John 16:15Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

So also, when He says of Himself, "I do not speak of Myself" (Jn 14:10), He means that He says nothing that does not belong to the Father. He says nothing different or foreign.

The same is true concerning the Spirit. The expression "of what is Mine" means: from what I know, from My knowledge. My knowledge and the Spirit's are one.

Why, then, did the Spirit grant us so many good things, and not the Son? First, we shall say that the Son made the path to the gifts of the Spirit, and He is the cause of so many blessings.

If He had not destroyed sin, how would we have been counted worthy of the Spirit? For the Spirit will not dwell in a body subject to sins (Wis 1:4).

Therefore the gifts of the Spirit are great, but their foundation is in Christ. Then, because heretics were to appear who diminished the dignity of the Spirit because He came after the Son, Christ lets Him act in the apostles more than He Himself did.

Thus, compelled by the greatness of the gifts, they might recognize the dignity of the Spirit even against their will. They would not count Him less than the Son because He appeared in the world after Him.

Therefore, as I think, He framed His discourse for us about this with special care. Indeed, He did not say, "All that the Father has, I also have." He did this so that He might not appear to be only a simple image, thought of merely as a likeness reflecting the outward beauties of the Archetype, as we ourselves are. For we were created according to the image of God (Gen 1:26-27). Rather, He says, "is Mine," showing by this the most perfect union which He has with the Begetter, and the meaning of consubstantiality in Both, consisting in properties that do not differ from one another.

You can also see Him saying this elsewhere, and very clearly, to the Father: "For all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine" (Jn 17:10). Among those between whom there is absolutely no division, and in whom there is essential equality and likeness in all things, how will there not be identity in nature? Therefore God the Father has from Himself and in Himself His own Spirit, that is, the Holy Spirit. Through Him He dwells in the saints and reveals mysteries. The Spirit is not received for this in the capacity of a servant. Do not think anything of the kind. He exists essentially in Him, proceeds inseparably from Him, and reveals as His own what is in Him and from Him.

God communicates Himself to creation in no other way than through the Son in the Spirit. But this Spirit is also the proper Spirit of the Only-begotten, because the Son is consubstantial with the Father. Since, He says, it belongs to God the Father to communicate revelations to those worthy of them in His own Spirit, and to accomplish through Him all that He wills, this also belongs to Me by nature. For this reason I said that "He takes of what is Mine and will declare it to you."

Let no one be troubled when he hears here the word "taking." Rather, let him reason thus, and he will do rightly: everything said about God is spoken in comparison with us, yet it is not understood according to our measure, but above us. Thus we say that the Spirit "takes" from the Father and the Son what belongs to Them. This does not mean that He once lacked the knowledge and almightiness proper to Them, and only then barely possesses them when He is thought of as receiving. For the Spirit is always wise and almighty. Rather, He is wisdom itself and almightiness itself, not by communication, but by nature.

The fragrance that reaches our nostrils from fragrant things we call, as it were, something other in comparison with them. Yet this is only in our conception. In reality, its origin must be understood only as receiving power from the things from which it proceeds in order to manifest itself outwardly. Still, it is not another thing, because it exists from them and in them. In like manner, or rather above this, you must think concerning God and the Holy Spirit. He is, as it were, a certain fragrance of His essence, living and manifest, communicating to creation what is from the Father, and bringing through Himself participation in the highest essence over all.

For if the fragrance of sweet-smelling things impresses its power upon garments and in some way transforms into itself that in which it is present, will the Holy Spirit, since He is from God by nature, not be able through Himself to make those in whom He is present partakers of the divine nature? Therefore, being the fruit and radiance of the Begetter's hypostasis, the Son by nature appropriates to Himself all that is His, that is, the Father's. Therefore He says: "All that the Father has is Mine. Therefore I said to you that He takes of what is Mine and will declare it to you." Clearly this is the Spirit, who exists through Him and in Him, through whom, as He Himself does, He dwells in the saints. For His Spirit is not another, distinct from Him, although He is conceived as existing in Himself and distinctly. For the Spirit is Spirit, and not the Son.

If all things, as many as the Father has, belong also to the Son, for it is quite evident that He boasts in the natural dignities of Him who begot Him, and if it belongs to the Father, along with the other divine goods, to be uncreated, then the Son also will possess this. For He is not created, but "was in the beginning" (Jn 1:1) with the Father and in the Father, being God the Word and having an ineffable and unspeakable manner of generation, ton tes genneseos tropon.

The Father alone is He who is neither begotten of anyone nor proceeds from anyone.

How the Only-begotten Son said, "All that the Father has is Mine," will be considered very carefully, if the Lord wills, in connection with the passage where the Only-begotten said to the Father: "All Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine" (Jn 17:10).

It is clear that this was not said as it was said to the son in the Gospel parable, who was not an only-begotten son, but the elder of two: "You are always with me, and all that is mine is yours" (Lk 15:31).

Let our discourse end here, because the words that follow require another beginning for their discussion.

But we must still inquire: what does the Father have? If creation is meant by this, then before creation the Father had nothing, and what He has turns out to be borrowed from creation. Let us not think this. For as He Himself is before creation, so before creation He has everything that He has, and this, as we believe, belongs also to the Son. For if the Son is in the Father (Jn 14:10), then all that the Father has belongs also to the Son.

By this saying the malice of those who think wrongly is overthrown. They say: "If all things are delivered to the Son, then the Father ceases to have authority over what has been delivered to the Son, because He appoints the Son in His own place. For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son" (Jn 5:22). But let the mouth of those who speak unrighteous things be stopped (Ps 62:12). For the Father Himself was not deprived of dominion because He gave all judgment to the Son. And if it is said that all things were delivered by the Father to the Son, for this reason He Himself does not cease to be over all.

Since they plainly separate from the Father the Only-begotten of God, who is not separated by nature, although these impious men in their madness try to separate Him in words, they do not understand that light is in no way separable from the sun, but abides in it naturally. Therefore, although it is bold to enter into inquiry concerning the incomprehensible nature, we must use a poor likeness, borrowed from what is ordinary and at hand among us, and explain the thought by words.

For no one of sound mind can imagine that the sunlight illumining the universe shines without the sun, because sunlight is united with the nature of the sun. If the light were to say, "From the sun I receive that I illumine all things, and that everything grows and is strengthened by my warmth," no madman would think to separate the name of the sun from the nature that comes from it and is light. In this way, it is pious to think that the divine essence of the Word is united by nature with His Father.

For the saying we are considering offers the clearest interpretation of what is sought, since the Savior said: "All things that the Father has are Mine." This means that He always abides with the Father. The words "that the Father has" make us understand that the Father has dominion. The words "are Mine" show the undivided union. Therefore we must necessarily understand that in the Father there is endlessness of being, eternity, and immortality. This abides in Him not as something foreign to Him, but rests in Him and in the Son as in a fountain.

When you wish to understand something concerning the Son, first know what is in the Father, and then believe that the same is also in the Son. If the Father is a creature or a product, then the Son is also. If it is permissible to say of the Father that there was a time when He was not, or that He is from non-being, then let this also be said of the Son. But if it is impious to affirm that this is in the Father, then let it also be impious to think this of the Son. For what belongs to the Father belongs also to the Son. He who honors the Son honors the Father who sent Him (Jn 5:23). He who receives the Son receives the Father with Him (Jn 13:20). He who has seen the Son has seen the Father (Jn 14:9).

Therefore, as the Father is not a creature, so the Son is not a creature. As it is impossible to say of the Father that there was a time when He was not, or that He is from non-being, so it is unfitting to say this of the Son. On the contrary, as in the Father there is endlessness of being, immortality, eternity, and uncreatedness, so exactly must we think also concerning the Son, according to what is written: "As the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son also to have life in Himself" (Jn 5:26). The word "granted" is said in order to indicate the Father who grants. But as in the Father, so also in the Son, there is life. From this conclude the inseparability and eternity of being.

For this reason the Savior said with such precision, "All things that the Father has," so that here also, while speaking of the Father, He would not be taken for the Father Himself. He did not say, "I am the Father," but "all things that the Father has."

The Only-begotten Son of the Father is also called Father by the Father, yet not in the sense in which you erring Arians might perhaps take it. Rather, He is the Son of the Father who begot Him, and the Father of the age to come. For all your suppositions must be taken away from you. It is said by the prophet: "Unto us a Son is born, and unto us He is given. His government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Angel of Great Counsel, Mighty God, Ruler, Father of the age to come" (Is 9:6).

Therefore the Only-begotten is also Father of the age to come. The Son of God is Mighty God and Ruler. It has been clearly proved that all things that the Father has are also in the Son. As the Father gives life, so the Son is equally able to give life to whom He wills (Jn 5:21). For it is said: "The dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and they will live" (Jn 5:25). There is one will and one volition in the Father and the Son, because Their nature is also one and undivided.

The Arians labor in vain, not understanding what was said by our Savior: "All things that the Father has are Mine." By these words the error of Sabellius is overthrown, and the senselessness of the present-day Jews is exposed. For according to the meaning of these words, the Only-begotten has life in Himself, as the Father has. He alone knows who the Father is, because He abides in the Father and has the Father in Himself. He is the Father's image. Therefore in Him, as in the image, there is everything that belongs to the Father. He is the exact seal showing the Father in Himself. He is the living and true Word, power, wisdom, sanctification, and our redemption. "For in Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28). And no one knows who the Father is except the Son, and who the Son is except the Father.

Second, because sin had not yet been destroyed. The Lamb who took upon Himself the sin of the world had not yet been slain. If sin had not been destroyed, this reconciliation had not occurred, and the gift of the Holy Spirit could not be communicated.

When this reconciliation had taken place, when the apostles were going into danger and the struggle was drawing near, there was need of an exhorter. Then the other Comforter came.

Why did the Holy Spirit not come immediately after the Resurrection of the Son of God? So that the disciples, first acquiring a strong desire, might then receive Him with great joy.

While Jesus Christ was with them, they were not especially sorrowful. But when He was separated from them, they were deprived of help and remained in continual fear and sorrow. Then they were ready to receive the Holy Spirit with particular joy.

God the Father could have brought all things into being, yet the Son of God brought all things into being, so that we might know His power and Godhead.

So also the Son of God could have accomplished in the disciples everything that the other Comforter was to accomplish. Yet the Holy Spirit accomplished all this, so that we might know His power and Godhead as well.

No one doubted concerning God the Father, while almost nothing was known concerning the Son of God and the Holy Spirit. Therefore the Son of God, becoming incarnate, lives with men, and the Holy Spirit acts in another manner.

Moreover, the disciples had heard much concerning God the Father and had often seen the divine works of the Son of God. But concerning the dignity of the Holy Spirit they knew and had heard nothing.

Therefore they are made more perfect by the action of the Holy Spirit, so that they may know His Godhead also. For this reason, in divine Baptism, the Life-giving Trinity is received.

This is not because one Hypostasis would have been insufficient for man's regeneration, but so that the common invocation might signify the common Godhead of the three Persons.

Here they dwell first on the expression, He will take of Mine. They say: of Mine means from Me, and will take means He proceeds. Secondly, they dwell on the words: All things that the Father has are Mine. They reason thus: if the Son has all that the Father 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, entirely contrary to the structure of the discourse. According to that structure, the meaning of the Savior's words is plainly this: I have not yet taught you many truths, because you are now unable to understand them. But when the Spirit of truth comes, Whom I have promised you, He will fill this lack in My stead and will guide you into all truth.

He will fill it in My stead, for He will not teach some teaching of His own, new and different from Mine. He will not speak of Himself, but whatever He hears He will speak. On the contrary, He will continue the same teaching which I taught: He will take of Mine and declare it to you.

And since I said to you before that My teaching is not Mine, but His Who sent Me (Jn 7:16; cf. Jn 14:10 and elsewhere), I add, so that My present word may be clear to you, that all things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said: The Holy Spirit will take of Mine and declare it to you.

Consequently, the words He will take of Mine, and then all things that the Father has are Mine, refer exclusively to the teaching which the Son, as He Who came to earth to fulfill the Father's will for the salvation of men, received from the Father. The Holy Spirit, as the successor of the Son on earth in the same great work, was to receive it from the Son.

The expression He will take of Mine and declare it to you must not be understood as meaning: The Holy Spirit will borrow from Me what He formerly did not know and did not possess. The Spirit, being God, knows all and possesses all from eternity. It must be understood thus: After Me He will continue My own teaching, and not any other. He will remind you of all that I said to you (Jn 14:26), and in My stead He will complete what I would still have wished to say to you, but what you cannot understand now.

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

Secondly, if some of them saw in the words He will take of Mine a thought about the eternal procession of the Holy Spirit, they understood it altogether differently from the way Western Christians now wish to understand it.

Christ said, He will take of Mine, that is, of My Father, writes Saint Athanasius the Great. For He added: All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.

Blessed Augustine expresses himself still more clearly: As for what Christ said about the Holy Spirit, He will take of Mine, He Himself resolves the question. Lest anyone think that the Spirit is from Him through certain degrees, as He Himself is from the Father, when both are from the Father, the one being born, the other proceeding: cum ambo de Patre, ille nascatur, iste procedat.

Therefore, I say, lest they think this, He immediately added: All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine. Without doubt, He wished to be understood as saying that the Spirit proceeds from the Father.

The same explanation of the text was later accepted by Alcuin, or Albinus, famous in the West, and by other writers, both Western and Eastern.

Let us now descend to particulars. Thirdly, if the expression He will take of Mine means that He borrows eternal being from Me, that He proceeds from Me, then we must ask: why does the verb will take stand in the future tense, exactly as immediately before it He will glorify, and after it He will declare?

Did the Holy Spirit not yet proceed from the Son at the time when He was speaking with the Apostles, and was He only about to proceed after His Ascension into heaven? To assert that the verb will take expresses the past or the present is to assert that the two other verbs inseparably connected with it, He will glorify and He will declare, also express the past or present. But that would be a complete distortion of the meaning of the discourse.

If, without any basis, we allow that only the verb will take signifies the present, while the other two signify the future, then we shall see a new distortion of the meaning. The Savior's words would have to be understood thus: The Holy Spirit will glorify Me, because He proceeds from Me and will declare to you. But what, then, will He declare?

Fourthly, the reasoning of the dissenters leads to still greater incongruities, when they take without any limitation the Savior's words, All things that the Father has are Mine, and say: The Father has the property of bringing forth the Holy Spirit; therefore the Son has it also.

For in exactly the same way one could reason: The Father also has the property of being unbegotten; therefore the Son has it also. The Father also has the property of begetting the Son; therefore the Son has it also.

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 of the Father, must we conclude from this that the Father also 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 incongruities is to take the Savior's words, All things that the Father has are Mine, with a limitation. The Son truly has all that the Father has according to essence and Godhead, just as 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 cited saying precisely in 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 common between Them, but by no means Their special properties.

Therefore they reasoned that all that the Father has, not only the Son has, but the Holy Spirit also has. Consequently, they did not and could not have had the thought of deriving from these words of the Savior a conclusion about the eternal procession of the Holy Spirit, as is now done. Otherwise one would have to admit that the Fathers thought He proceeds also from Himself.

It should be noted that the proofs examined for the Western teaching about the personal property of the Holy Spirit, especially the last, are recognized by the dissenters as the chief ones. The others are considered less strong, and therefore deserve less attention. Thus they strive 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).

"Christ is all and in all," says the Apostle Paul (1 Cor 3:11), and he also writes: "God is all in all" (1 Cor 15:28).

This means that the Son of God, by His merits, received the right to be Heir of all things, as the same Apostle says (Heb 1:3).

An ancient teacher explains the Savior's words thus: "My portion is all that the Father has."

Here too, Roman teachers seek defense for their invention concerning the Holy Spirit. They say: "All that the Father has belongs to the Son. Since it belongs to the Father that the Holy Spirit proceeds from Him, the same property belongs to the Son."

But we have already said and proved that in saying, "All things whatsoever the Father has are Mine," the Savior shows Himself to us as God's Messenger and the Savior of the world, not as the person of the Son of God.

Therefore all that the Father has refers only to the glory that the Redeemer of the world could share with Him. It does not refer at all to the divine essence.

But let us suppose, though the Savior's words do not permit it, that "All things whatsoever the Father has are Mine" speaks of the divine nature. Even then one would have to conclude that the Son is begotten also from Himself.

Thus, even if we were to interpret the Savior's words in relation to the Godhead, we would have to take them in a restricted sense. Namely: all that the Father has belongs to the Son, except the begetting of the Son and the procession of the Holy Spirit.

The words the Savior then speaks fully confirm our explanation and expose the injustice of the Roman interpretation. The Savior says: "Therefore I said that He will take of what is Mine and declare it."

One cannot say: He will take and declare My nature. Rather one says: He will take and declare teaching, instruction, and thoughts.

The connection of the Savior's thoughts is this: what the Spirit of truth will declare to the apostles is the truth of the Son of God. The truth of the Son of God is the truth of the heavenly Father.

Glory to You, O Holy Spirit, Spirit of truth, together with the Father and His eternal Son. Amen.

Let the tricks of dialecticians be removed, and let intellectual sophistries be repelled by the truth. Taking occasion for impiety from a pious word, they say: "Therefore the Father is the Son, and the Son is the Father."

If the Lord had said, "All that God has is Mine," impiety would have had occasion for such an invention, and falsehood could well have seemed like truth.

But since He said, "All that the Father has is Mine," by the name Father He indicated that He is the Son. Being the Son, He did not appropriate fatherhood, although by the grace of adoption He Himself is father of many saints.