Conclusion [1.32–33]

Conclusion [1.32–33]

Letter One

Introduction [1.1–2]

1.1.1. {1.1} The letter of Your Sacred Kindness has reached me in the desert. Even if the persecution leveled against us is somewhat bitter and the pursuit by those looking to kill us is intense, nonetheless the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation [2 Cor 1.3] has used your letter to comfort us. For when I called to mind Your Kindness and all my friends, it seemed to me that you and they were present with me at that time.

1.1.2. So then, I was overjoyed to receive your letter. But as I read it, once again I began to lose heart because of those who formerly aimed to fight against the truth. For you were clearly upset, my beloved and truly most dear friend, and you wrote that certain ones who have withdrawn from the Arians on account of their blasphemy against the Son of God have nonetheless set their minds against the Holy Spirit, claiming not only that he is a creature but also that he is one of the ministering spirits [Heb 1.14] and is different from the angels only in degree.

1.1.3. But this amounts to a feigned battle against the Arians, while their real dispute is with the pious faith. For just as Arians by denying the Son also deny the Father, so too these people by disparaging the Holy Spirit also disparage the Son. And these two groups divide between themselves the opposition to the truth, so that, with some setting their minds against the Word and others against the Spirit, they might hold the same blasphemy against the Holy Trinity.

1.1.4. So then, observing these matters and giving them careful consideration, I came to lose heart because once again the devil has found players to stage his madness. While I had decided to keep silent at this time, nonetheless, at the behest of Your Sincerity and due to their heterodoxy and diabolical presumption, I wrote this letter, brief as it is, though I am scarcely capable of such a thing. But take this letter as an opportunity to add what still needs to be said, as seems best to your understanding. And so, thus will the refutation of this impious heresy become complete.

How the teaching of the Tropikoi amounts to Arianism

1.2.1. {1.2} So then, on the one hand, this kind of thinking is not foreign to the Arians. For having once denied the Word of God, it is natural for them also to disparage his Spirit in the same way. Thus we don’t need to say anything more against them. For what we have already said against them is sufficient. 1.2.2. But on the other hand, in order to respond to those who have been deceived about the Spirit through a certain “mode of exegesis” (as they themselves would say), it would be fitting for us to subject a few of their tenets to a careful examination. Indeed, one should marvel at their stupidity! For if they do not wish the Son of God to be a creature—and in this matter at any rate their thinking is sound—then how are they content to countenance that the Spirit of the Son is a creature?

1.2.3. For even if on account of the unity of the Word with the Father they do not wish the Son to be one of the things that have come into existence, but—as is truly the case—they think that he is the Creator of things that are made, why do they say that the Holy Spirit, who has the same unity with the Son as the Son has with the Father, is a creature? Why hasn’t it dawned on them that, just as by not dividing the Son from the Father they preserve the unity of God, so too, by dividing the Spirit from the Word they no longer preserve the divinity in the Trinity as one, but rupture it, and mix with it a nature that is foreign to it and different in kind, and reduce it to the level of creatures? 1.2.4. This in turn renders the Trinity no longer one but compounded of two distinct natures, because the Spirit, as they imagine among themselves, is different in substance.

So then, what sort of theology is this, which makes God a compound of Creator and creature? For either there is not a Trinity, but a dyad plus a creature, or, if there is a Trinity—as in fact there is—then how can they rank the Spirit of the Trinity with the creatures who come after the Trinity? For once again this amounts to dividing and dissolving the Trinity. 1.2.5. Therefore, because of their faulty thinking about the Holy Spirit, not even their thinking about the Son is sound. For if they were to think correctly about the Word, they would also think soundly about the Spirit, who proceeds from the Father [Jn 15.26] and, being proper to the Son, is given by him to the disciples and to all who believe in him. 1.2.6. Erring in this way they do not even have sound faith about the Father. For those who oppose the Spirit, as the great martyr Stephen said, also deny the Son, and those who deny the Son do not even have the Father.

On the Correct Interpretation of Amos 4.13 [1.3.1–1.10.3]

The Tropikoi base their claim that Holy Spirit is a creature on Amos 4.13

1.3.1. {1.3} Now where did you find a pretext for such great audacity, that you do not fear what was said by the Savior: Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit has no forgiveness either in this age or in the age to come [Mt 12.32]? For the Arians, though they did not understand the incarnate presence of the Word and the things said by him when he was present, nevertheless found a pretext for their own heresy in what he said, and thus were condemned as fighters against God [Acts 5.39] and in truth babblers uttering sounds from the earth [Is 8.19]. 1.3.2. But as for you, what misled you? What teaching of theirs have you countenanced? What mode of exegesis is responsible for this great error of yours? As you write: “We have read,” say our opponents, “in the Prophet Amos, where God says: Therefore I am the one who gives strength to thunder and who creates spirit and who proclaims his Christ to humanity, who makes the dawn and foggy mist, and who mounts upon the high places of the earth: Lord God Almighty is his name! [Am 4.12–13]. And on this basis the Arians have persuaded us when they say that the Holy Spirit is a creature.” 1.3.3. So you’ve read the passage from Amos.

Yet the Tropikoi correctly interpret Proverbs 8.22

But there’s a passage in Proverbs: The Lord created me as the beginning of his ways for his works [Prov 8.22]. Have you or have you not read this? And you interpret this passage correctly, in not saying that the Word is a creature. But as for the passage in the Prophet, isn’t it true that you did not interpret it, but upon hearing of an unmodified “spirit” you immediately thought that the Holy Spirit was being called a creature? 1.3.4. Even though in Proverbs it is clearly Wisdom who says: he created me, yet you do what is right and interpret the passage such that you do not classify the creative Wisdom with the creatures. But the passage of the Prophet gives no indication that it concerns the Holy Spirit, but speaks in an unqualified way about “spirit.” 1.3.5. So then, even though the Scriptures contain a great variety of uses of “spirit” and the passage of Amos can have a proper meaning that is correct, why do you—either out of love of contention or because you have been poisoned by the bite of the Arian serpent—think that Amos is speaking about the Holy Spirit? The only reason must be that you do not want to stop thinking that he is a creature.

When “spirit” is unqualified in the Scriptures, it does not refer the Holy Spirit

1.4.1. {1.4} Tell me: have you found any passage in the Divine Scriptures where the Holy Spirit is called “spirit” without qualification, without being modified with either “of God,” or “of the Father,” or “my,” or “his,” or “of Christ” and “of the Son,” or “from me,” that is, from God, or with the definite article (such that he is not called “spirit” without qualification but “the Spirit”), or the very term “the Holy Spirit,” or “Paraclete,” or “of Truth” (that is, of the Son, who says: I am the Truth [Jn 14.6])—any passage in which, when you hear “spirit” without any qualification, you assume that it is the Holy Spirit?

For the moment, exclude from consideration those instances in which people who have already received the Spirit are mentioned again, and those passages where readers, after having already learned about the Holy Spirit, are not unaware about whom they are hearing when later, in cases of repetition and reminder, mention is made of only “the Spirit,” especially since in these cases “spirit” is said with the definite article. 1.4.2. In general, if “spirit” is said without the definite article or without one of the aforementioned modifiers, it cannot be the Holy Spirit who is signified.

Such is what Paul writes to the Galatians: Only this do I want to learn from you: have you received the Spirit from works of the Law or by faith in what you have heard? [Gal 3.2]. What did they receive if not the Holy Spirit, who is given to those who believe and are reborn [1 Pet 1.23] through the washing of regeneration [Titus 3.5]? And when he wrote to the Thessalonians: Do not quench the Spirit [1 Thess 5.19], he was speaking to those who also knew what they had received, so that through carelessness they would not quench the grace of the Spirit that had been kindled within them.

1.4.3. And in the Gospels, when the Evangelists speak of the Savior in a human way on account of the flesh that he assumed: Jesus, being full of the Spirit, returned from the Jordan [Lk 4.1], and: Then Jesus was driven by the Spirit into the desert [Mt 4.1], it has the same sense. For Luke had previously said: And it happened that after many people had been baptized, and after Jesus had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form, like a dove [Lk 3.21–22]. It is clear that when “the Spirit” is mentioned, the Holy Spirit is signified.

1.4.4. So then, in those passages where it is the Holy Spirit, it is not ambiguous that the Holy Spirit is signified even if only “the Spirit” is said without a modifier added to it, especially since it has the definite article.

Testimonies of qualified usages of “spirit” that refer to the Holy Spirit

1.5.1. {1.5} Answer the question set before you, whether anywhere in the Divine Scriptures you have found the Holy Spirit called “Spirit” without qualification, without one of the aforementioned modifiers added to it (excluding the cases mentioned above). But you will not be able to provide an answer, since you will find nothing like that written in Scripture.

On the contrary, in Genesis it is written: And the Spirit of God was moving over the water [Gen 1.2]. And a little after this: My Spirit shall not abide in these people because they are flesh [Gen 6.3].

1.5.2. In Numbers Moses says to the son of Nun: Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets, when the Lord bestows his Spirit upon them! [Num 11.29].

1.5.3. And in Judges it is said of Othniel: And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel [Judg 3.10]. And again: And the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah [Judg 11.29]. Concerning Sampson it says: The child grew, and the Lord blessed him. And the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him [Judg 13.24–25]. And: The Spirit of the Lord sprung upon him [Judg 15.14].

1.5.4. And David sings in the psalm: Do not take your Holy Spirit away from me! [Ps 50.13]. And again in Psalm 142: Your good Spirit shall guide me on level ground for your name’s sake, Lord [Ps 142.10–11].

1.5.5. In Isaiah it is written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me [Is 61.1]. Before this he said: Woe to you, rebellious children! Thus says the Lord: “You have carried out a plan, but not with me; you have made covenants, but not with my Spirit, adding sins to sins.” [Is 30.1]. And again: Listen to these things: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; when it took place, I was there. And now the Lord has sent me, and his Spirit [Is 48.16]. 1.5.6. And a little further on he speaks the following words: This is my covenant with them, said the Lord, my Spirit which is upon you [Is 59.21]. And again in a subsequent passage he adds: Neither a legate nor an angel, but the Lord himself saved them because he loved them and he spared them. He redeemed them and took them and raised them in all the days of the age. But they did not believe and they enraged his Holy Spirit, and he turned to them in animosity [Is 63.9–10].

1.5.7. Ezekiel speaks these words: And the Spirit took me, and he led me into the land of the Chaldaeans, into captivity, in a vision, in the Spirit of God [Ezek 11.24]. And in Daniel: God aroused the Holy Spirit of a young man whose name was Daniel, and he cried out with a loud shout: “I am innocent of the blood of this woman!” [Dan 13.45].

1.5.8. And Micah says: The house of Jacob provoked the Spirit of the Lord [Micah 2.7]. And through Joel God says: And it shall come to pass after these things that I will pour out upon all flesh from my Spirit [Joel 3.1]. And again, through Zechariah the voice of God says: But receive my words and my laws, which I have enjoined by my Spirit upon my servants, the prophets [Zech 1.6]. A little further on, the Prophet said in rebuke of the people: And they made their hearts disobedient in order not to obey my law, and the words which the almighty Lord had sent by his Spirit by the hands of the prophets of long ago [Zech 7.12].

These are passages we have collected from the Old Testament; we have recorded only a few of them here.

1.6.1. {1.6} Also investigate for yourselves the contents of the Gospels and the writings of the Apostles. You will see how even there, inasmuch as there is a great difference among spirits, the Holy Spirit is not typically called “Spirit” without qualification but with one of the modifiers we have mentioned.

1.6.2. So then, as I said above, when the Lord was baptized in human fashion on account of the flesh which he bore, it is said that the Holy Spirit descended upon him [Lk 3.22; Jn 1.32–33]. And when the Lord gave him to his disciples, he said: Receive the Holy Spirit [Jn 20.22]. And he taught them: But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things [Jn 14.26]. And a little after this, he said about the same: But when the Paraclete comes, whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me [Jn 15.26]. 1.6.3. And again: For it is not you who speak but it is the Spirit of your Father who is speaking in you [Mt 10.20]. And a little after this: But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the reign of God has come upon you [Mt 12.28]. And perfecting all our knowledge of God and our baptismal initiation, by which he joins us to himself and, through him, to the Father, the Lord enjoined upon his disciples: Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit [Mt 28.19].

1.6.4. When the Lord promised to send him to them: He commanded them: “Do not depart from Jerusalem” [Acts 1.4], and after a few days: When the time for Pentecost had been fulfilled, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like a mighty wind rushing, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues divided as of fire, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled to utter [Acts 2.1–4]. 1.6.5. Later on, the Holy Spirit was given to those who were born again when Apostles laid their hands on them. A certain Agabus prophesied through him, saying: Thus says the Holy Spirit [Acts 21.11]. 1.6.6. And Paul: . . . the flock in which the Holy Spirit has set you as overseers to shepherd the church of God, which he acquired through his own blood [Acts 20.28]. And when the eunuch was baptized, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip [Acts 8.39].

And Peter wrote: You obtain as the goal of faith the salvation of souls. The prophets who prophesied about the grace for you searched and inquired about this salvation; they inquired into what time or which circumstance was being indicated by the Spirit of Christ in them, when he was predicting the sufferings reserved for Christ and the glories that would follow after [1 Pet 1.9–11]. And John wrote in his letter: By this we know that we remain in him, and he in us, because he has given to us from his Spirit [1 Jn 4.13].

And Paul wrote to the Romans: You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. 1.6.7. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, although your body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will give life even to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. [Rom 8.9–11].

1.6.8. To the Corinthians: For the Spirit scrutinizes all things, even the depths of God. For who knows the things that belong to a human being except the human spirit that is in him? So too no one knows the things that belong to God except the Spirit of God. But we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that comes from God, that we might know the gifts bestowed on us by God [1 Cor 2.10–12]. And after a little bit: Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? [1 Cor 3.16]. 1.6.9. And again: But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God [1 Cor 6.11]. And after a little bit: But one and the same Spirit works all these, apportioning to each as he wills [1 Cor 12.11]. And again: The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom [2 Cor 3.17].

1.6.10. See how he writes also in the letter to the Galatians, saying: That the blessing of Abraham might come through Christ Jesus, that we may receive the promise of the Spirit through faith [Gal 3.14]. And again: Since you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” The result is that you are no longer a servant, but a son. And if a son, then an heir of God through Christ [Gal 4.6–7].

1.6.11. To the Ephesians he spoke these words: Do not sadden the Holy Spirit in whom you have been sealed for the day of redemption [Eph 4.30]. And again: Be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace [Eph 4.3].

To the Philippians he boldly wrote: What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in this I rejoice, but I will also continue to rejoice. For I know that this will lead to my salvation through your prayers and through the support of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to which my expectation and hope that in nothing shall I be ashamed [Phil 1.18–20]. 1.6.12. And again: For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus [Phil 3.3].

And to the Thessalonians he testifies: The one who rejects does not reject a human being, but God who gave his Holy Spirit to you [1 Thess 4.8].

1.6.13. And to the Hebrews: By this the Holy Spirit reveals that the way into the sanctuary was not yet made manifest so long as the first tabernacle was still standing [Heb 9.8]. And again: How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the man who has despised the Son of God, and regarded as profane the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and outraged the Spirit of grace? [Heb 10.29]. And again: For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, when sprinkled on unclean persons, sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, purify your conscience from dead works? [Heb 9.13–14].

And to the Thessalonians: And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the Spirit of his mouth and destroy by the manifestation of his coming [2 Thess 2.8].

The various scriptural senses of “spirit” when not qualified as described above

1.7.1. {1.7} See how the Holy Spirit is recognized in all the Divine Scriptures! So, did you observe something like this in the Prophet? For the “spirit” mentioned by the Prophet does not even have the definite article to give you a pretext. 1.7.2. Out of sheer audacity you have invented your own modes of exegesis and claim that the “spirit’ said to be created is nothing other than the Holy Spirit. Yet from scholars you could have learned about the difference among spirits.

1.7.3. For the spirit of a human being is called a “spirit,” as David sings in the psalm: At night I mused within my heart, and my spirit questioned [Ps 76.7]. Baruch prayed in these words: The soul in anguish and the spirit of weariness had cried out to you [Bar 3.1]. And in Daniel it is written: Spirits and souls of the just, bless the Lord! [Dan 3.86]. 1.7.4. The Apostle writes: The Spirit himself gives testimony with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then also heirs [Rom 8.16–17]. And again: No one knows the things that belong to a human being except the human spirit that is in him [1 Cor 2.11]. In the letter to the Thessalonians he prays in these words: May your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ [1 Thess 5.23].

1.7.5. Also, wind is called “spirit,” as in Genesis: And God brought a spirit upon the earth, and the water abated [Gen 8.1]. As for Jonah: And the Lord stirred up a spirit upon the sea, and a great wave arose on the sea, and the ship was in danger of shattering [Jon 1.4]. And in Psalm 106 it is written: He spoke, and a gust of spirit rose up, and the waves of sea were tossed [Ps 106.25]. 1.7.6. And in Psalm 148: Praise the Lord from the earth, monsters of the sea and all deeps, fire and hail, snow and ice, gust of spirit, all that obey his word! [Ps 148.7–8]. And in Ezekiel, in the Lament for Tyre: In the heart of the sea, in great water your rowers brought you; the spirit of the south wind has shattered you [Ezek 27.25–26].

1.8.1. {1.8} If you read the Divine Scriptures, you will also find that “spirit” is used for the meaning which is in the divine words themselves, as Paul writes: He has made us to be fit ministers of the new covenant, not of its letter but of its spirit. For the letter kills, but the spirit gives life [2 Cor 3.6]. For that which can be uttered is characterized by the letter, but the meaning in it is called its “spirit.” Thus too, the law is spiritual [Rom 7.14], as he says again, so that we may serve not in the oldness of the letter but in the newness of the spirit [Rom 7.6]. And the same is said in thanksgiving: So then, I serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh the law of sin. So now there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has liberated me from the law of sin [Rom 7.25–8.2].

1.8.2. When Philip wanted to turn the eunuch from the letter to the spirit, he said: Do you understand what you are reading? [Acts 8.30]. In Numbers it is testified that Caleb had a spirit like this, when God said: But as for my servant Caleb, because another spirit came to be in him, and he has followed me, I shall lead him into the land into which he was called [Num 14.24]. 1.8.3. For he pleased God [Wis 4.10] by speaking with an understanding that differed from that of others. It was such a heart that God exhorted the people to have, when he said through Ezekiel: Make yourself a new heart and a new spirit [Ezek 18.31].

The word “spirit” in Amos 4.13 is to be interpreted as “the wind”

1.8.4. Now in light of these considerations, and inasmuch as we have shown the great difference among spirits, you would have done better, if when you heard of a “spirit” that was created, you had thought of one of the aforementioned spirits. Such a spirit was written about in Isaiah: Aram has come to agreement with Ephraim, and his soul was amazed and the soul of his people, in the way that the trees of the woods are shaken by spirit [Is 7.2]. 1.8.5. And such a spirit is mentioned here: the Lord stirred up a spirit upon the sea [Jon 1.4] because of Jonah. For the spirits of the wind follow upon the thunder, as with the rains that fell against Ahab, when it is written: And it came to pass in a little while that the heaven grew black with clouds and spirit [1 Kg 18.45].

The Tropikoi’s objection to this interpretation, and a response

1.9.1. {1.9} “But since the oracle mentions Christ,” our opponents say, “it follows that what is called ‘spirit’ must be understood as nothing other than the Holy Spirit.” So you have observed that the Holy Spirit is named together with Christ. But you have not learned that by nature he is different and separated from the Son. Why is it that Christ you do not call a creature, but the Holy Spirit you do call a creature? 1.9.2. Furthermore, it is absurd to name together and glorify together things that are by nature unlike. For what sort of commonality or what sort of likeness is there between a creature and the Creator? You are determined to classify and join together with the Son the creatures brought into existence by the Son.

An alternative interpretation of “spirit” in Amos 4.13 as “the human spirit”

1.9.3. So then, it would be sufficient, as we have said, to understand what has been written as about the spirit of winds. But since you appeal to the fact that Christ is mentioned in this passage as the pretext for your claims, we must subject what is said to a precise analysis, to see if we can find a more suitable understanding of the “spirit” which is said to be created. 1.9.4. So what does it mean when he proclaims his Christ to humanity [Am 4.13]? Nothing other than that he becomes human. It is equivalent to saying: Behold! The virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel [Is 7.14; Mt 1.23], and as many other things which were written about his sojourn. But if it is the incarnate presence of the Word that is proclaimed, then how must the created “spirit” be understood, if not as the recreated and renewed spirit of human beings?

1.9.5. For this is what God proclaims through Ezekiel, saying: A new heart I shall give you, and a new spirit I shall give you; and I shall take out of your flesh the stony heart and give you a fleshy heart; and I shall put my Spirit within you [Ezek 36.26–27]. When was this fulfilled, if not when the Lord came and renewed everything by his grace? 1.9.6. See too how in this passage the difference among spirits is indicated: our spirit is renewed, whereas the Holy Spirit is not a spirit without qualification, but God says he is his Spirit, in whom our spirits are renewed. As the Psalmist sings in Psalm 103: You take away their spirit, and they die, and return to the dust from which they came. You send forth your Spirit, and they are created, and you renew the face of the earth [Ps 103.29–30]. If we are renewed by the Spirit of God, then when the spirit in this passage is said to be created, it is not the Holy Spirit but our spirit. 1.9.7. Indeed, if you rightly think that the Son is not a creature because all things came into existence through the Word, how is it not blasphemous for you to call the Spirit a creature, in whom the Father through the Word perfects and renews all things?

1.9.8. And if they have imagined that the Holy Spirit is meant when it is written that a “spirit” without qualification is created, they still ought to be persuaded that it is not the Holy Spirit who is created, but that it is our spirit which is renewed by him. David prayed about this spirit when he sang in the psalm: A pure heart create for me and renew an upright spirit within me [Ps 50.12]. 1.9.9. Here God is said to “create” a spirit. But Zechariah says that God first “formed” it: He stretched out the heavens, and founded the earth, and formed the spirit of man in him [Zech 12.1]. When the spirit he first formed had fallen, the Word remade it by coming among the creatures when he became flesh, so that, as the Apostle says, he might make the two into one new man, who according to God was created in righteousness and holiness of truth [Eph 2.15 + 4.24]. 1.9.10. Here it is not as if he were saying that another man had been created, other than the man who from the beginning was made according to the Image, but he is advising them to adopt the mind that was recreated and renewed in Christ. This is once again clarified through Ezekiel, when he says: Make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, house of Israel? For I do not want the death of the one that dies, says the Lord God [Ezek 18.31–32].

An interpretation of the “thunder” in Amos 4.13 as the unshaken law of the Spirit

1.10.1. {1.10} So then, if this is how the created spirit is to be understood, it would be appropriate to take the thunder to which he gives strength [Am 4.13] as that saying which is sure and that law of the Spirit which cannot be shaken. The Lord wanted James and John to be ministers of this when he called them “Boanerges,” that is, “sons of thunder” [Mk 3.17]. 1.10.2. John, at least, truly rumbled from heaven: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word [Jn 1.1]. Earlier the law had a shadow of the good things to come [Heb 10.1], but when Christ was proclaimed to humanity and came near, saying: I who speak am here [Is 52.6; Jn 4.26], then, in the words of Paul, his voice shook the earth, as he promised long ago: “Yet once more I shall shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.” The phrase “once more” indicates the removal of what can be shaken so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, through which we offer acceptable worship to God [Heb 12.26–28]. 1.10.3. As for that kingdom which Paul says cannot be shaken, David says that it has been given strength when he sings in the psalm: The Lord reigns, he has robed himself with majesty. The Lord has clothed and girded himself with power. For he has given strength to the world, which will not be shaken [Ps 92.1]. And so, the utterance of the Prophet signifies the coming of the Savior, by which we are renewed and the law of the Spirit remains unshaken.

On the Correct Interpretation of 1 Timothy 5.21 [1.10.4–1.14.7]

The Tropikoi claim the Holy Spirit has angelic status based on 1 Timothy 5.21

1.10.4. But the Tropikoi, true to their name, who reached an agreement with the Arians and divided between themselves the blasphemy against the divinity (such that the latter call the Son a creature and the former the Spirit a creature), have once again dared, as they themselves would admit, to come up with their own modes of exegesis and to misinterpret that saying of the Apostle which he flawlessly wrote to Timothy, saying: In the presence of God and Jesus Christ and the elect angels, I charge you to observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing out of partiality [1 Tim 5.21]. Because Paul listed the angels only after he mentioned God and Christ, our opponents claim that the Spirit must be classified with the angels, and he belongs to their order and is an angel that is greater than the others.

This teaching is really based on Valentinus, not the Scriptures

1.10.5. First of all, this invention smacks of the impiety of Valentinus, and they have not been able to conceal that they repeat his ideas. For he said that, when the Paraclete was sent, the angels who were his contemporaries were sent together with him. So, when our opponents bring the Spirit down to the level of the angels, they rank all the angels with the Trinity. 1.10.6. For if the angels come after the Father and Son, as our opponents claim, it is clear that the angels are whatever the Trinity is. No longer are they ministering spirits sent to minister [Heb 1.14], nor are they sanctified but they themselves sanctify others.

1.11.1. {1.11} What makes our opponents spout such great nonsense? Where in the Scriptures have they found the Holy Spirit called an angel? I must repeat the points I’ve already made. He is called “Paraclete,” “Spirit of adopted sonship,” “Spirit of sanctification,” “Spirit of God,” and “Spirit of Christ.” Nowhere is he called “angel,” or “archangel,” or “ministering spirit,” as are the angels. On the contrary, together with the Son he is himself ministered to by Gabriel when he says to Mary: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the Power of the Most High will overshadow you [Lk 1.35]. 1.11.2. If the Scriptures do not call the Spirit an angel, what sort of defense can our opponents offer for such irrational audacity? For even Valentinus, who sowed this kind of evil thinking among them, called the Spirit “Paraclete” and the angels “angels,” though at the same time he very foolishly ranks the Spirit as a contemporary of the angels.

Refutation of the Tropikoi’s appeal to Zechariah 4.5

“But look,” our opponents say, “in the Prophet Zechariah it is written: Thus says the angel who speaks within me [Zech 4.5]. It is clear that the angel who speaks within him is the Spirit.” 1.11.3. Now they would not have said this if they had been attentive to the reading. Upon seeing the vision of the lampstand, Zechariah said: And the angel who speaks within me answered, and said: “Don’t you know what these things are?” And I said: “No, lord.” And he answered, and said to me, saying: “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, saying: ‘Not by great power, nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty’.” [Zech 4.5–6]. 1.11.4. It is obvious that the angel who spoke within the Prophet was not the Holy Spirit. For the angel was an angel, but the spirit was the Spirit of Almighty God, to whom the angel ministers and who is inseparable from the divinity and proper to the Word.

The Scriptures are careful to distinguish between the Holy Spirit and angels

Since they want to base their claim on the passage of the Apostle because it lists the elect angels after Christ, they will need to answer some questions. Who from among all the angels is to be ranked with the Trinity? For indeed they are all of them not one in number! Which of them descended to the Jordan in the form of a dove? For the ministering angels are a thousand thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand [Dan 7.10]. When the heavens were opened, why didn’t it say, “one of the elect angels descended,” but, the Holy Spirit descended [Lk 3.22]? 1.11.5. Why did the Lord himself distinguish between them, when he discussed the end of the world with his disciples? For on the one hand he said: The Son of man will send his angels [Mt 13.41]. And before this he said: The angels ministered to him [Mt 4.11]. And again he says: The angels will come out [Mt 13.49]. 1.11.6. But on the other hand, when he gave the Spirit to his disciples, he said: Receive the Holy Spirit [Jn 20.22]. And when he sent them, he said: Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit [Mt 28.19]. 1.11.7. He did not rank an angel with the divinity, nor was it through a creature that he joined us to himself and to the Father, but through the Holy Spirit. And when Lord promised him, he did not say that he would send an angel, but the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father [Jn 15.26] and from him receives and is given.

1.12.1. {1.12} Moses also knows that the angels are creatures, but that the Holy Spirit is united to the Son and the Father. For when God says to him: Go up from this place, you and your people, whom you have led up from the land of Egypt into the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying: “To your seed I will give it. And I will send my angel before you, and he will drive out the Canaanite.” [Ex 33.1–2], he refused, saying: If you yourself do not go along with us, do not lead me up from this place! [Ex 33.15]. For he did not want a creature to lead the people, lest they should learn to worship the created order instead of the one who created all things, God [Rom 1.25]. 1.12.2. Indeed, when he refused the angel, he begged God himself to guide them. But God had made the following promise, saying to him: And this word of yours that you have spoken, I will do it. For you have found favor before me, and I know you above all [Ex 33.17], and in Isaiah it is written: Where is the one who brought the shepherd of the sheep up from the land, the one who places the Holy Spirit in them, the one who leads Moses up by his right hand? [Is 63.11–12]. And he says a little after this: The Spirit came down from the Lord and guided them. In this way you led your people, to make your name glorious [Is 63.14].

1.12.3. Who cannot perceive the truth from these passages? For when God promised to guide them, note that he no longer promised to send an angel, but his Spirit who is superior to the angels, and he guides the people. And he shows that the Spirit is neither one of the creatures, nor an angel, but superior to the created order and united to the divinity of the Father. 1.12.4. For God himself through the Word in the Spirit guided the people. Hence, all through Scripture he says: I led you up out of the land of Egypt: you are witnesses, if there was a foreign god among you besides me [Lev 11.45; Judg 6.8; Is 44.8; Is 45.21; Hos 13.4]. And the saints declare unto God: You guided your people like sheep [Ps 76.21], and: The Lord guided them with hope, and they were not afraid [Ps 77.53]. To him they also offered up a hymn, singing: To him who led his people through the desert, for his mercy endures forever [Ps 135.16]. 1.12.5. And the great Moses unceasingly proclaimed: The Lord God who goes before your face [Deut 1.30]. And so, the Spirit of God cannot be an angel, nor a creature, but is proper to his divinity. For when the Spirit was among the people, God was among them through the Son in the Spirit.

The absence of any reference to the Spirit in 1 Timothy 5.21 has scriptural warrant

1.13.1. {1.13} “But even granting this,” say our opponents, “why did the Apostle not list the Holy Spirit, but rather the elect angels, after Christ?” We could ask them the same thing. Why did Paul only list the elect angels, but not archangels, nor cherubim, nor seraphim, nor dominions, nor thrones, or anything else? 1.13.2. Because he does not list all these, are the angels archangels, or are they only angels, and neither seraphim, nor cherubim, nor archangels, nor dominions, nor thrones, nor principalities, nor anything else? But this is nothing other than to ask the Apostle why he wrote as he did and not in some other way; it bespeaks ignorance of the Divine Scriptures and thus divergence from the truth.

1.13.3. For look at what was written in Isaiah: Draw near to me, and listen to these things: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; when it took place, I was there. And now the Lord has sent me, and his Spirit [Is 48.16]. And in Haggai: And now take courage, Zerubbabel, says the Lord. And take courage, Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest, says the Lord. And take courage, all you people of the land, says the Lord. And work, for I am with you, says the Lord Almighty. . . . And my Spirit abides in the midst of you [Hag 2.4–5]. Now in both Prophets mention is made only of the Lord and Spirit.

1.13.4. So, what will our opponents say about this? They rank the Spirit among the angels because Paul, after listing Christ, omitted the Spirit and mentioned the elect angels. Therefore, when they read these passages of the Prophets, they will argue with even greater audacity about the one who was omitted. 1.13.5. If they were to say that the Lord is the Son, what would they say about the Father? But if they were to say that the Lord is the Father, what would they say about the Son? No one should even ponder the blasphemy which they say follows from this. For he who was omitted must either be said not to exist or be classified with the things that are made.

1.14.1. {1.14} What would our opponents say if they also hear the Lord saying: In a certain place there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man [Lk 18.2]. Because a man is listed after God, is the Son the man whom the unjust judge does not respect? Or, because the man is listed after God, is the Son third after the man and the Holy Spirit fourth? 1.14.2. What if they also hear the Apostle when he says again in the same letter: I charge you before God who gives life to all things, and before Jesus Christ who witnessed to a good confession in the time of Pontius Pilate, that you keep the commandment without spot, blameless [1 Tim 6.13–14]. 1.14.3. Because now he omits the angels and the Spirit, will our opponents have doubts about whether the Spirit exists and about whether the angels exist? Yes, they have doubts, even to the point of being well practiced in uttering such blasphemies against the Spirit! 1.14.4. If they hear the Scripture when it says in Exodus: The people feared the Lord, and believed in God and in Moses, his servant [Ex 14.31], will they then classify Moses with God? Will they think of only Moses, and not of the Son, as coming after God? 1.14.5. What if they also hear the patriarch Jacob when he blessed Joseph and said: O God who has sustained me from my youth until this day, the angel who rescued me from all evils, bless these children [Gen 48.15–16]? Because an angel is mentioned after God, is the angel prior to the Son? Or is the Son classified with angels? 1.14.6. Yes again, this is what they think, for their hearts are corrupted.

But this is not the apostolic faith, nor can a Christian even possibly tolerate such things. For the holy and blessed Trinity is indivisible and united in itself. When the Father is mentioned, with him are both his Word and the Spirit who is in the Son. If the Son is named, the Father is in the Son, and the Spirit is not external to the Word. For there is one grace from the Father which is perfected through the Son in the Holy Spirit. And there is one divinity, and one God who is over all, and through all, and in all [Eph 4.6]. 1.14.7. Thus Paul too, when he said: I charge you in the presence of God and Jesus Christ [2 Tim 4.1], knew that the Spirit had not been divided from the Son, but was in Christ, as the Son is in the Father.

Why Paul mentioned the elect angels in 1 Timothy 5.21

Nonetheless, it was appropriate for him to mention the elect angels, so that the disciple to whom his charge was directed would realize that what is said by God is said through Christ in the Spirit, but that angels minister to our affairs, overseeing the actions of each person, and thus would keep the exhortations of his teacher, as there were witnesses who observe what is said. Or perhaps, because the angels always behold the face of the Father who is in heaven, Paul charges them on behalf of the little ones in the Church [Mt 18.10], so that the disciple would realize who it is that guards the people and not neglect the exhortations of the Apostle.

Even If the Spirit Is Not a Creature, He Is Not a Son [1.15–21]

An objection: if the Spirit is from the Father yet not a creature, he must be a son

1.15.1. {1.15} So then, it appears to me that this is the meaning of the Divine Oracles, and it refutes the blasphemy which our irrational opponents utter against the Spirit. Yet still defiant in their struggle against the truth, as you write, they make another claim. But this time it is no longer based on the Scriptures (since they do not find it there) but belched up from the surfeit of their own heart [Mt 12.34; Lk 6.45]: “If the Spirit is not a creature, nor one of the angels, but proceeds from the Father, then is he also a son? And are the Spirit and the Word two brothers? 1.15.2. And if he is a brother, how is the Word only-begotten? How can they not be equal, but the one is named after the Father and the other after the Son? If the Spirit is from the Father, why isn’t it also said that he has been begotten and is a son, but is simply called Holy Spirit? If the Spirit is of the Son, then is the Father the grandfather of the Spirit?” Such are the mockeries of these dishonorable men who out of idle curiosity want to search into the depths of God, which no one knows, except the Spirit of God [1 Cor 2.10–11]—the very Spirit whom they blaspheme. 1.15.3. Therefore, we ought not continue to respond to them, but in accordance with the Apostle’s precept, after they have been admonished by what has already been said, to avoid them as heretics.

The invalidity of the objection is shown by reducing it to absurdity

Or perhaps we should ask them questions on par with those they ask us, and demand an answer from them that corresponds to the answer they demand from us. So then, tell us: if the Father is from a father, and if another has been begotten along with him, and they are brothers from that same one, then what are their names? And who is the father and grandfather of this one? Who are their ancestors? But they will say that there are none. 1.15.4. So then, let them tell us this: how can the Father be a father if he did not come from a father? Or how could he have the Son if he himself had not been previously begotten as a son? I know that this line of questioning is impious. But our justification for this mockery of those who utter such mockeries is that such an absurd and impious line of questioning lets them perceive their own foolishness. For what they are saying is not true. God forbid! Nor is it appropriate to pursue such a line of questioning in the case of the divinity. For God is not like a human being [Num 23.19], such that someone can dare to ask human questions about God.

Only when used of the divinity are the terms “father” and “son” stable

1.16.1. {1.16} So then, as I said before, we ought to keep silent on these matters and not waste our time on such people. But lest our silence serve as a pretext for their shamelessness, we have to say something to them. Just as it is impossible to say that the Father has a father, so too it is impossible to say that the Son has a brother. 1.16.2. As written above, there is no God other than the Father; there is no other Son, for he is only-begotten. Hence the one and only Father is the Father of the one and only Son, and only in the case of the divinity have the names “Father” and “Son” always been stable and always are. 1.16.3. But among human beings, if someone is called a father, he is nonetheless another man’s son; and if someone is called a son, he is nonetheless another man’s father. Hence among human beings the names ‘”father” and “son” are not preserved in their proper senses. 1.16.4. For example, Abraham was the son of Nahor and became the father of Isaac. And Isaac was the son of Abraham and became the father of Jacob. And this is the way things are for human nature. For human beings are parts of one another, and each son, when begotten, has a part of his father, so that he too can become another’s father.

1.16.5. But this is not how things are for the divinity. For God is not like a human being [Num 23.19]. Nor does he have a nature that is divisible into parts. Hence he does not beget the Son by being divided into parts, so that the Son may also become the father of another, for he himself is not from a father. Nor is the Son a part of the Father. Hence he does not beget as he has himself been begotten, but is whole from whole, Image [Col 1.15; 2 Cor 4.4] and Radiance [Heb 1.3]. 1.16.6. And in the case of the divinity the Father is a father in the proper sense and the Son a son in the proper sense. In their case the Father’s name has always been “Father” and the Son’s name always “Son.” And just as the Father could never have been a son, so too the Son could never become a father. And just as the Father will never cease to be only a father, so too the Son will never cease to be only a son. 1.16.7. Therefore, it would be sheer insanity to imagine a brother for the Son and to apply the name “grandfather” to the Father. In the Scriptures the Spirit is never called a son, lest he be considered a brother. Nor is he called a son of the Son, lest the Father be thought of as a grandfather. Instead, the Son is called the Son of the Father, and the Spirit is called the Spirit of the Father, and thus in the Holy Trinity there is one divinity and one faith.

The insolence of speculation about what is beyond human knowledge

1.17.1. {1.17} It is also insanity to call the Spirit a creature for the following reason: if he were a creature, he would not be ranked with the Trinity. For the whole Trinity is one God. Now it is sufficient to know that the Spirit is not a creature, nor classified with things that have been made. For nothing foreign to the Trinity is mixed with it, but it is indivisible and self-consistent. These considerations are sufficient for believers. This is as far as human knowledge can go. At this point the cherubim spread the covering of their wings.

1.17.2. Whoever seeks to know more than this and wants to inquire further disobeys the one who said: Do not seek much wisdom, lest you be stupefied [Eccl 7.16]. For the traditions of the faith are not appropriately understood by human wisdom but by hearing with faith [Gal 3.2]. What sort of rational account could worthily interpret what surpasses the nature that has come into existence? Or what sort of ears could possibly understand things it is not lawful for human beings either to hear or to speak [2 Cor 12.4]? 1.17.3. This is how Paul spoke of what he heard, but when he spoke of God himself, he said: How unsearchable are his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? [Rom 11.33–34]. Certainly, Abraham did not conduct futile investigations, nor did he question the one who spoke to him, but he believed, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness [Rom 4.3]. 1.17.4. So too was Moses called the faithful servant [Heb 3.5].

But as for those whose minds are with Arius, into whose wicked and scheming souls wisdom will not enter [Wis 1.4], if they can neither understand nor believe in the indivisible and holy Trinity, let them for this reason not also pervert the truth, nor claim that what they cannot understand cannot be. They have backed themselves into the most absurd corner. Because they cannot understand how the Holy Trinity is indivisible, the Arians make the Son one with the created order, and the Tropikoi themselves classify the Spirit with the creatures. 1.17.5. It would be best for them either to keep silent when they do not understand anything at all—the Arians not ranking the Son with the creatures and the Tropikoi not ranking the Spirit with the same—or else for them to acknowledge what is written, joining the Son with the Father and not dividing the Spirit from the Son, so as to preserve the truth of the Holy Trinity’s indivisibility and sameness of nature.

If they were to learn such things, there would be no need for them to be so audacious, nor to ask contentious questions about how these things could be; and if the one being asked such questions is at a loss for words, there would be no need for them to dream up evil notions according to their own lights. 1.17.6. For none of the things that have come into existence, least of all us human beings, can speak worthily about what is ineffable. So again, it is much more audacious, when we cannot speak of these matters, to invent novel terms other than those in the Scriptures. And this present attempt above all is insanity, both on the part of the one who asks the questions and on the part of the one who would even consider giving an answer. For not even someone who asked such questions about the things which have come into existence would be considered to be in his right in mind.

We do not understand the mysteries of nature, let alone the mysteries of God

1.18.1. {1.18} Or let these opponents of ours, who have an easy answer for everything, dare to answer the following: How is the heaven formed and from what sort of materials? Or how are they combined? Or how is the sun formed? What about each of the stars? Is it any wonder that we can refute their foolishness on the basis of realities set above us, when we do not even understand what the nature of the trees here below is like, or how the waters were gathered together and how living things were constructed and constituted? But they won’t be able to answer these questions. 1.18.2. For even Solomon, who had a greater share of wisdom than all, realized that it was impossible for human beings to discover such things, and said: And he has given every heart a whole lifetime, lest humanity discover the work which God has done from the beginning to the end [Eccl 3.11]. 1.18.3. So then, since they cannot discover these things, will they claim that these things cannot be? Yes, they will make this claim since their minds are corrupted.

Therefore, it would be with good reason if we say to them: “You are so stupid and utterly reckless. Instead, why don’t you drop your futile investigations of the Holy Trinity and simply believe that he exists? In this matter you have the Apostle as your teacher, when he says: One must first believe that God exists and that he rewards those who seek him [Heb 11.6]. For he did not say, “how God exists,” but simply, that God exists.” 1.18.4. But if they are not overcome by this argument, let them state how the Father exists, so that from this they may also learn how the Word of the Father exists. “But it is absurd,” they will say, “to ask questions about the Father in this manner.” Let them realize that it is also absurd to ask questions about his Word in this manner.

Scriptural examples of the order among Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

1.19.1. {1.19} And so, since this present attempt surpasses the utmost insanity, no one should ask such questions any more, but only study what is in the Scriptures. For the examples on this subject found therein are sufficient and fitting. The Father is called Fountain and Light. For it says: They have forsaken me, the Fountain of living water [Jer 2.13]. 1.19.2. And again in Baruch: Why is it, O Israel, that you are in the land of your enemies? You have forsaken the Fountain of wisdom [Bar 3.10+12]. And according to John: Our God is Light [1 Jn 1.5]. But the Son, as if in reference to the Fountain, is called River: The River of God is filled with waters [Ps 64.10]. And in reference to the Light, he is called Radiance, as Paul says: He is the Radiance of his glory, and the Character of his Subsistence [Heb 1.3]. 1.19.3. Thus the Father is Light and his Radiance is the Son—for in particular one must not hesitate to affirm the same things about them many times—and so we are also permitted to see in the Son the Spirit in whom we are enlightened. For it says: may he give you the Spirit of Wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened [Eph 1.17–18]. 1.19.4. But when we are enlightened in the Spirit, it is Christ who enlightens us in him. For it says: He was the true Light who enlightens every human being coming into the world [Jn 1.9]. And again, the Father is the Fountain and the Son is called the River, and so we are said to drink of the Spirit. For it is written: we were all made to drink of the one Spirit [1 Cor 12.13]. But when we drink of the Spirit, we drink of Christ. For they drank of the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ [1 Cor 10.4].

1.19.5. And again, Christ is the true Son, and so when we receive the Spirit, we are made sons. For it says: you did not receive the spirit of slavery leading you back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adopted sonship [Rom 8.15]. But when we are made sons in the Spirit, it is clear that we are called children of God in Christ. For however many received him, to them he gave the power to become children of God [Jn 1.12]. 1.19.6. Then, the Father is, as Paul said, the only wise [Rom 16.27], and so the Son is his Wisdom. For Christ is the Power of God and the Wisdom of God [1 Cor 1.24]. The Son is Wisdom itself, and so when we receive the Spirit of Wisdom [Eph 1.17], we possess the Son and become wise in him. For so it is written in Psalm 145: The Lord sets prisoners free; the Lord gives Wisdom to the blind [Ps 145.7–8].

1.19.7. And when the Spirit is given to us—the Savior said: Receive the Holy Spirit [Jn 20.22]—God is in us. For this is what John wrote: If we should love one another, God remains in us. In this we know that we remain in him, and he in us, because has given us of his Spirit [1 Jn 4.12–13]. But when God is in us, the Son is also in us. For the Lord himself said: I and the Father will come and make our home with him [Jn 14.23]. 1.19.8. Next, the Son is life—for he said: I am the life [Jn 14.6]—and so we are said to be given life in the Spirit. For it says: the one who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you [Rom 8.11]. But when we are given life in the Spirit, Christ himself is said to live in us. For it says: I am crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me [Gal 2.19–20].

1.19.9. And again, the Son said that the works he did were accomplished by the Father. For he says: The Father who remains in me does his works. Believe me, that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Otherwise, believe me because of the works themselves [Jn 14.10–11]. Likewise, Paul said that the works that he accomplished in the power of the Spirit were Christ’s. For I will not dare to speak anything other than what Christ has worked through me to win obedience from the gentiles, in word and in deed, in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Holy Spirit [Rom 15.18–19].

1.20.1. {1.20} Seeing that there is such an order and unity in the Holy Trinity, who could separate either the Son from the Father, or the Spirit from the Son or from the Father himself? Who could be so audacious as to say that the Trinity is unlike itself and different in nature? Or that the Son is foreign to the Father in substance? Or that the Spirit is estranged from the Son? 1.20.2. How could such things be possible?

Again, suppose some inquisitive person were to ask: “When the Spirit is in us, how is the Son said to be in us? And when the Son is in us, how is the Father said to be in us? Or since it is entirely a Trinity, how is the Trinity indicated by only one of them? Or when just one of them is in us, how is the Trinity said to be in us?” First let him divide the Radiance from the Light or the Wisdom from the Wise One, or else tell us how these things are possible. 1.20.3. But if this cannot be done, much more is it the audacity of the insane to ask such questions about God. For the divinity is not handed down through logical demonstration and arguments, as has been said, but by faith and by pious reasoning joined with reverence. If Paul preached the saving cross not in the wisdom of words, but in the demonstration of spirit and power [1 Cor 2.4], and he heard secret words in paradise which it is not possible to speak [2 Cor 12.4], then who can make declarations about the Holy Trinity?

1.20.4. Nevertheless, such a great puzzle can be solved primarily by faith, and then by using the examples mentioned above, I mean, the Image and the Radiance, the Fountain and the River, the Subsistence and the Character. For as the Son is in the Spirit as in his own Image, so too is the Father in the Son. And in fact, the Divine Scripture, in order to palliate our inability to explain and comprehend these matters with words, gave us examples such as these. And so, in combating the disbelief of our audacious opponents, it is possible, if we use such examples, to speak more simply, to speak without danger, to think without fault, and to believe that there is one holiness which comes from the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit.

1.20.5. Indeed, just as the Son is the only-begotten offspring, so too is the Spirit, who is given and sent from the Son, also one and not many, nor one of many, but the only Spirit. Since there is one living Word, there must be one perfect and complete living activity and gift whereby he sanctifies and enlightens. This is said to proceed from the Father, because the Spirit shines forth, and is sent, and is given from the Word, who is confessed to be from the Father. 1.20.6. Indeed, the Son is sent from the Father. For he says: God so loved the world that he sent his only-begotten Son [Jn 3.16]. But the Son sends the Spirit. For he says: If I go away, I will send you the Paraclete [Jn 16.7]. And the Son glorifies the Father, saying: Father, I have glorified you [Jn 17.4]. But the Spirit glorifies the Son. For he says: He will glorify me [Jn 16.14]. And the Son says: I declare to the world what I heard from the Father [Jn 8.26]. But the Spirit receives from the Son. For he shall receive from what is mine and announce it to you [Jn 16.14]. 1.20.7. And the Son came in the name of the Father, but the Son says: the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name [Jn 14.26].

If the Spirit is a creature, the Son must also be a creature

1.21.1. {1.21} And so, if the Spirit’s rank and nature vis-à-vis the Son corresponds to the Son’s vis-à-vis the Father, how can anyone who claims that the Spirit is creature not be compelled to think the same about the Son? For if the Spirit is a creature of the Son, it would be consistent to claim that the Word is a creature of the Father. In fact, it was by imagining such things that the Arians fell into the Judaism of Caiaphas. 1.21.2. But if those who are making such claims about the Spirit protest that they do not subscribe to what Arius believed, then they should abandon the teachings of that man and not be impious toward the Spirit. 1.21.3. For just as the Son, who is in the Father and the Father in him, is not a creature but is proper to the substance of the Father—now this is purportedly what you claim—, so too it is incorrect for the Spirit, who is in the Son and the Son in him, to be ranked with creatures or to be separated from the Word, thereby destroying the perfection of the Trinity.

Conclusion to this section and transition to the next

1.21.4. So then, since they have falsified the meaning of the sayings of both the Prophet and the Apostle in a display of self-delusion, these considerations are sufficient to refute the slander to which the ignorance of the Tropikoi gives rise. But we still need to examine, one by one, each passage in the Divine Scriptures that speaks about the Holy Spirit. Like good bankers, we need to judge whether the Spirit has anything that is proper to creatures or whether he is proper to God. In this manner we will be able to determine whether to call him a creature or something other than creatures and proper to and one of the divinity in the Trinity. Perhaps they will be ashamed by this exercise, when they learn the extent to which they have invented blasphemies that are out of harmony with the Divine Oracles.

The Spirit Is Unlike Creatures and Proper to the Son: Testimonies from Scripture [1.22–27]

Creatures are from nothing, whereas the Spirit is from God

1.22.1. {1.22} So, creatures came into existence from nothing; they have a beginning to their coming into existence. For in the beginning God made the heaven and the earth and all that is in them [Gen 1.1]. But the Holy Spirit is said to be from God: No one knows the things that belong to a human being except the human spirit that is in him. Thus also no one knows the things that belong to God except the Spirit of God. Now we have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit that is from God [1 Cor 2.11–12]. Based on this, what sort of kinship does the Spirit have with creatures? For creatures did not exist. But God is “He Who Is” [Ex 3.4], and the Spirit is from him. The one who is from God cannot be from nothing, nor can he be a creature—unless they think that the one from whom the Spirit comes is also a creature! 1.22.2. But who then would tolerate such fools, who say in their hearts that God does not exist? Indeed, just as no one knows the things that belong to a human being except the spirit that is in him, so too no one knows the things that belong to God except the Spirit in him [1 Cor 2.11]. If this is the case, how then is it not blasphemous to claim that the Spirit in God, who searches even the depths of God [1 Cor 2.10], is a creature? For if someone were to maintain this viewpoint, he would take from these passages that the human spirit is external to the human being and that the Word in the Father is a creature.

Creatures are sanctified and renewed, whereas the Spirit sanctifies and renews

1.22.3. Again, the Spirit is and is said to be the Spirit of sanctification and renewal. For Paul writes: who designated the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of sanctification on the basis of his resurrection, Jesus Christ our Lord [Rom 1.4]. 1.22.4. And again he says: But you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God [1 Cor 6.11]. When writing to Titus, he said: When the goodness of God our Savior and his love of humanity appeared, not because of works of righteousness done by us but on account of his mercy he saved us through the washing of the second regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he has poured forth upon us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs of eternal life in hope [Titus 3.4–7]. 1.22.5. But creatures are sanctified and renewed: You send forth your Spirit, and they are created [Ps 103.30]. And Paul says: For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and who have become partakers of the Holy Spirit . . . [Heb 6.4]. 1.23.1. {1.23} So, he who is not sanctified by another, nor participates in sanctification, but is himself the one who is participated in, the one in whom all creatures are sanctified: how can he be one of the all things [Jn 1.3] and proper to those who participate in him? For those who claim this would also have to say that the Son, through whom all things came to be, is one of the all things.

Creatures receive life, whereas the Spirit gives life

1.23.2. The Spirit is said to be life-giving: The one who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in us [Rom 8.11]. And the Lord is life itself and, as Peter said, the author of life [Acts 3.15]. The Lord himself said: The water that I will give to him shall become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life [Jn 4.14]. 1.23.3. He said this about the Spirit whom those who believe in him were about to receive [Jn 7.39]. As has been said, creatures are given life through him. But he who does not participate in life, but is himself participated in and gives life to creatures: what sort of affinity does he have with things which have come into existence? In sum, how is the Spirit one of the creatures to whom the Word gives life through him?

Creatures are anointed and sealed, whereas the Spirit is the anointing and seal

1.23.4. The Spirit is said to be an anointing and is a seal. John writes: The anointing which you have received from him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you, since, rather, his anointing teaches you about everything [1 Jn 2.27]. 1.23.5. In the Prophet Isaiah it is written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me [Is 61.1]. Paul says: In whom you who believe have also been sealed by the promised Holy Spirit [Eph 1.13]. And again a little further on he says: And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you who believe have been sealed for the day of redemption [Eph 4.30]. 1.23.6. It is creatures who are sealed in him and anointed by him and taught about all things by him. But if the Spirit is the anointing and the seal by whom and in whom the Word anoints and seals all things, in what way can the anointer and sealer be like or proper to those who are anointed and sealed? Thus for this reason he cannot be one of the all things [Jn 1.3]. The seal cannot be one of the things sealed, nor can the anointing be one of the things anointed, but he is proper to the Word who anoints and seals. 1.23.7. For the anointing has the sweet fragrance and the good odor of the anointer, and those who are anointed say, when they participate in him: We are the good odor of Christ [2 Cor 2.15]. And the seal has the form of Christ who seals, and those who are sealed participate in him, being formed into him, as the Apostle says: My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ be formed in you! [Gal 4.19]. Thus sealed, it is proper that we also become, as Peter said, sharers of the divine nature [2 Pet 1.4]. And thus all creation partakes of the Word in the Spirit.

We participate in God through the Spirit

1.24.1. {1.24} And it is through the Spirit that all of us are said to be partakers of God: Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which you are [1 Cor 3.16–17]. 1.24.2. If the Holy Spirit were a creature, we would not have participation in God through him. But if we were joined to a creature, we would become strangers to the divine nature, inasmuch as we did not partake of it in any way. But as it is, when we are said to be partakers of Christ and partakers of God, it shows that the anointing and the seal which is in us does not belong to the nature of things which have been brought into existence, but to the Son, who joins us to the Father through the Spirit that is in him. 1.24.3. This is what John taught, as we said above, when he wrote: By this we know that we remain in him, and he in us, because he has given to us of his Spirit [1 Jn 4.13]. 1.24.4. But if we become sharers of the divine nature [2 Pet 1.4] by partaking of the Spirit, someone would have to be insane to say that the Spirit has a created nature and not the nature of God. For it is because of this that those in whom the Spirit dwells are divinized. And if he divinizes, there can be no doubt that his nature is of God.

The Father creates all things through the Word in the Spirit

1.24.5. And there is something even clearer for the destruction of this heresy sung in Psalm 103, as we said before: You take away their spirit, and they die, and return to the dust from which they came. You send forth your Spirit, and they are created, and you renew the face of the earth [Ps 103.29–30]. And Paul writes to Titus: through the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit whom he poured out upon us abundantly through Jesus Christ [Titus 3.5–6]. 1.24.6. But if the Father creates and renews all things through the Word in the Holy Spirit, what sort of likeness or kinship could the Creator have with creatures? How could the one in whom he creates all things possibly be a creature? Such an impious statement leads to blasphemy against the Son, in that those who claim that the Spirit is a creature would also have to claim that the Word through whom all things are created is a creature.

The Spirit is the Image of the Son

1.24.7. The Spirit is said to be and is the Image of the Son. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the Image of his Son [Rom 8.29]. Therefore, if our opponents confess that the Son is not a creature, it is impossible for his Image to be a creature. For an image must be just like that of which it is an image. 1.24.8. Hence the Word is suitably and appropriately confessed not to be a creature, since he is the Image of the Father. And so, the one who classifies the Spirit with creatures will undoubtedly also classify the Son with them, thereby also blaspheming the Father because of the blasphemy against his Image.

The Spirit is proper to the Son, and thereby proper to the divinity of the Father

1.25.1. {1.25} And so, the Spirit is different from creatures and instead has been shown to be proper to the Son and not foreign to God. But let’s return to that clever question of theirs: “If the Spirit is from God, why isn’t he also called a son?” In what precedes it was already shown how reckless and audacious this question is, and now it will be shown to be no less so. 1.25.2. For if he is not called a son in the Scriptures, but Spirit of God, he is said to be in God himself and from God himself, as the Apostle wrote. And if the Son is proper to the Father’s substance because he is from the Father, the Spirit who is said to be from God must be proper to the Son in substance. 1.25.3. Indeed, the Son is Lord, and the Spirit himself is called the Spirit of adopted sonship [Rom 8.15]. And again, the Son is Wisdom and Truth, and it is written that the Spirit is the Spirit of Wisdom [Is 11.2; Eph 1.17] and the Spirit of Truth [Jn 14.17; 15.26; 16.13; 1 Jn 4.6]. And again, the Son is the Power of God [1 Cor 1.24] and the Lord of Glory [1 Cor 2.8], and the Spirit is called the Spirit of Power and the Spirit of Glory [1 Pet 4.14]. Scripture speaks in this manner with respect to each of them. Paul wrote to the Corinthians: For if they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory [1 Cor 2.8]. And elsewhere: You did not receive the spirit of slavery leading you back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adopted sonship [Rom 8.15]. 1.25.4. And again: God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” [Gal 4.6]. And Peter wrote: If you are insulted in the name of Christ, you are blessed because the Spirit of Glory and of Power and of od rests upon you [1 Pet 4.14]. And the Lord said that the Spirit was the Spirit of Truth [Jn 14.17; 15.26; 16.13; 1 Jn 4.6] and the Paraclete [Jn 14.16; 14.26; 15.26; 16.7]. By this he shows that the Trinity is complete in the Spirit.

1.25.5. So then, in the Spirit the Word glorifies creatures, and after he has divinized them and made them sons of God, he leads them to the Father. But that which joins creatures to the Word cannot be a creature. And that which makes creatures sons cannot be foreign to the Son. Otherwise another spirit would be needed by which this Spirit could be joined to the Word. But this is absurd. And so, the Spirit is not one of the things that has come into existence, but is proper to the divinity of the Father. In him the Word divinizes all that has come into existence. And the one in whom creatures are divinized cannot himself be external to the divinity of the Father.

Creatures are mutable, whereas the Spirit is immutable

1.26.1. {1.26} That the Spirit is superior to creatures, being different than the nature of things that have come into existence and proper to the divinity, can also be recognized from the following considerations. The Holy Spirit is immutable and unchangeable. For it says: For the Holy Spirit of discipline will flee from deceit, and will withdraw from foolish thoughts [Wis 1.5]. 1.26.2. And Peter says: In the incorruptibility of the humble and quiet Spirit [1 Pet 3.4]. And again in Wisdom: For your incorruptible Spirit is in all things [Wis 12.1]. And if no one knows the things that belong to God except the Spirit of God that is in him [1 Cor 2.11], and if there is in God, as James said, no variation or shadow of change [Jam 1.17], then, since the Holy Spirit is in God, it is reasonable to conclude that he must be immutable, unvarying, and incorruptible. 1.26.3. But those who have come into existence and are creatures have a nature that is mutable, because it is external to the substance of God and comes into subsistence from nothing. For every human being is a liar [Ps 115.2], and all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God [Rom 3.23]. 1.26.4. Yet as for the angels who did not keep to their own dominion but abandoned their proper habitation, he has kept them in eternal chains under gloom until the judgment of the great day [Jud 1.6]. And in Job: See, he does not place his trust in his holy angels [Job 4.18]; the stars are not pure in his sight [Job 25.5]. 1.26.5. And Paul writes: Do you not know that we shall judge angels? And even more so matters pertaining to this life? [1 Cor 6.3]. And we have also heard that the devil, who was between the cherubim [Ezek 10.7] and was a seal of resemblance [Ezek 28.12], fell like a flash of lightning from heaven [Lk 10.18]. 1.26.6. If creatures have a mutable nature and such things are written of the angels, but if the Spirit is the same and unchangeabl, and possesses the immutability of the Son, remaining always with him immutably, what sort of likeness does the immutable have with the mutable? For it should be clear that the Spirit is neither a creature nor does he in any way possess the nature of the angels, since they are mutable, but he is the Image of the Word and proper to the Father.

Creatures are circumscribed, whereas the Spirit is omnipresent

1.26.7. Again, the Spirit of the Lord fills the world [Wis 1.7]. This is what David sings in the psalm: Where can I go from your Spirit? [Ps 138.7]. And again in Wisdom it is written: For your incorruptible Spirit is in all things [Wis 12.1]. But all things which have come into existence are in discrete places: the sun and the moon and the stars are in the firmament of heaven, while the clouds are in the air. 1.26.8. As for human beings, the boundaries of the nations are fixed. And the angels are sent to minister [Heb 1.14]. And as is written in Job: the angels came to present themselves before the Lord [Job 1.6]. And Jacob the patriarch dreamed, and behold! there was a ladder set up on the earth whose top reached into heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending upon it [Gen 28.12]. But if the Spirit fills all things and is present in the midst of all things through the Word, and if the angels are inferior to the Spirit and are only present where they are sent, there can be no doubt that the Spirit is neither one of the things that have come into existence, nor in any way an angel, as you claim, but is superior to the nature of the angels.

Creatures participate in the Spirit, whereas the Spirit is participated in

1.27.1. {1.27} Again, from the following considerations anyone will be able to see that the Holy Spirit is participated in but does not participate—for one must not hesitate to affirm the same things. For it says: it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and who have become partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God [Heb 6.4]. The angels and the other creatures participate in the Holy Spirit himself. Thus they can fall away from the one in whom they participate. But the Spirit is always the same. For he is not one of those who participate, but all things participate in him. 1.27.2. But if he is always the same and participated in, and creatures participate in him, the Holy Spirit can be neither an angel nor a creature in any way, but must be proper to the Word. It is when he is given by the Word that creatures participate in him. For our opponents would have to say that the Son is also a creature, by whom all of us come to participate in the Spirit.

There is a multitude of creatures but just one Spirit

1.27.3. And again, there is one Holy Spirit, but there are many creatures. As for angels, there are a thousand thousand and ten thousand times ten thousand [Dan 7.10]. And there are many luminaries, and many thrones and dominions [Col 1.16], and many heavens, cherubim, seraphim, and archangels. Simply put, there is not one creature, but there are many of them, all of them different. But if there is one Holy Spirit and many creatures and many angels, then what sort of likeness does the Spirit have with things that have come into existence? And so, it could not be any clearer that the Spirit is neither of the many nor even an angel, but he is the only one. Or rather, he is proper to the one Word and proper to and the same as the one God in substance.

Conclusion to the section

1.27.4. So then, these arguments about the Holy Spirit demonstrate, of their own accord and on their own merits, that in terms of nature and substance the Spirit has nothing in common with or proper to creatures. Rather, he is different from things that have come into existence, and he is proper to and not foreign to the substance and divinity of the Son. And so, because of this he belongs to the Holy Trinity and their stupidity is put to shame.

The Spirit Is Unlike Creatures: Trinitarian Arguments [1.28–31]

The Church’s confession of the Trinity

1.28.1. {1.28} Nonetheless, in addition to these arguments, let us also examine the tradition, teaching, and faith of the Catholic Church from the beginning, which is nothing other than what the Lord gave, and the Apostles preached, and the Fathers preserved. On this the Church is founded, and whoever falls away from it can no longer be nor be called a Christian.

1.28.2. So, the Trinity is holy and perfect, confessed in Father and Son and Holy Spirit. It has nothing foreign or external mixed with it, nor is it composed of Creator and creature, but is entirely given to creating and making. It is self-consistent and indivisible in nature, and it has one activity. 1.28.3. The Father does all things through the Word in the Holy Spirit. In this way is the unity of the Holy Trinity preserved, and in this way is the one God preached in the Church, who is above all and through all and in all [Eph 4.6]—above all as Father, as beginning, as source; through all, through the Word; in all, in the Holy Spirit. It is not a Trinity in name alone and in linguistic expression, but in truth and actual existence. For just as the Father is “He Who Is,” [Ex 3.4] so too is his Word “He Who Is” and God over all [Rom 9.5]. And the Holy Spirit is not without existence, but exists and subsists truly.

1.28.4. And the Catholic Church does not entertain the thought of anything less than these [three] lest she fall to the level of Sabellius and today’s Jews, who take after Caiaphas. Nor does she conceive of anything more than these [three] lest she slip into Greek polytheism. And that this is the faith of the Church, let our opponents learn from when the Lord sent the Apostles, how he ordered them to lay this faith down as the foundation of the Church, saying: Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit [Mt 28.19]. When the Apostles departed, this is how they taught, and this is the proclamation for the whole Church under heaven.

If the Spirit is a creature, God is not a Trinity, but a dyad

1.29.1. {1.29} Therefore, since the Church has this foundation for its faith, let our opponents speak with us once again and respond to this question: Is there a Trinity or a dyad? If there is a dyad, then you should classify the Spirit with creatures. But if you hold such a thought, it has nothing to do with the one God who is above all and through all and in all [Eph 4.6]. For you do not have the in all when you separate and alienate the Spirit from the divinity.

1.29.2. And when you think in this way, the baptismal initiation that you believe you perform does not initiate completely into the divinity. For a creature is mixed with it, and like the Arians and the Greeks, you also believe that the created order is divine, just like the God who created it through his own Word. If this is your state of mind, what hope do you have? Who will join you to God if you do not have the Spirit of God himself but the spirit of the created order? What sort of audacity and recklessness do you have, that you bring the Father and his Word down to the level of creatures and yet equate a creature with God? For this is what you are doing when you imagine the Spirit to be a creature and rank him in the Trinity.

1.29.3. What sort of madness afflicts you, that you think unjust thoughts against God, namely, that not all angels nor all creatures but just one of them is classified with God and his Word? For if, as you say, the Spirit is simultaneously an angel and a creature and ranked in the Trinity, then not just one but all the created angels would also have to be ranked with it, and it would no longer be a Trinity but an uncountable throng of divinity, and your baptismal initiation, which once again only appears to initiate into this Trinity, is divided here and there, and due to this variety is rendered insecure. 1.29.4. Such are your initiatory rites and those of the Arians. For both of you argue against the divinity and worship the created order instead of the God who created all things.

If God is a dyad, Christian baptism is invalid

1.30.1. {1.30} So then, such are the absurdities that result when you say that there is a dyad. But if there is a Trinity—as there truly is—and it has been revealed that the Trinity is indivisible and not inconsistent with itself, then the Trinity must have one holiness, and it must have one eternity and immutable nature. For just as there is one faith in the Trinity handed down to us and this is what joins us to God, and just as anyone who removes something from the Trinity and is baptized only in the name of the Father, or only in the name of the Son, or in the Father and the Son without the Spirit, receives nothing, but he and the person who only appears to give the Spirit remain empty and uninitiated (for baptism initiates into the Trinity), 1.30.2. so too anyone who divides the Son from the Father, or brings the Spirit down to the level of creatures, has neither the Son nor the Father, but lacks God and is worse than an unbeliever [1 Tim 5.8] and is anything but a Christian—and rightly so. For just as there is one baptism given in Father and Son and Holy Spirit, and just as there is one faith in the Trinity (as the Apostle said), so too the Holy Trinity, which is identical with itself and united in itself, has nothing in it that belongs to things which have come into existence. This is the indivisible unity of the Trinity, and there is one faith in it. 1.30.3. But if the Trinity is not like this (now this is what you Tropikoi imagine), and instead you dreamed that the Holy Spirit is called a creature, then you no longer have only one faith, nor only one baptism, but two—one in the Father and Son, and another in an angel who is a creature—and you are bereft of all security and truth. For what sort of fellowship is there between a maker and what he has made? What sort of unity is there between inferior creatures and the Word who made them?

The Spirit’s role in the common activity of the Trinity

1.30.4. Because he knew all this, the blessed Paul did not divide the Trinity as you do, but taught its unity when he wrote to the Corinthians about the spiritual gifts and traced them all back to the one God, the Father, saying: Now there are distributions of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are distributions of service, but the same Lord; and there are distributions of activity, but the same God who works all of them in all people [1 Cor 12.4–6]. The gifts which the Spirit distributes to each are bestowed by the Father through the Word. For all that the Father has is the Son’s. Thus what is given by the Son in the Spirit is a gift of the Father. 1.30.5. And when the Spirit is in us, the Word who gives the Spirit is in us, and the Father is in the Word. And so it is just as has been said: I and the Father will come and make our home with him [Jn 14.23]. For wherever there is Light, there is also Radiance; and wherever there is Radiance, there is also its activity and luminous grace.

1.30.6. Once again, this is what Paul taught when he wrote a second letter to the Corinthians, saying: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all [2 Cor 13.13]. For this grace and gift given in the Trinity is given by the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit. 1.30.7. Just as the grace given through the Son is from the Father, so too we cannot have fellowship with the gift except in the Holy Spirit. For it is when we participate in the Spirit that we have the love of the Father and the grace of the Son and fellowship of the Spirit himself. 1.31.1. {1.31} And so, it is also shown from these considerations that there is one activity of the Trinity. The Apostle does not mean that the gifts given by each are different and distinct, but that whatever gift is given is given in the Trinity, and that all the gifts are from the one God.

1.31.2. So, the Spirit who is not a creature but is united to the Son as the Son is united to the Father, who is glorified together with the Father and Son, who is acknowledged as God along with the Word, and who is active in what the Father accomplishes through the Son—how can anyone say that the Spirit is creature without being guilty of flagrant impiety against the Son himself? For there is nothing which is not brought into being and actualized through the Word in the Spirit. 1.31.3. This is sung in the Psalms: By the Word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the Spirit of his mouth all their power [Ps 32.6]. And in Psalm 147: He will send forth his Word and melt them; he will blow his Spirit and the waters will flow [Ps 147.18]. And we are justified, as the Apostle said, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of God [1 Cor 6.11]. For the Spirit is not divided from the Word. 1.31.4. Indeed, when the Lord said: I and the Father will come [Jn 14.23], the Spirit comes with them and dwells in us in a manner no different than the Son does, as Paul writes to the Ephesians: that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner man, and that Christ may dwell . . . [Eph 3.16–17]. And when the Son is in us, the Father is still there, as the Son said: I am in the Father and the Father is in me [Jn 14.10].

1.31.5. Hence it was when the Word came to the Prophets that they used to prophesy in the Holy Spirit himself. So when Scripture says, “And the Word of the Lord came,” to such-and-such Prophet, it indicates that he prophesied in the Holy Spirit. 1.31.6. For in Zechariah it is written: Yet receive my words and my statutes which I commanded to my servants the prophets by my Spirit [Zech 1.6]. A little further on, when he rebuked the people, he said: And they made their heart disobedient, so as not to hearken to my law, and the words which the Lord Almighty sent forth by his Spirit by the hands of the prophets of old [Zech 7.12]. 1.31.7. Peter said in Acts: Men, brothers, it was fitting for the scripture to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit predicted [Acts 1.16]. The Apostles cried aloud together: Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who by the mouth of our father David, your servant, said through the Holy Spirit . . . [Acts 4.24–25]. 1.31.8. When he was in Rome, Paul spoke with boldness to the Jews who came to him: The Holy Spirit was right to have said to your fathers through Isaiah the prophet . . . [Acts 28.25]. He wrote to Timothy: The Spirit expressly says that in the last times some will depart from the sound faith, giving heed to a spirit of error [1 Tim 4.1]. 1.31.9. Thus whenever the Spirit is said to be in someone, it means that the Word is in him, giving the Spirit. When the prophecy was being fulfilled: I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh [Joel 2.28], Paul said: According as the Spirit of Jesus Christ is supplied to me [Phil 1.19]. And to the Corinthians he wrote: Do you seek proof that Christ is speaking i me? [2 Cor 13.3]. 1.31.10. If the one speaking in him was Christ, it is clear that the Spirit speaking in him was Christ’s. For when Christ was speaking in him, he said once again in Acts: And now, behold, bound in the Spirit I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what shall happen to me there; except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying to me that imprisonment and afflictions await me [Acts 20.22–23].

1.31.11. Hence, when saints say, “Thus says the Lord,” they are not speaking otherwise than in the Holy Spirit, and when they speak in the Spirit, whatever it is that they say, they say it in Christ. When Agabus says in Acts: Thus says the Holy Spirit [Acts 21.11], it is not otherwise than by the Word coming to him that the Spirit granted the power to speak in him and to testify to the things that were awaiting Paul in Jerusalem. 1.31.12. Indeed, when the Spirit again testified to Paul, it was Christ himself who spoke in him, so that the testimony which came from the Spirit was the Word’s. Thus also when the Word visited the holy virgin Mary, the Spirit came to her with him, and the Word in the Spirit formed the body and accommodated it to himself, out of a desire to join and present the created order to the Father through himself and to reconcile all things in himself, making peace between the things that are in heaven and the things that are on earth [Col 1.20].

Conclusion [1.32–33]

1.32.1. {1.32} And so, the Divine Scriptures consistently show that the Holy Spirit is not a creature, but is proper to the Word and to the divinity of the Father. Thus the teaching of the saints is in agreement on the holy and indivisible Trinity, and this is the one faith of the Catholic Church. But the irrational fictions of the Tropikoi diverge from the Scriptures and agree with the irrationality of the Ariomaniacs. It is not surprising that they have put on such a pretense to deceive the simple.

1.32.2. But thanks be to the Lord! As you write, their attempt to conceal their true intentions by feigned opposition to the Arians has not gone undetected. Indeed, even the Arians hate them because they only call the Spirit a creature, not also the Word. But in fact everyone condemns them because they are in truth fighting against the Spirit, and soon enough they will be dead, being as they are deprived and devoid of the Spirit. 1.32.3. To use the words of the blessed Apostle, since they are unspiritual men they cannot receive the gifts of the Spirit of God because these things are spiritually judged. But those whose mind gives thought to what pertains to the truth judge all things and yet are judged by no one. For within themselves they have the Lord revealing himself to them in the Spirit and the Father through himself.

1.33.1. {1.33} So then, even though I am living in the desert, nonetheless, because of the brazenness of those who have turned away from the truth, I have paid no attention to those who would be glad to laugh at the flimsiness and inadequacy of the arguments used in my logical demonstration, and so composed a brief letter. Now I send it to Your Piety. I strongly urge you, when you’ve read what I’ve written, and find things to be inadequately expressed, to correct some of it and to excuse the rest.

1.33.2. What I have handed on accords with the Apostolic faith that the Fathers handed down to us. I have not made anything up that falls outside of it, but have written only what I learned in harmony with the Holy Scriptures. For it also harmonizes with those passages of the Holy Scriptures cited as proof. 1.33.3. It is not something made up on the basis of external sources, but it is what the Lord Jesus Christ himself taught the Samaritan woman and, through her, us: the perfection of the Holy Trinity, which is one indivisible divinity. The Truth himself bears witness when he says to the Samaritan woman: Believe me, woman, the hour is coming and is now here when true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and Truth. For the Father seeks such to worship him. For God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in Spirit and Truth [Jn 4.21–24]. 1.33.4. From this passage it is clear that the Son is the Truth, as he said: I am the Truth [Jn 14.6]. And the Prophet David petitioned for the Truth, saying: Send forth your Light and your Truth [Ps 42.3]. Therefore, true worshippers worship the Father but in Spirit and Truth, confessing the Son and the Spirit who is in him. For the Spirit is inseparable from the Son, just as the Son is inseparable from the Father. The Truth himself bears witness to this when he says: I will send you the Paraclete, the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father, whom the world cannot receive [Jn 15.26+14.17]—that is, those who deny that he is from the Father in the Son. Therefore, in imitation of true worshippers they must confess 1.33.5. and side with the Truth.

1.33.6. And if even after all this, our opponents are still unwilling to learn and still unable to understand, they should at least stop speaking evil. They should not divide the Trinity lest they be divided from life. They should not classify the Holy Spirit with the creatures, lest, like the Pharisees of old who ascribed the works of the Spirit to Beelzebul, they too, on account of equal audacity, incur along with them the punishment which is unpardonable both now and in the future.

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