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

Contents

Reading pages: 0–10 · 11–22 · 23–34 · 35–47 · 48–63

1. 0Jerome's preface to Paulinian: begun at Rome for Damasus, the translation of Didymus's book on the Holy Spirit is finished at Bethlehem, and Jerome contrasts it with a poor Latin work on the subject.
2. 1Because 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.
3. 2The Holy Spirit is known only from Scripture, which speaks of him in both Testaments.
4. 3The same Holy Spirit spoke in the prophets and the apostles, as the use of the Greek article shows.
5. 4The 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.
6. 5Only 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.
7. 6Unlike 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.
8. 7Angels are holy only by sharing in the Trinity, so they are of a different substance from the Holy Spirit who sanctifies them.
9. 8Scripture speaks of people being filled with the Holy Spirit but never with a creature, which shows that the Spirit is not a creature.
10. 9The 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.
11. 10Christ's promise that the Spirit will give the disciples words shows that wisdom and every spiritual blessing are contained in the Holy Spirit.
12. 11The 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.
13. 12The language of pouring out marks the Spirit as received by many and therefore unchangeable and uncreated, whereas every creature, angels included, is changeable.
14. 13Since 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.
15. 14The 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.
16. 15Amos'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.
17. 16The one grace and love given by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit show that the Trinity is of one substance.
18. 17Communion with the Holy Spirit is communion with the Father and the Son; one working shows one substance.
19. 18Peter'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.
20. 19Since the Spirit's wisdom is the Son's and the Son and the Father are one, the Trinity is one in substance.
21. 20The Son is called God's hand and the Spirit God's finger, which shows their union with the Father's nature.
22. 21The 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.
23. 22The 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.
24. 23Scripture 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.
25. 24Baptism 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.
26. 25As 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.
27. 26The 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.
28. 27The 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.
29. 28The 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.
30. 29The 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.
31. 30Only 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.
32. 31Sent 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.
33. 32The 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.
34. 33Christ 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.
35. 34When Christ says the Spirit will not speak from himself, he means the Spirit is inseparable from the Father's and the Son's will; divine speaking is not like human speech.
36. 35Human speech needs mind, tongue, air and ears; God, simple and incorporeal, has no such organs, and neither do the Son and the Spirit.
37. 36Divine 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.
38. 37The Spirit's receiving from the Son, like the Son's from the Father, signifies one substance, not a transfer of something lacking.
39. 38Human 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.
40. 39Exposition 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.
41. 40The 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.
42. 41Exposition of Rom 8:10-13: when the body is dead to sin, Christ gives the Spirit of life, and the Spirit dwelling in believers will raise their mortal bodies.
43. 42Exposition 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.
44. 43The 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.
45. 44Israel remembers God's mercy and powers; God judges as a good judge who corrects, and gives according to mercy rather than merit.
46. 45Against heretics who divide a good God from a just one, Scripture calls the one God both good and just; the salvation Isaiah speaks of is brought by Christ.
47. 46No envoy or angel, not even Moses, could save Israel, but God himself, who spared his creatures and gave his Son to redeem them from the devil.
48. 47Israel's unbelief embittered God's Holy Spirit, and indignation at sin is ascribed alike to the Spirit and to the Holy One of Israel.
49. 48Applied to the Jews who crucified Christ, God's fighting against them is their defeat and exile under Rome, yet God leaves them a place for repentance until all Israel is saved.
50. 49The shepherd is Christ; God put his Spirit in Israel while they obeyed, but the Spirit is provoked when those he indwells turn to sin.
51. 50Whoever 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.
52. 51The right hand of God is Christ, as the Psalms and Peter's Pentecost sermon show of the risen Lord exalted at God's right hand.
53. 52Christ, 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.
54. 53Father, Son and Holy Spirit alike make believers good and holy, which shows the Spirit's one substance with them.
55. 54The 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.
56. 55The "spirit of man" in 1 Cor 2:11, Rom 8:16 and 1 Thess 5:23 is the human spirit, distinct from the Spirit of God.
57. 56"Spirit" also names angels and, with a qualifying word, evil spirits and demons.
58. 57"Spirit" also means a person's will and, above all, the higher spiritual sense of Scripture as opposed to the letter.
59. 58The 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.
60. 59Because "spirit" has many senses, the opponents' proof-texts (Amos 4:13, Zech 12:1) about wind and the human spirit do not make the Holy Spirit a creature.
61. 60Answering an objection: Satan "fills" a heart not by entering it in substance, which only the Trinity can do, but by drawing it into evil through deceit and suggestion, as with Ananias and Elymas.
62. 61Satan entered Judas through his avarice, by activity, not substance; as a changeable creature the devil cannot be shared, so only the Trinity can indwell by substance.
63. 62Didymus dismisses the objection that an uncreated Spirit must be the Father's brother or the Son's son or brother: family names belong to bodies, and Scripture says only that the Son is begotten of the Father.
64. 63Didymus closes in fear of blaspheming the Spirit, asks readers to purify themselves and pardon his plain style, and states that his aim was to understand Scripture.