Evidence for the Holy Spirit is found in both Old and New Testaments [3–9]
Part I: Introduction [1–9]
Speaking about the Holy Spirit is a fearsome endeavor [1–2]
1. It is important to investigate all divine matters with reverence and zealous attention, but especially what is said about the divinity of the Holy Spirit, particularly since blasphemy against him is without forgiveness, so much so that the punishment of the blasphemer extends not only throughout the entirety of this present age, but also into the age to come. It was the Savior himself who said that there would be no pardon for whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, either in this age or in the age to come [Mt 12.31–32; Mk 3.29]. Hence it is all the more important to investigate what the Scriptures report about him lest any error of blasphemy creep up, at least any error that comes through ignorance.
2. It is normally expedient for a faithful and reverent man in control of his capacities to pass over the enormity of the present question in silence and not to subject a matter so full of danger to his own judgment. Nonetheless, some have raised themselves up to investigate heavenly matters by a kind of recklessness rather than by living rightly, and they brandish certain things concerning the Holy Spirit which are neither read in the Scriptures nor taken from any one of the old ecclesiastical writers. And so, we are compelled to acquiesce to the oft-repeated exhortation of the brothers that we set forth our opinion on the Holy Spirit by means of proof-texts from the Scriptures, lest those who hold contrary opinions deceive people through their lack of familiarity with so great a doctrine and instantly drag them away into the opinion of their enemies without careful reflection.
Evidence for the Holy Spirit is found in both Old and New Testaments [3–9]
3. The designation “Holy Spirit” and the substance which is indicated by this designation are altogether unknown to those who do philosophy outside of Sacred Scripture. For only in our writings, as much in the new as in the old, is reference made to both the idea and name of the Holy Spirit. For David, a man of the Old Testament who was made a sharer in him, used to pray that he would remain in him, saying: Do not take your Holy Spirit from me! [Ps 50.13]. And it is said that God stirred up the Holy Spirit in Daniel while he was still a boy, as if the Holy Spirit were already dwelling in him.
4. Similarly, in the New Testament, those men described as pleasing to God were filled with the Holy Spirit. For John leapt upon being sanctified while he was still in his mother’s womb. And after Jesus had risen from the dead, he breathed into the face of his disciples, saying: Receive the Holy Spirit [Jn 20.22].
5. The books of the Divine Scriptures are filled with such statements. But for the moment I have refrained from enumerating the bulk of them in the present work because it is easy for each reader to discover similar statements for himself on the basis of those we have cited here.
6. But no one ought to consider that the Holy Spirit was one thing in the saints before the coming of the Lord and another thing in the Apostles and the other disciples, as if the same name indicated different realities. For we are able to produce evidence from the Divine Writings that the same Spirit was both in the Prophets and in the Apostles.
7. In the letter which he wrote to the Hebrews, Paul cited a text from the book of Psalms and signaled that it was said by the Holy Spirit: And as the Holy Spirit said: “Today if you should hear his voice, harden not your hearts,” and so forth [Heb 3.7; cf. Ps 94.7–8]. And at the end of the Acts of the Apostles when he was arguing with the Jews, he said: As the Holy Spirit spoke through the prophet Isaiah to your fathers: “You will hear what is said but will not understand” [Acts 28.25; cf. Is 6.9–10]. Paul did not write about one Holy Spirit who was in the Prophets before the coming of the Lord as though he himself had another Holy Spirit, but wrote about the Holy Spirit in whom he himself shared, as did all those who were brought to a faith perfect in power.
8. This is why Paul also speaks of him using the definite article, attesting that he is unique and one. Paul says: And as the Holy Spirit said [Heb 3.7], not with an unmodified Πνεῦμα ἅγιον (that is, “a holy spirit”), but he adds the definite article, τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον (that is, the Holy Spirit). Paul also signals that Isaiah prophesied using the definite article: Διὰ τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεῦματος (that is, Through the Holy Spirit) [Acts 28.25], and not with an unmodified Διὰ ἁγίου Πνεῦματος (that is, “Through a holy spirit”). Furthermore, in that speech in which Peter won over his audience, he said: It was appropriate for that Scripture to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit—τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον—spoke beforehand through the mouth of David concerning Judas [Acts 1.16], demonstrating that the very same Spirit was working in the Prophets and in the Apostles.
9. We will deal with this more fully in what follows when we begin to discuss not only how the Lord came as Word to the Prophets, but also how the Holy Spirit came to them, since he too is possessed inseparably with the only-begotten Son of God.