John 16:14Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Setting their own madness against His sayings, they would say: “Who are You? Abraham died, and the prophets died, yet You say, ‘If anyone keeps My word, he shall never see death.’ Who do You make Yourself?” (Jn 8:25, 52-53).

Again, reproaching the lowliness and simplicity of His lineage according to the flesh, they said: “Is this not the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How then does He say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” (Jn 6:42).

Do you not see in these words the poverty of Jewish thoughts? Many were so disposed that, because of this mortal form of the body, they thought the Lord was not true God.

They were not afraid to form the lowest opinion of Him. Therefore the Spirit, descending from heaven, revealed His glory to the saints with complete clarity.

We affirm with all decisiveness that He persuaded them not only by wise words, but also by the manifestation of deeds. He assured each one’s mind that He is both truly God and the fruit of the essence of God the Father.

How then did He reveal Christ, or make Him glorious and manifest to all? He did so by producing in all an extraordinary action worthy of God.

He implanted in the saints exact knowledge of all things, and thereby prepared His glory. For the property of knowing all things without any teacher must be attributed only to the nature that reigns over all.

It belongs to that nature to have all things naked and open before Its eyes. It also belongs to It to be able to accomplish, and that very easily, whatever It wills.

Therefore the Paraclete glorifies the Son, that is, His own Spirit, who can do all things and knows all things. How does He glorify Him?

If His Spirit knows and can do anything, how would He Himself not know or be unable? And if, as He Himself says, the Spirit receives from Him, though the Spirit can do and accomplish all things, does He Himself not possess authority over all?

Yet one must by no means imagine that the Paraclete, that is, the Spirit, is shown to lack innate or natural power, that is, omnipotence.

Nor should one imagine that if He did not receive something, He would be insufficient for what He could accomplish by His own power, namely divine works.

Whoever even thinks that anything of this kind could be true of Him must be charged, and quite rightly, with the utmost impiety.

But because He is consubstantial with the Son and proceeds in a manner worthy of God through Him, He possesses the whole operation and power of the Son over all in the most perfect way.

Therefore He says: “because He will receive from what is Mine.” Indeed, the Spirit, as we believe, exists in Himself and is in reality what He is and is called.

Yet He exists in the essence of God. He springs forth and proceeds from it, having naturally within Himself all that belongs to it.

He does not have this by participation, nor as an acquisition, nor as something other and distinct from it, since He is proper to it.

Consider the fragrance from the most fragrant flowers. It takes, as it were, the essential or natural activity or quality of the flowers that emit it.

It communicates knowledge of itself to those outside it by reaching the body’s organs of smell. In appearance, it may seem to be another nature, distinct from what emits the fragrance.

Yet when it is considered not in itself alone, it has no nature other than the nature of the flowers from which and in which it exists.

In this way you should think also about God and the Holy Spirit, while elevating the meaning of the example according to the concept of the Godhead.

Therefore the saying that His Spirit takes something from the Only-begotten must be understood as entirely blameless and without any lowering of Him.

Proceeding naturally through Him, as His own Spirit, He is said to receive what belongs to Him, together with all that He possesses in a perfect manner.

If something of this kind were expressed in rougher words, we should not be scandalized. With much greater justice, we should blame the poverty of language, which cannot suitably express what befits the Godhead.

Indeed, what word is there that would not prove inferior to the ineffable Nature and Glory?

Therefore the Paraclete, having taken “from what is Mine,” He says, “will declare it to you.” That is, He will not say anything else contrary to My purpose.

Since He is My Spirit, beyond doubt He will say the same things as I, and “will declare” My desires.

The Spirit is not holy by participation in the Father, but by nature and essentially from Him.

An objection as though from the opponents: We ourselves agree, they say, that the Spirit is sanctifying. Yet He is not such in Himself by nature, but as a certain vessel.

Let us say, for example, that a vessel of iron or some other material participates in the heat that comes from fire and performs what belongs to fire.

So also He, being filled by God with holiness, transmits sanctification to creation. The Savior Himself, speaking of Himself, will not be a false witness for us in this: “For He will receive from what is Mine.”

A refutation of this: Their premise again proves absurd from every side, and it carries blasphemy rather than truth. For they strive not to understand the divine Scriptures as they should, but rather to distort them, each according to his own desire.

Here again they seize even the words of the Savior Himself to establish their falsehood. They do not clearly disclose to their hearers the meaning of the saying, nor do they cite the words that follow.

Instead, they arbitrarily cut off the verses of Scripture and wickedly seize only what seems useful to them for the absurd goal they have set.

For the Savior does not say, “He will receive from what is Mine and will sanctify you.” Even if He had said this, He would have done no harm to those who hear rightly.

Rather, He says: “For He will receive from what is Mine and will declare it to you. For He will not speak from Himself, but whatever He hears He will speak.”

Since He intended, after fulfilling His divine economy in the flesh, to ascend to the Father, He promised to send the Comforter to His disciples.

So that no one would suspect that the Holy Spirit might command anything not according to His will, He clearly shows that the Holy Spirit, being His Spirit, will set forth His own words.

Therefore He says: “He will not speak from Himself, but whatever He hears He will speak, because He will receive from what is Mine.”

This is as though honey were to say about the natural quality present in it that this quality “will not give anything to those who taste it from itself, but will take from what is mine.”

For a quality naturally passes from substances to what proceeds indivisibly from them. Thus, as we have already said before, sweetness is from honey, heat from fire, and coolness from water.

Therefore the Spirit is holy not as a resident alien, μετοικικώς, as they say, but rather by nature and essentially.

That which is holy by participation, being as it were a receptacle of sanctification that has come to it, is first posited in itself in a particular nature, such as a man or an angel, or some other rational nature.

Therefore let those who dare to say that the Spirit is holy by participation in God the Father, and not by His own nature, tell us what He is in Himself and taken separately, αυτό καθ' εαυτό καί ιδιαζόντως.

But in the divine Scriptures we have heard nothing else about Him except that He is “holy.” Consequently, He is holy not by participation, nor by composition with God.

Rather, He is sanctifying essence and nature, and, so to speak, the quality of the divinity of God the Father, τής του Θεού καί Πατρός θεότητος ποιότης, as sweetness is of honey, or fragrance from a flower.

This latter glory again is twofold. For it is said: "A son honors his father, and a servant his master" (Mal 1:6). One kind is servile and is rendered by the creature. The other, so to speak, is proper to the household, οικειακη, and is accomplished by the Spirit.

As the Lord said of Himself, "I glorified You on earth; I finished the work which You gave Me to do" (Jn 17:4), so He says of the Comforter: "He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you" (Jn 16:14).

As the Son is glorified by the Father, who says, "I have glorified it and will glorify it again" (Jn 12:28), so the Spirit is glorified because of His communion with the Father and the Son.

He is also glorified by the testimony of the Only-begotten, who says: "Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven" (Mt 12:31).

If this is imagined as something external to the Father, then the Son will no longer be a participant of the Father, but of this external thing. Having this before Him, the Son will no longer be second after the Father.

Nor can He be called the Son of the Father. He would rather be the son of that of which He became a participant and by which He is called both Son and God.

But if this is absurd and impious, since the Father says, "This is My beloved Son" (Mt 3:17), and the Son confirms that God is His own Father (Jn 8:54), then clearly the Son partakes of nothing external, but of the Father's essence.

Again, if that of which the Son partakes is something other than the Son's essence, the same impropriety as before arises. Once more something intermediate is sought between the Father and the Son's essence, whatever that essence may be.

Second, they dwell on the words, “All that the Father has is Mine.” They reason that if all that the Father has, the Son also has, and the Father, among other things, has the property that the Holy Spirit proceeds from Him, then the Holy Spirit proceeds also from the Son.

But such an interpretation and such reasoning are, first, wholly contrary to the structure of the speech.

According to the structure of the speech, the meaning of the Savior’s cited words is plainly this: “I have not yet taught you many truths, because you are now unable to understand them.

When the Spirit of truth comes, whom I have promised you, He will make up this deficiency in My stead and guide you into all truth.

He will make it up in My stead, for He will not teach some teaching of His own, new and distinct from Mine. ‘For He will not speak from Himself, but whatever He hears He will speak.’

On the contrary, He will continue the very teaching that I taught. ‘He will take from what is Mine and declare it to you.’

And since I formerly told you that My teaching is not Mine, but belongs to Him who sent Me (Jn 7:16; cf. Jn 14:10 and elsewhere), I shall add something so that My present speech may be understood by you.

‘All that the Father has is Mine.’ Therefore I said: ‘The Holy Spirit will take from what is Mine and declare it to you.’”

Consequently, the words “He will take from what is Mine,” and then, “All that the Father has is Mine,” refer exclusively to the teaching.

The Son, who came to earth to fulfill the will of the Father for the salvation of men, received this teaching from the Father. The Holy Spirit, as successor of the Son on earth in the same great work, was to receive it from the Son.

The expression “He will take from what is Mine and declare it to you” must not be understood in this way: “The Holy Spirit will borrow from Me what He did not previously know or possess.”

For the Spirit, as God, knows all things and possesses all things from eternity. Rather, it means: “After Me, He will continue My own teaching, and not some other teaching.

He will remind you of all that I have said to you (Jn 14:26), and He will make up, in My stead, what I would still wish to say to you, but what you cannot now understand.”

Why is this so? Because “We are one with Him in essence, have one and the same wisdom and knowledge, and one and the same indivisible operation.” Thus the ancient teachers of the Church explained it.

Second, if some of them saw in the words “He will take from what is Mine” a thought concerning the eternal procession of the Holy Spirit, they understood it in a wholly different way from what Western Christians now wish to understand.

“Christ said, ‘He will take from what is Mine,’ that is, from My Father,” writes Saint Athanasius the Great. “For He added, ‘All that the Father has is Mine. Therefore I said that He will take from what is Mine and declare it to you.’”

Blessed Augustine expresses himself still more clearly: “As for what Christ said concerning the Holy Spirit, ‘He will take from what is Mine,’ He Himself resolves the question.

He does this so that they might not think that the Spirit is from Him by certain degrees, as He Himself is from the Father, when both are from the Father, one by birth, the other by procession: cum ambo de Patre, ille nascatur, iste procedat.

Therefore, I say, so that they might not think this, He immediately added: ‘All that the Father has is Mine. Therefore I said that He will take from what is Mine.’

Without doubt, He wished to be understood in this way: that the Spirit proceeds from the Father.”

This same explanation of the text was later accepted by the famous Western Alcuin, or Albinus, and by others, both Western and Eastern writers.

Let us now descend to particulars. If, third, the expression “He will take from what is Mine” means, “He borrows eternal being from Me, He proceeds from Me,” then one asks this.

Why does the verb “will take” stand in the future tense, just as “will glorify” stands immediately before it, and “will declare” immediately after it?

Did the Holy Spirit not yet proceed from the Son when He was speaking with the Apostles, and was He only about to proceed after His ascension into heaven?

To affirm that the verb “will take” expresses the past or present is to affirm the same about the two other verbs inseparably linked with it, namely “will glorify” and “will declare.”

But this would be a complete distortion of the meaning of the speech. If we allow, though without any foundation, that only the verb “will take” signifies the present, while the two others signify the future, then we see a new distortion.

The Savior’s words would have to be understood this way: “The Holy Spirit will glorify Me, because He proceeds from Me and will declare to you.” What then will He declare?

Fourth, the reasoning of the heterodox leads to still greater absurdities when they accept without any limitation the Savior’s words: “All that the Father has is Mine.”

They say: “But the Father has the property of bringing forth the Holy Spirit. Therefore the Son also has it.”

In exactly the same way one could infer: “The Father also has the property of being unbegotten. Therefore the Son also has it. The Father also has the property of begetting the Son. Therefore the Son also has it.”

On the other hand, since the Son Himself said to the Father, “All Mine are Yours” (Jn 17:10), and the Son has the property of being begotten from the Father, must one conclude from this that the Father has the same property?

The Incarnation belongs to the Son. Does it therefore belong to the Father also?

The only means of removing all these absurdities is to accept the Savior’s words, “All that the Father has is Mine,” with a limitation.

The Son truly has all that the Father has according to essence and Godhead. Likewise the Father has all that the Son has, but with the exception of personal properties.

The ancient and renowned teachers of the Church understood the indicated saying in precisely this way. They said that by this saying the unity of nature of the Father and the Son is properly indicated.

Their essential properties are signified, and in general everything that is common between Them. Their particular properties, however, are by no means signified.

Therefore they reasoned that everything the Father has is possessed not only by the Son, but also by the Holy Spirit.

Consequently, they did not and could not have had the thought of deriving from these words of the Savior a conclusion concerning the eternal procession of the Holy Spirit, as is now done.

Otherwise, it would have to be admitted that the Fathers thought He proceeds also from Himself.

It should be noted that the examined proofs of the Western teaching concerning the personal property of the Holy Spirit, especially the last one, are regarded by the heterodox as the chief proofs.

Others are already considered less strong, and therefore deserve less attention. In this way they try to infer the eternal procession of the Holy Spirit.

"He will take of what is Mine." The foundation of the Holy Spirit's actions in the world is the accomplishment by Jesus Christ of the work of mankind's redemption (Jn 7:39). Without this, such action of the Holy Spirit would have been impossible; cf. Jn 16:7.

This work was accomplished by the Lord in fulfillment of the will of the heavenly Father (Jn 3:16 and parallels). Thus, in Christian truth, divine truth appeared to the world.

There is nothing Christian that is not divine. There is nothing divine that is not Christian. Therefore, in the actions of the Holy Spirit in Christianity, the work of Christ and of God the Father is expressed.

This is the meaning of the Lord's words: "He will take of what is Mine," and, "All that the Father has is Mine."

One may paraphrase the Lord's words thus: I rightly call the divine truth that the Holy Spirit will declare to you Mine, My possession. For all that the Father has in this regard belongs to Me.

It belongs to Me as the Son, who came forth from the Father (Jn 8:42), was sanctified by Him and sent into the world (Jn 10:36), and abides in the Father and the Father in Him (Jn 10:38; Jn 17:10). Cf. Jn 1:14; 1 Cor 15:27; Heb 2:8; Col 1:19; Col 2:3, 9.

"He will take" means, strictly, He takes or receives. This signifies the activity of the Holy Spirit as constant in union with the Son and, together with Him, with God the Father.

"Do not think that His teaching is different. It too is Mine, and it increases My glory, for the will of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is one" (Chrysostom).

Therefore false and contrary to God are the fantasies of men who ascribed special revelations to themselves. So too are those who boldly undertook to improve the Christian religion by calculations of reason.

The kingdom of Christ is an unshakable kingdom (Heb 12:28). Christ Jesus is High Priest forever (Heb 6:20), and His priesthood is unchangeable (Heb 7:24). He will appear a second time only for judgment (Heb 9:28).

We may be ignorant children and youths (Heb 5:12-13; Heb 6:1-2). Some even dare to reproach the Spirit of grace, but fiery torment awaits them (Heb 10:29).

The Spirit of truth will only glorify Christ Jesus. "For He will take of what is Mine," says the Lord Jesus.

What do the words "He will take of what is Mine" mean? Roman teachers accept these words in defense of their invented opinion about the procession of the Holy Spirit also from the Son.

They say that "He will take of what is Mine" means that He will receive being from My nature. But the being of the Holy Spirit is eternal.

Only blasphemy can say that the Holy Spirit will receive being, when there was no time when He did not have it. Therefore the Lord is not speaking here about the personal being or procession of the Holy Spirit.

Of what, then, does He speak? He said: "He will glorify Me," and in confirmation He says: "He will take of what is Mine."

The glorification of Christ Jesus, which depended on the Holy Spirit, means His glorification as the God-man and Redeemer of the world. No one doubts this, and no one can doubt it.

After this, one must not doubt that when the Savior says, "He will take of what is Mine," He shows Himself as Redeemer of the world.

Thus "He will take of what is Mine" means that He will receive from the person of the Savior of the world, who suffered for the salvation of men.

What the Holy Spirit was to receive from Christ Jesus, as from the Savior of the world, pertained partly to the teaching He proclaimed to the world. It also pertained partly to the spiritual blessings He acquired for the world at the price of His blood.

In His manifestation to the world, the Holy Spirit is the Messenger of Christ, the Son of God. Therefore He receives from Him what is needed for His glorification.

Thus the Apostle Peter explains the manifestation of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost: "Being exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear" (Acts 2:33).

You see that Christ Jesus was glorified for His sufferings and received from the Father the Holy Spirit, whom He also sent to the earth. This is the apostolic explanation of the Savior's words.

Chrysostom says: "He will take of what is Mine" means that He will take from what I know, from My knowledge. For My knowledge and the Spirit's are one.

Instead of saying simply, "The Spirit proceeds from Me Myself," Jesus said, "He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you."

The words are lower, because they are adapted to what is better known among men. But the glory of the Spirit is greater, because it belongs to what is proper to the Godhead.

It is said that God hears the words of men. Clearly, nothing is added to God's knowledge in time. Even before our words, He knows our prayers.

He created all things according to His design from the beginning of creation, knowing also the changing movements of His creatures. Yet at the same time it is said: "Hear, O Lord," and, "The Lord heard."

According to what is fitting to God, none of these things should be understood temporally. Nor should one suppose that human prayers cause some change in God, or that knowledge of what is said is added to Him.

These words were spoken, so to speak, in human fashion. The pious interpret them divinely. The unchangeable and immovable nature of God's glory will not be dispersed in your suppositions because He hears men who speak.

Therefore, in the Spirit, hearing and receiving do not imply any addition of knowledge or any change in the immutable and immovable essence of the Spirit.