John 1:32Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

For this reason the Father gave a voice, proclaiming the Son, and the Spirit descended, bringing this voice down upon the head of Christ.

This was so that none of those present might think that the Father's words were spoken about John. For this reason the Spirit descends, removing such a supposition.

Why then, you ask, did the Jews not believe, when not only John saw the Spirit in the form of a dove?

Even if they saw, such matters require not only bodily eyes, but above all the eyes of the mind, so that one does not take an actual event for an empty phantom.

They also saw Christ working miracles. They saw Him touch the sick and the dead with His hands, restoring life and health to them.

Yet they were so intoxicated with hatred that they imagined the opposite of what they saw.

John, rejecting suspicion from his testimony concerning Christ, as I have said, refers this testimony to God the Father. I, he says, did not know Him, but the Father revealed Him to me at the baptism.

After speaking in the preceding words of his own not knowing Him, he now thinks it necessary to set forth and reveal the divine mystery more fully. He declares that God the Father pointed Him out to him, and he explains the very manner of this indication. In every way he seeks the profit of his hearers' souls. By telling men that he learned the mystery concerning Christ from God, he thereby shows his opponents to be enemies of the will of the Most High and bold adversaries of the Father's supreme decree. Thus he persuaded them to abandon their vanity and receive the One Who came by the Father's good pleasure for the salvation of all.

Therefore he testifies that he saw "the Spirit descending from heaven" in the form of a "dove," and that He remained "upon Him." Then, besides this. He says that he personally heard from the One Who sent him to baptize with water that the One on Whom the descending Spirit would remain is "He Who baptizes with the Holy Spirit." Here is a trustworthy witness, a supernatural sign, and the Most High Father Who showed Him.

This is certainly so. Yet the heretic inclined to accusation may perhaps object with mockery: What then, dearest sirs, will you say to us about this? What method will you devise to reinterpret these words of Scripture? Behold, it is said that the Spirit descends upon the Son. Behold, He is anointed by God the Father. Clearly He receives what He does not have. The Psalmist also testifies to this, as though saying to Him: "Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness beyond Your companions" (Ps 45:7). How then could the Son be consubstantial with the perfect Father, if He is not perfect and is therefore anointed?

To this, I think, one must say to those who corrupt the honorable doctrines of the Church and the right meaning of the Scriptures: "Awake, you drunkards, from your wine" (Joel 1:5), so that, beholding the radiant beauty of the truth, you may cry out with us to the Son: "Truly You are the Son of God" (Mt 14:33).

For if you fully believe that He is God by nature, how can He lack perfection? You must therefore also be impious toward the Father Himself. For whence, as you say, will He necessarily have perfection? How will He not have to sink down in accordance with the imperfection and diminution you assert of the Son, if one once accepts the possibility of imperfection in the divine essence in the Son, according to your ignorant and senseless opinion?

Indeed, we cannot divide that great and simple Nature so that in one respect, for example, it appears imperfect, and in another perfect. Even the definition of humanity remains one in all and equal in all of us. Is anyone less a man insofar as he is a man? Nor can anyone be understood as more a man than another. So too, I think, one angel differs in nothing from another with respect to their being angels. Since they belong to one kind of being, they all have one nature.

How then can the divine Nature, which surpasses all, prove lower in its qualities than created beings and admit what creation does not admit? How will it be simple and uncompounded, if the perfect and the imperfect are found in it? It will be composed of both, since the imperfect is not like the perfect. If it is like it, and there is no difference between them, then everything perfect will without distinction be imperfect, just as the imperfect will be perfect.

Therefore there will be no deficiency in the Son, even if in our mind He appears not to have perfection. Likewise the Father Himself, although His perfection is beyond doubt, will not surpass the Son. Thus the question is again resolved. But if there is a great difference between the perfect and the imperfect, and the divine nature admits both within itself together, then it will prove composite and not simple.

Perhaps someone will say that opposites really cannot exist together in one subject. For example, one and the same body cannot be both white and black. Excellent, dearest friend. You have fully confirmed our words. For if the divine nature is one, and there is no other besides it, then how, tell me, could it admit opposites within itself? How can things unlike one another be combined in one and the same subject?

Therefore, if the Father is God by nature, then the Son also is God by nature. Consequently He differs in no way from the Father in perfection, as begotten from His divine and most perfect essence. Must not He Who is from a perfect Begetter be perfect, if He is His exact "image and imprint of His hypostasis," as it is written (Heb 1:3)? In this, I think, everyone must agree with us. Otherwise, let him again plainly state before us how the Son can be the exact imprint, if He does not possess the perfection of being in His own nature, according to the senseless teaching of some.

Since He is the imprint and image, He too is therefore perfect, as is He whose image He is. But it is said that "John saw the Spirit descending from heaven" upon the Son. Therefore, they say, He receives sanctification and plainly receives as one who does not have. Thus, clearly, He must be called a creature, barely distinguished from the others by a small advantage, initiated and sanctified along with the rest of creation, and receiving the gift of good things.

In that case, will the Evangelist not be found speaking falsely in the words, "Of His fullness we have all received" (Jn 1:16)? How will He be full in His nature if He Himself receives from another? Or how can God be thought of as Father, if the Only-begotten Son is a creature and nothing more? If this is so, the Father Himself will be falsely named, and the Son will not prove true either. He will have in Himself a counterfeit dignity and a title of Son only in words. Everything among us will then turn into nothing, if the Father is not the true Father and the Son will not be by nature what He is called.

But if God is the true Father, then without doubt He has the One whose Father He is, that is, the Son who is from Him. Further, how can the holy Godhead by nature beget from Himself what is deprived of holiness, and produce His own fruit without the properties belonging to Him? If He receives sanctification, as those heretics babble, then they are compelled, even unwillingly, to acknowledge at the same time that He was not always holy, but became so afterward, when the Spirit descended upon Him, as John says.

But how then was the Son holy even before the Incarnation, as the Seraphim glorified Him, proclaiming "Holy" three times in succession (Isa 6:3)? And if He was holy even before becoming man, or rather always remained with the Father, how could He need the One Who sanctifies, and this in later times when He became man? I marvel that this too escaped their attention, though they dearly love inquiries.

Must one not necessarily think that the Son could perhaps even reject sanctification, if He does not possess holiness by His very essence, but received it as we do and as any other rational creature does? Thus the Son will not prove immutable, and the Psalmist will speak falsely when he cries out in the Spirit as though to Him: "But You are the same" (Ps 102:27).

Besides what has been said, one must also attend to the following argument, which is akin to the preceding ones. Without doubt, it is necessary to acknowledge that what is communicated is by nature something other than that to which it is communicated. Otherwise, if the two differ in nothing and are one and the same, the recipient of something will be receiving himself. This is absurd even to think. For how could anyone be thought to partake of himself?

If the two have a different nature from one another, and it is necessary to distinguish them, then let those who give the Spirit to the Son by participation see into what impiety they unknowingly fall. For if the Son has the Spirit by participation, and the Spirit is holy by nature, then He Himself will not be holy by nature. He will scarcely have become so through participation in Another, being transformed by grace into a better condition than that in which He was at first.

Let the fighter against God again see into what impiety he falls through this. First, there will have to be, as I have already said, some change and transformation in the Son. Having been changed, in your opinion, and having attained a better condition, He is not merely less than the Father, but must appear to have become somehow greater.

Let us say this in the words of divine Scripture. The divine Paul says of Him in one place: "Let this mind be in each of you which was also in Christ Jesus, Who, being in the form of God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be seized, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself" (Phil 2:5-8).

Thus, if even before the Incarnation He was in the form and equality of the Father, and after the time of the Incarnation, having received the Spirit from heaven, He was sanctified according to their teaching, then for this reason He appears better and at the same time greater than Himself. That is, He finally surpasses even the measure of Him Who begot Him. And if, by receiving the Spirit, He ascended to a dignity surpassing the Father, then the Spirit is higher even than the Father Himself, since He gives the Son superiority over Him. Who will not shudder even at hearing this? Truly it is painful even to express this in words. Yet otherwise it is impossible to avert the harm of their impiety.

Therefore let us say to them again: If the Word of God was sanctified when He became man, after receiving the Spirit, and if before becoming man He was in the form and equality of the Father but was not yet sanctified according to their teaching, then they must dare to say that God the Father is not holy. For the Word, wholly conformed to Him and in all things equal to Him, was not holy at the beginning, but scarcely became so in later times.

Again, if the very Word of God properly receives the Spirit and is sanctified in His nature, let our opponents tell us whether He became greater than Himself, or less, or remained identical with Himself. If He has nothing greater from the Spirit, but remains the very same as He was, then you have no reason to stumble when you hear that He descended "upon Him." But if by receiving the Spirit He suffered harm and became less. Then you will have to acknowledge the Word as subject to deficiencies and accuse the Father's essence as one that harms more than sanctifies.

If, however, by receiving the Spirit He proved better, though He was already in the form and equality of the Father before His improvement, as you maintain, then the Father does not reach the final summit of glory. He will remain within the same limits as the Son conformed and equal to Him was before He attained a higher condition.

Therefore I think it timely to say to the ignorant heretics: "Behold, a foolish and heartless people. They have eyes and do not see. They have ears and do not hear" (Jer 5:21). For truly "the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ should shine" for them (2 Cor 4:4). They should be mourned rather than met with anger, for they do not understand what they read.

That we speak the truth will be clear also from what follows, although in the preceding arguments we have already given no small proof. Let us take again the saying of Paul: "Let this mind be," he says, in each of you, "which was also in Christ Jesus, Who, being in the form of God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be seized, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself" (Phil 2:5-8).

Certainly Christ was not anointed with the Holy Spirit only when, at His Baptism, the Spirit descended upon Him in the form of a dove. At that time He deigned to prefigure His Body, that is, His Church, in which the baptized receive the Holy Spirit.

Rather, we must understand that He was anointed with that mystical and invisible anointing when the Word of God became flesh. This took place when human nature, without any prior merits of good works, was united to God the Word in the Virgin’s womb, so as to be one Person with Him.

Therefore we confess that He was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary.

Nothing is more absurd than to think that He received the Holy Spirit when He was about thirty years old, for at that age He was baptized by John. No. He came to that baptism without any sin, and certainly also in the Holy Spirit.

If it is written of His servant and Forerunner John, “He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb” (Lk 1:15), what must be thought and believed concerning Christ the Man? John, though conceived from a father, received the Holy Spirit after being formed in the womb. But Christ’s conception in the flesh was not carnal, but spiritual.

We do not say this as though the Lord Jesus Christ alone had a true body, while the Holy Spirit appeared deceptively to human eyes. Just as it was not fitting that the Son of God should deceive men, so it was not fitting that the Holy Spirit should deceive men.

For almighty God, who created all creation from nothing, had no difficulty forming a true body of a dove without the aid of other doves. Nor was it difficult for Him to form a true Body in Mary’s womb without male seed.

Therefore, since we love you in Christ, love us also in Christ. Let our mutual love cry out to God, for this is the cry of the dove.

If this is the cry of the dove, and we all know that doves cry out in love, hear what the Apostle says. Do not marvel that the Holy Spirit was pleased to appear in the form of a dove.

“For we do not know how to pray as we ought,” he says, “but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with continual groanings.”

But why, my brethren, shall we say that the Spirit groans, when His portion is eternal blessedness with the Father and the Son? For the Holy Spirit is God, as the Son of God is God, and the Father is God.

Therefore the Holy Spirit does not groan in Himself, or with Himself, in this Trinity, this blessedness, and this eternal essence. He groans in us, because He makes us groan.

Whoever knows that he is under the burden of this mortality and has been sent to sojourn away from the Lord does not yet possess the eternal blessedness promised to us. He possesses it in hope, and will possess it in reality when the glorious coming of the Lord arrives.

This is the Lord who first came hiddenly, in humility. Whoever knows this groans. And insofar as he groans for this reason, he groans unto good, for the Spirit has taught him to groan. From the dove he has learned to groan.

Therefore, when He sent the Holy Spirit, He showed Him visibly in two ways: in the form of a dove and in the form of fire. In the form of a dove He appeared over the baptized Lord, and in the form of fire over the disciples gathered together.

There simplicity is shown; here, burning zeal. Thus, lest those sanctified by the Spirit have guile in themselves, the dove is shown. And lest simplicity remain cold, fire is shown.

Do not be disturbed because the tongues were divided. Since tongues are divided, He appeared in divided tongues. Do not fear dispersion in the divided tongues. Recognize unity in the dove.

Thus, in this very way, it was fitting that the Holy Spirit be shown descending upon the Lord. Everyone should understand that, if he has the Holy Spirit, he must be simple as a dove.

He must have true peace with the brethren, signified by the kisses of doves. Crows also kiss, but they wound. The nature of doves is alien to wounding.

Crows feed on death; the dove does not. It feeds on the fruits of the earth, and its food is innocent.

The Trinity appears with the greatest clarity: the Father in the voice, the Son in the man, the Spirit in the dove.

Let us look where, in this Trinity, the Apostles were sent. We see it, and it is astonishing that they do not see it. In truth, they do not fail to see; rather, they close their eyes to what is before their very faces.

Where were the Apostles sent? “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

And how else, beloved, should the Holy Spirit, who signifies a certain unity, have been shown except in the form of a dove? Thus He could say to the Church at peace, “My dove is one.”

How else should humility have been shown except in the form of a simple and groaning bird?

1. I confess to you, holy brethren, that I feared the cold weather might cool your desire to gather together. Yet the liveliness in the church and your great number show how fervent your spirit is.

Therefore I do not doubt that you have prayed for me, that I may fulfill my duty.

I promised, in Christ’s name, to discuss today why God willed to manifest the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. The shortness of time then prevented us from treating what we wished to examine.

Today has come so that this may be explained for us. I see that you, thirsting to hear and moved by pious devotion, have gathered in greater number than usual.

May God fulfill your expectation through our mouth. You came out of love. But love for whom? If for us, that is good. We do desire you to love us, but not to love us in ourselves.

Since we love you in Christ, love us in return also in Christ. Let my love and yours sigh toward God, for this is the sighing of the dove.

Augustine speaks of the traits of the dove. Among them he notes that doves, unlike crying crows, sigh. The Latin verb gemere can mean “to sigh,” “to lament,” or “to coo.”

2. Therefore, if this is the sighing of the dove, for we all know that doves sigh in love, hear what the Apostle says. Do not marvel that the Holy Spirit willed to manifest Himself in the form of a dove.

“For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with unutterable groanings” (Rom 8:26).

What then, my brethren? Shall we say that the Spirit groans, when perfect and eternal blessedness belongs to Him with the Father and the Son?

For the Holy Spirit is God, as the Son of God is God, and the Father is God. I have said “God” three times, but I have not spoken of three Gods.

God three times is greater than three gods, since the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one God. You know this well.

Therefore the Holy Spirit does not groan in Himself, with Himself, in this Trinity, nor in this blessedness, nor in this eternal substance. He groans in us, because He causes us to groan.

It is no small matter that the Holy Spirit teaches us to sigh. He inspires us to know that we are wanderers, and teaches us to long for our homeland. We sigh because of this longing.

Whoever is well pleased with this world, or rather thinks he is well pleased, cries aloud with joy over fleshly things. He cries from an abundance of passing things and from vain happiness, with the voice of a crow.

The voice of the crow is a cry, not a sigh. But whoever knows that he is burdened by this mortal condition, and that he is away from the Lord, sighs.

He knows that he does not yet possess the eternal blessedness promised to us. He has it in expectation, and will possess it in reality when the Lord comes openly in glory.

This is the Lord who first came hiddenly, in humility. Whoever has understood this sighs. The more he sighs for this reason, the better he sighs.

The Spirit has taught him to sigh; through the dove He has taught him to sigh.

Many sigh because of earthly misfortune. They sigh when they suffer loss of property, endure bodily illness, are imprisoned, are bound in chains, are cast into the deep, or are surrounded by hostile plots.

But they do not sigh with the sighs of the dove. They do not sigh in love for God. They do not sigh in the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, when such people are freed from these troubles, they begin to rejoice loudly. From this it is clear that they are crows, not doves.

Not without reason was a crow sent out from Noah’s ark and did not return. A dove was sent out and returned. Noah sent both birds (see Gen 8:6-9). He had a crow, and he had a dove.

Both kinds of birds were in the ark.

If the ark prefigured the Church, you may see that in this surrounding flood of the world the Church necessarily contains both kinds of people: crows and doves.

Who are the crows? Those who seek their own. And who are the doves? Those who seek the things that are Jesus Christ’s (cf. Phil 2:21).

3. Moreover, when He sent the Holy Spirit, He manifested Him in two forms: in the form of a dove and in the form of fire.

In the form of a dove He descended upon the Lord being baptized. In the form of fire He descended upon the gathered disciples.

After the Lord rose and ascended into heaven, having spent forty days with His disciples, He sent them the Holy Spirit as He had promised, when the day of Pentecost had come.

Then the Spirit descended and filled the place where the Apostles were gathered. Suddenly there came from heaven a sound like the rush of a mighty wind, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles.

“And there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one rested upon each of them. And they began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:3-4).

There we saw the dove upon the Lord. Here we see divided tongues upon the gathered disciples. There simplicity was manifested; here, fervor.

Yet people are often called simple when they are sluggish. They are called simple when they are slow.

Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, was not such. He was simple because he harmed no one, but he was fervent because he reproved the impious.

He was not silent before the Jews. His words burned with fire: “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit” (Acts 7:51).

Great fervor! Yet it is the dove raging without hatred. To understand that he raged without hatred, hear what followed.

Those who were crows immediately took up stones in answer to these words, in order to stone the dove. They began to stone Stephen.

He had just surged and burned in soul, striking against his enemies and attacking them as though irresistible. His words were so fiery and fervent that one might think he wished to destroy them at once.

You heard the words: “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears!” Yet when the stones flew from their hands, he bent his knees and said, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7:60).

He was wholly devoted to the unity of the dove.

The Master first acted in this way. The dove descended upon Him, and as He hung on the Cross He said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Lk 23:34).

Thus, lest those sanctified by the Spirit have guile, He was manifested in the dove. And lest simplicity remain cold, He was manifested in fire.

Do not be troubled that the tongues were divided. Tongues differ from one another; for this reason He also manifested Himself in divided tongues.

“Divided tongues,” Scripture says, “as of fire, and one rested upon each of them” (Acts 2:3-4).

Tongues differ from one another, but the division of tongues is not schismata. Do not fear division into different tongues. Recognize the one whole in the dove.

4. Thus it was fitting that the Holy Spirit descending upon the Lord be manifested in this way.

Everyone who has the Holy Spirit should understand that he must be simple as a dove. He must have true peace with the brethren, whose symbol is the kiss of the dove.

Crows also can kiss, but the peace of crows is false, while that of the dove is true. Therefore not everyone who says, “Peace be with you,” should be heard as though he were a dove.

How does the kiss of crows differ from the kiss of a dove? Crows kiss, but they also tear apart. Doves by nature do not know how to tear apart.

The Lord was anointed “above His fellows” (Ps 44:8), that is, more than all men who have fellowship with Christ. For to them a certain partial communion of the Spirit is given. But upon the Son of God the Holy Spirit descended and “abode upon Him,” as John says (Jn 1:32).

Again he says, “I knew Him not,” in order to remove every suspicion from his testimony. But when did God say to him, “Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending,” and so forth?

When Jesus Christ had not yet appeared, God revealed to John everything concerning Him. Then He also revealed both all the rest and this. Afterward He pointed out Jesus Christ Himself as He came to baptism.

This Evangelist, as has already been said, omitted the events that followed the Savior’s baptism, since they were recorded by the other Evangelists. Matthew related them in greater detail. Therefore they should be read for better understanding.

"I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove"; see Acts 2:3.

It is also well written in the Gospel: "Upon Whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on Him, this is He Who baptizes" (Jn 1:33).

For the Spirit comes to all believers, but remains exclusively upon the one Mediator, because He never dissolved the humanity of Him from Whose divinity He proceeds.

Therefore, if according to the voice of the Teacher He also remains upon the disciples, how will there be a unique sign that He remains upon the Mediator?

We could learn this quite quickly, if we could distinguish the gifts of His Spirit.

For one thing is the gifts without which it is in no way possible to live. Another thing is the gifts by which the holiness of life is shown for the benefit of others.

Having received baptism, Christ came up from the water and, according to the testimony of the Evangelist Luke, prayed (Lk 3:21).

He gave Himself wholly to serving the will of God, as though crying out to His heavenly Father: "Behold, I come to do Your will."

At that moment, as an expression of the highest heavenly good pleasure toward Him, the heavens were opened.

In the brilliant rays of the sun there appeared a special sign of the Holy Spirit, as though in the form of a dove, the symbol of purity and peace.

Then the divine voice thundered, proclaiming: "This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased."

Long before, the prophet Isaiah had foretold how the Spirit of the Lord would descend upon the shoot from the root of Jesse.

“I saw the Spirit,” and so forth. This took place at the baptism of the Lord Jesus, as the first three Evangelists narrate (Mt 3:13-17 and parallels).

Verses 30-34. The Forerunner recalls the testimony that he had proclaimed to those sent by the Sanhedrin. Then he indicates how he learned about his own appointment and about Jesus.

"And I did not know Him." The Forerunner says these words twice, of course in order, on the one hand, to remove suspicion of partiality toward One related to him through his mother, a kinswoman of Mary, the Mother of Jesus (Lk 1:36).

On the other hand, he says this to make still clearer the thought that his testimony about Jesus is not testimony of human origin. The Forerunner did not know Jesus personally before His appearance at the Jordan.