ACC ~ John 4 v10a

THIRST SATISFIED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT

AUGUSTINE: He asks for a drink and promises to give a drink. He longs as one about to receive; he abounds as one about to satisfy. “If you knew,” he says, “the gift of God.” The gift of God is the Holy Spirit. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 15.12. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 7:102*.

WATER AND SPIRIT AS GIFT OF GOD

AUGUSTINE: Is it shown in the sacred books that the Holy Spirit is called the “gift of God”? If people look for this too, we have in the Gospel according to John the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, who says, “If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink: he that believes on me, as the Scripture says, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” And the Evangelist has gone on further to add, “And this he spoke of the Spirit, which they should receive who believe in him.” [1] And hence Paul the apostle also says, “And we have all been made to drink into one Spirit.” [2] The question then is whether that water is called the gift of God, which is the Holy Spirit. But as we find here that this water is the Holy Spirit, so we find elsewhere in the Gospel itself that this water is called the gift of God. For when the same Lord was talking with the woman of Samaria at the well, to whom he had said, “Give me to drink,” and she had answered that the Jews “have no dealings” with the Samaritans, Jesus answered and said to her, “If you had known the gift of God and who it is that says to you, ‘Give me to drink,’ you would have asked of him, and he would have given you living water.”… Because this living water, then, as the Evangelist has explained to us, is the Holy Spirit, without doubt the Spirit is the gift of God, of which the Lord says here, “If you had known the gift of God, and who it is that says to you, ‘Give me to drink,’ you would have asked of him, and he would have given you living water.” For that which is in the one passage, “Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water,” is in the other, “shall be in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.” ON THE TRINITY 15.19.33. [3]

[1] Jn 7:37-39.

[2] 1 Cor 12:13.

[3] NPNF 1 3:217-18*.

THE DRINK GIVEN IS THE GOSPEL

EUSEBIUS OF CAESAREA: And in that day it says, “Living water shall come forth out of Jerusalem.” [1] This is that spiritual, sweet, life-giving and saving drink of the teaching of Christ. He speaks of it in the Gospel according to John, when instructing the Samaritan woman…. What was this drink, then, that came forth from Jerusalem? For it was there that its gospel went forth and its heralds filled the world. This is what is meant by the words “The living water shall go forth to the first sea and the last sea,” [2] by which is meant the bounds of the whole world. That which is toward the eastern ocean is called “the first sea,” that toward the west is meant by “the last sea,” which, indeed, the living water of the saving gospel teaching has filled. [3] He also taught about this when he said, “Whosoever shall drink of the water, which I shall give him, shall never thirst.” PROOF OF THE GOSPEL 6.18.48-49. [4]

[1] Zech 14:8.

[2] Zech 14:8.

[3] Zechariah would have been referring to the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea. It is a question as to whether Eusebius means anything more than to the uttermost ends of the earth.

[4] POG 2:35.

LIVING WATER FLOWS FROM JERUSALEM

EUSEBIUS OF CAESAREA: And in them too the rest of the prophecy was fulfilled, when on the day of our Savior’s coming living water came forth from Jerusalem. [1] The fruitful living word of Jerusalem, yes, from Jerusalem itself, and was spread over all the earth, even to the utmost bounds of the world. The Lord and Savior himself speaks of this water to the Samaritan woman…. And he goes on to teach what advantage would accrue to everyone who tastes of the living spiritual spring. Those that drink of it, denying the many evil demons who ruled them of old, will confess their one Lord and King, and that the Lord, who once was known only to the Hebrews, will become King of all nations that believe in him from all the earth, and that his name will be one, encircling all the earth and the wilderness. And who is not struck at seeing this fulfilled? For the Christian name, derived from the name of Christ (and Christ was indeed the Lord) has encircled every place and city and land and the very nations that dwell in the wilderness and at the ends of the earth, as the prophecy foretold. PROOF OF THE GOSPEL 10.7.7-8. [2]

[1] See Zech 14:8.

[2] POG 2:215.