Early Church & the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit Himself, who operates in the prophets, we assert to be an effluence of God, flowing from Him, and returning back again like a beam of the sun. Athenagoras (c. 175, E), 2.133.

He [Isaiah] attributes the Spirit as unique to God, whom in the last times He pours forth upon the human race by the adoption of sons. But that breath [of life] was common throughout the creation, and he points it out as something created. Now that which has been made is a different thing from the one who makes it. The breath, then, is temporal, but the Spirit is eternal. Irenaeus (c. 180, E/W), 1.538.

God here assumed the likeness, not of man, but of a dove, for He wished, by a new apparition of the Spirit in the likeness of a dove, to declare His simplicity and majesty. Clement of Alexandria (c. 195, E), 2.578.

You would have been refuted in this matter by the Gospel of John, when it declares that the Spirit descended in the body of a dove and sat upon the Lord. When the said Spirit was in this condition, He was as truly a dove as He was also a spirit. Nor did He destroy His own proper substance by the assumption of an extraneous substance. Tertullian (c. 210, W), 3.523.

He says, “I will pray the Father, and He will send you another Comforter even the Spirit of truth,” thus making the Paraclete distinct from Himself, even as we say that the Son is also distinct from the Father. So He showed a third degree in the Paraclete. For we believe the second degree is in the Son, by reason of the order observed in the “Economy.” Tertullian (c. 213, W), 3.604.

He has received from the Father the promised gift, and has shed it forth, even the Holy Spirit—the third name in Divinity, and the third degree of the Divine Majesty. Tertullian (c. 213, W), 3.627.

The apostles related that the Holy Spirit was associated in honor and dignity with the Father and the Son. But in His case it is not clearly distinguished whether He is to be regarded as born or unborn—or also as a Son of God or not. Origen (c. 225, E), 4.240.

In the Acts of the Apostles, the Holy Spirit was given by the imposition of the apostles’ hands in baptism. From which we learn that the person of the Holy Spirit was of such authority and dignity that saving baptism was not complete except by the authority of the most excellent Trinity of them all. . . . Who, then, is not amazed at the exceeding majesty of the Holy Spirit when he hears that he who speaks a word against the Son of man may hope for forgiveness, but that he who is guilty of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit has no forgiveness—either in the present world or in that which is to come. Origen (c. 225, E), 4.252.

Up to the present time, we have been able to find no statement in Holy Scripture in which the Holy Spirit could be said to be made or created—not even in the way in which we have shown above that the Divine Wisdom is spoken of by Solomon. Origen (c. 225, E), 4.252.

We must understand, therefore, that as the Son (who alone knows the Father) reveals Him to whom He wills, so the Holy Spirit (who alone searches the deep things of God) reveals God to whom He wills. “For the Spirit blows where He wills.” We are not, however, to suppose that the Spirit derives His knowledge through revelation from the Son. Origen (c. 225, E), 4.253.

It was not by progressive advancement that He came to be the Holy Spirit. . . . For if this were the case, the Holy Spirit would never be counted in the unity of the Trinity—along with the unchangeable Father and His Son—unless He had always been the Holy Spirit. Indeed, when we use such terms as “always,” or “was,” or any other designation of time, they are not to be taken absolutely, but with due allowance. Origen (c. 225, E), 4.253.

Let no one indeed suppose that we . . . give a preference to the Holy Spirit over the Father and the Son, or assert that His dignity is greater, which certainly would be a very illogical conclusion. Origen (c. 225, E), 4.254, 255.

The Gospel shows Him to be of such power and majesty that—until the coming of the Holy Spirit—it says the apostles could not yet receive those things that the Savior wished to teach them. For, pouring Himself into their souls, He might enlighten them regarding the nature and faith of the Trinity. Origen (c. 225, E), 4.285.

The Paraclete has received from Christ what He may declare. But if He has received from Christ what He may declare to us, Christ is greater than the Paraclete. For the Paraclete would not receive from Christ unless He were less than Christ. But the very fact that the Paraclete is less than Christ proves Christ to be God. So the testimony of Christ’s divinity is immense in the Paraclete being found to be less than Christ in this economy. Novatian (c. 235, W), 5.625, 626.

The source of the entire Holy Spirit remains in Christ, so that from Him could be drawn streams of gifts and works, while the Holy Spirit dwelled richly in Christ. Novatian (c. 235, W), 5.641.