On the Holy Spirit (in Jerome's Latin translation) preface–10

When I was living in Babylon [that is, Rome], a tenant of the woman of easy virtue clothed in purple, and lived under the law of the Quirites, I wanted to babble something about the Holy Spirit and to dedicate the little work I had begun to the bishop of that same city. And behold, that pot which in Jeremiah is seen after the rod, from the face of the north, began to boil; and the senate of the Pharisees cried out together, and not a single scribe, not even a counterfeit one, but the whole faction of ignorance conspired against me, as if a battle of doctrines had been proclaimed against it. At once I returned to Jerusalem, as if by the right of return from captivity; and after the hut of Romulus and the games of the Lupercalia I looked upon the lodging of Mary and the cave of the Saviour. So, my brother Paulinian, since the bishop Damasus mentioned above, who first urged me to this work, now sleeps in Christ, I am now helped by your prayers as well as by those of Paula and Eustochium, handmaids of Christ whom I revere; and the song which I could not sing in a foreign land I now murmur here in Judaea, called forth by you, thinking this place far more august, which gave birth to the Saviour of the world, than that which gave birth to the murderer of his brother. And to confess the author in the title: I preferred to be the translator of another man's work rather than, as some do, a shapeless little crow decking myself out in another's colours. Some time ago I read a certain man's little books on the Holy Spirit, and, as the Comic poet says, I saw Latin that was not good made out of good Greek. Nothing there was argued with logic, nothing manly and taut that would draw the reader to assent even against his will: everything was flabby, soft, glossy and pretty, painted with perfumes gathered from here and there. But my Didymus, who has the eye of the bride in the Song of Songs and those lights which Jesus commanded to be lifted up to the white fields, looks far higher, and has restored to us the ancient custom by which a prophet is called a Seer. Certainly whoever reads him will recognize the thefts of the Latins and will despise the little streams once he begins to drink from the springs. He is unskilled in speech but not in knowledge, expressing the apostolic man by his very speech, as much by the light of his thought as by the simplicity of his words.

All divine matters ought to be attended to with reverence and great care, but above all what is said of the divinity of the Spirit, especially since blasphemy against him is without pardon, so that the punishment of the blasphemer extends not only through the whole present age but into the age to come. For the Saviour says that for one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit there is no forgiveness, "neither in this age nor in the age to come." So all the more must we attend to what account the Scriptures give of him, so that the error of blasphemy may not creep up on anyone, even through ignorance. It would have been better for a faithful and fearful man, who measures his strength, to pass over the greatness of the present question in silence and not draw a matter full of danger into his own peril. But since some, by rashness rather than by the right way, raise themselves even to heavenly things and boast things about the Holy Spirit that are neither read in the Scriptures nor used by any of the ancient churchmen, we have been compelled to yield to the very frequent urging of the brothers, and to prove by the testimonies of the Scriptures what our view of him is, so that those who set forth contrary views may not, through ignorance of so great a doctrine, deceive those who without careful examination are at once drawn over to the opponents' opinion.

The name "Holy Spirit", and the substance that the name itself points to, are wholly unknown to those who philosophize outside sacred Scripture. For both the notion of him and the term are found only in our own writings, in the New as well as the Old. David, a man of the Old Testament, who had become a sharer in him, prayed that he might remain in him, saying: "Do not take your Holy Spirit from me." And God is said to have stirred up the Holy Spirit in Daniel while he was still a boy, as one already dwelling in him. In the New Testament too, those men who are reported to have pleased God are full of the Holy Spirit. John, sanctified while still in his mother's womb, leaps for joy; and Jesus, rising from the dead, breathed into the face of the disciples and said: "Receive the Holy Spirit." The volumes of the divine Scriptures are full of such sayings; I have refrained from collecting the whole mass of them in this work, since it is not hard for any reader to find similar ones for himself from those we have cited.

Let no one suppose that there was one Holy Spirit in the holy men before the coming of the Lord and another in the apostles and the other disciples, as if a single name stood for different substances. We can produce testimonies from the divine writings that the same Spirit was in the apostles and in the prophets. Paul, in the epistle he writes to the Hebrews, citing a testimony from the book of Psalms, records that it was spoken by the Holy Spirit: "And as this Holy Spirit says: Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts," and so on. At the end of the Acts of the Apostles also, disputing with the Jews, he says: "As the Holy Spirit spoke through Isaiah the prophet to our fathers, saying: You will hear with your ears and not understand." Paul did not write this as one who had a different Holy Spirit, about one who was a different Spirit in the prophets before the Lord's coming, but about the one of whom he himself was a sharer, and all who were borne along in the faith of perfected virtue. That is why he mentions him with the article, as if testifying that he is unique and one: he does not say simply Πνεῦμα ἅγιον, that is, "Holy Spirit", but with the addition of the article, τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον, that is, "this Holy Spirit". And he records that Isaiah prophesied using the articled expression διὰ τοῦ Πνεύματος τοῦ ἁγίου, that is, "through this Holy Spirit", and not simply Πνεῦμα ἅγιον. Peter too, in the speech in which he was persuading those present, says: "The Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit (that is, τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον) spoke through the mouth of David concerning Judas," showing that the same Spirit worked both in the prophets and in the apostles.

We shall treat this more fully in what follows, when we begin to show that not only did the Word of the Lord come to the prophets but also the Holy Spirit, because he too is possessed inseparably with the only-begotten Son of God. The very name "Holy Spirit" is not an empty title but points to an underlying essence, partner of the Father and the Son and wholly foreign to creatures. For since creatures are divided into visible and invisible, that is, corporeal and incorporeal, the Holy Spirit, who dwells in the soul and the mind and produces speech, wisdom and knowledge, is not of the corporeal substances; nor is he of the invisible creatures. For all these are capable of receiving wisdom and the other virtues and sanctification; but this substance of which we now speak produces wisdom and knowledge and sanctification. Nor can any strength be found in the Holy Spirit, or any working of sanctification and virtue, that he holds from something outside himself, since a nature of that kind is changeable. But the Holy Spirit, by the confession of all, is unchangeable, the sanctifier in divine knowledge and the giver of all good things; and, to put it briefly, he himself subsists in the good things that are bestowed by the Lord. For Matthew and Luke, describing the same passage of the Gospel, one of them says: "How much more will the heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him?" and the other: "How much more will your heavenly Father give his Holy Spirit to those who ask him?" From this it appears that the Holy Spirit is the fullness of God's gifts, and that what is given by God does not subsist without him, since all the benefits received from the grace of God's gifts flow from this spring. What is good by substance cannot receive goodness from outside, since it gives goodness to others. So it is clear that the Holy Spirit is foreign not only to corporeal but also to incorporeal creatures, since other substances receive this substance of sanctification, while he is not only incapable of receiving a sanctification foreign to himself, but is moreover its giver and creator. Those who enjoy communion with him are called sharers in the Holy Spirit, sanctified, of course, by him. For it is plainly written: "And outraging the Spirit of grace", undoubtedly of one who sinned after receiving him. If he was sanctified through communion with the Holy Spirit, it is shown that he had been a sharer in him, and that the Holy Spirit is the giver of his sanctification. The Apostle too, writing to the Corinthians and listing those who are to attain the kingdom of heaven, adds: "And such some of you were; but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God," asserting that the Spirit of God is none other than the Holy Spirit. And he confirms the same in what follows, saying: "No one speaking in the Spirit of God says, Jesus is anathema; and no one says, Jesus is Lord, except in the Holy Spirit," confirming that the Spirit of God is the Holy Spirit.

If, then, he is a sanctifier, he is shown to be of an unchangeable, not a changeable, substance. But the divine oracles hand down most plainly that only the substance of God and of his only-begotten Son is unchangeable, while they proclaim the whole substance of creatures to be alterable and changeable. Therefore, since the substance of the Holy Spirit has been shown to be not alterable but unalterable, he will not be consubstantial with the creature. Otherwise a creature too would be unchangeable, if it were ranked with the Father and the Son, having the same unalterableness. For everything that is capable of receiving a good from outside is separated from this substance; and all creatures are of that kind. God, being good, is the source and beginning of good things: he makes good those to whom he gives himself, being good not because made so by another but by subsisting; therefore he is one who is received, not one who receives. The only-begotten Son too, his wisdom and sanctification, does not become wise but makes others wise; he is not sanctified but sanctifies. So he too is one who is received, not one who receives. Since, then, the invisible creation, which is customarily called the rational and incorporeal substance, is not something received but something that receives (for if it were received, it would not be capable of receiving any good, subsisting simple in itself, and also a receiver of another good), it has the good by participation, and it is to be understood not among the things that are had by others but among those that have others, the Father and the Son being had rather than having, and the creature having and not being had. Let us consider the Holy Spirit too in the same way: if he too is holy by participation in another's holiness, let him be numbered with the other creatures; but if he makes the saints capable of himself, let him be ranked with the Father and the Son. That the Holy Spirit is received by others and does not receive others we have set forth, as we could, both now and in our volume On the Sects, and it is very easy to confirm our argument from the whole of Scripture. The blessed Apostle, writing to the Ephesians, says: "In whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the pledge of our inheritance." If some are sealed with the Holy Spirit, taking on his form and likeness, the Holy Spirit is among the things that are had, not those that have, those who have him being impressed with his seal. Writing to the Corinthians [Ephesians] also, the same apostle says: "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit, in whom you were sealed," testifying that those who had received communion with the Holy Spirit are sealed. For just as one who takes up a discipline and a virtue receives into his mind the seal and, so to speak, the figure of the knowledge he has taken up, so one who becomes a sharer in the Holy Spirit becomes, through communion with him, both spiritual and holy.

If the Holy Spirit himself were one of the creatures, he would at least have a circumscribed substance, like everything that has been made. For even if invisible creatures are not circumscribed by place and boundaries, they are nevertheless bounded by the particular character of their substance. But the Holy Spirit, since he is in many, does not have a circumscribed substance. For when Jesus sent out the preachers of his teaching, he filled them with the Spirit, and breathing into their faces he said: "Receive the Holy Spirit," and "Go, teach all nations," as though he were sending all to all nations. For not all the apostles set out to all the nations alike; some went to Asia, some to Scythia, and others were scattered among other nations, according to the dispensation of the Holy Spirit whom they had with them, just as the Lord said: "I am with you always, to the end of the age." With this agrees also: "You will receive the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judaea and Samaria and to the end of the earth." If, then, these men, placed at the farthest ends of the earth for the testimony of the Lord, were separated from one another by very great distances, and yet the Holy Spirit was present with them as an indweller, having an uncircumscribed substance, angelic power is shown to be wholly different from him. For an angel who was present, for example, with an apostle praying in Asia could not at the same time be present with others placed in other parts of the world. But the Holy Spirit is present not only to men separated from one another but also dwells with every angel, principality, throne and dominion; and as, sanctifying men, he is of another nature than men, so, sanctifying other creatures, he is other than their substance, since every creature is made holy not by its own substance but by communion in a holiness other than itself.

The angels are indeed called holy in the Gospel, when the Saviour says that the Son of Man will come in his majesty and the Father's and that of the holy angels. And in the Acts of the Apostles Cornelius is written to have received an answer from a holy angel, to call Peter, Christ's disciple, to himself. But the angels are holy by participation in the Holy Spirit and by the indwelling of the only-begotten Son of God, who is holiness, and by communion with the Father, of whom the Saviour says: "Holy Father". If, then, the angels are holy not by their own substance but by participation in the holy Trinity, the substance of the angels is shown to be other than the Trinity. For just as the Father who sanctifies is other than those who are sanctified, and the Son is other than those whom he makes holy, so the Holy Spirit is of another substance than those whom he sanctifies by his bounty. But if the heretics propose that the angels are holy by the nature of their own constitution, they are forced in consequence to say that they are consubstantial (ὁμοούσιοι) with the Trinity and holy unalterably by substance. If, avoiding this, they say that the angels are of one nature with the other creatures, yet do not have the same holiness as men have, they will necessarily be led to say that men are of a much better substance, since men have holiness through communion with the Trinity, while the angels, holy by their own nature, are strangers to it. But the hope of perfect men, coming to the fulfilment of holiness, is to become equal to the angels. For it is the angels who give help to men, not men to angels, ministering salvation to them and announcing to them God's more generous benefits. From this it is clearly shown that the angels are more honourable and much better than men, through a closer, so to speak, and fuller reception of the Trinity.

So, since the Holy Spirit is other than the things he sanctifies, he is not of one nature with the other creatures that receive him. And if he is of another nature than creatures and subsists in his own essence, he is shown to be uncreated and unmade. Many Scriptures prove beyond doubt that he is of a nature other than all created things. Some are said to be full of the Holy Spirit; but no one, either in the Scriptures or in [common speech], is said to be full of a creature. Neither Scripture nor common speech claims this, that you should say someone is full of an angel, a throne or a dominion; this expression befits the divine nature alone. We do say that some are full of virtue and learning, as in "He was filled with the Holy Spirit", meaning nothing other than that they are full of complete and perfect virtue. It is written of John: "And he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb"; and again: "Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit"; and after other things: "And Zechariah his father was filled with the Holy Spirit." No doubt John too prophesied. In the Acts of the Apostles also it is reported of many believers who had come together: "They were filled with the Holy Spirit." But although the Holy Spirit can be shared, like wisdom and learning, he does not possess the substance of knowledge in empty names; rather, through a nature that sanctifies and fills all things with good things, he himself subsists as good; and in accordance with this some are said to be filled with the Holy Spirit, as it is written in the Acts of the Apostles: "And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness." For just as one who is full of some discipline and possesses it perfectly can speak of it learnedly and precisely, so those who have received the Holy Spirit fully, so as to be filled with him, speak the word of God with boldness, because the Holy Spirit, being present, supplies a voice worthy of God. Hence someone says with authority: "Thus says the Holy Spirit"; and the Apostle says: "But be filled with the Holy Spirit"; and in many places of the Acts of the Apostles the Lord's disciples are written to have been full of the Holy Spirit: "Look out, brothers, seven men from among you of good testimony, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom"; and of Stephen: "But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God"; and of the chosen vessel it is said: "But Saul, who is also Paul, full of the Holy Spirit, looked at him and said"; and of all the believers together it is noted: "The disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit." But the presence of an angel, or of any other excellent nature that has been made, does not fill the mind and understanding, since it too is filled from elsewhere. For just as one who receives from the fullness of the Saviour is made full of wisdom and power and righteousness and the word of God, so one who is full of the Holy Spirit is at once filled with all God's gifts: wisdom, knowledge, faith and the other virtues. He, then, who fills all creatures that can receive virtue and wisdom is not one of the things he fills. From this it follows that he is of another substance than all creatures. We have said elsewhere too that in the substance of the Holy Spirit the fullness of the divine gifts is also understood.

In short, it is impossible for anyone to obtain the grace of God if he does not have the Holy Spirit, in whom, as we show, all God's gifts consist. That one who has him has also fully obtained the word of wisdom and the other good things, the present passage clearly shows; and a little earlier we said that the Holy Spirit is the substance of God's good things, when we set out the example: "The Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him," and "The Father will give good things to those who ask him." Nor should we think that the Holy Spirit is divided into substances because he is called a multitude of good things; for he is impassible, indivisible and unchangeable. Rather, according to his different workings and the ways he is understood, he is called by many names of good things, because he does not give himself in communion to those who share in him according to one and the same power, since he is fitted to the benefit of each one and fills with good things those with whom he judges he ought to be present. So Stephen, that first witness of the truth, worthy of his name, is called full of wisdom and the Holy Spirit, wisdom being understood as following from the Holy Spirit dwelling in him, as Scripture says: "And the apostles chose Stephen, full of faith and the Holy Spirit"; and: "Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing wonders and great signs among the people." And again of the same man: "And they could not resist the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke." For the blessed man, full of the Holy Spirit, became a sharer also in faith, which comes from the Holy Spirit, according to the saying: "To another faith, by the same Spirit." And having grace and power according to the same Spirit, he was doing signs and great wonders among the people. He abounded too, by the same Spirit, in those gifts that are called gifts of healing and powers. For these too are placed in the list of the gifts of God, given by the Spirit and according to the Spirit, in the apostle Paul's first Epistle to the Corinthians. Stephen so abounded in divine grace that none of those who contradicted and disputed against him could resist the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke; for he was wise from the Holy Spirit. That is why Jesus plainly proclaims to his disciples: When you are brought before rulers and authorities, councils and synagogues, do not be anxious about what you ought to say or what you will speak at that time; for words of wisdom will be given to you by the Holy Spirit, which they cannot contradict, not even those who are very skilled in disputation.

But let us set out the testimony itself, which runs as follows: "When they bring you into the synagogues before rulers and authorities, do not be anxious how or what you will answer; for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that same hour what you ought to say." And in another Gospel: "Settle it, then, in your hearts not to prepare beforehand how you will answer; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which they will not be able to contradict or answer." Since the Holy Spirit gives the apostles words against those who opposed the Gospel, it is clearly shown that the word of wisdom and of knowledge is understood as contained in his substance. How the Saviour in that hour gives his disciples a mouth and wisdom that cannot be contradicted, not even by those thought most eloquent among men, it is not the time to discuss now, since we have now set out to show that the gifts of the virtues are always understood to be contained in the Holy Spirit, so that one who has him is held to be full of God's gifts. That is why in Isaiah God himself says to someone: "I will put my Spirit upon your seed, and my blessings upon your sons." For no one ever receives God's spiritual blessings unless the Holy Spirit has come first. For one who has received the Holy Spirit will in consequence have the blessings, that is, wisdom and understanding and the rest, of which the Apostle writes: "For this reason we too, from the day we heard, have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, walking worthily of God." He says that those who walk worthily of him in works and words and prudence are filled with the will of God, who puts the Holy Spirit upon them so that they may be filled with wisdom and understanding and the other spiritual good things. Wisdom and understanding, which are in the Holy Spirit, are given by God. "The Lord," it says, "will give wisdom, and from his face come wisdom and understanding"; whereas the wisdom that comes from men is not spiritual but fleshly and human. Of this the Apostle writes: "Not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God have we conducted ourselves in the world," calling fleshly wisdom that which subsists in bodily matters from human thought. But spiritual and intellectual wisdom, concerned with invisible and intellectual things, gives its presence to those who receive it through the working of the Holy Spirit. In many other places too the Apostle records that God's gifts dwell in the substance of the Holy Spirit, as in that saying: "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope and in the power of the Holy Spirit."