ACC ~ John 16 v14

CHRIST’S FAME PROCLAIMED

AUGUSTINE: He will make me clearly known [1] by pouring love into the hearts of believers and making them spiritual and thus able to see that the Son whom they had known before only according to the flesh—and who they thought was only a man like themselves—was equal to the Father. Or at least, when his love filled them with boldness and cast out fear, they would proclaim Christ to men and women, and in this way they would spread Christ’s fame throughout the whole world. … For what they were going to do in the power of the Holy Spirit, this the Holy Spirit says he does himself. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 100.1. [2]

[1] Augustine notes a little later on in this same section that the Greek word doxasei has been rendered by the Latin interpreters in their respective translations as either clarificabit (“shall make clearly known”) or glorificabit (“shall glorify”). He chose the former sense here, noting that doxa, from which doxasei derives, could be interpreted as both claritas (“brightness”) and gloria (“glory”). According to Augustine, he is within the stream of the older Latin writers who defined glory as “the generally diffused and accepted fame of anyone accompanied with praise,” although, in this case, it is not Christ but the world that receives benefit from this glory.

[2] NPNF 1 7:385**.

CHRIST SPEAKING OF THE SPIRIT’S PROCESSION

APOLLINARIS OF LAODICEA: The work and teaching of the Spirit will redound to my glory, for the Spirit also proceeds from me. For when he says “from me,” it is clear that he is also from the Father, for “what belongs to me belongs to the Father.” Then he hears again in the same manner the phrase “he will take from what is mine.” It is not as if some knowledge comes on the Spirit—and that at the present time. It would be a horrible thing, indeed, almost an evil conjecture, to state that the Spirit received his instruction when he was about to bring it to humankind. Indeed, it would be a horrible suggestion if someone should say that the Spirit was taught at all. Then he would no longer be believed to dwell in people and bring all wisdom to them, if he did not have some innate wisdom in him but rather needed to be taught. Thus, when he said, “he will take from what is mine and announce it to you,” he meant simply to say that the Spirit would proceed from him. The statements speak of lesser things since they are adapted to what is well known to people, but the real glory of the Spirit is greater since it pertains to divinity. Moreover, it is said that God listens to a person’s words. However, it is clear that nothing is added at that time to the knowledge of God but that even before we spoke our words, he knew our prayers and had created everything according to his knowledge from the very beginning of his creation, knowing full well the changes in emotions that would take place in his creatures. Nonetheless, it is still said, “Hear, O Lord” and “The Lord heard.” And yet it is not necessary for God to wait for anything in time, as if there would be some change in God because of the prayers of human beings, or as if God would gain some knowledge from what is being said. Rather, these words are being spoken in a human fashion, so to speak, while among the godly they are understood in a divine fashion. In your suppositions the unchanging and unchangeable nature of the glory of God is not purified because he hears people speaking. So then simply because the Spirit hears and receives something does not mean that he will receive any additional knowledge or a change to the unchanging nature of the Spirit. FRAGMENTS ON JOHN 120. [1]

[1] JKGK 48-49.

CLOSE COHESION IN THE TRINITY

TERTULLIAN: He says, “He will take of mine,” as I myself have taken of the Father’s. So the close series of the Father in the Son and the Son in the Paraclete makes three who cohere, the one attached to the other. AGAINST PRAXEAS 25. [1]

[1] TTAP 169.

NAMES OF GOD ARE CHRIST’S

TERTULLIAN: “All things that the Father has,” he says, “are mine”—and why not also the names? When therefore you read of God Almighty, and the Most High, and the God of hosts, and the King of Israel and “I am,” beware lest by these the Son also is shown to be of his own right God Almighty, as being the Word of God Almighty, and as having received power over all. [1] AGAINST PRAXEAS 17. [2]

[1] Mt 28:20.

[2] TTAP 155.

NO DIMINUTION OF GIVER OR RECEIVER

DIDYMUS THE BLIND: To “receive” [or “take”] must be taken here in a sense agreeable to the divine nature. As the Son in giving is not deprived of what he gives or imparts to others with any loss of his own, so too the Holy Spirit does not receive what before he did not have. For if he received what before he did not have—the gift being transferred to another—the giver would be thereby a loser. We must understand then that the Holy Spirit receives from the Son that which belonged to his nature and that there are not two substances implied, one giving and the other receiving, but one substance only. In the same way, the Son too is said to receive from the Father that wherein he himself subsists. For neither is the Son anything but what is given him by the Father, nor is the Holy Spirit any substance but that which is given him by the Son. ON THE HOLY SPIRIT 36-37. [1]

[1] PL 23:134-35.

Jn