The Angelic Doctor Against the Errors of the Greeks - Part Two - Chapter 3

That the Holy Spirit receives of that which is the Son’s.

Further, on the authority of Holy Scripture it is proven that the Holy Spirit receives of that which is the Son’s. For in John 16:4, it is said: He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

Some one may object that, although the Holy Spirit receives what is the Son’s, he does not receive it from the Son; for he receives the essence of the Father from the Father, an essence identical with that of the Son, and this would explain why the Son says: He shall receive of mine. And the Lord;s words which follow (John 16:15) seem to suggest this, for he adds, almost in explanation of himself: All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine.

But from this explanation of the Lord, it is necessarily concluded that the Holy Spirit receives from the Son. If all that belongs to the Father belongs to the Son, then the authority by reason of which the Father is the principle from whom the Holy Spirit proceeds must also belong to the Son. As, therefore, the Holy Spirit receives from the Father what is the Father’s, so he receives from the Son what is the Son’s.

This is why Athanasius says in his letter to Serapion: “In teaching his Apostles and his Bride the Church Christ affirmed thast from his very own being the Holy Spirit exists of himself essentially as God, saying thus: He shall receive of mine, that is, he has from my essence his divinity, so he has from me existence and speech.”  And again in his discourse on the Council of Nicaea: “Whatever the Holy Spirit has, he has from the Word of God.”  And in his letter to Serapion he says” “The Holy Spirit is coessential with the Son from he has whatever he has.”  And, again, in the same letter: “The Son says: He, namely, the Holy Spirit, will glorify me, thast is, as he has in himself my godhead from me, he will prove me to be the glorious and just God, just as I glorify my Father, thast is, as I have in myself his godhead from him.”  And Basil writing against Eunomius says: “An attribute passes from the Father to the Son, such that the Son qua God is God from the Father, Lord from the Lord, Almighty from the Almighty, Wisdom from the Wise, Word from the highest Speaker, Power from Power; the true Son has the attributes of the Father in himself. In the same way the Holy Spirit is Lord and God, the Almighty, Wisdom, Power, naturally taking the attributes he possesses from the Lord God, Father and Son, from whom he is and by whom he is given.” 

It is clear, however, that from the fact that the Son has the godhead and whatever else he has from the Father, he is eternally from the Father. Hence, the Holy Spirit is eternally from the Father and Son as receiving from them the godhead and whatever he has.