The original Greek of the following translation is available in Hugo Laemmer’s Scriptorum Graeciae Orthodoxae Bibliotheca Selecta, tomus primus (Freiburg-im-Breisgau, 1866), pp. 540-547.
Epigraph VI
Since there are people who do not accept that the gospel affirmation which calls the Holy Spirit “the Spirit of Truth” (John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13) has the same force as that which states that he “proceeds from the Father” (John 15:26), and who moreover contend that the Holy Spirit’s “proceeding from the Father” and his “receiving from the Son” (John 16:14) are not said with equal force and meaning, the following patristic citations are here set forth, to demonstrate the equivalency of such gospel affirmations.
[541] Basil the Great in his lectures against Eunomius and Arius says:
“I understand his kinship with the Father, because he proceeds from the Father, and his kinship with the Son, because I hear, ‘if anyone has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.’”
6:1 ❖ Basil of Caesarea, Contra Sabellianos et Arium et Anomoeos, 6; PG 31, 612 C.
The same father near the end of his second tractate Against Eunomius says:
“And is there not manifestly a danger, in this, of our dividing the Spirit from God? For, on the one hand, the Apostle delivers the doctrine of the Spirit to us in a connected way, at one time stating that he is ‘of Christ,’ at another time stating that he is ‘of God,’ where he writes, ‘If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his’ (Rom 8:9), and again, ‘But you received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God’ (1 Cor 2:12); and, on the other hand, the Lord declares him the ‘Spirit of truth’ (John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13), since he himself is the truth, and he proceeds from the Father.”
6:2 ❖ Basil of Caesarea, Adv. Eunomium II.34; PG 29, 652 B-C.
[542] The same father, in the 18th chapter of his work To Amphilochius, says:
“He is said to be from God, not in the way all things are from God, but as coming forth from God, not in a begotten way like the Son, but as the Breath of his mouth. Whence both the close relation is made plain, and the mode of his ineffable existence is safeguarded. He is moreover styled ‘Spirit of Christ,’ as being by nature closely related to him.”
6:3 ❖ Basil of Caesarea, De Spiritu sancto, 18.46; PG 32, 152 B.
St. Cyril in his exposition of the statement of the Gospel of John, “When therefore the Comforter is come” (John 15:26), says:
“Showing then that there is a Unity of Substance, I mean [543] that of Himself and God the Father, in the same Being, in saying that the Comforter is the Spirit of truth He declares that He proceeds from the Father, and makes plain and beyond contradiction that the opposer of Christ is wholly at enmity with God. For he who in any degree allows himself to contemn the Son may be reasonably considered to transgress against Him from Whom He proceeds.
“When then, He says, the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, that is My Spirit, Which proceeds from the Father, is come, He will testify of Me. And how will He testify? When He works marvels in you and by you, He will be a just and true witness of My Godlike authority, and of the greatness of My power. For He that works in you is My Spirit, and as He is My Spirit, so also is He That of God the Father.”
6:4 ❖ Cyril of Alexandria, In Joannis evangelium, lib. 10, cap. 11; PG 74, 420 C – 421 A; P. E. Pusey, ed., Cyrilli … in D. Joannis evangelium, vol. ii (Oxford 1872), p. 609.
[544] In his Exposition of the Gospel of John, on the statement, “When therefore the Comforter is come” (John 15:26), the same father says:
“For observe, when calling the Comforter ”the Spirit of truth,“ that is, His own, He says that He comes from the Father. For as the Spirit naturally belongs to the Son, being in Him and proceeding through Him, so also He belongs to the Father. But the qualities of Their Substance cannot be distinct, where the Spirit is common to both.”
6:5 ❖ Cyril of Alexandria, In Joannis evangelium, lib. 10; PG 74, 417 C; P. E. Pusey, ed., Cyrilli … in D. Joannis evangelium, vol. ii (Oxford 1872), p. 607.
St. Epiphanius in his Ancoratus says:
“The Spirit is incomprehensible, not foreign to the Father and the Son. For, again, the [545] Only-begotten himself says, ‘the Spirit of the Father,’ and, ‘who proceedeth from the Father,’ and who ‘shall receive from mine,’ so that the Spirit might not be thought to be foreign to the Father or the Son.”
6:6 ❖ First sentence: Epiphanius of Salamis, Ancoratus 6; PG 43, 28 A. Possibly a conflation of different passages.
And a great deal after this:
“Both of these, Christ and his Spirit, make their dwelling in the just man. And if Christ is believed to be from the Father, God from God, the Spirit is also believed to be from Christ, or indeed from both, as Christ says, ‘who proceedeth from the Father,’ and, ‘he shall receive of mine’ (John 15:26; 16:14).”
6:7 ❖ First sentence: Epiphanius, Ancoratus 66; rest of citation, Ancoratus 67. Whole citation found at PG 43, 137 A-B. Also at Ancoratus 7, PG 43, 28 A. Cited by Bekkos also at De unione 28 (L 299; PG 141, 85B).
[546] Theodore the presbyter of Raïthu, in his dogmatic oration which begins, “I think it absurd, and I think so with good reason,” quite a long ways after this says:
“The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth; he proceeds from the Father, and he receives from the Son who possesses all things that the Father does, which serves to demonstrate and show that there is one substance [547] both of the one who receives and of the one from whom he receives, as well as of the one from whom he naturally proceeds. For he would not have come forth from one of a different substance, or have received anything from someone not consubstantial. But if these are consubstantial with him, both the one from whom he comes forth and the one from whom he receives, then these are certainly also consubstantial with each other. For things consubstantial with the same thing, it is clear, will be and are truly consubstantial also with each other.”
6:8 ❖ Anastasius of Antioch, De SS. Trinitate, 13; PG 89, 1319 B-C.
De unione ecclesiarum 