Pentecost — A Message From St. John Damascus

Continuation of the Holy Gospel According to John (John 14:23-31)

At that time Jesus said to His disciples, If any one love Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and will make Our abode in him: he that loveth Me not, keepeth not My words. And the word which you have heard is not Mine: but the Father’s Who sent Me. These things have I spoken to you, abiding with you. But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My Name, He will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, do I give unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid. You have heard that I said to you: I go away, and I come unto you. If you loved Me, you would indeed be glad, because I go to the Father: for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it come to pass: that when it shall come to pass you may believe. I will not now speak many things with you. For the prince of this world cometh, and in Me he hath not any thing. But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father hath given Me.

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A Message From St. John Damascus’ De Fide Orthodoxa

No one hath seen God at any time; the Only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him 1. The Deity, therefore, is ineffable and incomprehensible. For no one knoweth the Father, save the Son, nor the Son, save the Father 2. And the Holy Spirit, too, so knows the things of God as the spirit of the man knows the things that are in him 3. Moreover, after the first and blessed nature no one, not of men only, but even of supramundane powers, and the Cherubim, I say, and Seraphim themselves, has ever known God, save he to whom He revealed Himself.

God, however, did not leave us in absolute ignorance. For the knowledge of God’s existence has been implanted by Him in all by nature. This creation, too, and its maintenance, and its government, proclaim the majesty of the Divine nature 4. Moreover, by the Law and the Prophets 5 in former times and afterwards by His Only-begotten Son, our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ, He disclosed to us the knowledge of Himself as that was possible for us. All things, therefore, that have been delivered to us by Law and Prophets and Apostles and Evangelists we receive, and know, and honour 6, seeking for nothing beyond these. For God, being good, is the cause of all good, subject neither to envy nor to any passion 7. For envy is far removed from the Divine nature, which is both passionless and only good. As knowing all things, therefore, and providing for what is profitable for each, He revealed that which it was to our profit to know; but what we were unable 8 to bear He kept secret. With these things let us be satisfied, and let us abide by them, not removing everlasting boundaries, nor overpassing the divine tradition 9.

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The Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, then, teaches the existence at once of a Father: and of His Only-begotten Son, born of Him without time and flux and passion, in a manner incomprehensible and perceived by the God of the universe alone: just as we recognise the existence at once of fire and the light which proceeds from it: for there is not first fire and thereafter light, but they exist together. And just as light is ever the product of fire, and ever is in it and at no time is separate from it, so in like manner also the Son is begotten of the Father and is never in any way 114 separate from Him, but ever is in Him 115. But whereas the light which is produced from fire without separation, and abideth ever in it, has no proper subsistence of its own distinct from that of fire (for it natural quality of fire), the Only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father without separation and difference and ever abiding in Him, has a proper subsistence of its own distinct froth that of the Father.

The terms, ‘Word’ and ‘effulgence,’ then, are used because He is begotten of the Father without the union of two, or passion, or time, or flux, or separation 116: and the terms ‘Son’ and ‘impress of the Father’s subsistence,’ because He is perfect and has subsistence 117 and is in all respects similar to the Father, save that the Father is not begotten 118: and the term ‘Only-begotten’ 119 because He alone was begotten alone of the Father alone. For no other generation is like to the generation of the Son of God, since no other is Son of God. For though the Holy Spirit proceedeth from the Father, yet this is not generative in character but processional. This is a different mode of existence, alike incomprehensible and unknown, just as is the generation of the Son. Wherefore all the qualities the Father has are the Son’s, save that the Father is unbegotten 120, and this exception involves no difference in essence nor dignity 121, but only a different mode of coming into existence 122 . We have an analogy in Adam, who was not begotten (for God Himself moulded him), and Seth, who was begotten (for he is Adam’s son), and Eve, who proceeded out of Adam’s rib (for she was not begotten). These do not differ from each other in nature, for they are human beings: but they differ in the mode of coming into existence 123.

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And this also it behoves 128 us to know, that the names Fatherhood, Sonship and Procession, were not applied to the Holy Godhead by us: on the contrary, they were communicated to us by the Godhead, as the divine apostle says, Wherefore I bow the knee to the Father, from Whom is every family in heaven and on earth 129. But if we say 130 that the Father is the origin of the Son and greater than the Son, we do not suggest any precedence in time or superiority in nature of the Father over the Son 131 (for through His agency He made the ages 132 ), or superiority in any other respect save causation. And we mean by this, that the Son is begotten of the Father and not the Father of the Son, and that the Father naturally is the cause of the Son: just as we say in the same way not that fire proceedeth from light, but rather light from fire. So then, whenever we hear it said that the Father is the origin of the Son and greater than the Son, let us understand it to mean in respect of causation. And just as we do not say that fire is of one essence and light of another, so we cannot say that the Father is of one essence and the Son of another: but both are of one and the same essence 133. And just as we say that fire has brightness 134 through the light proceeding from it, and do not consider the light of the fire as an instrument ministering to the fire, but rather as its natural force: so we say that the Father creates all that He creates through His Only-begotten Son, not as though the Son were a mere instrument serving 135 the Father’s ends, but as His natural and subsistential force 136. And just as we say both that the fire shines and again that the light of the fire shines (So all things whatsoever the Father doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise 137). But whereas light possesses no proper subsistence of its own, distinct from that of the fire, the Son perfect subsistence 138, inseparable from the Father’s subsistence, as we have shewn above. For it is quite impossible to find in creation an image that will illustrate in itself exactly in all details the nature of the Holy Trinity. For how could that which is create and compound, subject to flux and change, circumscribed, formed and corruptible, clearly shew forth the super-essential divine essence, unaffected as it is in any of these ways? Now it is evident that all creation is liable to most of these affections, and all from its very nature is subject to corruption.

Likewise we believe also in one Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life: Who proceedeth from the Father and resteth in the Son: the object of equal adoration and glorification with the Father and Son, since He is co-essential and co-eternal 139 : the Spirit of God, direct, authoritative 140 , the fountain of wisdom, and life, and holiness: God existing and addressed along with Father and Son: uncreate, full, creative, all-ruling, all-effecting, all-powerful, of infinite power, Lord of all creation and not under any lord 141 : deifying, not deified 142 : filling, not filled: shared in, not sharing in: sanctifying, not sanctified: the intercessor, receiving the supplications of all: in all things like to the Father and Son: proceeding from the Father and communicated through the Son, and participated in by all creation, through Himself creating, and investing with essence and sanctifying, and maintaining the universe: having subsistence, existing in its own proper and peculiar subsistence, inseparable and indivisible from Father and Son, and possessing all the qualities that the Father and Son possess, save that of not being begotten or born. For the Father is without canst and unborn: for He is derived from nothing, but derives from Himself His being, nor does He derive a single quality from another 143. Rather, He is Himself the beginning and cause of the existence of all things in a definite and natural manner. But the Son is derived from the Father after the manner of generation, and the Holy Spirit likewise is derived from the Father, yet not after the manner of generation, but after that of procession. And we have learned that there is a difference 144 between generation and procession, but the nature of that difference we in no wise understand. Further, the generation of the Son from the Father and the procession of the Holy Spirit are simultaneous.

All then that the Son and the Spirit have is from the Father, even their very being 145: and unless the Father is, neither the Son nor the Spirit is. And unless the Father possesses a certain attribute, neither the Son nor the Spirit possesses it: and through the Father 146, that is, because of the Father’s existence 147, the Son and the Spirit exist 148, and through the Father, that is, because of the Father having the qualities, the Son and the Spirit have all their qualities, those of being unbegotten, and of birth and of procession being excepted 149. For in these hypo static or personal properties alone do the three holy [persons]150 differ from each other, being indivisibly divided not by essence but by the distinguishing mark of their proper and peculiar [persons]. SEE NOTE

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Further, it should be understood that we do not speak of the Father as derived from any one, but we speak of Him as the Father of the Son. And we do not speak of the Son as Cause 168 or Father, but we speak of Him both as from the Father, and as the Son of the Father. And we speak likewise of the Holy Spirit as from the Father, and call Him the Spirit of the Father. And we do not speak of the Spirit as from the Son 169: 170 but yet we call Him the Spirit of the Son). For if any one hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His 171, saith the divine apostle. And we confess that He is manifested and imparted to us through the Son). For He breathed upon His Disciples, says he, and said, Receive ye the Holy Spirit 172. It is just the same as in the case of the sun from which come both the ray and the radiance (for the sun itself is the source of both the ray and the radiance), and it is through the ray that the radiance is imparted to us, and it is the radiance itself by which we are lightened and in which we participate. Further, we do not speak of the Son of the Spirit, or of the Son as derived from the Spirit 173).

1 John 1:18.
2 Matt 11:27.
3 1 Cor 2:11.
4 Cant 13:5.
5 Greg. Nas., Orat. 34.
6 Dionys., De div. nom.., c.1.
7 Greg, Nas., Orat. 34.
8 Reading ὃπερ δε οὐκ ἐδυνάμεθα for ὃπερ δὲ οὖν ἐδυνάμεθα. Cod. Reg. 3379 gives καὶ ὃ οὐ δυνάμεθα.

114 Text, μηδ᾽ ὅλως. Variant in many codices is μηδαμῶς, as in the previous sentence.
115 Greg. Naz., Orat. bk. i., Cont. Eun., p. 66; Cyril, Thes., assert. 5.
116 Greg. Naz., Orat. 36.
117 ἐνυπόστατον; enhypostatic. See Suicer, Thesaurus, sub voce.
118 Greg. Naz., Orat. 23, 37, and 39.
119 cf. ibid. 23, 36.
120 Athan, Contra Arian., Orat. 2; Basil, Contra Eunom. iv.; Greg. Naz., Orat. 35.
121 ἀξιώματι.
122 Basil, bk. 2; iv.
123 Greg. Naz., Orat. 36 and 37.

128 cf. Basil, Contra Eunom, 5,; Athan., Contra Arian., ii.; Cyril, Thes., assert. 32; Epiphan., Haeres. 73, &c.
129 Eph 3:14-15: Cyril. Thes., assert. 32: Dionys., De divin. nom., c. I.
130 In the first Book of his Contra Arianos Athanasius refers to Christ’s word in St. John xiv. 28. He remarks that He does not say “the Father is better (κρείσσων) than I,” lest it should be inferred that the Son is not equal to the Father in Divine nature, but of another nature; but “the Father is greater (μείζων) than I,” that is to say, not in dignity or age, but as being begotten of the Father. And further, that by the word “greater” He indicates the peculiar property of the substance (τῆς οὐσίας τὴν ἰδιότητα). This declaration of our Lord’s was understood in the same way by Basil, Gregory Nazianzenus, Cyril and others of the Greek Fathers, and by Hilary among the Latin Fathers. In the ixth and xth Books of his De Trinitate Hilary refers to this, and says that the Father is called ‘greater’ propter auctoritatem, meaning by auctoritas not power, but what the Greeks understand by αἰτιότης, causation, principle or authorship of being. So also Soebadius says that the Father is rightly called ‘greater,’ because He alone is without an author of His being. But Latin theologians usually spoke of the Father as ‘greater,’ not because He is Father, but because the Son was made Man. To this effect also Athanasius expresses himself in his De hum. carne suscepta, while Gregory Nazianzenus speaks otherwise in his Orat. 36.
131 John 14:28.
132 τοὺς αἰ& 242·νας; Heb 1:3.
133 Greg. Naz., Orat. 37; Athan., Contr. Arian., bk. i.
134 φαίνειν, shines.
135 See Cyril, Ad Herm., dial. 2; Irenaeus. 4,14, 5,6, and John of Damascus, himself in his Dial. Contr. Manich.
136 Greg. Naz., Orat. 13, 31 and 37.
137 John 5:19.
138 τέλεια ὑπόστασις; a perfect hyposlasis.
139 Greg. Naz., Orat. 37.
140 ἡγεμονικόν.
141 Greg. Naz., Orat. 49.
142 θεοῦν οὐ θεούμενον.
143 Text οὐ γὰρ ἔκ τινος· ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ γὰρ τὸ εἶναι ἔχει, οὐδέ τι τῶν ὅσαπερ ἔχει ἐξ ἑτέρου ἔχει· Another reading is, οὐ γὰρ ἔκ τινος τὸ ειναι ἔχει, οὐδέ τι τῶν οσα ἔχει, i.e. or He does not derive His being nor any one of His qualities from any one.
144 See Greg. Naz., Orat. 29, 35; Thomas Aquin., I. Quaest. 35, art I.
145 Greg. Naz., Orat. 25.
146 See Athan., Contra Arian., Orat. 3; Greg. Naz., Orat. 35. So Augustine (Contr. max. 3,14, De Trin. xv).. Epiphanius (Anchor)., and Gregory of Nyssa (Epist. ad Ablab). teach that the Spirit proceeds, and is not begotten, because He is both of the Father and the Son, while the Son is only of the Father.
147 Reading, διὰ τὸ εἶναι τὸν Πατέρα: a variant is, διὰ τὸ εἶναι αὐτὸν Πατέρα, as also in Cyrilli, De Trinitate.
148 Greg. Naz., Orat. 23.
149 ibid., Orat., 25.
150 ὑπόστασεις; hypostases.
NOTE: The translated English text uses substances when person would be a better English rendering of hypostases, especially as the previous section οὐσίαν (essence) is being translated as substance. The immediately following section, a discussion of statases, is removed to prevent confusion in the readership for it is also rendering statases as substances.

169 Maxim. Epist. ad Marin.
170 ἐκ τοῦ Υἱοῦ δὲ τὸ Πνεῦμα οὐ λέγομεν. See also ch. xii., καὶ Υἱοῦ Πνεῦμα οὐχ ὡς ἐξ αὐτοῦ, and at the close of the Epist. ad Jordan, Πνεῦμα Υἱοῦ μὴ ἐξ Υἱοῦ.
171 Rom 8:9.
172 John 20:29.
173 Greg. Naz., Orat. 37.