Early Christian Beliefs About the Holy Spirit

Ignatius, The Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians (Long Version) Direct teaching

..., I have heard of some who have come among you, holding the wicked doctrine of the strange and evil spirit; to whom you did not allow entrance to sow their tares, but closed your ears so that you might not receive the error they proclaimed. You were persuaded that this spirit, which deceives the people, does not speak the things of Christ, but its own, for it is a lying spirit. But the Holy Spirit does not speak His own things, but those of Christ, and this not from himself, but from the Lord; just as the Lord also announced to us the things that He received from the Father. For, He says, “the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s, who sent Me.” And He says of the Holy Spirit, “He shall not speak of Himself, but whatever things He shall hear from Me.” And He says of Himself to the Father, “I have,” He says, “glorified You on the earth; I have finished the work You gave Me; I have manifested Your name to men.” And of the Holy Spirit, “He shall glorify Me, for He receives from Mine.” But the spirit of deceit preaches himself and speaks his own things, seeking to please himself. He glorifies himself, for he is full of arrogance. He is lying, fraudulent, soothing, flatte

Origen, Commentary on John Direct teaching

...that the Son is second beside the Father, He being the same as the Father, while a distinction is clearly drawn between the Spirit and the Son in the passage, Matthew 12:32: “Whoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever shall blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, he shall not have forgiveness, either in this world or in the world to come.” We consider, therefore, that there are three hypostases: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. At the same time, we believe that nothing is uncreated except the Father. Therefore, as the more pious and truer course, we admit that all things were made by the Word, and that the Holy Spirit is the most excellent and the first in order of all that was made by the Father through Christ. And this, perhaps, is the reason why the Spirit is not called God’s own Son. The Only-begotten alone is by nature and from the beginning a Son, and the Holy Spirit seems to need the Son to minister His essence to Him, so as to enable Him not only to exist, but also to be wise and reasonable and just, and all that we must think of Him as being. All this He has by participation in the character of Christ, of which we have s

Novatian, Treatise Concerning the Trinity Direct teaching

Moreover, also, He added this too: But the Advocate, that Holy Spirit whom the Father will send, He will teach you, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said to you.

Novatian, Treatise Concerning the Trinity Supporting witness

But this Holy Spirit the Lord Christ calls at one time the Paraclete, at another pronounces to be the Spirit of truth.

Origen, De Principiis (On First Principles) Supporting witness

Then, Thirdly, the apostles related that the Holy Spirit was associated in honour and dignity with the Father and the Son.

Gregory Thaumaturgus, A Sectional Confession of Faith Supporting witness

and one Holy Spirit, who by nature and in truth sanctifies all, and makes divine, as being of the substance of God.

Tertullian, Against Praxeas Supporting witness

who sent also from heaven from the Father, according to His own promise, the Holy Ghost, the Paraclete, the sanctifier of the faith of those who believe in the Father, and in the Son, and in the Holy Ghost.

Origen, De Principiis (On First Principles) Direct teaching

We must know, therefore, that the Paraclete is the Holy Spirit, who teaches truths that cannot be spoken in words and are, so to speak, unspeakable, and which it is not lawful for a man to utter; that is, they cannot be expressed by human language. We think the apostle uses the phrase "it is not lawful" instead of "it is not possible." This is also the case in the passage where he says, "All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not." For he says those things are lawful for us when they are in our power, because we may have them. But the Paraclete, who is called the Holy Spirit, is so called from His work of consolation, since "paraclesis" is called "consolatio" in Latin. For if anyone has become worthy to share in the Holy Spirit through the knowledge of His ineffable mysteries, he certainly receives comfort and joy of heart. For by the teaching of the Spirit he comes to know the reasons for all things that happen, how or why they occur. So his soul cannot be troubled in any respect, or admit any feeling of sorrow. Nor is he alarmed by anything, since, clinging to the Word of God and His wisdom, he through th

Origen, De Principiis (On First Principles) Direct teaching

...f the Holy Spirit when he declares, "God has revealed them to us by His Holy Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God;" and again in the Gospel, when the Saviour, speaking of the divine and deeper parts of His teaching, which His disciples were not yet able to receive, thus addresses them: "I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now; but when the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, has come, He will teach you all things, and will bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said to you." We must understand, therefore, that just as the Son, who alone knows the Father, reveals Him to whom He will, so also the Holy Spirit, who alone searches the deep things of God, reveals God to whom He will: "For the Spirit blows where He lists." We must not suppose, however, that the Spirit derives His knowledge through revelation from the Son. For if the Holy Spirit knows the Father through the Son's revelation, He passes from a state of ignorance into one of knowledge. But it is both impious and foolish to confess the Holy Spirit and yet ascribe ignorance to Him. For even if something else existed before the Holy Spirit, it was not by

Origen, De Principiis (On First Principles) Supporting witness

In the case of the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete must be understood in the sense of comforter, inasmuch as He bestows consolation upon the souls to whom He openly reveals the apprehension of spiritual knowledge.

Origen, De Principiis (On First Principles) Supporting witness

But the Paraclete, who is called the Holy Spirit, is so called from His work of consolation, para clesis being termed in Latin consolatio.

Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata (Miscellanies) Supporting witness

But those who possess the Holy Spirit search the deep things of God, 1 Corinthians 2:10 — that is, grasp the secret that is in the prophecies.

Clement of Alexandria, Connection to 1 Corinthians 2:10 Supporting witness

"For the Spirit searches the deep things of God. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit."

Hermas, The Shepherd (Pastor) Supporting witness

...e makes no reply. Nor does he speak privately. Nor, when a man wishes the spirit to speak, does the Holy Spirit speak. It speaks only when God wishes it to speak. When, then, a man having the Divine Spirit comes into an assembly of righteous men who have faith in the Divine Spirit, and this assembly of men offers prayer to God, then the angel of the prophetic Spirit, who is appointed for him, fills the man. And the man, being filled with the Holy Spirit, speaks to the multitude as the Lord wishes. Thus, then, the Spirit of Divinity becomes manifest. Whatever power, therefore, comes from the Spirit of Divinity belongs to the Lord. "Hear, then," he says, "about the spirit that is earthly, empty, powerless, and foolish. First, the man who seems to have the Spirit exalts himself and wants the first seat, and is bold, impudent, and talkative, and lives in the midst of many luxuries and many other delusions, and takes rewards for his prophecy. And if he does not receive rewards, he does not prophesy. Can, then, the Divine Spirit take rewards and prophesy? It is not possible for the prophet of God to do this. But prophets of this kind are possessed by an earthly spirit. Then it never c

Hermas, The Shepherd (Pastor) Supporting witness

Listen, then, he says, foolish man, to how grief crushes out the Holy Spirit, and on the other hand saves. When the doubting man tries to do any deed, and fails in it because of his doubt, this grief enters into the man, and grieves the Holy Spirit, and crushes him out. Then, on the other hand, when anger attaches itself to a man about any matter, and he becomes bitter, grief enters into the heart of the man who had become irritated, and he is grieved at the deed he did, and repents that he has done a wicked deed. This grief, then, appears to be accompanied by salvation, because the man, after doing a wicked deed, repented. Both actions grieve the Spirit: doubt, because it did not accomplish its object; and anger grieves the Spirit, because it did what was wicked. Both of these are grievous to the Holy Spirit: doubt and anger. Therefore remove grief from yourselves, and do not crush the Holy Spirit who dwells in you, lest he entreat God against you, and withdraw from you. For the Spirit of God, which has been granted to dwell in this body, does not endure grief or straitness. Therefore put on cheerfulness, which is always agreeable and acceptable to God, and rejoice in it. For ever

Dionysius of Alexandria, Exegetical Fragments Supporting witness

The Holy Spirit therefore, apportioned among the evangelists, makes up the full account of our Saviour's whole disposition by the expressions of these several narrators together.

Novatian, Treatise Concerning the Trinity Supporting witness

we also believe, and therefore speak. He is therefore one and the same Spirit who was in the prophets and apostles, except that in the former He was occasional, in the latter always.

Novatian, Treatise Concerning the Trinity Supporting witness

so in the New Testament He is announced as Spirit, that, as the Renewer and Creator of those who are dead in their sins, He may be attested by this goodness of mercy granted to those that believe.

Justin Martyr, Hortatory Address to the Greeks Supporting witness

If anyone carefully considers the gift that comes from God to holy people—which the sacred prophets call the Holy Ghost—they will find that Plato referred to this gift by another name in his dialogue with Meno. Plato, hesitant to call God's gift the Holy Ghost for fear of appearing to follow the prophets' teachings and thus becoming an adversary to the Greeks, acknowledges that it comes from God but chooses to call it virtue instead. In the dialogue with Meno, while discussing the nature of virtue—whether it can be taught, acquired through practice, or is an inherent trait in people, or comes in some other way—he makes this statement: "But if throughout this discussion we have reasoned correctly, virtue must not be a natural gift, nor something acquired through teaching, but is given to those who receive it by divine destiny." Plato, having learned these things from the prophets about the Holy Ghost, clearly applied them to what he calls virtue. Just as the prophets say that one spirit is divided into seven, Plato refers to one virtue as divided into four parts, deliberately avoiding any mention of the Holy Spirit while using allegory to convey what the prophets said of the Holy Gh

Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Direct teaching

... during those hours or days when they go through such things, do they refuse to pray, or to touch a Bible, or to receive the Eucharist? If they admit that they do, then it is plain that they are without the Holy Spirit, who always remains with the faithful. For Solomon says about holy people, "So that each one may prepare himself, so that when he sleeps it may keep him, and when he rises it may speak with him," Proverbs 6:22. For if you think, woman, that when you are in your seven days of separation you are without the Holy Spirit, then if you were to die suddenly, you would depart without the Spirit and without sure hope in God. Or else you must understand that the Spirit is always inseparable from you, since He is not confined to a place. But you need prayer and the Eucharist and the coming of the Holy Spirit, because in this matter you have committed no sin. For neither lawful union, nor childbearing, nor menstrual cleansing, nor a nighttime emission can defile a person's nature or separate the Holy Spirit from him. Nothing can do that except impiety and unlawful conduct. For the Holy Spirit always remains with those who have Him, as long as they are worthy. And when He depa

Anonymous, Treatise on Re-Baptism Direct teaching

... who believed. Certainly, both in water, and no less in their own blood, and then especially in the Holy Spirit, men may be baptized. For Peter says, “But this is what was spoken by the prophet: ‘It shall come to pass in the last days, says the Lord, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and their sons and their daughters shall prophesy, and their young men shall see visions, and their old men shall dream dreams. And upon my servants and upon my handmaidens I will pour out of my Spirit,’” Acts 2:17-18. We find that this Spirit was communicated in the Old Testament, not indeed everywhere or widely, but along with other gifts; or rather, that He sprang up by His own will in certain men, or clothed them, or was upon them. So we see that the Lord said to Moses about the seventy elders, “And I will take of the Spirit which is upon you, and will put it upon them,” Numbers 11:17. For this reason also, according to His promise, God put upon them from the Spirit that had been upon Moses, and they prophesied in the camp. And Moses, as a spiritual man, rejoiced that this had happened, although Joshua the son of Nun had urged him, against his will, to oppose this thing, and yet he was n

Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness

Let them rest at Pentecost, because of the coming of the Holy Spirit, which was given to those that believed in Christ.

Didache, Connection to Acts 2:4 Supporting witness

for on that day, at the third hour, the Lord Jesus sent on us the gift of the Holy Ghost, and we were filled with His energy, and we "spake with new tongues, as that Spirit did suggest to us; "

Gregory Thaumaturgus, Connection to 1 Corinthians 12:3 Supporting witness

For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body."

Pamphilus, Exposition on the Acts of the Apostles Supporting witness

C. Of the divine descent of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost which lighted on them who believed.

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book III Supporting witness

and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness” to every one that was willing to believe.

Gregory Thaumaturgus, A Sectional Confession of Faith Supporting witness

...ns, in necessities." 2 Corinthians 6:4 and so forth. Then he adds these words: "By kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love, by the word of truth, by the power of God." 2 Corinthians 6:6-7 Look here again: the saint has defined the holy Trinity, naming God, and the Word, and the Holy Spirit. And again he says, "Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him." 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 And again: "But you are washed, but you are justified in the name of our Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." 1 Corinthians 6:11 And again: "What! Do you not know that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God?" 1 Corinthians 6:19 "And I think also that I have the Spirit of God." 1 Corinthians 7:40

Cyprian, Epistles Direct teaching

..., the Lord proves and declares in His Gospel that sins can be taken away only by those who have the Holy Spirit. For after His resurrection, when He sent out His disciples, He spoke to them and said, "As the Father has sent Me, even so I send you." And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone's sins, they will be forgiven; if you retain anyone's sins, they will be retained." John 20:21-23 In this place He shows that only the one who has the Holy Spirit can baptize and give forgiveness of sins. Moreover, John, who was to baptize Christ our Lord Himself, received the Holy Spirit beforehand while he was still in his mother's womb, so that it might be certain and clear that no one can baptize except those who have the Holy Spirit. Therefore those who support heretics or schismatics must answer us whether they have the Holy Spirit or not. If they have Him, why are hands laid on those who were baptized among them when they come to us, so that they may receive the Holy Spirit, since He must surely have been received there, where, if He was there, He could also be given? But if heretics and schismatics who baptize outsi

Cyprian, Epistles Supporting witness

...d among them not also given the laying on of hands, in the name of that same Christ, to receive the Holy Spirit? Why does the same greatness of the same name not have power in the laying on of hands, if, as they claim, it had power in the sanctifying of baptism? For if someone born outside the Church can become God's temple, why can the Holy Spirit not also be poured out on that temple? For the one who has been sanctified, with his sins taken away in baptism, and has been spiritually remade into a new man, has become fit to receive the Holy Spirit, since the apostle says, "As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." Galatians 3:27. He who, after being baptized among the heretics, is able to put on Christ, can much more receive the Holy Spirit whom Christ sent. Otherwise, the One who is sent would be greater than the One who sends, so that a person baptized outside may indeed begin to put on Christ, but not be able to receive the Holy Spirit, as if Christ could be put on without the Spirit, or the Spirit could be separated from Christ. Moreover, it is foolish to say that although the second birth is spiritual, by which we are born in Christ through the w

Cyprian, Epistles Supporting witness

...he one Church. For it is too small a thing merely to lay hands on them so that they may receive the Holy Ghost, unless they also receive the baptism of the Church. For only then can they be fully sanctified and become sons of God, if they are born by both sacraments, since it is written, "Unless a man is born again of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." We also find in the Acts of the Apostles that this was upheld by the apostles and kept in the truth of the saving faith. For when, in the house of Cornelius the centurion, the Holy Ghost had descended on the Gentiles who were there, burning with the heat of faith and believing in the Lord with their whole heart, and when, filled with the Spirit, they blessed God in different tongues, even then the blessed Apostle Peter, mindful of the divine command and the Gospel, commanded that those same people should be baptized, though they had already been filled with the Holy Spirit. He did this so that nothing might seem to be neglected, according to the apostolic instruction, in all things concerning the law of the divine command and the Gospel. But that what the heretics use is not baptism, and that none o

Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness

...given into the death of Jesus. The water stands in place of the burial, and the oil in place of the Holy Spirit. The seal stands in place of the cross. The ointment is the confirmation of the confession. The mention of the Father is as of the Author and Sender. The joint mention of the Holy Spirit is as of the witness. The going down into the water is dying together with Christ. The coming up out of the water is rising again with Him. The Father is the God over all. Christ is the only begotten God, the beloved Son, the Lord of glory. The Holy Spirit is the Comforter, who is sent by Christ, is taught by Him, and proclaims Him.

Anonymous, Treatise on Re-Baptism Supporting witness

...tized in the Spirit, so that these also may not seem to have anything less than those who are fully Christians, lest it should be necessary to ask what kind of baptism they received in the name of Jesus Christ. Unless perhaps, in that earlier discussion also, about those who had only been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, you decide that they can be saved even without the Holy Spirit, or that the Holy Spirit is not usually given only in this way, but by the laying on of the bishop's hands, or even say that it is not the bishop alone who can give the Holy Spirit.

Anonymous, Treatise on Re-Baptism Supporting witness

... would necessarily be required from the hands of the bishops. Further, as you are not ignorant, the Holy Spirit is found to have been given by the Lord without baptism of water to men who believe, as it is written in Acts of the Apostles in this way: “While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had also been poured out on the Gentiles. For they heard them speak in tongues, and they magnified God. Then Peter answered, ‘Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, who have received the Holy Spirit as well as we?’ And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.” Acts 10:44-48 Peter also later taught us very fully about these same Gentiles, saying: “And He made no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.” Acts 15:9 And so there will be no doubt that men may be baptized with the Holy Spirit without water, since you see that these were baptized before they were baptized with water. In this way, the declarations of both John and of our Lord Himself were fulfil

Cyprian, Seventh Council of Carthage Supporting witness

But if they cannot give the Holy Spirit, because they have not the Holy Spirit, neither can they spiritually baptize.

Anonymous, Treatise on Re-Baptism Supporting witness

Unless, perchance, in that former discussion also, about those who should only have been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, you should decide that they can be saved even without the Holy Spirit, or that the Holy Spirit is not accustomed to be bestowed in this manner only, but by the imposition of the bishop's hands;

Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness

and that imposition of hands shall be to him instead of baptism: for by the laying on of our hands the Holy Ghost was given to believers.

Anonymous, Treatise on Re-Baptism Supporting witness

Moreover, they are so no less in the baptism of the Spirit and of water.

John 20:22 Direct teaching

And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

Acts 5:32 Supporting witness

And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.