New Testament Texts Treating of the Divine Persons Severally — Article 3: Of God the Holy Ghost

ARTICLE 3: OF GOD THE HOLY GHOST

The term “Holy Ghost,” or “Spirit of God,” does not imply opposition so clearly as “Father” and “Son.” In demonstrating this dogma, therefore, we shall have to emphasize the personality of the Holy Ghost and the fact that He is an independent Hypostasis, distinct from both the Father and the Son. His Divinity can be proved with comparative ease. Accordingly, this article will fall into three divisions. In the first division we shall demonstrate that the Holy Ghost is a real Person; in the second, that He is a Person distinct from the Father and the Son; and in the third, that He is a truly Divine Person, or God Himself. Once these three points are established from Holy Scripture, no further proof will be needed to show the existence of a Third Person in the Godhead.

A. The Personality of the Holy Ghost

1. The Word “Ghost” (Spirit) in its Impersonal Sense

The Bible not infrequently uses the terms “God the Father” and “sons of God” in a figurative sense. Similarly it also employs the word “spirit of God” in a way that does not always suggest the idea of a real personality.

When we read, for instance, that “the spirit of God moved over the waters,”¹ we understand that the sacred writer personifies the breath of divine omnipotence. At least there is no cogent reason for thinking that Moses here meant the Person of the Holy Ghost. In those texts, too, which tell of supernatural effects wrought by grace, or of the workings of the spirit, it is not always obvious that Holy Scripture means to describe something more than an external divine effect which might be figuratively termed “holy spirit.” In the Fiftieth Psalm the words “Spiritum rectum innova in visceribus meis”² and “Spiritu principali confirma me”³ evidently denote a supernatural spirit of rectitude and self-control, i. e., a good disposition. “Et spiritum sanctum tuum ne auferas a me,”⁴ must likewise be interpreted impersonally. The “holy spirit” here referred to is the spirit of sanctity. There are still other texts in which “spirit” does not designate a Person, but the absolute Divine Nature, which is essentially spiritual. Cfr. John IV, 24: “God is a spirit (spiritus, πνεῦμα), and they that adore him, must adore him in spirit and in truth.” In the eighth verse of the third chapter of St. John’s Gospel, Christ Himself employs the word “spirit” in its original impersonal and material sense of “wind.” For spiritus is derived from spirare, which means to blow, to breathe, as the Greek πνεῦμα is derived from πνεῖν, which has the same meaning.⁵

2. The Word “Spirit” in its Hypostatic Sense

Aside from the texts already quoted, there is a considerable number of other Scriptural passages in which the Holy Ghost is clearly described as a real and individual person.

a) There are in the first place certain epithets designed to restrict the concept of spirit and to show that it is not a mere impersonal abstraction. Holy Scripture very frequently speaks not merely of the “spirit of God,” but of the “Holy Spirit” (τὸ ἅγιον πνεῦμα), and this personal appellation in some texts is individualized even more strongly by the reduplication of the definite article, as e. g. in John XIV, 26: τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον. In some instances the Divine Spirit is spoken of as “the Spirit of the Father,” or “the Spirit of the Son,” or “the Spirit of Christ,” which clearly intimates opposition to the Father and the Son.⁶ 1 Cor. II, 12: “Spiritus qui ex Deo est (τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ) — The Spirit that is of God,” distinctly recalls John I, 1: “Et Verbum erat apud Deum — And the Word was with God.”

b) The Holy Ghost is also called Paraclete (Paraclitus, παράκλητος). This term is as peculiar to St. John as the term Logos. Like Logos and Son of God, Paraclete and Holy Ghost denote one identical Person.

Paraclete is not, however, predicated of the Holy Spirit so exclusively as Logos is applied to the Son. Thus, in the First Epistle of St. John, Christ is called Paraclete.⁷ The Saviour Himself in the Fourth Gospel repeatedly refers to the Holy Ghost as the Paraclete. What, then, is the meaning of Paraclete? The word is used in three different senses, all derived from the root-verb παρακαλεῖν. The first and original sense is “advocate” (advocatus, from παρακαλεῖν = in auxilium advocare). But the operations which Jesus ascribes to the Paraclete manifestly cannot be brought within the limits of this definition. Some exegetes derive Paraclete from παρακαλεῖσθαι (i. e., consolari) and take it to mean “comforter” (consolator). But if that derivation were correct, the noun should spell παρακλήτωρ, not παράκλητος. Moreover, it is plain from our Lord’s discourse after the Last Supper,⁸ that the office of the Paraclete is far superior to that of a mere comforter. He is formally to take the place of the departing Son of God, and to represent Him in His Church in the same manner in which Christ had represented the Father. The Paraclete is to complete the work begun by the Saviour and to assist the newly founded Church unto the consummation of the world, filling it with His sanctifying power and with the spirit of truth. Paraclete may also mean “representative,” from παρακαλεῖν = aliquem in locum alterius accire.⁹

From these verbal definitions it is clear that the “Paraclete” or “Holy Spirit” is not a mere personification but a real person.

c) The correctness of this interpretation is borne out by the characteristic description which Christ Himself has given of the Paraclete, His operations, and His relation to the Father and the Son. He is an “other” (alius, ἄλλος) than the Father who “sends” Him,¹⁰ and He is also distinct from the Son, who sends Him “from the Father.”¹¹

Between Him who sends (mittens) and Him who is sent (missus) there is logically the same relative opposition as between Father and Son. This distinction furnishes a safeguard against the modalistic error which conceives the Holy Spirit as a mere mode of manifestation of the Godhead. It is also useful in refuting the Rationalist contention that the name Spiritus Sanctus merely shelters a poetical prosopopoeia or personification. An impersonal being could not “teach all truth,” “give testimony,” “bring all things to [the Apostles’] mind,” remind them of what Christ had told them, and so forth. There are many other texts of Sacred Scripture in which the Holy Spirit is described as possessing all the marks of a real personality. Thus He has a free will, for St. Paul speaks of Him as “Dividens singulis, prout vult — (the Spirit worketh), dividing to every one according as he will.”¹² He appoints the bishops: “Attendite vobis et universo gregi, in quo vos Spiritus sanctus posuit episcopos regere ecclesiam Dei, quam acquisivit sanguine suo — Take heed to yourselves and to the whole flock, wherein the Holy Ghost hath placed you bishops, to rule the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.”¹³ He prays for us “with unspeakable groanings,”¹⁴ like as Christ “always lives to make intercession for us.”¹⁵ Nay, He formally ascribes to Himself subsistent personality by commanding: “Segregate mihi (μοι) Saulum et Barnabam in opus, ad quod assumpsi (προσκέκλημαι) eos — (The Holy Ghost said to them): Separate me Saul and Barnabas, for the work whereunto I have taken them.”¹⁶

B. The Hypostatic Difference Between the Holy Ghost and the Father and the Son

1. St. Paul and the Disciples of John the Baptist at Ephesus

On one occasion, when St. Paul came to Ephesus, he found there about twelve disciples of John the Baptist, and thinking that they had already received Baptism, he asked them: “Have you received the Holy Ghost (πνεῦμα ἅγιον) since ye believed?” They answered: “We have not so much as heard that there be a Holy Ghost (ἀλλ’ οὐδὲ εἰ πνεῦμα ἅγιόν ἐστιν ἠκούσαμεν).” And when the Apostle queried further: “In what then were you baptized?” they replied: “In John’s baptism.” … “Having heard these things, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.” And when St. Paul “had imposed his hands on them, the Holy Ghost (τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον) came upon them.”¹⁷ This account makes it certain beyond a peradventure that Jesus and the Holy Ghost are two distinct Persons. For the initial ignorance of the disciples of John the Baptist did not refer to the Godhead as such (concerning which they must have been sufficiently instructed), but to that particular Divine Person who, in contradistinction to Jesus, the Son of God, is called Holy Ghost. In accordance with this marked difference between the two Divine Persons, John’s disciples at Ephesus received two distinct sacraments, viz., Baptism (i. e., the Baptism of Jesus) and Confirmation.

2. Christ’s Last Discourse

In His discourse to His Disciples after the Last Supper,¹⁸ Christ clearly distinguishes between the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. “Ego rogabo Patrem et alium Paraclitum (ἄλλον παράκλητον) dabit vobis, ut maneat vobiscum in aeternum — I will ask the Father, and he shall give you another Paraclete, that he may abide with you for ever.” The “alius” so distinctly differentiates the Paraclete from both Christ Himself and the Father, that a blending of the Three Persons into one, or into two, is entirely out of question. The Father “gives”; the Paraclete “is given”; and Christ “asks the Father to give” the Paraclete. It is futile to object that God may give Himself to His creatures; for the Father is asked by the Son to give to the Apostles, not Himself, nor His Son, but the Paraclete, or Holy Ghost. The hypostatic difference between the Three Persons of the Divine Trinity is still more clearly marked in John XIV, 26: “Paraclitus autem Spiritus sanctus, quem mittet Pater in nomine meo, ille vos docebit omnia (ὁ δὲ παράκλητος τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον, ὃ πέμψει ὁ πατὴρ ἐν τῷ ὀνόματί μου, ἐκεῖνος ὑμᾶς διδάξει πάντα) — But the Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things.” In this passage, too, it is impossible to confound the Paraclete with the Father, because it is the Father who sends Him; or with Christ, because it is in Christ’s name that He is sent. Consequently the Paraclete is a different Person than either the Father or the Son.

3. The Immanent Origin of the Holy Ghost

The Holy Ghost is “of God,” and, like the Logos, Himself a Divine Person, who owes His Personality to His eternal procession from the Father. Sacred Scripture calls the Holy Ghost “the Spirit that is of God,”¹⁹ and distinctly declares that He “proceedeth from the Father.”²⁰ Consequently the Holy Ghost is a different Person from the Father. But is He likewise personally distinct from the Son? The context plainly shows that that is what St. John means to inculcate. “Cum autem venerit Paraclitus, quem ego mittam vobis a Patre, spiritum veritatis qui a Patre procedit (τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας, ὃ παρὰ τοῦ πατρὸς ἐκπορεύεται), hic testimonium perhibebit de me — But when the Paraclete cometh, whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceedeth from the Father, he shall give testimony of me.”²¹ Here the Paraclete, or “Spirit of truth,” who “proceedeth from the Father,” and who cannot therefore be identical with the Father, is sharply distinguished from the Son, who sends Him; for no one can send Himself. Besides, St. John distinctly affirms that the Paraclete is sent to give testimony of Christ. From all of which it is as plain as the light of day that the Bible makes a sharp distinction between the Holy Ghost and the Father and the Son, and that each must therefore be a separate and distinct Hypostasis.

C. The Divinity of the Holy Ghost

Although the Divinity of the Holy Ghost is logically deducible from the texts already quoted, the Pneumatomachian and Socinian heresies demand a special refutation. In formulating the Scriptural argument for the Divinity of the Holy Ghost, we shall follow the same method which we employed in elaborating that for the Divinity of Christ.

1. The Divine Attributes of the Holy Ghost

Sacred Scripture ascribes to the Holy Ghost divine attributes both of being and of life. Therefore the Holy Ghost is God.

a) Of the transcendental attributes of being, truth is frequently ascribed to the Holy Ghost. He is called the substantial “Spirit of truth,” who “teaches all truth.” John XVI, 13: “Cum autem venerit ille Spiritus veritatis (τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας), docebit vos omnem veritatem (πᾶσαν τὴν ἀλήθειαν) — But when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will teach you all truth.” This substantial Spirit of truth by virtue of His “procession from the Father” must be increate and divine; else He could not be called the Inspirer of God’s infallible word.²²

A second characteristic prerogative of the Holy Ghost, which is indicated by His very name, is His substantial holiness or sanctity. The epithet sanctus (ἅγιος) describes the very essence of the Third Person of the Divine Trinity. Not as if the Father and the Son were not also substantially holy,²³ but the Holy Ghost proceeds from Sanctity or Love as His principle, and is therefore Hypostatic Holiness or Personal Love.²⁴ It is for this reason that He is represented, per appropriationem, as “the Sanctifier,” i. e., the principle of all created holiness. Cfr. Rom. V, 5: “Caritas Dei diffusa est in cordibus nostris per Spiritum Sanctum, qui datus est nobis — The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us.”

The omnipotence of the Holy Ghost is more clearly defined in the supernatural sphere than in the domain of nature. St. Paul sublimely demonstrates it in his First Epistle to the Corinthians, where the Holy Ghost is eulogized as the author of the supernatural gifts of grace, such as wisdom, knowledge, the working of miracles, prophecy, “interpretation of speeches,” etc.²⁵ The Holy Ghost wrought His own theophany (or visible manifestation) in the form of “parted tongues of fire” on Pentecost Day, when, as Sacred Scripture tells us, the Apostles “were filled with the Holy Ghost, and … began to speak with divers tongues, according as the Holy Ghost gave them to speak.”²⁶ But the greatest miracle of His omnipotence was the Incarnation, when the Blessed Virgin Mary “conceived [her Divine Son] of the Holy Ghost.”²⁷

Omnipresence and indwelling are likewise distinctly divine attributes. Now, the Holy Ghost is everywhere in Sacred Scripture represented as the penetrating, transforming, purifying, sanctifying, and vivifying principle of supernatural life; so much so that the Nicaeno-Constantinopolitan Creed expressly designates Him as the Vivifier.²⁸ Cfr. John VI, 64: “Spiritus est, qui vivificat — It is the Spirit that quickeneth.” 2 Cor. III, 6: “Τὸ δὲ πνεῦμα ζωοποιεῖ — But the Spirit quickeneth.” This vivifying and sanctifying omnipresence implies the divine prerogative of indwelling in the souls of the just. The Saints are temples of the Holy Ghost. John XIV, 17: “You shall know him; because he shall abide with you, and shall be in you.” 1 Cor. III, 16: “Know you not that you are the temples of the Holy Ghost, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” 1 Cor. VI, 19: “Know you not that your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost, who is in you, whom you have from God?”

b) Of the attributes of divine life, omniscience belongs to the Holy Ghost in the same measure as it belongs to the Logos. He is the “searcher of the deep things of God,” which “no man knoweth, but the Spirit of God.” 1 Cor. II, 10-11: “Spiritus omnia scrutatur, etiam profunda Dei. Quis enim hominum scit, quae sunt hominis, nisi spiritus hominis, qui in ipso est. Ita et ea quae Dei sunt, nemo cognovit nisi Spiritus Dei — For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, but the spirit of a man that is in him? So the things also that are of God no man knoweth but the Spirit of God.” In virtue of this Divine Knowledge He is the revealer of the mysteries of God. “Spiritu loquitur mysteria.”²⁹ Out of His perfect knowledge of the future free acts of rational creatures, the Holy Ghost inspires the prophets and predicts the future. John XVI, 13: “Quae ventura sunt, annuntiabit vobis — The things that are to come, he shall shew you.”³⁰

Besides these attributes, there are His external divine operations. Continuing the work of the Redemption, the Holy Ghost is perpetually remitting sins in the Church. John XX, 22 sq.: “Accipite Spiritum Sanctum: quorum remiseritis peccata, remittuntur eis — Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them.” “The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Ghost,”³¹ and it is the Holy Ghost through whom the just are adopted as children of God. Rom. VIII, 14: “Quicumque enim Spiritu Dei aguntur, ii sunt filii Dei — For whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” He is, lastly, the seal of supernatural life stamped on our souls. Eph. I, 13: “Credentes signati estis Spiritu promissionis sancto [i. e., Spiritu a Deo promisso] — Believing, you were signed with the Holy Spirit of promise” (that is to say, with the Spirit promised by God).

2. The Holy Ghost Entitled to Divine Worship

The Trinitarian form of benediction puts the Holy Ghost on a par with the Father and the Son. This general argument for His adorability can be fortified by a special proof, drawn from the peculiar malice involved in blaspheming the Person of the Holy Ghost.

Cfr. Matth. XII, 31-32: “Omne peccatum et blasphemia remittetur hominibus; Spiritus autem blasphemia non remittetur. Et quicunque dixerit verbum contra Filium hominis [i. e., Christum] remittetur ei; qui autem dixerit contra Spiritum Sanctum, non remittetur ei neque in hoc saeculo neque in futuro — Every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven men, but the blasphemy of³² the Spirit shall not be forgiven. And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but he that shall speak against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come.” Therefore blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is a more grievous offence than ordinary blasphemy; which could not be were not the Holy Ghost at least coequal in majesty and adorableness with the Father and the Son. As for Christ’s dictum in the text just quoted, we need hardly say that it is only as man that He subordinates Himself to the Holy Ghost, in the same sense in which He elsewhere says:³³ “The Father is greater than I.” This argument is confirmed by all those Scriptural texts which contain the phrase “temple of the Holy Ghost,” for a temple is reared for the worship of the Divinity.

3. The Name “God” Applied to the Holy Ghost

Although the Bible nowhere expressly calls the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity “God,” the appellation occurs frequently in contexts where “God” can be legitimately substituted for “Holy Ghost.”

a) To begin with, the Old Testament contains a number of passages which are directly referred to the Holy Ghost in the New. Is. VI, 8-9, we read: “Et audivi vocem Domini dicentis: … Vade et dices populo huic: audite audientes et nolite intelligere — And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: … Go and thou shalt say to this people: Hearing, hear and understand not.” Now St. Paul teaches:³⁴ “Bene Spiritus Sanctus locutus est per Isaiam prophetam: Vade et dices, etc. — Well did the Holy Ghost speak to our fathers by Isaias the prophet, saying: Go to this people and say to them, etc.” According to St. Paul, therefore, the Holy Ghost is identical with the Old Testament Yahweh, that is to say, with the one true God, to whom alone this name is attributable as a quasi nomen proprium.³⁵ A similar substitution of names takes place whenever a prophecy is alternately ascribed to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.³⁶ If the Father is God, and the Son is God, the Holy Ghost, too, must be God.

b) In many passages of the New Testament the word “God” can be directly substituted for “Holy Ghost.” Thus St. Peter addresses Ananias in these words: “Cur tentavit Satanas cor tuum, mentiri te Spiritui Sancto… . Non es mentitus hominibus, sed Deo — Why hath Satan tempted thy heart, that thou shouldst lie to the Holy Ghost… . Thou hast not lied to men, but to God.”³⁷ By substitution we get the proposition “The Holy Ghost is God.” St. Paul, when he asks:³⁸ “Nescitis quia templum Dei estis et Spiritus Dei habitat in vobis? — Know you not that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” plainly intimates that the Holy Ghost dwelling in “the temple of God” is identical with God Himself.³⁹ A comparison of John I, 13: “Ex Deo nati sunt — They are born of God,” with John III, 5: “Nisi quis renatus fuerit ex aqua et Spiritu Sancto — Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost,” shows that “Holy Ghost” = “God.” Finally St. Paul says in his Epistle to the Hebrews: “Multifariam multisque modis olim Deus loquens patribus in prophetis — God … at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets,”⁴⁰ and St. Peter assures us: “Non enim voluntate humana allata est aliquando prophetia, sed Spiritu Sancto inspirati locuti sunt sancti Dei homines — For prophecy came not by the will of man at any time: but the holy men of God spoke, inspired by the Holy Ghost.”⁴¹

The synthesis of the Three Divine Persons in the complete concept of the Trinity is most perfectly consummated in the so-called ordo subsistendi,⁴² by virtue of which the Three observe a constant order and follow one another in an immutable sequence. The members of this formula can not be transposed. The Father must be conceived strictly as the First, the Son as the Second, and the Holy Ghost as the Third Person of the Godhead. Yet this is not to be understood as implying a sequence of time or dignity, a before or after, a more or less; for in virtue of their absolute consubstantiality or homoousia all Three Divine Persons are coequal in rank, eternity, and power.⁴³