesians 3.16Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Paul prays that the Ephesians be strengthened by the Spirit in the inner man, where Christ dwells through faith alone, and be rooted and grounded in love.
Commentary on Galatians 4.4Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · In the fullness of time the Father sent his eternal Son, born of a woman and made under the law in Israel, to redeem those under the law and make believers sons by adoption, and sent the Spirit of the Son, by whom, knowing the Father, they cry “Abba, Father.”
Tome to the Antiochenes 3Athanasius of Alexandria · 362 · The council sets the terms for reunion at Antioch: anathematize Arianism, confess the Nicene faith, and deny that the Holy Spirit is a creature.
Oration 12.1Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory gives himself wholly to the Spirit’s leading and asks why his aged father wanted him as a fellow shepherd, citing Aaron’s sons and Joshua.
Oration 21.33Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory tells of Julian’s death in Persia and how the emperor Jovian recalled Athanasius, who then confessed in writing one Godhead and essence of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Oration 23.1Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory rejects both tritheism and an Arian view that makes the Son and Spirit creatures, sets out the Trinity as one Godhead from one timeless principle, and rejoices in the reconciliation of the orthodox before their opponents.
Oration 25.12Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory describes the outrages committed by the Arians in Alexandria, Hero’s scourging and four years’ exile in the Oasis, and urges him to confute paganism and heresy, setting out the doctrine of Father, Son, and Spirit.
Oration 34.10Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory argues that no creaturely mark can be shown in the Son or the Spirit, who share all that belongs to the Father except causation and sonship, and calls on his opponents to abandon their sophistries.
Oration 34.11Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory says that he fears the threat against blasphemy of the Spirit, which consists in denying his Godhead, and refuses a baptism that falsifies any of the three.
Oration 34.13Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory gathers Scripture for the Trinity: the cherubim’s threefold holiness, David’s “in your light we see light,” John’s teaching on the Word and the other Paraclete, and Luke’s account of Ananias, who lied to the Spirit as to God.
Oration 37.17Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory urges the eunuchs to be chaste towards the Godhead: to call the Son or the Spirit a creature dishonours the whole Trinity, which, like one pearl, is damaged as a whole if any part is.
Oration 40.43Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · To subordinate the Son to the Father and the Spirit to the Son insults God; the Father is “greater” only as cause, not in nature; Gregory offers to bear the controversy himself while the baptized keep the unity of the three.
Oration 41.5Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Pentecost marks the end of the events of Christ's bodily life and the beginning of the work of the Spirit, who comes as Master, blowing where he wills.
Oration 41.6Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Those who call the Spirit a creature are wicked servants; those who call him God are lofty but must speak prudently to the weak, who may confess the Spirit's nature in other words.
Oration 41.11Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · The Holy Spirit is eternal, ranked with Father and Son, deifying and not deified, Lord and giver of gifts; he has all that the Son has except being begotten, as the Son has all the Father's except being unbegotten.
Oration 41.13Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · The Spirit worked in the angels, the patriarchs and prophets, and in the disciples in three stages, culminating at Pentecost, when he came essentially; Gregory explains “another Paraclete” and the tongues of fire, their division and sitting, and the upper room.
Oration 41.14Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · The Spirit, promised to abide for ever, creates with the Son both creation and the new birth, and transforms shepherds, goatherds, youths, fishermen, tax collectors and persecutors into prophets, apostles and evangelists.
Oration 43.58Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory praises Basil's writings (the Hexaemeron, the books against Eunomius, On the Holy Spirit, his homilies), defends his reserve in calling the Spirit God, compares him with the great figures of the Old and New Testaments, describes those who imitated his outward manner, and comes to his death.
Tractates 1.16.12Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno reconciles 'flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom' with the creed's resurrection of the flesh: the flesh is renewed in baptism by the seed of the Spirit and will rise glorious.
Against Eunomius 2.32Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil argues that works reveal a maker's power, not his essence, and that if divine power and essence coincide, Eunomius's argument from works proves the likeness, not the unlikeness, of Father, Son, and Spirit.
Against Eunomius 2.33Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil denounces Eunomius as the first to call the Holy Spirit a 'work,' a blasphemy he uses to argue the Son's inferiority.
Against Eunomius 2.34Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil concludes Book 2: making the Spirit a creature of the Son alone separates the Spirit from God and lowers the Son, contrary to Scripture, which calls the Spirit both God's and Christ's.
Against Eunomius 3.1Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil opens Book 3: Eunomius claims the saints taught that the Spirit is third in dignity and order and infers on his own that he is third in nature; Basil answers that rank does not imply a different nature, as the ranks of angels show.
Against Eunomius 3.4Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil turns from the Spirit's names to his activities: the Spirit makes the heavenly powers firm, perfects human beings, sends the Lord, and fills all things.
Against Eunomius 3.6Basil of Caesarea · ca. 364 · Basil answers Eunomius's dilemma (creature, offspring, or unbegotten) by confessing that the manner of the Spirit's being is beyond our knowledge, while giving him the names Scripture gives; he then explains that Amos 4:13 speaks of wind and John 1:3 does not number the Spirit among created things.
Hexaemeron 2.6Basil of Caesarea · ca. 370 · The Spirit of God over the waters is the Holy Spirit, who, as a Syrian interpreter explained, brooded over the waters like a bird to make them life-bearing.
Homilies 15.2Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Father, Son and Spirit share one uncreated nature: the Son is the perfect image, having by nature all the Father has; the Spirit is holy by nature, one and undivided, and works every gift in the Church.
Homilies 24.4Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · One essence without two gods: the Son is the Father's perfect image and radiance; the Spirit is a distinct person, inseparable from Father and Son, ranked with them in baptism, and not a creature, as the Pneumatomachians' sophisms claim.
Against Parmenian the Donatist 2.7Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · The Spirit cannot be confined to the Donatists; Parmenian's charge that Catholics make proselytes into sons of Gehenna rebounds on him, a foreigner brought from abroad to be a Donatist bishop.
Against Parmenian the Donatist 4.7Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · Ps 141:5 is Christ's prayer not to be anointed by any man, all men being sinners; the Father answered it at the Jordan, anointing him with the Spirit descending as a dove.
Against Parmenian the Donatist 5.5Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · Christ did not rebaptize those baptized by John; Paul's rebaptism of John's disciples at Ephesus concerned a different baptism, not a different minister, so it gives no warrant for repeating baptism in the Trinity.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 2:10Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The Spirit, who is from God and knows his depths, revealed through Paul to men and heavenly powers what the rulers did not know.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 2:11Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · As only a man's spirit knows his thoughts, only God's Spirit, who is also Christ's, knows and teaches the things of God.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 3:16Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Since believers are God's temple and the Spirit dwells in them, the Spirit is God.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 3:17Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The warning against violating God's temple prepares for the case of incest and, compared with 6:19, shows that the Holy Spirit is God.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 6:19Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Calling the body both God's temple and the Spirit's temple shows the Spirit is of the same substance as God.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 12:3Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Confessing Jesus as Lord is the Spirit's gift, not a human favour; charisms belong to church offices by God's grace, not human merit.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 12:5–6Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The same Spirit, Lord and God give the varied gifts, showing the one undivided work and nature of the Trinity.
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 1:21–22Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Father and Son together confirm, anoint, and seal believers with the Spirit; Paul delayed his visit to spare the Corinthians, as a helper of their joy, not a lord of their faith.
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 3:3Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Christians are a letter of Christ written by the Spirit on hearts, unlike the old law written on stone tablets that Moses broke.
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 3:17Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The law of the Spirit, given through Christ, gives freedom and asks only faith in things unseen.
Commentary on 2 Timothy 1:3–5Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul thanks God, whom he served like his Jewish forefathers, for Timothy’s inherited sincere faith, and urges him to rekindle the grace of his ordination, since God’s Spirit gives power, love, and sobriety, not fear.
Commentary on Galatians 3:2Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The Galatians received the Spirit, then visibly manifest in believers, by faith and not by the law, so submitting to circumcision was folly.
Commentary on Galatians 5:16Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The law of God and the law of sin contend within a person; walking by the Spirit means obeying God's law, which conscience approves, and fleeing the flesh's suggestions.
Commentary on Galatians 5:22–24Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The ten fruits of the Spirit correspond to the ten commandments; Christ's people crucify the flesh, meaning love of the world, not the body as such.
Commentary on Romans 5:5Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The Holy Spirit, given with mighty works, is the pledge that our hope will not be shamed; Christ’s death for the ungodly, when few would die even for the righteous or the good, shows his love.
Commentary on Romans 8:8–9Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Those who follow worldly wisdom cannot please God; the Spirit of God, who is also the Spirit of Christ, dwells only in those who do not follow the flesh in thought or deed.
Commentary on Romans 8:10Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The body of one whom the Holy Spirit leaves through sin is dead, but the Spirit, given to the baptized for justification, is life and cannot die.
Commentary on Romans 8:11Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Those in whom the Spirit dwells will be given life in their whole person, as Christ was raised.
Commentary on Romans 8:26Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The Spirit helps our ignorant prayers, preventing what would harm us, as Paul and James and John learned, and intercedes for us in the language of God.
Question 41, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The “spirit of God” over the waters (Gen 1:2) need not be the Holy Spirit, since Scripture often uses “my spirit” for the life-breath of humans and animals.
Question 41, section 2Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Only the Spirit who is from God and consubstantial with him is God; other spirits are creatures, and the spirit over the waters was a created spirit of a lower rank.
Question 49, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Christ, anointed and purified by the Spirit in the womb, needed no baptism, but was baptized to fulfill righteousness and show believers the gift of the Spirit they receive in baptism.
Question 59, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · In baptism the visible water cleanses the body, but the unseen Spirit cleanses the soul through faith.
Question 59, section 2Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Jesus used the wind, heard but not seen, as an earthly example to show Nicodemus that the Spirit’s work in baptism is heard and believed but not seen.
Question 89, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The Spirit convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment by proving, through Christ’s ascension and the release of souls from the underworld, that he came from God.
Question 91, section 3Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · If the power at work in Christ is God’s Son, it is Christ himself; otherwise there would be two sons, contrary to Scripture’s “only Son.”
Question 93, section 2Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Ambrosiaster distinguishes three gifts of the Spirit: the grace of ordination given when Christ breathed on the apostles, the general gift to all believers at Pentecost, and the temporary power of miracles given to the apostles.
Question 97, section 19Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · In 1 Cor 12:4–11 Paul names Spirit, Lord, and God in reverse order and ascribes one work to all three, showing their one divinity, while the Spirit distributes gifts by his own will, which is God’s.
Question 97, section 20Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The Spirit works all things as the finger of God, calls and appoints apostles and bishops, and is called God in the story of Ananias and in Paul’s language of the temple.
Question 102, section 13Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The unforgivable sin against the Holy Spirit was the knowing malice of those Jews who ascribed Christ’s works to the devil against their own conscience.
Question 106, section 9Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Ambrosiaster holds that the “spirit of God” over the waters in Gen 1:2 is not the Holy Spirit but a created spirit governing matter, called God’s because all things are God’s.
Question 112, section 18Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · David asks not only for pardon but to remain in God’s presence and keep the prophetic Spirit, which he did.
Question 123, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Ambrosiaster takes up the view of some that Adam was created with the Holy Spirit, lost it by sin, and that believers regain it.
Question 123, section 4Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · To have the Holy Spirit is beyond human nature, just as speech was beyond the nature of Balaam’s ass.
Question 123, section 11Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Christ not only restored human beings by washing away sin but improved them, giving the Spirit as the sign of adoption as God’s sons when the Trinity was revealed.
Question 125, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Ambrosiaster rejects Eusebius’s claim that the Holy Spirit does not know the mystery of Christ’s birth, since the Spirit shares God’s substance and so knows what is God’s.
Question 125, section 5Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The Spirit proceeds from the Father and receives from the Son, sharing their one substance, and so cannot be ignorant of the Son’s birth.
Question 125, section 9Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Paul says that only the Spirit of God knows what is in God, just as Christ says only the Son knows the Father; both statements express the shared divine nature.
Question 125, section 21Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Since salvation is given in the name of Father, Son, and Spirit, the Spirit must share their divinity; a creature could not be counted with the Creator.
Letter 21.23Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome interprets the first robe as the garment of the Holy Spirit lost by Adam.
Letter 21.24Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome interprets the ring as the seal of the Holy Spirit, restoring the likeness of Christ and marking works of righteousness.
Letter 78.14Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome interprets the twelfth station, Sinai, where the law was given on the fiftieth day, as a type of Pentecost and the gift of the Spirit.
Letter 98.13Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Theophilus rejects Origen's teaching that the Spirit and the Word act only in rational beings, citing the consecration of baptismal water and the eucharistic elements and Christ's miracles.
Letter 120.9Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome reconciles John 20:22 and the promise of Pentecost: the apostles first received the grace to forgive sins, then at Pentecost the fuller gifts of power and tongues; he rejects the Montanist claim and argues for the Spirit's divinity.
Letter 120.12Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome explains 1 Thess 5:23: the 'spirit' kept whole is the Spirit's gifts in us, the whole body is the church, and he adds a reading based on the threefold sense of Scripture.
Letter 124.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome lists the teachings on the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in book 1 of Origen’s On First Principles that he regards as heretical, especially the subordination of the Son and Spirit.
Synodal Letter 96Amphilochius of Iconium · ca. 376 · The synod upholds Nicaea, whose creed suffices on the Spirit for careful readers; the baptismal command of Matt 28:19 shows three hypostases and one nature against Sabellius, the Anomoeans, Arians and Pneumatomachi.
Synodal Letter 98Amphilochius of Iconium · ca. 376 · The Spirit is not a creature but is named in baptism; the synod confesses one principle and three hypostases, urges peace and unity, and requires the Spirit to be glorified with the Father and the Son.
On the Holy Spirit 4.6Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Scripture does not use "from which" only of matter, and the heretics' borrowed rules would make the Son and the Spirit alien in nature to the Father.
On the Holy Spirit 5.9Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Scripture uses "from whom" of the Son and of the Spirit, not only of the Father.
On the Holy Spirit 5.10Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Scripture uses "through whom" of the Father and of the Spirit as well as of the Son.
On the Holy Spirit 6.13Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · The opponents say the Son is "after" the Father and the Spirit "under" both, and so object to the doxology "with the Son."
On the Holy Spirit 9.22Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · The Scriptures' names for the Spirit lead the mind to a divine, infinite, and life-giving nature, present to all yet shared by each as by one alone.
On the Holy Spirit 9.23Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · The Spirit draws near to a soul cleansed of passions, shows it the image of God, and makes it spiritual, even to the point of becoming god by grace.
On the Holy Spirit 10.24Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · The Lord himself joined the Spirit with the Father and the Son in the baptismal command, so the church may rightly do the same.
On the Holy Spirit 11.27Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Those who deny the Spirit break the confession they made at baptism, and without the Spirit there is no true faith in the Son or the Father.
On the Holy Spirit 13.29Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Paul names the angels in a charge only as witnesses; the Spirit, as Lord of life, is named with the Father and the Son for a different reason.
On the Holy Spirit 13.30Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Preachers call heaven, earth, and even stones as witnesses, but the Spirit is ranked with God by nature, as the Lord himself ranked him.
On the Holy Spirit 15.35Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Baptism imitates Christ's death and burial: the water gives the image of death, and the Spirit gives new life.
On the Holy Spirit 15.36Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Through the Spirit come adoption and every blessing; martyrs baptised in their own blood show that the grace is the Spirit's, not the water's.
On the Holy Spirit 16.37Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Scripture shows the Spirit working together with the Father and the Son; Paul names the Spirit first only because we meet the giver of gifts first.
On the Holy Spirit 16.38Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · In the creation of the angels the Father is the principal cause, the Son the creator, and the Spirit the one who perfects and sanctifies them.
On the Holy Spirit 16.39Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · The Spirit was present in all God's saving work, above all in Christ's anointing, ministry, and resurrection gift, and he orders the church.
On the Holy Spirit 16.40Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · At the judgment the Spirit will be the reward of the righteous, and to be cut off from him will be the punishment of sinners.
On the Holy Spirit 17.43Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Counting does not change the nature of what is counted, and the baptismal formula ranks the Spirit with the Son as the Son is ranked with the Father.
On the Holy Spirit 18.45Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Father, Son, and Spirit are each one, yet there are not three gods, just as a king and his image are not two kings.
On the Holy Spirit 18.46Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · The Spirit proceeds from God as the breath of his mouth, not by begetting, and glorifies the Son as one of his own nature.
On the Holy Spirit 18.47Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · The knowledge of God runs from the Spirit through the Son to the Father, and God's gifts from the Father through the Son to the Spirit; counting them "first, second, third" would make three gods.
On the Holy Spirit 19.48Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · The Spirit shares the names of Father and Son—holy, good, right, Paraclete—which shows that glory is due to him.
On the Holy Spirit 19.49Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · The Spirit's workings in creation, in Christ's coming, in redemption and resurrection, and his commanding speech in Scripture show his greatness.
On the Holy Spirit 19.50Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · That the Spirit intercedes for us does not make him lower, since the Son also intercedes; Scripture speaks of him as one who can be grieved and provoked, and who knows the things of God.
On the Holy Spirit 20.51Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · The claim that the Spirit is neither slave nor master but free fails: among men slavery is not by nature, but every creature serves God, so the Spirit is either a creature and a slave or above creation and a sharer in God's rule.
On the Holy Spirit 21.52Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Scripture calls the Spirit "Lord": in Paul's prayers for the Thessalonians and in "the Lord is the Spirit," which Basil explains by the veil over the letter of the law.
On the Holy Spirit 22.53Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Like the Father and the Son, the Spirit is beyond the world's sight and is seen only by the pure in heart.
On the Holy Spirit 23.54Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Angels are in one place at a time, but the Spirit is everywhere at once; to recount his wonders is itself to glorify him.
On the Holy Spirit 24.55Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Scripture gives glory to men, Israel, the heavenly bodies, and even the ministry of the law; the Spirit, joined with the Godhead in faith, baptism, and every gift, cannot be denied glory with the Father and the Son.
On the Holy Spirit 24.56Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · The Spirit is good by nature, knows the depths of God, and gives life with the Father and the Son, so he cannot be ranked with creation.
On the Holy Spirit 24.57Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · The Spirit is God's gift, but a gift of life and power, as the Son too was given; to belittle him for this is ingratitude.
On the Holy Spirit 26.61Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · "In the Spirit" has many senses—as form in matter, sight in the eye, an art in the craftsman, reason in the soul, and parts in a whole—each showing the Spirit's work in believers.
On the Holy Spirit 26.63Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · In relation to the Father and the Son the Spirit is better said to be "with" them, since he coexists with them eternally; "in" fits his grace in us, and the doxology "in the Spirit" confesses our weakness.
On the Holy Spirit 27.68Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · "In" expresses the Spirit's grace toward us and "with" his fellowship with God; as we are baptized, so we believe, and as we believe, so we glorify.
On the Holy Spirit 28.69Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Scripture says believers live, reign, and are glorified "with Christ"; it is absurd to deny the Spirit the same "with".
On the Holy Spirit 28.70Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Men expect to be glorified with Christ yet deny the Spirit that glory; the present confusion foreshadows a failure of faith, and blasphemy against the Spirit is unforgivable.
On the Holy Spirit 29.72Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Basil cites earlier writers for the Spirit's place in the doxology: Dionysius of Alexandria's closing "with the Holy Spirit," Clement of Rome, Irenaeus, and Eusebius.
On the Holy Spirit 29.73Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Origen, Julius Africanus, the ancient lamp-lighting hymn, and the martyr Athenogenes also glorify the Spirit with the Father and the Son.
CreedAnonymous · ascribed to 381; first attested 451 · The creed associated with the Council of Constantinople (381), expanding the Nicene creed above all on the Holy Spirit.
Ancoratus 3.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Only by the Holy Spirit can anyone confess Jesus as Lord.
Ancoratus 3.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The second saying shows Christ's witness is God's; Father, Son, and Spirit are true.
Ancoratus 5.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Scripture speaks likewise of the Spirit as the Spirit of truth.
Ancoratus 5.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit works with the Son, leading and anointing him.
Ancoratus 5.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit speaks in the prophets; Amos's “creating spirit” refers to wind.
Ancoratus 6.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit is not a second son but proceeds from the Father and receives from the Son.
Ancoratus 7.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit is third in the baptismal name and seals the one faith and baptism.
Ancoratus 7.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Paul names Spirit, Lord, and God together in the gifts.
Ancoratus 8.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit is named neither Son nor Father.
Ancoratus 8.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Christ's words show the Spirit is of the same substance and uniquely named.
Ancoratus 8.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit is of Father and Son, not by composition.
Ancoratus 9.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Lying to the Spirit is lying to God.
Ancoratus 9.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Acts and Paul show that the Spirit is God.
Ancoratus 9.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The saints are God's temple because the Spirit dwells in them.
Ancoratus 11.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Only Father and Son know the Spirit.
Ancoratus 11.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Those who call the Spirit foreign to God ignore Paul.
Ancoratus 11.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Paul uses the human spirit as an example for God's Spirit.
Ancoratus 12.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Paul compares God's Spirit to the human spirit.
Ancoratus 12.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Paul avoids implying that God is composite.
Ancoratus 12.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit searches the depths of God.
Ancoratus 12.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit's searching is not the forbidden prying of which Sirach warns.
Ancoratus 12.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit does not search God as an outsider would.
Ancoratus 12.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The indwelling Spirit enables the saints to glorify God deeply, unlike the Arians.
Ancoratus 14.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Paul's words show the Spirit is not foreign to God.
Ancoratus 14.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The opponent of the Spirit harms only himself.
Ancoratus 15.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Some say the Spirit searches but does not comprehend God's depths.
Ancoratus 15.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit's searching implies full knowledge.
Ancoratus 15.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · As of the Father, so of the Spirit: searching means knowing.
Ancoratus 16.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Father and Spirit both search and know.
Ancoratus 16.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Father's knowledge is also the Son's and the Spirit's.
Ancoratus 16.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Prayer to Father and Son brings the Spirit, who shows the Son is not ignorant.
Ancoratus 66.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Those led by his Spirit live to God.
Ancoratus 66.11Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · We must put to death the flesh and receive the Spirit.
Ancoratus 66.12Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Christ and his Spirit dwell in the righteous.
Ancoratus 68.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Christ and the Spirit do the same works.
Ancoratus 68.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit and the Lord both direct the apostles.
Ancoratus 68.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit directs missions as Christ did.
Ancoratus 68.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit speaks as Christ speaks.
Ancoratus 68.12Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit dwells as Christ does.
Ancoratus 68.17Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Receiving the Spirit and having Christ within.
Ancoratus 68.18Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit's indwelling is God's indwelling.
Ancoratus 69.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Grieving the Spirit is provoking the Lord.
Ancoratus 69.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit speaks as the Lord Almighty.
Ancoratus 69.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit dwells as Father and Son do.
Ancoratus 69.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit rests on Christ and sends him.
Ancoratus 69.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · A catena of texts on the Spirit culminating in his deity.
Ancoratus 69.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Both the Spirit and Christ appoint ministers.
Ancoratus 70.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Son and Spirit create with the Father; the Spirit is worshiped.
Ancoratus 70.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit is Spirit from Spirit, giver of gifts.
Ancoratus 70.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit, like the Son, announces God's counsel.
Ancoratus 72.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Only the Holy Spirit is Spirit of Father and Son.
Ancoratus 72.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The one Spirit distributes many gifts.
Ancoratus 72.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit leads, blows where he wills, and gives new birth.
Ancoratus 72.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Christ's promises of the Paraclete.
Ancoratus 73.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Only Father and Son know the Spirit, and only the Spirit knows them.
Ancoratus 73.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · A litany of the Holy Spirit's titles.
Ancoratus 81.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Christ's going and the Spirit's coming show two hypostases.
Ancoratus 117.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit descends to purify the waters of baptism.
Ancoratus 117.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Two testimonies against the Pneumatomachi.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 9.2.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Samaritans deny the resurrection and the Holy Spirit.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 9.5.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Pentateuch speaks of the Holy Spirit given to the seventy elders.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 19.4.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Elxai describes the Holy Spirit as female.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 21.1.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Simon offered Peter money for the power to give the Spirit.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 21.2.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Simon called Helen the Holy Spirit.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 23.5.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Holy Spirit also shared in creation.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.31.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Spirit who spoke in Isaiah effected the conception.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 31.6.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Silence joined the second Ogdoad through her will, the Holy Spirit.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 31.13.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Holy Spirit made the aeons equal and taught them to give thanks.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 31.16.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Achamoth is called both Wisdom and Holy Spirit.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 31.30.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · And in the Holy Spirit, who foretold Christ's birth, passion, resurrection, ascension and return.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 44.4.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · 'Let us make' shows the Father speaking with the Son and the Spirit.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.11.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The true Paraclete glorifies Christ; Montanus glorifies himself.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.12.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · If she spoke as a human being, she was not in the Holy Spirit.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.12.11Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Holy Spirit speaks in Scripture in the persons of Father, Son, and Spirit, never against itself.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.12.12Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Holy Spirit would not disown its own words.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.12.13Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Spirit of the Father and the Son would not say 'Do not listen to me.'
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 51.35.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Alogi lack the Spirit and so misjudge the Spirit's words.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 51.35.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Rejecting the Spirit's words is blasphemy against the Spirit.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 54.2.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ foresaw those who would call the Spirit a creature.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 55.5.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Hieracas identifies Melchizedek with the interceding Holy Spirit.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 55.5.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Spirit never took flesh, so could not be Melchizedek.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 55.9.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul’s silence about the Spirit in 1 Cor 8:6 does not diminish the Trinity.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.4.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Spirit proceeds from the Father and receives from the Son.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 57.4.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Spirit proceeds from the Father and is the Spirit of Christ.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.8.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Peter shows the Spirit is God.
On Paradise 4Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · Eden means delight; its river is the Spirit watering the saints in the heavenly Jerusalem.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.5.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · The ordination prayer asks the Spirit for the new bishop, who then offers the sacrifice, is enthroned, greets the church and preaches.
On the Christian Faith 2.6Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose argues that the Son, like the Spirit, acts by free will, and that the Father and the Son have one will, as the healing of the leper and the giving of life show.
On the Christian Faith 2.9Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose argues that being sent does not make the Son less, since he is sent by the Father and by the Spirit and himself sends the Spirit, and that Christ speaks sometimes as God and sometimes as man, as in John 6–7 and 17.
On Noah 7Ambrose · ca. 378-384 · The Spirit does not remain in fleshly men but remained on Christ, who alone, born of a virgin, was free of the bonds of sin common to all since Adam.
On Noah 58Ambrose · ca. 378-384 · The 'spirit' that ended the flood was not wind but the creative power of the divine Spirit.
PreambleAnonymous · ca. 378–382 (traditionally 382) · Preface: the Roman council adds anathemas concerning the Holy Spirit, because some had begun to say that the Spirit was made through the Son.
Anathema 16Anonymous · ca. 378–382 (traditionally 382) · Anathema on whoever denies that the Holy Spirit is truly from the Father and true God.
On the Trinity 5Faustinus · ca. 380–384 · Acts 2:36, 'God made him Lord and Christ,' refers to Jesus according to the flesh, who became Lord of those who serve him and Christ, King and Priest, by the anointing of the Spirit, not to the making of the Word's substance.
On the Trinity 7Faustinus · ca. 380–384 · Faustinus briefly confesses the Holy Spirit as truly holy, of the same substance with the Father and the Son, not a creature, and explains his refusal of communion with heretics and those who compromised the faith.
Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 1Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Having defended the Son, Gregory turns to those who reject the Holy Spirit’s Godhead as unscriptural.
Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 4Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · If the Spirit were not eternal, the Godhead would once have been incomplete, and the Spirit could not deify us.
Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 8Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · The Spirit “proceeds” from the Father: neither unbegotten nor begotten, and therefore neither creature nor son, but God.
Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 9Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Unbegottenness, begetting, and procession distinguish Father, Son, and Spirit as three persons in one divine nature, against both Sabellius and the Arians.
Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 10Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · The Spirit is God and consubstantial with the Father; although no earthly analogy is adequate, nature shows beings of one substance that come to be in different ways.
Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 12Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Worship in the Spirit is worship of the Spirit, since to worship one of the three is to worship all three; and the Spirit was not made through the Son.
Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 26Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Revelation of the Trinity was gradual: the Old Testament showed the Father, the New the Son, and now the Spirit makes himself clearer, as Jesus himself revealed him step by step.
Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 27Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · The Spirit’s Godhead was among the things the disciples could not yet bear, which Jesus promised the Spirit would teach them later.
Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 28Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Gregory confesses one Godhead in Father, Son, and Spirit: since the Spirit deifies us in baptism, he must be worshipped as God.
Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 29Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Gregory gathers the many scriptural titles and works of the Holy Spirit, which show him to be God.
Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 30Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Scripture’s teaching on blasphemy against the Spirit and on Ananias and Sapphira shows that the Spirit is God; lowlier expressions refer him to the Father as source.
Not Three Gods, to Ablabius, part 3Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–385 · Divine names signify what God does or is not, not what he is; Gregory derives "Godhead" (θεότης) from "beholding" (θέα) and shows from Scripture that seeing belongs equally to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
On the Beatitudes 1231Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Homily 3 ends: those who accept grief now will have endless joy from the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. Homily 4 opens: as a purged stomach regains its appetite, so the soul must be cleansed of false fullness to hunger and thirst for righteousness.
On the Lord's Prayer 1159Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · The Spirit who cleanses from sin and Christ who made purification for sins have one activity and therefore one nature with the Father; against the Pneumatomachians, Gregory argues that the Spirit’s “coming” and cleansing do not make him inferior, since the Father too “comes” and forgives sins.
To Simplicius on Faith, part 3Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Being unbegotten or begotten makes no difference of nature, as Adam and Abel are both human; the Holy Spirit too is uncreated, giving what creation receives and sharing every divine name except Father and Son; Amos 4:13 speaks not of the Holy Spirit but of the spirit God creates in believers through the "thunder" of the gospel.
Chapter 7Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas explains the article on the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father, sanctifies all, distributes gifts, inspired prophets and apostles, sanctifies at baptism, and whose blasphemy is unforgivable.
Chapter 1Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas turns to the Holy Spirit, whom many, misled by their teachers, think a creature, and promises an account from the Scriptures alone.
Chapter 2Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas says that Nicaea simply confessed the Holy Spirit, and describes the dilemma (born or unborn?) by which the Macedonians try to force the conclusion that the Spirit is a creature.
Chapter 3Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas answers that Christ said only that the Spirit “proceeds from the Father,” and that John 1:3, spoken by the Spirit himself, concerns creatures, not the Spirit.
Chapter 4Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas argues from Col 1:16, Ps 119:91 and Paul’s calling the Spirit “Lord” and “Spirit of adoption” that the Spirit is not among created and serving things but is Lord and free.
Chapter 5Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas holds that the Spirit proceeds from the Father in a way no one can know, is a true person who sanctifies and is not sanctified, formed Christ’s body in Mary, rested on him at baptism, and forgives sins through the apostles.
Chapter 6Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas proposes to show from the Spirit’s works, as the Father and Son are known by theirs, that he works with them in everything, not in baptism only.
Chapter 16Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas explains that “Paraclete” (advocate, comforter) is a title of kindness shared by the Son and the Father, so it does not lessen the Spirit.
Chapter 17Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · From Ananias, who lied to the Spirit and so to God, and from the unforgivable blasphemy against the Spirit, Nicetas argues that the Spirit is God.
Chapter 18Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas sums up the Spirit’s works and concludes that he who is confessed in baptism with the Father and the Son must be worshipped with them.
Book of Heresies 67.1Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The Semi-Arians deny the Spirit's divinity.
Book of Heresies 67.2Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Christ joined the Spirit to the Father and Son in baptism.
Book of Heresies 67.3Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · John 1:3 does not imply that the Spirit was made.
Book of Heresies 67.5Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Blasphemy against the Spirit is unforgivable, which shows his divinity.
Book of Heresies 86.1Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Some refuse to eat with others and deny the Spirit's divinity.
Book of Heresies 152.1Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Some equate Adam's breath with the Spirit given to the apostles.
Book of Heresies 152.2Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The breath is common; the Spirit is given in baptism.
Book of Heresies 152.3Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The Spirit belongs to the faithful who grow in grace.
Book of Heresies 156.4Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The fire is the Spirit; the tongs signify Christ's body formed by divine power.
Book of Heresies 156.5Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The iron signifies the invincible word and the Spirit's power.
Canons on the Letters of Paul 21Priscillian · ca. 380–400 · The Spirit searches the depths of God; the spiritual judge all and are judged by none.
Canons on the Letters of Paul 30Priscillian · ca. 380–400 · The indwelling Spirit gives life to our mortal bodies.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 43.3Egeria · ca. 381-395 · On Sion they read of the coming of the Spirit.
Expositio fidei 3Eunomius of Cyzicus · 383 · Eunomius confesses the Holy Spirit as the first and greatest work of the Only-begotten, subordinate to him, and lists the Spirit's works among the faithful.
Second Apology of David 63Ambrose · ca. 384-397 · The Holy Spirit too shares the great power that made and established the heavens; as God’s “finger,” he works in unity with the Father and the Son.
Apology of the Prophet David 64Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · David asks for a clean heart, created by the Spirit’s renewal, without which none sees God.
Apology of the Prophet David 66Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · The “right spirit” may be the Spirit of truth or a right conscience, but Ambrose takes it as the Holy Spirit to be poured out.
Apology of the Prophet David 70Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · The saints remain before God; we must keep the Spirit’s grace, as Peter clung to Christ.
Apology of the Prophet David 71Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · The Spirit is given and withdrawn only by the Lord’s will, yet acts freely; so the Trinity has one will.
Apology of the Prophet David 72Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · The “princely spirit” gives joy and firmness, freeing from slavery to sin.
Apology of the Prophet David 73Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · Some read the right, holy, and princely spirits as the Son, the Spirit, and the Father; David fears to lose the grace he received.
Catechetical Oration 2Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–390 · By the same analogy God has a Spirit, not a passing breath but a substantial, self-moving power existing in its own hypostasis, inseparable from God and his Word.
Catechetical Oration 4Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–390 · Against the Jew, Gregory argues from Psalm 33:6 that Scripture itself teaches a substantial Word and a Spirit existing in hypostasis.
On the Life of Moses 361Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–395 · God hears Moses’ silent prayer; the cloud that guides Israel is the grace of the Holy Spirit; the Egyptian army drowned in the sea is the array of the passions, its three-man chariot the three parts of the soul.
On the Life of Moses 383Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–395 · The furnishings of the heavenly tabernacle signify the angelic powers created in Christ who lift souls to virtue; the cherubim, the seven lamps of the Spirit, the mercy seat (Christ), and the altar of praise are interpreted in turn.
On the Life of Moses 397Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–395 · The broken and renewed tablets figure human nature, made unbroken and immortal, shattered by sin, and refashioned by Christ, who took flesh from our earth without marriage, inscribed by the Spirit, God’s finger; Moses’ glory figures Christ’s glory at his coming, which the ungodly will not see.
On the Duties of the Clergy 3.18Ambrose · ca. 386–390 · The hidden fire that became water is read as a type of the Holy Spirit, who burns away and washes away sins in baptism and penance.
Exposition of Psalm 118 1.16.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The kiss signifies the Spirit’s coming, and the king’s chamber the passion, by which the church is wedded to Christ.
Exposition of Psalm 118 3.21.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · As the one Spirit gives many gifts, so the one Word is shared among many.
Exposition of Psalm 118 3.21.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · One Spirit inspired prophets, apostles, and even the craftsmen of the tabernacle.
Exposition of Psalm 118 5.39.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Isaiah lists the gifts of the Spirit, placing fear beneath them all as their base.
Exposition of Psalm 118 10.16.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The risen Christ breathed the Spirit on his disciples to restore the lost seal.
Exposition of Psalm 118 10.19.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Understanding is a gift of the Spirit, asked for so that we may learn God’s commandments.
Exposition of Psalm 118 11.12.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Paul’s preaching rested not on eloquence but on the Spirit’s power.
Exposition of Psalm 118 17.9.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Christ opened his mouth to give the Spirit; David opened his to receive it.
Exposition of Psalm 118 17.9.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Christ, the fullness, fills the open mouth with his Spirit.
Exposition of Psalm 118 17.33.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The Spirit’s grace is spring, well, sealed fountain or rushing stream according to each one’s capacity.
Exposition of Psalm 118 17.33.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The rush from Lebanon came at Pentecost, when the Spirit filled the apostles.
Exposition of Psalm 118 18.48.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Understanding is the Spirit’s gift and must be put into practice.
Exposition of Psalm 118 19.8.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The heart has a voice, like Abel’s blood; faith cries “Abba, Father” by the Spirit.
Exposition of Psalm 118 19.36.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · God, whose Spirit fills the world, is everywhere present.
Exposition of Psalm 118 19.37.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Ps 139 shows that God and his Spirit are present everywhere.
Exposition of Psalm 118 20.54.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The saint appears daily before God not empty, filled from the fullness of the Word and the Spirit.
Exposition of Psalm 118 20.54.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Zechariah, Paul and the Corinthians were filled, not empty.
Letter 11.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that the incarnation is attributed to the Son because it gave us a rule and example of life, form being proper to the Son, while the Father is known through the Son and the delight of abiding in that knowledge is the gift of the Spirit.
Letter 55.29Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine sets the fifty days from Passover to the giving of the law beside the fifty days from Easter to Pentecost, the law written by God's finger and the Spirit who is God's finger.
Letter 98.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The one Holy Spirit makes others' faith profit the infant at baptism, but sin cannot be shared that way, so baptismal grace is lost only by the child's own later sins.
Letter 130.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The Spirit's intercession means that he makes the saints pray with unutterable groanings, giving them a 'learned ignorance' of what they desire.
Letter 140.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · God 'forsakes' us by not granting temporal goods, but not for the better things he wants us to desire; he seeks a holy dwelling in the love poured out by the Spirit.
Letter 169.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues against Evodius that, like the voice from heaven, the dove could appear without any animal soul, as a bodily form produced by God.
Letter 185.49Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The unforgivable sin against the Spirit is final impenitence: refusing forgiveness in the church's unity until death.
Letter 187.26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The Holy Spirit dwells in baptized infants without their knowing it, as Paul said he dwelt in the immature Corinthians.
Letter 187.29Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · God dwells even in immature believers who hold the common rule of faith in the Church, and will complete their understanding hereafter.
Letter 238.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that “spirit” as a name of nature applies to Father, Son and Spirit alike, and to all incorporeal natures, while “Holy Spirit” names the relation to Father and Son.
Letter 238.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues from 1 Cor 6:19–20 that the Holy Spirit is God, and shows that texts seeming to rank the persons would prove too much.
Homilies on Matthew 1.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom opens his series: the Scriptures are a second-best remedy for hearts no longer written on by the Spirit; he contrasts Sinai with Pentecost, explains why Matthew's book is called a gospel, why there are four evangelists, and why their minor differences confirm their truth.
Homilies on Matthew 11.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · 'Brood of vipers' fits their parricidal history; John demands fruits of repentance and forbids trust in Abraham, since God can raise children from stones as from Sarah's womb; the axe at the root threatens without despair; bearing fruit needs only the will, and Christ's baptism with the Spirit and fire gives every grace.
Homilies on Matthew 11.5John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · John speaks of fire to recall Israel's theophanies; he first names the gift of the Spirit, then the Lamb who takes away sin; to keep the hearers from slackness he adds the winnowing fork and unquenchable fire, and the fulfilled promise of the Spirit guarantees the threatened judgment.
Homilies on Matthew 11.6John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The Spirit's visible gift makes the coming judgment credible; baptism is not enough without virtue, for after baptism the winnowing fork divides believers; John spoke of the Spirit rather than miracles because that gift includes all the blessings and points to what could not yet be seen.
Homilies on Matthew 12.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The Spirit appeared as a dove for gentleness and to recall the dove of the flood, bringing adoption instead of an olive leaf; it took a form, not a nature, so is not inferior to Christ; Christian baptism, unlike John's, gives the Spirit and makes us sons of God, so we must live as citizens of heaven and store our treasure there.
Homilies on Matthew 33.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ shows his power by sending the apostles as sheep and doves, joining serpent-like wisdom that guards the faith to dove-like innocence that never retaliates; he foretells councils, kings, and family betrayals, and consoles them with his name, the Spirit, and endurance to the end.
Homilies on Matthew 41.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ refutes the charge that he casts out demons by Beelzebul with four answers (the divided kingdom, the exorcisms of their own sons, the binding of the strong man, and “he who is not with me is against me”), then explains why blasphemy against the Spirit is unpardonable; Chrysostom urges his hearers to judge and condemn their own sins now.
Hexameron (Exameron) 1.29Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · The Spirit over the waters is the Holy Spirit, so that the whole Trinity is at work in creation.
Hexameron (Exameron) 1.33Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · God's first word creates light, the first grace of the world's building; his speaking is his will made effective, not a sound.
Hexameron (Exameron) 6.39Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · “Know yourself” comes from Scripture: you are your soul, not your flesh, which is only its garment.
On the Mysteries 3Ambrose · ca. 387–391 · The font is no mere water: the Spirit’s presence there is prefigured in creation, the flood, the Red Sea, Marah, and Naaman’s cleansing.
On the Mysteries 4Ambrose · ca. 387–391 · Water cleanses only with the Spirit and the cross; baptism in the Trinity, foreshadowed by the pool of Bethesda and the dove, truly heals and regenerates.
On the Mysteries 7Ambrose · ca. 387–391 · The white garments of the newly baptized signify cleansing, and Ambrose reads the Song of Songs of the Church and the soul washed in baptism, ending with the spiritual seal of the Spirit’s sevenfold gifts.
On the Mysteries 9Ambrose · ca. 387–391 · Ambrose argues from the miracles of Scripture and from the virgin birth that the word of Christ changes the bread and wine into his body and blood, which feed the Church, and that the Spirit truly regenerates in baptism.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.9.6Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · In the singing people the Spirit plays without error, and the psalm softens hard hearts.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.11.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The psalm is an instrument of virtue played by the Spirit; its strings of dead gut teach us to die to sin.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.35.5Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The streams of waters are the Holy Spirit.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.45.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The Spirit is the south wind of the Song that softens our hearts.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 35.19.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The house is the church; the torrent of pleasure is the Holy Spirit.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.61.5Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The water of refreshment is the Holy Spirit.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.36.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The wordless groan is the Spirit's prayer, which God does not despise.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.16.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The fire that made David speak is the Spirit's fire of Pentecost.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 39.22.5Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The believer’s belly is filled by the Holy Spirit, from which flow the rivers of living water.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.66.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The “finger of God” is the Spirit of God, as Luke and Matthew show, by whom the heavens were made.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 45.12.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · From the one Word flow the four virtues and the gifts of the Spirit, the “rushings of the river”.
On the Catholic Way of Life and the Manichaean Way of Life 1.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 387–389 · Christ is the Power, Wisdom, and Truth of God, to whom we are conformed by love poured out by the Holy Spirit, who, since he restores us to wholeness and is unchangeable, is God and not a creature.
On the Catholic Way of Life and the Manichaean Way of Life 1.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 387–389 · Augustine sets Old Testament texts, chiefly from Psalms and the Wisdom of Solomon, beside each New Testament text he has used on love, Christ as Power and Wisdom, the Holy Spirit, and the one God.
Tractates on Matthew 5.4Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388–407 · Chromatius identifies the lamp with God's commandment and grace, to be set in the church like the golden lampstand of Zechariah and the tabernacle, a type of the Holy Spirit.
Tractates on Matthew 8.3Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388–407 · Chromatius prefers the view that the adversary is the Holy Spirit, who opposes the flesh, and whom we must obey in this life to escape the prison of Gehenna.
Homily 10Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 390–394 · On Song 4:16–5:2 Gregory reads the bride's banishing of the north wind and summoning of the south wind as the soul's authority over evil and its welcome to the Spirit, the bridegroom's feast as the eucharistic mysteries and a sober drunkenness of ecstasy, and the bride's sleep with a waking heart as the senses stilled while the mind contemplates God.
Sermon 4.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Holy Spirit enables believers to understand yesterday's reading spiritually and to walk by faith, hope and love toward what is not yet seen.
Sermon 4.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Peter, carnally minded, denied Christ, but the Spirit made him ready to die; the same Spirit gave all the martyrs their courage.
Sermon 8.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Sanctification comes from the Holy Spirit, to whom the number seven belongs (seven gifts, Pentecost after seven weeks); those who break unity, like Pharaoh's magicians, do not have the Spirit.
Sermon 8.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The first three commandments concern God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit); Pharaoh's magicians failed at the third plague and confessed "the finger of God," which is the Holy Spirit, who gave the Law fifty days after the Passover as he came fifty days after Christ's death.
Sermon 9.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine plays the "ten-stringed psaltery" of the Decalogue instead of frivolous songs: three strings belong to God, the third being the sabbath, the everlasting rest promised in the Holy Spirit.
Sermon 23.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Love poured out by the Spirit is God’s pledge in us; Augustine explains why “earnest” is a better word than “pledge.”
Sermon 71.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The hard saying about blasphemy against the Spirit seems to leave no hope for pagans, Jews, and heretics, all of whom in some way speak against the Holy Spirit.
Sermon 71.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine rejects the view that the unforgivable sin is a grave sin after baptism, since the Church grants repentance for every crime.
Sermon 71.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The saying is indefinite, neither universal nor particular, so it refers to a certain blasphemy, which the Lord left unstated so that we would seek it.
Sermon 71.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · As “the Spirit” means the Holy Spirit, not every spirit, so the saying does not mean every blasphemy.
Sermon 71.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine sets out the doctrine of the Trinity: the Holy Spirit is the communion of the Father and the Son, the gift by which we are gathered into one and our sins are covered.
Sermon 71.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The first gift of the Holy Spirit is the forgiveness of sins, given in baptism and in the Church, which is why John and Jesus began by preaching repentance.
Sermon 71.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · A whole lifetime of impenitent contradiction can be called a single “word,” as Scripture often calls many words “the word.”
Sermon 71.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The difference is not that the Spirit is greater than the incarnate Son; all three persons forgive sins and work inseparably.
Sermon 71.26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Spirit acts by his own will, yet the working of the Trinity is inseparable; the Father is the source, from whom the Son is born and the Spirit principally proceeds.
Sermon 71.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Sins are forgiven only in the Church by the Holy Spirit who unites it; one who remains estranged from the Church speaks against the Spirit.
Sermon 71.29Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of both the Father and the Son, and so the fellowship of the Church belongs properly to him.
Sermon 71.31Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Immature believers within the Church have the Spirit without understanding it, as Paul’s words to the Corinthians show.
Sermon 71.33Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The forgiveness of sins is given only in the Church that has the Spirit; it is the proper work of the Spirit, who is the fellowship of the Father and the Son.
Sermon 71.35Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · In Mark the saying arises from the charge of an unclean spirit, contrasted with the undivided Holy Spirit, who unites those whose sins he forgives.
Sermon 99.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ’s gift of loosing sins does not mean that men forgive by their own merit: the Holy Spirit, who is God, forgives through the faithful, who are his temple.
Sermon 99.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God forgives and gives the Spirit both through men and without them; at Samaria he gave the Spirit through the apostles’ hands, and Simon Magus wrongly thought the gift belonged to men and could be bought.
Sermon 99.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God showed that the Spirit is his gift, not men’s, by sending him without human hands on the eunuch and on Cornelius; so any penitent soul, whoever baptizes her, is cleansed by the Lord’s grace and her faith.
Sermon 128.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · John was the lamp prepared to confound Christ’s enemies; Christ bears witness to himself in the martyrs, and gives the Holy Spirit, a gift equal to himself, who pours God’s love into our hearts.
Sermon 128.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The spirit that puts the deeds of the flesh to death is not man’s own spirit but the Spirit of God, as Rom 8:14 shows; God does not merely watch our fight but helps.
Sermon 143.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Spirit brought the blessedness of believing without seeing: with Christ’s bodily presence removed, believers direct their minds to his divinity and know even his flesh spiritually, by faith.
Sermon 144.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Unbelief is named as the one sin because by it all other sins are held fast, the proud refusing to believe in a humble God; the Holy Spirit, God’s greatest gift, is grace, given freely after pardon, not as wages.
Sermon 155.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · No condemnation remains because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ sets free; Augustine then asks why the Sinai law, also written by God's finger (the Spirit), did not.
Sermon 155.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · As the Law came fifty days after the first Passover, so the Holy Spirit, God's finger, came fifty days after Christ's Passover.
Sermon 155.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine contrasts Sinai, where God wrote on stone and terrified a people standing far off, with Pentecost, where the Spirit came gently and wrote the law on hearts, as Jeremiah foretold.
Sermon 155.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Believers are “not in the flesh” only because God's Spirit dwells in them; free choice must implore help, for human nature fell even when healthy and cannot rise by its own strength.
Sermon 156.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Lest anyone trust his own spirit to mortify the flesh, Paul adds that those led by the Spirit of God are God's sons; self-reliance makes one a Stoic, not a son of God.
Sermon 156.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Spirit is an earnest, part of the promised whole, who bears witness that we are God's sons; our inheritance is God himself, shared with Christ.
Sermon 161.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · As the soul is the life of the body, God is the life of the soul; an enemy can only drive the soul from the body, but sin drives God from the soul, a death far more to be feared.
Sermon 163.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Paul as architect builds the new (walking by the Spirit) and pulls down the old; since fleshly desires cannot be removed in this life, the believer must refuse to carry them out.
Sermon 169.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Only love makes suffering profitable and makes a true martyr; that love is poured into hearts by the Holy Spirit, a rich guest who enlarges rather than crowds the soul.
Sermon 170.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ rose on the first day, we on the last; each person's last day is near, so desire should be only for eternal life, of which the Spirit is now a pledge, not for self-satisfied comparison with others.
Sermon 175.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ prayed for his killers and was heard, making his blood their medicine; at Pentecost the apostles' speech in all languages, a sign of the Church's unity, humbled the hearers from mountains into valleys that receive grace.
Sermon 210.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · This life is the “little while” of sorrow and labor before the joy no one can take away; meanwhile we fast and pray in hope, with the Spirit as pledge.
Sermon 214.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father and receiving from the Son, is God, since we are his temple; Father, Son, and Spirit are distinct, equal, and one God.
Sermon 215.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Holy Spirit is God, through whom we receive forgiveness, resurrection, and eternal life; the three are one God, and no other gospel than the Church's may be accepted.
Sermon 225.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Holy Spirit and the Son himself wrought Christ's flesh in Mary, who, having resolved on virginity, asked how she would conceive.
Sermon 225.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The newly baptized, made light and day, must avoid drunkenness and be filled instead with the Holy Spirit, the fountain of life and light.
Sermon 226.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The newly baptized are the day the Lord has made: as at creation, the Spirit moved over the waters of their baptism and God said, “Let there be light.”
Sermon 248.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · 153 is the sum of the numbers 1 to 17, and 17 is the ten commandments plus the sevenfold Spirit, since no one fulfills the law without grace.
Sermon 249.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Decalogue is fulfilled only when the sevenfold Spirit is added, for the letter kills and the Spirit gives life; ten plus seven gives seventeen, whose sum from one is 153.
Sermon 250.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The second catch, on the right, figures the saints after the resurrection, unbroken in unity; 153 is the sum to 17, the ten commandments with the sevenfold Spirit, without whom the letter kills.
Sermon 251.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Seventeen, root of 153, is the ten of the Law and the seven of the Spirit; sanctification first appears on the seventh day, when God, who was not tired, rested and sanctified our rest.
Sermon 251.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Without the Spirit the law only makes transgressors; with the Spirit’s help the saints keep God’s law gladly, out of love of righteousness rather than fear of punishment.
Sermon 264.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one equal God; the Son is called less only because of the flesh he took, which is why Scripture never calls the Spirit less.
Sermon 265.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ was glorified twice, in resurrection and ascension, and so gave the Spirit twice: by breathing on the disciples after rising, and at Pentecost after ascending.
Sermon 265.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine admits he does not know why the Spirit was given twice, but proposes that the two givings commend the two commandments of the one charity: on earth for love of neighbor, from heaven for love of God.
Sermon 266.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · At Pentecost the Spirit filled the hundred and twenty, and each spoke in all tongues as a sign of the Church’s unity in all nations; the scoffers who called them drunk were later cut to the heart and received the same gift.
Sermon 266.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The apostles received the Spirit while praying, with no hands laid on them; and though in Samaria the Spirit came through the apostles’ hands, he came on the Ethiopian eunuch after Philip baptized him without any laying on of hands, showing that the gift is God’s.
Sermon 266.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Spirit came on Cornelius before baptism, showing that he breathes where he wills and is not given by human power; the sacrament is God’s oil, good even in a bad minister and even when received badly, as Judas received the morsel to his judgment.
Sermon 267.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Pentecost recalls the coming of the Spirit, whom Christ sent from heaven after his glorification on the hundred and twenty; filled like new wineskins with new wine, they spoke in the tongues of all nations.
Sermon 267.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Holy Spirit is to the Church what the soul is to the body, giving life to all members with different functions; a member cut off from the Church, like a heretic, loses the Spirit’s life.
Sermon 268.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Pentecost, the fiftieth day (seven weeks plus one for unity), saw each disciple speak all languages, commending the unity of the Catholic Church throughout the world.
Sermon 268.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Only those within the Church’s unity have the Holy Spirit, as only members in the body have the soul’s life; a man separated from the Church may keep the form of sacrament, baptism, and creed, but not the life.
Sermon 269.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Heretics and schismatics may have true baptism, yet not the Holy Spirit unless they hold to unity in charity; Acts shows the Spirit given in varied ways, before, at, and after baptism, so that baptism and the Spirit are distinct and all is ascribed to grace.
Sermon 269.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Separatists are “animal men, not having the Spirit”; Donatists who ask what they will gain by joining the Church are told that they have Christ’s baptism but must come to receive his Spirit, shown in the charity of unity and in deeds.
Sermon 270.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ had to go away so that the disciples, attached to his human form as Peter was when he feared the passion, might become spiritual and receive the Spirit; Peter’s confession was from the Father, his fear from the flesh.
Sermon 270.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Spirit is signified by seven: sanctification first appears on the seventh day, God’s rest signifying our rest after good works, which the true sabbath keeps by not sinning; and Isaiah names seven gifts of the Spirit.
Sermon 270.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Pentecost, seven weeks of seven days plus one, joins the seven of the Spirit, who gathers the humble into one body from all tongues, with the one that commends unity.
Sermon 271.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Pentecost reverses Babel: the tongues foretold the Church gathering the nations into one body, so that schismatics who hate unity hear the readings to their judgment, while Catholics, established in the Church that speaks all tongues, have the Spirit.
Sermon 275.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · In Vincent the Spirit spoke while the flesh suffered; martyrs are made by their cause, not their pain, since the devil’s own false martyrs also endure; Christ, who cast out the devil, possessed Vincent and fought for him.
Sermon 276.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Vincent held out only because God dwelt in him, giving both faith and the strength to suffer; the world fights Christ’s soldiers with flattery and terror, but Christ conquered it, and his Spirit spoke in the suffering martyr.
Sermon 292.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine urges the Donatist to hear John, who called himself only a minister of water and a disciple of Christ, the one who baptizes in the Spirit; a minister must serve Christ as food, not set himself in Christ’s place.
On Illustrious Men 109Jerome · 392–393 · Didymus the Blind of Alexandria, learned despite blindness, wrote many commentaries and On the Holy Spirit, translated by Jerome.
On Illustrious Men 133Jerome · 392–393 · Amphilochius of Iconium wrote on the divinity of the Holy Spirit.
On Faith and the Creed 16Augustine of Hippo · 393 · The Holy Spirit is consubstantial and co-eternal with the Father and the Son; each is God, yet the Trinity is one God, not three gods.
On Faith and the Creed 19Augustine of Hippo · 393 · Augustine reports, without adopting it, the view that the Holy Spirit is the deity and mutual love that unites the Father and the Son, with its scriptural proofs.
Unfinished Literal Commentary on Genesis 4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393 · Augustine defends Genesis 1:2 against the Manichees, reading “earth,” “abyss,” and “water” as names for the one formless matter God made from nothing, and weighs whether “the Spirit of God” is the Holy Spirit, a created vital spirit, or air.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 1.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine matches the seven gifts of the Spirit in Isaiah, counted upward from fear to wisdom, with the beatitudes and their rewards, and finds the eighth beatitude signified by the eighth day and Pentecost.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 2.25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine warns against being deceived by the mere name of Christ or by miracles, reconciles “Lord, Lord” with 1 Cor 12:3, and closes with the parable of the two builders and the sevenfold pattern of the sermon.
Against Jovinianus 2.19Jerome · 393 · Jerome continues Jovinian's argument: the parable of the sower, Christ's indwelling, the one temple, and the one Church show that all the saved are equal.
On Continence 9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · The works of the flesh in Galatians 5 are the enemies to be put to death, and continence, the last fruit of the Spirit, is the chief weapon.
On Continence 12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Victory over sin comes not from our own strength but from grace and the Spirit of God, who gives continence.
On the Christian Struggle 30Augustine of Hippo · ca. 396–397 · Augustine rejects the claims that the promised Holy Spirit came in Paul, in Montanus and Priscilla, or in Mani, since Luke and Acts show that he came at Pentecost.
Against the Epistle of Manichaeus Called Fundamental 6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 396–397 · Mani calls himself apostle of Jesus Christ rather than of the Paraclete because he wanted to be taken for the Paraclete himself, as the man Christ was taken up by the Son of God.
Against the Epistle of Manichaeus Called Fundamental 8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 396–397 · By leaving the Holy Spirit unnamed Mani implies that he is the Spirit, and the Manichaeans honor the Bema, the day of Mani’s death, far above the Pasch of Christ.
Against the Epistle of Manichaeus Called Fundamental 9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 396–397 · The Acts of the Apostles, which carries the same authority as the Gospel, plainly records the coming of the promised Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
Against the Epistle of Manichaeus Called Fundamental 10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 396–397 · The Spirit was given twice, after the resurrection and after the ascension, as Scripture says; Augustine will now examine whether Mani’s letter shows the truth or merely demands belief.
On Christian Doctrine 4.15Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · The Christian speaker must rely on prayer more than skill, praying before he preaches, while also preparing diligently, trusting the Spirit to speak through him.
On Christian Doctrine 4.16Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · That the Spirit makes teachers does not make instruction in teaching unnecessary, as Paul's letters to Timothy and Titus show; human teaching, like medicine, works only when God gives the effect.
Confessions 9.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Psalm 4's "Why do you love vanity?" strikes Augustine, who sees in it the risen Christ and the gift of the Spirit.
Confessions 13.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · The Spirit borne over the waters is love, which lifts us up as desire weighs us down.
Confessions 13.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · The Spirit is God's gift, in whom we rest; "my weight is my love," carrying us upward to God.
Confessions 13.46Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · When we see creation's goodness through the Spirit, God sees it in us, and we love God in what he made.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 7.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine answers that Christ is Son of God and of David, that renouncing kin was an example to disciples, and that the apostles were better witnesses than Mani, born centuries later.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 12.30Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine reads the wilderness journey, the bitter waters, the springs and palms, Moses’ raised hands, the bronze serpent, the passover, and the giving of the law as figures of Christ, the cross, and the Spirit.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 13.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine shows that Faustus could not convert his imagined Gentile either, since Manichaeans win only people already believing in Christ, by claiming Mani is the promised Paraclete.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 32.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine denies the parallel between Christ’s use of the Old Testament and the Manichaean Paraclete’s use of the New, since the true Paraclete was sent at Pentecost, as Acts records.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 32.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine argues that the Paraclete came immediately after Christ’s glorification, and that the Montanists, who used the same texts to condemn second marriage, show how any heresy can claim the Paraclete.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 32.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine interprets the Paraclete texts of the Gospel and 1 Corinthians 13 of the Holy Spirit and of eternal life, and says the Manichaeans reject Gospel passages only because they dislike them.
Tractates 14Gaudentius of Brescia · ca. 397-410 · On John 14:25–26: the sending of the Paraclete shows both the distinction of the persons and the one omnipresent divinity of the Trinity, as Psalm 139 confesses; the incarnation is to be received in faith, not probed by curiosity.
On Catechizing the Uninstructed 23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–405 · The narration continues with the ascension, Pentecost as the fulfilment of the giving of the law, the love that fulfils the two great commandments, the conversion of thousands of Jews, the first community of goods, Paul's mission, and the persecutions.
On the Trinity 1.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine sets out the questions that trouble people: how three are one God, how the Trinity can work inseparably when only the Son became flesh, and how the Spirit is in the Trinity though not begotten.
On the Trinity 1.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine proves from Scripture that the Son is true God of the same substance as the Father, that texts such as 'who alone has immortality' refer to the whole Trinity, and that the Holy Spirit is not a creature, since he receives the service due to God alone.
On the Trinity 1.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine explains that Christ's going away was needed so that the disciples would stop seeing only his servant form, and that whenever one person of the Trinity is said to be shown or to dwell in believers, the others are included.
On the Trinity 2.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine shows that the Spirit's not speaking 'of himself' refers to his procession from the Father, not to inferiority, and postpones the question why the Spirit is not called a son.
On the Trinity 2.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine argues that being sent does not make the Son or the Spirit less: both are sent to where they already were, and 'sending' means their visible appearance in a creature, which the invisible Father and Son brought about together.
On the Trinity 2.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine explains why the Spirit is never called less than the Father: the dove and the fire were not united to the Spirit as Christ's humanity was united to the Word, but were passing signs, like the burning bush and the pillar of cloud.
On the Trinity 2.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine argues that the fire, cloud and voices at Sinai were creatures serving the Creator, not God's substance, and tentatively suggests that the Holy Spirit is signified there, since the Law was written by the 'finger of God' and given fifty days after the Passover, as the Spirit came fifty days after Easter.
On the Trinity 4.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine explains that the Son is sent not because he is less but because he is from the Father, as Wisdom is the 'brightness of eternal light' equal to its source; sending means being made known in time, by the incarnation or in the mind; the Father is never sent, since he is from no one; and the Spirit proceeds from the Father and also from the Son, the Father being the principle of the whole deity.
On the Trinity 4.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine explains that the inseparable Trinity is shown separably through visible creatures, as memory, understanding and will together produce each of their names; he restates that pre-incarnation theophanies were done through angels, that the Word became man with a human body and rational soul, and that being sent implies no inequality, closing Book 4.
On the Trinity 5.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Names proper to each person are relative; the Holy Spirit is so called relatively as the gift of the Father and the Son, a kind of unspeakable communion of both.
On the Trinity 5.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are each called “beginning” in relation to creation, yet together they are one beginning, as one Creator and one God.
On the Trinity 5.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · The Father begets the Son; the Spirit goes forth not as born but as given, and so the Father and the Son are one beginning of the Holy Spirit.
On the Trinity 6.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · The Holy Spirit, the common love or communion of the Father and the Son, is equal and consubstantial with them: lover, beloved, and love itself.
On the Trinity 6.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine interprets Hilary's formula “eternity in the Father, form in the Image, use in the Gift,” finding in it the Spirit as the delight of Father and Son, and a trace of the Trinity in the unity, form, and order of creatures.
On the Trinity 7.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Scripture speaks of wisdom chiefly as the Son because he is the Image we are to imitate; yet the Father and the Holy Spirit are also wisdom and light, and the three are one wisdom, one essence, one God.
On the Trinity 9.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Love is not called begotten like knowledge because it proceeds as the desire that seeks and then embraces knowledge; so mind, knowledge (its word), and love are an image of the Trinity, three and one substance.
On the Trinity 12.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine rejects the view that man, woman, and child form the image of the Trinity, though he grants that the woman, coming from the man without being his daughter, shows that not every procession is a begetting.
On the Trinity 15.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Though each person is love, as each is wisdom, the Holy Spirit is properly called love, the common love of Father and Son, proceeding principally from the Father and also from the Son; 1 John 4 shows this.
On the Trinity 15.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Love is the greatest gift of God, without which no other gift profits, and the love that is from God and is God is properly the Holy Spirit, rightly called the Gift of God.
On the Trinity 15.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Scripture calls the Holy Spirit the Gift of God (John 4 and 7, Eph 4, Acts); he is given yet gives himself as God, and he is properly called love as the Spirit common to Father and Son, though not the only love in the Trinity.
On the Trinity 15.26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · The Spirit of both Father and Son proceeds from both without time, principally from the Father, who gave the Son in begetting him that the Spirit proceed from him too; Christ gave the Spirit twice, as God, and received him as man from his conception.
On the Trinity 15.27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Quoting his own sermon, Augustine explains why the Spirit proceeds from both and is not a son; those who cannot see this should believe Scripture and seek understanding, and his soul, still wounded, cannot yet fix its gaze on the light.
The Harmony of the Gospels 2.32Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · John already knew Jesus before the baptism, but learned from the dove that Christ alone, by his own divine power, baptizes in the Holy Spirit.
The Harmony of the Gospels 2.85Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · The Beelzebul controversy agrees in all three; Luke's 'finger of God' for Matthew's 'Spirit of God' shows what the finger of God means in Scripture.
The Harmony of the Gospels 4.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · John rises highest in Christ's discourses, especially at the Last Supper, and walks with the others only rarely, presenting Christ's divinity and the Spirit as also the Son's.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 2.34Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · ‘Given from heaven’ means looking to God, not the minister; every Donatist rule about who can give baptism is broken by their own practice, and Scripture shows God giving without human intermediaries, as to the apostles at Pentecost and to Cornelius.
Exposition of the Right Faith 4Anonymous · early 5th century (probably Theodoret) · Dividing all beings into uncreated and created, the author shows from David and Paul that the Son and the Spirit are never numbered among creatures.
Exposition of the Right Faith 5Anonymous · early 5th century (probably Theodoret) · From the baptismal command and Paul's letters the author shows that the Son and the Spirit are ranked with the Father in the divine nature and dwell together in the faithful.
Exposition of the Right Faith 6Anonymous · early 5th century (probably Theodoret) · The Son and the Spirit share the Father's work of creation and his authority, as the Psalms and Paul show.
Exposition of the Right Faith 9Anonymous · early 5th century (probably Theodoret) · The Son is begotten as light from light and the Spirit proceeds as light from light, co-eternal and of the same substance; the author turns to the economy of the incarnation.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 1.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Augustine finds the Trinity in the opening of Genesis: the Father in “God,” the Son in “Beginning” and “said,” and the Holy Spirit in the Spirit borne over the waters and in God’s seeing that it was good.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 1.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Augustine explains that the Spirit is mentioned after the unformed earth so that his being “borne over” it shows God’s love as abundance, not need.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 1.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Augustine reports a Syriac reading of Genesis 1:2 (“brooded over”) and warns against headlong assertion in obscure questions where the faith allows several opinions.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 2.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Augustine rejects a reading that splits “God said” and “God made” between Father and Son and explains each formula as referring to the eternal Word, the creature’s bounds, and the Spirit’s goodness.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 4.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · The Spirit is said to be grieved, and God to know, when the saints grieve or come to know through his gift (Eph 4:30; Gal 4:9).
Literal Commentary on Genesis 10.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · No Scripture says souls come from angels or elements; Ezekiel's spirit from the four winds is a figure of resurrection, as Christ's breath signified the Holy Spirit without being his substance.
Apology against Rufinus 2.15Jerome · ca. 401–402 · Jerome quotes Rufinus's preface and his treatise on the falsification of Origen's books, and lists blasphemies he finds even in Rufinus's edited version of the Apology for Origen.
Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 9Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 404 · Christ's birth from the Virgin by the Holy Spirit, foretold by Isaiah and figured in Ezekiel's shut gate, shows the Trinity working together.
Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 35Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 404 · With the Holy Spirit the Trinity is complete; the three persons are distinguished by their relations, and the same 'in' is used for each to show one Godhead.
Against Felix the Manichaean 1.2Augustine of Hippo · December 404 · Felix demands proof that the promised Paraclete is found in some scripture other than Mani's; Augustine agrees to show when the Spirit was sent.
Against Felix the Manichaean 1.3Augustine of Hippo · December 404 · Augustine reads Luke's account of the risen Christ promising to send the Father's promise, linking it to John's promise of the Paraclete.
Against Felix the Manichaean 1.4Augustine of Hippo · December 404 · Augustine reads Acts 1, on the ascension, the promise of the Spirit, and Matthias's election in the place of Judas.
Against Felix the Manichaean 1.5Augustine of Hippo · December 404 · Augustine reads the Pentecost account and calls on Felix to keep his promise and reject Mani's scripture.
Against Felix the Manichaean 1.10Augustine of Hippo · December 404 · Augustine argues that Christ promised to make Christians, not astronomers, and challenges Felix, if he has the Spirit of all truth, to say how many stars there are.
Against Felix the Manichaean 1.12Augustine of Hippo · December 404 · Felix pleads that he cannot stand against a bishop and the imperial laws; Augustine reviews the debate, denies that Felix faces any coercion, and points to Peter's courage once filled with the Spirit.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 6.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The dove's groaning signifies the Spirit, who makes us groan with longing for our heavenly homeland; the Church, like Noah's ark, holds both ravens, who seek their own, and doves, who seek Christ's.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 6.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Spirit appeared as a dove and as fire to signify simplicity and fervor together, as in Stephen, who rebuked his persecutors fiercely yet prayed for them without bitterness; the divided tongues signify diversity, not schism.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 9.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The jars holding 'two or three measures' signify the Trinity: naming the Father and the Son implies the Spirit, who is the Spirit of both, and 'three' states the Trinity openly.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 9.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Holy Spirit is the mutual love of the Father and the Son, so 'two measures' implies the Spirit and 'three' expresses the Trinity; without this love, poured out by the Spirit, the soul is dead.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 12.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Birth of water and the Spirit is birth from the Church for an eternal inheritance; the invisible Spirit is heard in Scripture, and those born of him are a mystery to others.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 14.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · God gives the Spirit to men by measure, distributing different gifts among the members of one body, but to Christ he gives without measure.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 15.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Jesus, who asks for water, promises living water, the gift of the Holy Spirit, speaking at first in a veiled way.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 27.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Spirit gives life only to members joined in the unity of Christ's body, as the soul quickens only attached limbs; so the Christian must dread separation from that body.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 32.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ's invitation to drink concerns the inner man, and the soul, though unseen, is loved more than the body, both in ourselves and in friends.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 32.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Spirit promised is the Holy Spirit, who knows the things of God; we have received him as a pledge whose fullness will be given later.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 32.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Spirit, though at work in the saints before, was not yet given in the new manner, with the tongues of all nations, until Christ was glorified in his resurrection.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 32.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · We have the Holy Spirit as much as we love the Church; in its unity each member's gift serves all, and love, poured out by the Spirit, surpasses every gift.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 32.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Spirit was given after the resurrection to show the eternal life we hope for and to turn our love from the world, since Christ promises not earthly goods but eternal life.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 39.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · As love made the thousands of the first Church one heart and one soul in God, much more are Father, Son, and Spirit, the fountain of love, one God and one Beginning.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 46.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ, who opens himself by explaining himself, may be the doorkeeper; or the doorkeeper may be the Holy Spirit, who teaches all truth.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 52.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The devil was cast out of a few hearts before Christ, but now of many peoples, just as the Spirit was given before but now in Pentecostal abundance.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 74.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Since no one can love Christ or keep his commandments without the Holy Spirit, the apostles who loved him already had the Spirit whom they were promised.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 74.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The disciples had the Spirit hiddenly and in lesser measure and were to receive him more fully and openly, as the Spirit was given twice after the resurrection.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 74.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ alone received the Spirit without measure; to others he is given by measure and increased until each measure is filled.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 74.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ too is a paraclete, an advocate; the world, meaning the lovers of the world, cannot receive the Spirit because it has no eyes to see what is invisible.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 74.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Spirit remains with the disciples by being in them, and is known inwardly, as one's own conscience is.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 76.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The whole Trinity dwells in the saints; the world sees only the Son, in the form of a man, for judgment.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 92.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Spirit's witness at Pentecost converted many who had seen and hated Christ, so that they were redeemed by the very blood they had shed.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 92.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Spirit, poured out at Pentecost, turned Peter's fearful denial into bold witness and turned many enemies of Christ into believers.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 93.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Example alone did not keep Peter from denying Christ; the Holy Spirit made him a firm witness, and the Spirit's love keeps believers from stumbling.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 94.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ had not spoken earlier of the Comforter because his presence comforted them; the Spirit would make them witnesses able to endure persecution.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 94.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ had to withdraw his bodily presence so that the disciples, no longer clinging to him in a fleshly way, could receive the Spirit and know him spiritually.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 94.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · After Christ's bodily departure the whole Trinity was present to the disciples, since where any one of the persons is, the one God, the Trinity, is.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 95.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Spirit convicts the world through the disciples sent to all nations, giving them the love that casts out fear; Christ convicts in them too, for the works of the Trinity are inseparable.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 96.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Rather than seek secret teachings, believers should grow in love, by which the Spirit leads them inwardly toward a fullness of truth reached only in the life to come.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 96.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Augustine warns against sects that pass off obscene teachings as the things the disciples could not bear; the Spirit teaches all truth by pouring out love.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 97.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The things the disciples could not bear are the common truths of faith as angels know them; the Spirit makes the mind grow in understanding of them, by God's gift.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 99.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Son's "I cannot do anything of myself" is said as man; but the Holy Spirit took no creature into unity of person, so "he will not speak from himself" needs another explanation.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 99.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The dove and the tongues of fire were passing signs made from creatures, not assumed into the Spirit's person; nor does God speak to his Word in passing syllables.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 99.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · In God, who is simple, knowing is being; so the Spirit "hears" from him from whom he proceeds, because he is not from himself, while remaining equal to the one from whom he is.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 99.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Verbs of any tense may be used of the eternal God; the Spirit's hearing is eternal knowing, from him from whom he proceeds.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 99.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The one Holy Spirit is the Spirit of both the Father and the Son, as Scripture calls him the Spirit of each.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 99.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Spirit is called Spirit properly as the communion of Father and Son; Christ's breathing on the disciples and the "power" going out from him show that the Spirit proceeds from the Son too.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 99.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ says the Spirit proceeds from the Father because he refers to the Father what is his own; the Son has from the Father that the Spirit proceeds from him too.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 99.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Spirit is said to proceed, not to be born, since he would otherwise be the Son of two; he proceeds from both at once, the Father having given this to the Son.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 100.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Spirit glorified Christ by making the disciples spiritual and bold, so that his fame spread through the world; such glory benefits the world, not Christ.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 100.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · "He will receive of mine" does not make the Spirit less than the Son; since all the Father's is the Son's, the Spirit receives from the Father as the Son does.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 103.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · At Christ's arrest the disciples abandoned even their faith, but after receiving the Spirit they kept peace in him through persecution and overcame the world in him.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 104.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ's whole discourse aimed at the disciples' peace in him, the end of all Christian life; the Spirit would make his proverbs plain to them.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 108.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The disciples are not of the world by rebirth from the Holy Spirit; Christ was never of the world, being born of the Spirit even in the form of a servant.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 121.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The risen Christ comes through closed doors, shows his wounds, breathes the Holy Spirit on the disciples, and gives the power to forgive and retain sins, which Augustine relates to the Church's love.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 122.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The number 153 is the sum of the numbers from one to seventeen, and seventeen is ten (the law) plus seven (the Spirit), so the fish signify all who belong to the grace of the Spirit.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 2.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · The Donatists refuse communion with the Church that began at Jerusalem and speaks in all languages, while their own party has only Latin and Punic; their hatred of the brothers blinds them.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 3.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · Many receive the sacraments without truly belonging to the Church, as their leaving in temptation shows; the anointing of the Holy Spirit teaches believers to know good and evil.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 3.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · Human teachers only admonish from outside; Christ, the inner teacher, teaches the heart through his anointing, as God gives the growth.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 6.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · God, like a physician, gives not what we want but what heals; love itself, poured into our hearts by the Spirit, prays in us and is always heard.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 6.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · Speaking in tongues was a sign for the first times; now the sign of having received the Spirit is love of the brothers and of the Church spread through the whole world.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 6.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · The Holy Spirit is signified by living water, distinct from the visible water of baptism; heretics and those cut off by iniquity do not have him, so we must not drink from strange springs.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 7.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · Love is 'from God' and 'is God' because the Holy Spirit, God from God, is poured out as love; the wicked may have the sacraments but cannot have love, which is the Spirit's own gift.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.7Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Romans 8:10–13 teaches that the believer's spirit already lives by grace while the body, still bearing sin's penalty, will later be raised to life.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.10Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Believers are children of God in part and children of the world in part, so both statements of 1 John hold: the one born of God does not sin, and whoever claims to have no sin deceives himself.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.52Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Christ ascended and withheld immortality from believers' bodies so that they might live by faith in what is unseen; this is the righteousness of which the Spirit convicts the world.
On the Spirit and the Letter 5Augustine of Hippo · 412 · Augustine's position: beyond free will and teaching, the Holy Spirit gives delight in and love of God, without which the will cannot do good.
On the Spirit and the Letter 28Augustine of Hippo · 412 · The Holy Spirit, the “finger of God,” who wrote the law on stone, came at Pentecost fifty days after Christ's Passover, as the law came fifty days after the first Passover.
On the Spirit and the Letter 29Augustine of Hippo · 412 · At Sinai the law was written on stone and frightened sinners; at Pentecost the Spirit wrote charity on hearts, which fulfills the whole law.
On the Spirit and the Letter 30Augustine of Hippo · 412 · Paul's “letter of Christ” written on hearts contrasts the law written outside to terrify with the Spirit working within to justify; the veil is removed when one turns to Christ.
On the Spirit and the Letter 36Augustine of Hippo · 412 · God's laws written on hearts are the presence of the Holy Spirit, who pours out love; the new covenant promises not earthly goods but the good of the heart and mind.
On the Spirit and the Letter 42Augustine of Hippo · 412 · Jeremiah's new covenant differs from the old not in rites but in that God writes his law on hearts and gives himself as reward; God helps us not by outward commands but by pouring out love within.
On the Spirit and the Letter 46Augustine of Hippo · 412 · The gentiles of Rom 2:14–15 are believing gentiles, grafted into God's people, in whose hearts the Spirit writes the law, as Jeremiah promised.
On the Spirit and the Letter 49Augustine of Hippo · 412 · Whichever reading of Rom 2:14 is taken, the new covenant's grace is the Spirit writing the law on hearts and leading to the vision of God.
On the Spirit and the Letter 56Augustine of Hippo · 412 · The faith Paul commends is not servile belief that fears punishment but the faith of sons that asks God for righteousness and continence, obtains the Spirit, and works through love.
City of God 10.23Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine notes that Porphyry, citing an oracle, held that only the “principles” purify, and compares his Father, paternal Mind, and intermediate principle with the Christian Trinity.
City of God 11.24Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine states the faith in the Trinity and suggests that the Father, the Word, and the Spirit as goodness are signified in every work of creation and in the holy city's being, wisdom, and joy.
City of God 13.24Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · God's breath at Adam's creation gave him his soul, not the Holy Spirit, as the Greek pnoē shows; Christ's breathing on the disciples signified the Spirit of both Father and Son; the question how the unfallen would have procreated is deferred to Book 14.
City of God 18.30Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine reads Micah's mountain of the Lord and Bethlehem prophecy, the sign of Jonah, and Joel's promise of the Spirit as prophecies fulfilled in Christ and the church.
City of God 18.43Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine defends the church's preference for the Septuagint, holding that the same Spirit spoke through the Hebrew prophets and the seventy translators, so that differences between the Hebrew and the Greek are both inspired.
City of God 18.49Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine describes the church in this age as a net holding good and bad until the final separation, and recounts Christ's preaching, choice of apostles, passion, resurrection, ascension, and gift of the Spirit at Pentecost.
City of God 18.54Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine refutes the pagan oracle by dating the 365 years from Pentecost to the consulship of Honorius and Eutychianus (AD 398), noting that the next year the temples of Carthage were overthrown and the church grew, and concludes Book 18.
On Nature and Grace 18Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine sets aside Romans 8:7–8 as irrelevant and asks whether those who live by the Spirit do so by God's grace or by their own natural ability, since love is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
On Nature and Grace 67Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine explains that the baptized still feel the flesh opposing the spirit, but those led by the Spirit are not under the law of fear but under the law of liberty and love.
On Nature and Grace 77Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine interprets the sayings Pelagius attributed to the martyr Xystus as teaching that likeness to God and sonship come through the love poured out by the Holy Spirit, a power received by grace.
On Nature and Grace 79Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine teaches that love is poured out by the Holy Spirit given by the ascended Christ, and that the necessity of sinning, which comes from nature's faults, is removed by grace in answer to prayer.
On Patience 14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · The wicked endure much from desire for the world, which comes from their own will; the righteous endure from the love of God, which the Holy Spirit pours into their hearts.
Apologetic Book 16.6Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Pelagius claims the sevenfold Spirit.
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 31Augustine of Hippo · 417 · By anathematizing these propositions, Pelagius has in effect confessed a grace given by the Holy Spirit for each act, distinct from nature and law.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.28Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Pelagius's word 'more easily' betrays his view that the devil can be resisted even without the Holy Spirit.
On the Soul and Its Origin 1.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Isaiah’s “breath” and “spirit” may be parallelism referring to the Holy Spirit given at Pentecost.
On the Soul and Its Origin 1.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · The Greek word pnoē, translated variously, often signifies the Spirit or divine inspiration; even a plain “gives a soul” would not settle the soul’s origin.
On the Soul and Its Origin 4.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Not knowing what to pray for, as Paul confessed, matters more than not knowing one’s origin; the Spirit may teach it if it is good for us.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 3.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine explains why the covenant of Moses is called 'old' and the covenant with Abraham 'new', and affirms that the Holy Spirit gave virtue to the Old Testament saints.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 38Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Christ born of the Holy Spirit is not the Spirit's son; the whole Trinity made his humanity, and he was born of the Spirit not as of a father but of Mary as of a mother.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 56Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · In the Creed the Church follows the Trinity as temple follows God; the Church includes the holy angels, and since the Spirit has a temple, he is God, not a creature.
The Conferences 2.1John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Moses begins his teaching on discernment, a gift of the Holy Spirit without which a monk stumbles as in the dark.
The Conferences 9.15John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Each of the four kinds can produce fervent prayer and suits a different stage of progress, but a purified mind may combine them all in one flaming, wordless prayer, and even a beginner’s compunction can be as fervent as a saint’s joy.
Instructions 1.1Eucherius of Lyon · ca. 428-434 · The seven spirits of the Apocalypse are the seven gifts listed in Isaiah 11, all the work of the one Spirit.
On the Gift of Perseverance 23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · The church's constant prayers for the conversion of unbelievers and the perseverance of believers show that it has always believed in grace and predestination; even prayer itself is the Spirit's gift.
Cyril, Twelve Anathemas, Anathema IXAnonymous · 430–433 · Ninth anathema: the Spirit by whom Christ worked miracles is his own, not a foreign power lent to him.
Chapter 18Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 437-450 · The Jews’ malice served salvation, and their dispersion with the prophetic books witnesses to Christ against the pagans; then (chapter 19) the Holy Spirit is confessed equal to Father and Son against the Arians, who rebaptize.
Against Five Heresies 8Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 437-450 · The sermon closes by confessing the Holy Spirit equal and one with the Father and the Son, the one God who is love.
Part 2, chapter 3Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Aaron’s anointing and vestments, ephod, stones, breastpiece, girdle, bells, pomegranates, and inscribed plate, figure Christ the anointed priest, his love, the apostles, the gifts of the Spirit, and the Church of every tongue.
Part 2, chapter 30Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Elisha, who clung to Elijah and received a double portion of his spirit with his mantle, figures the disciples who received the Spirit twice, after the resurrection and at Pentecost, and did greater works than Christ.
Part 3, chapter 31Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The Psalms on ascending on high and sending the Spirit are fulfilled in Christ’s ascension and the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost.