Questions and Answers from Basils On the Holy Spirit

By Jonathan Companik
1. What are Basil's arguments against the philosophers regarding their use of prepositions? Basil first remarks on the system of thought employed by his contemporaries against him as derived from older heathen philosophers whose exclusive prepositional designations for cause, material, instrument, place and time failed even to transfer consistently into the rhetorical model of his opponents. He notes that whereas the old school used "by" to identify the creator (with "of" indicating and modifying the material out of which the object is made), the new school applies "of" as relating to the maker or cause (i.e., the Father), undergoing the shift from maker with "by" subordinate to instrument--that which acts on the material to create (in this case, the Son). In this way, Basil's interlocutors are doomed from the outset, supplying to him by their own categories an argument for variability in prepositional classification. Those dissenters from Basil's doxology, by disingenuously switching terms, reveal the utter flimsiness of their case as amounting to a mere sophisticated exercise in foolery. Specifically, in order to demonstrate by exegesis that the three modes of the eternal Godhead does not occupy the place of distinct plural essences, Basil cites various Scripture passages in which prepositions exclusively denoting one or the other persons of the Trinity are seen to occupy distinct but interchangeable locations in the Trinitarian formulas of the New Testament. This language is intended, Basil asserts, to preserve and protect the distinct plurality of persons, not to posit a hierarchy of natures that destroys the unity of God. Basil briefly cites examples from the Bible in which "by" and "in"--relegated only to the Son and the Spirit, respectively, by his detractors--clearly modify the Father, and goes on to demonstrate instances in Scripture in which the disputed prepositions are not merely interchangeable with regard to theology (distinction of persons), but also with respect to their subject nature: e.g., "For as the woman is from [AV, of] the man, even so is the man also through the woman." 2. What does Basil say about the Son with the Father? Basil reduces his challengers' philosophy to absurdity by means of a brilliant ontological polemic. They insist on the essential inferiority of the Son relative to the Father, claiming that He comes "after" the Father. Basil rhetorically inquires whether they refer to succession in time, order (space, location) or rank, effectively dismantling each of these in the process: (1) The Maker of all things could not be second respecting time, finitude, for there is no interval that intervenes between Him and the Father which prevails in the natural world of father-son relations, since the Son Himself transcends the ages; (2) To conceive of "superior remoteness" of the Father is to preclude all thought and intelligence in humans, for Christ could not be the Word who "was" with God in the beginning; (3) We cannot conceive of

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS FROM BASILS ON THE HOLY SPIRIT JONATHAN COMPANIK

divine superiority or inferiority in terms of space, with one occupying a "higher" and another the "lower" part, for the Word declares that God fills all things in an incorporeal manner; (4) Therefore Christ's place at the Father's "right hand", far from being a place of degradation or demotion, rather testifies emphatically to the equality of glory shared by each. Further, any language which appears to support a status of obedient subordination to the Father can only be understood as the manifestation and consubstantial expression of unity of will. 3. What does Basil say about ranking the Holy Spirit with the Father and Son? Basil lays the essential groundwork for consubstantial unity with the Father and the Son by making Christ's words with the Samaritan woman at the well, in which He clearly links the nature of the Spirit to a new order of divine worship which invites all the children of men to participate wherever they may be. Ubiquity is here asserted by the Son on behalf of the Spirit, a true mark of divinity that necessarily implies the Spirit as being incorporeal, eternal, invisible, immortal, and indivisibly united with the Father and the Son. By addition, Basil reflects on an essential soteriological point to buttress the prior statement. Indeed, without the indwelling Spirit, the natural man remains unilluminated, darkened by his own conceits and depraved nature, unable to comprehend or bear the truth as it is in God. If, then, the Spirit were circumscribed by time and space, being subject to variation, He would be a mere idol of human devising, locally present as an external object of veneration, but incapable of renovating the heart or renewing the mind. Third and finally, Basil appeals to the Trinitarian formula for baptism commended by our Lord Himself in His commissioning of the Apostles. If the Spirit is not to be ranked with the Father or the Son, Basil asks, how can we withstand the commandment? If by the Lord's instruction we are not to understand Him as conjoining the Spirit with Himself and with the Father, he continues, do not lay the blame of innovation upon our doorstep, for what have we added which the Lord did not prescribe? 4. What does Basil say about faith and the Holy Spirit? Following upon his comments on the Great Commission, Basil stresses that our very regeneration--our salvation itself--depends on our possessing and having intimate fellowship with, through faith, the divine Spirit. For faith itself is a gift communicated by the Spirit of God, so that apart from the Spirit there is no life imparted. 5. What does Basil say about baptism and the Holy Spirit? Again, in conjunction with Christ's aforesaid instructions, baptism is the Christian's invitation into the divine life--the beginning of his salvation--so that without regeneration "of the Holy Spirit", our "faith" is as deficient as it would be were we not baptized at all. Any other baptism is counterfeit, offering a whole new religion of false faith, incapable of redemption and devoid of all effectual grace and divine energy necessary to eternal life.
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QUESTIONS & ANSWERS FROM BASILS ON THE HOLY SPIRIT JONATHAN COMPANIK

Further, Basil responds to the commonly misleading invocations of the Son alone by the apostolic writings in conjunction with baptism. He does so by gathering corresponding solitary invocations of the Spirit in the same writings--thus demonstrating an apostolic emphasis that at one time isolates certain features of salvation, and at other times, others, corresponding to the unique economical operations of the several members of the Godhead. Thus baptism contemplates the full range of our redemption and exhibits the mutual workings of an eternal society of persons who cooperate together in the sacred acts of giving, revealing, and renewing. The Trinity fills out a holistic unction of the sinner, communicated by our baptism into Christ's death: "For the naming of Christ is the confession of the whole, showing forth as it does the God who gave, the Son who received, and the Spirit who is, the unction" (Basil). 6. What does Basil say about Moses' baptism and the Holy Spirit? Basil posits two arguments against the foolish speculations of those who would dare compare as though in perfect parallel fashion, the baptism into Moses through the Red Sea with the baptism in the Holy Spirit. What is obvious upon further inspection is that the baptism into Moses prefigured the substance which was the come: (1) faith by the Holy Spirit, and (2) Christ as our eternal High Priest and heavenly mediator. Just as the pascal lamb and the pole-serpent prefigured the once for all divine sacrifice of our Lord and Savior; just as the manna in the wilderness and water from the desert rock typified the life-giving waters of the Divine Spirit and heavenly nourishment of Christ's own self-surrendered body for the sins of the whole world; so also Moses anticipates the mediating work of Christ according to Hebrews, and the water and cloud of the Red Sea signify cleansing and renewal by the Spirit of God. Oddly, Basil's opponents argue from Moses to the Spirit, by comparison, objecting to the magnification of the latter as above creation. Basil corrects this absurdity by locating the analogy where Scripture does: between Christ and Moses (who by no means prefigures the Spirit in any redemptive capacity). 7. How is the Holy Spirit inseparable from the Father and the Son in our salvation? First, Basil locates repentance and conviction of sin in the Holy Spirit from Paul's letter to the Corinthians. Prophecy, according to Paul, is a gift of the Spirit which leads to repentance, for the ignorant or unbelieving is "judged by all" in the midst of the prophetic assembly of God's elect. Paul, in fact, expresses the source of distribution of spiritual gifts as part of a formulaic trinitarian statement, clearly linking the Spirit to the Divine essence: "There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit; and differences of administrations, but the same Lord; and there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all." Second, Basil shows that our very existence depends on the Spirit, who is integral to the process of creation itself, as the very breath of God the Word, thus exhibiting a pre-temporal fellowship with the Son and Father.
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QUESTIONS & ANSWERS FROM BASILS ON THE HOLY SPIRIT JONATHAN COMPANIK

Third, we are explicitly taught by the Word that "no man can say that Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Ghost..." The Holy Ghost illumines the Word for and in us--He perfects in man the work of salvation objectively wrought in history by the Son, the Revealer. Fourth, the Gospels testify to the unity of the Son and Spirit in the incarnation and ministry of the former. The Son is conceived by the Holy Ghost and rises from the dead by His power, anointed by the Holy Ghost, effects miracles by the power of the same. Likewise, the Spirit is communicated to those who put on Christ in baptism, uniting the believer to Christ's anointing in the Spirit in lieu of the remission of sins. Finally, our being brought to heaven depends on whether the content of our lives grieves or otherwise gladdens the Spirit who has sealed us unto the Day of Judgment. Faith begins and ends with the Spirit, who promises Himself in greater measure, which is evidenced by the down payment we receive in this life. 8. What does Basil say about Matthew 28 regarding the Trinity? Basil argues against sub-numeration of the hypostases in Matthew 28 as a means of establishing an order of majesty. He exposes the impossibility of the attempt by demonstrating that enumeration (math) accomplishes nothing in itself to change the single nature or unity of essence. Far from introducing a descending or ascending order of plural natures, Matthew 28 merely distinguishes the subjects or persons by their holy titles or names--all of whom share the same essence equally, while retaining their unique personalities. [Note: Other remarks by Basil on Matt. 28 noted earlier.] 9. What arguments does Basil give for calling the Holy Spirit "Lord"? He begins by citing the Scriptures directly elucidating from Paul's pen the epithet "Lord", explicitly assigned to the Spirit of God in his letter to the Thessalonians, in which He is set off and contrasted in the same passage with the Father and the Son. Indeed, as well as in II Corinthians, where Paul invokes the Spirit as He who indwells every believer as to sanctify and consecrate their bodies as temples of the very living God. More explicitly still does Paul name the Spirit as that agent who transforms those temples into the image of God "from glory to glory" (II Cor. 3:18)--for "the Lord is that Spirit" to whom we turn when the scales of the Law typifying the age of redemption in Christ fall from our eyes, removing the veil. Moreover, Basil unearths the significance of Christ's departing words regarding the coming of the Paraclete as attesting to the essential divinity of the Spirit. From John's Gospel, Basil shows the mystery of faith-sight (post-Ascension) as articulated by Christ Himself when He identified the Helper as the image in our hearts through which the Son is known and seen. Further, briefly noted is the witness of the Holy Scriptures in which the Spirit is absolved of creaturehood or temporal or spatial limitations by virtue of man's inability to escape Him
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QUESTIONS & ANSWERS FROM BASILS ON THE HOLY SPIRIT JONATHAN COMPANIK

anywhere--He who is uncircumscribed by virtue of His divine ministry. Also, the Spirit, equally with the Father and Son, is noted as forming the standard of and exemplifying righteousness--but never, like any other creature, to "choose" the good. 10. How does Scripture use "in" or "by", "with", etc.? The heretics argued that only the prepositions "in" or "by" could modify the Spirit, as they (unlike "with") connoted a "lesser" ontology, resigning the Spirit to a place below the divine essence. Basil handily brushes aside the objection by demonstrating that "in" is often used interchangeably alongside "with", and therefore each by their own right are employed to preserve the full dignity and glory of the third member of the precious Trinity. Nonetheless, Basil recognizes that "in" is used especially and more peculiarly of the Spirit in reference to His operation in believers and ministry to the Church, whereas in His relation to the remaining Persons it is more appropriate to designate His position as "with" (or alongside) [them]. The grace that flows from the Spirit is appropriated "in" or "within", but as betokens intimacy of fellowship, "with" is the more proper term. It is also emphasized that "in" is ascribed to both Son and Spirit in their capacity of revealing a co-equal. As we see the Father in the Son, so as well we perceive the brightness of the Son by the light of the Holy Spirit. 11. What does Basil say about men who used "with"? Basil deals a crushing blow to those who would deny equal fellowship of the Spirit with the Father and Son, by mounting examples from Scripture in which believers are said to be quickened together "with" Christ and laborers together "with" God. He poses the unscalable challenge: How can we dispense a privilege to believers in relation to the Son that we are not able to grant to the Spirit of God Himself? This Basil evinces as positive proof testifying to the essential correctness of custom passed on to them by the ancient presbyters in regard to "with", and their proper handling of the Scriptures for support of the same, moving on to catalog the consistency and frequency of employment of the term conjoined to the Spirit by all the church fathers who preceded him.