Saturday, October 15, 2022

Bruce Shelley on second-century Christians believing that the Spirit was the Witness to divine truth within the heart of the believer

 

While the early Fathers do not give as much attention to the witness of the Spirit in the life of the believer as they do to his witness in Scripture, their comments are extremely important. From the earliest days of the sub-apostolic age there are passing references to this work of the Spirit, but as the century progresses the challenge of Monarchianism (the emphasis upon the unity of God) tended to focus more clearly upon the Spirit as the source of enlightenment. Later still the church came to be considered the depository of the Spirit. As early as Ignatius we find testimony to the work of the Spirit in all the faithful because it is the Spirit who brings the soul into vital contact with the redemption provided by Christ (Eph. 9). Later this seminal thought spirits up in Justin’s writings. He had encountered the idea from his earliest contact with Christianity. His unnamed friend by the seashore laid great stress upon the inward testimony of the Spirit. When Justin quotes Plato to the effect that God can be apprehended only by the mind, the old man replies, “is there then in our minds a power such as this and so great as this? Will the human mind ever see God unless it is furnished with the Holy Spirit?” (Dial. 4).

 

Then as the two are about to depart the elderly stranger urges Justin, “Pray that the gates of light may be opened to you; for these matters cannot be perceived or comprehended by any unless God and His Christ give power to understand” (Dial. 7). Apparently Justin did not forget these words, for he writes of baptism, “This bath is called ‘illumination,’ since those who learn these things have the mind illumined” (I Apol. 61).

 

The development of the Trinity resulting from Monarchian teaching added to this idea that the Holy Spirit is the internal witness. In his Against Praxeas Tertullian speaks of our being taught by the Paraclete who leads us into all truth (ch. 2). And Hippolytus writes in his treatise Against Noetus: “He who commands is the Father. He who obeys is the Son. He who gives understanding is the Holy Spirit.” A bit later he adds, “What the Father wills, the Son translates into an act, and the Spirit manifests” (8;14). Thus the office of the Spirit is that of enabling the human understanding to grasp the revelation of the Father’s will brought by the incarnate Son.

 

Toward the close of the second century and the beginning of the third this view of the Spirit’s ministry continues to appear. For example, Clement of Alexandria writes: “The Lord . . . invites all men to come to the knowledge of the truth, and has sent the Paraclete for that end” (Exhort, IX, 85). And Origen explains how this work of the Spirit is fulfilled: “We pray that the light of the knowledge of the glory of God may shine in our hearts, the Spirit of God resting on our imaginations and enabling us to imagine the things of God” (Against Celsus IV, 95). (Bruce Shelley, By What Authority? The Standards of Truth in the Early Church [Exeter: The Paternoster Press, 1966], 155-56)