Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
John 16:7
There are 16 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 444, footnote 13 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book III (HTML)
Chapter XVII.—The apostles teach that it was neither Christ nor the Saviour, but the Holy Spirit, who did descend upon Jesus. The reason for this descent. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3620 (In-Text, Margin)
... saying, “And stablish me with Thine all-governing Spirit;” who also, as Luke says, descended at the day of Pentecost upon the disciples after the Lord’s ascension, having power to admit all nations to the entrance of life, and to the opening of the new covenant; from whence also, with one accord in all languages, they uttered praise to God, the Spirit bringing distant tribes to unity, and offering to the Father the first-fruits of all nations. Wherefore also the Lord promised to send the Comforter,[John 16:7] who should join us to God. For as a compacted lump of dough cannot be formed of dry wheat without fluid matter, nor can a loaf possess unity, so, in like manner, neither could we, being many, be made one in Christ Jesus without the water from ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 571, footnote 8 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Fragments of Clemens Alexandrinus (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3721 (In-Text, Margin)
“Which are now,” he says, “reported unto you by them that have preached the Gospel unto you.” The old things which were done by the prophets and escape the observation of most, are now revealed to you by the evangelists. “For to you,” he says, “they are manifested by the Holy Ghost, who was sent;” that is the Paraclete, of whom the Lord said, “If I go not away, He will not come.”[John 16:7] “Unto whom,” it is said, “the angels desire to look;” not the apostate angels, as most suspect, but, what is a divine truth, angels who desire to obtain the advantage of that perfection.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 674, footnote 6 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Ethical. (HTML)
On Baptism. (HTML)
Of John's Baptism. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 8644 (In-Text, Margin)
... power. In fact, the doctors of the law and the Pharisees, who were unwilling to “believe,” did not “repent” either. But if repentance is a thing human, its baptism must necessarily be of the same nature: else, if it had been celestial, it would have given both the Holy Spirit and remission of sins. But none either pardons sins or freely grants the Spirit save God only. Even the Lord Himself said that the Spirit would not descend on any other condition, but that He should first ascend to the Father.[John 16:6-7] What the Lord was not yet conferring, of course the servant could not furnish. Accordingly, in the Acts of the Apostles, we find that men who had “John’s baptism” had not received the Holy Spirit, whom they knew not even by hearing. That, then, was ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 640, footnote 8 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Novatian. (HTML)
A Treatise of Novatian Concerning the Trinity. (HTML)
He Next Teaches Us that the Authority of the Faith Enjoins, After the Father and the Son, to Believe Also on the Holy Spirit, Whose Operations He Enumerates from Scripture. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5263 (In-Text, Margin)
... in the latter liberally bestowed; not yet manifested before the Lord’s resurrection, but conferred after the resurrection. For, said He, “I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Advocate, that He may be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth.” And, “When He, the Advocate, shall come, whom I shall send unto you from my Father, the Spirit of truth who proceedeth from my Father.” And, “If I go not away, that Advocate shall not come to you; but if I go away, I will send Him to you.”[John 16:7] And, “When the Spirit of truth shall come, He will direct you into all the truth.” And because the Lord was about to depart to the heavens, He gave the Paraclete out of necessity to the disciples; so as not to leave them in any degree orphans, which ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 115, footnote 29 (Image)
Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen
The Diatessaron of Tatian. (HTML)
The Diatessaron. (HTML)
Section XLVI. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3232 (In-Text, Margin)
... when every one that killeth [46] you shall think that he hath offered unto God an offering. And they will do that, [47] because they do not know me, nor my Father. I have said that unto you, so that [48] when its time is come, ye may remember it, that I told you. And this hitherto I said not unto you, because I was with you. But now I go unto him that sent me; and no [49] man of you asketh me whither I go. I have said that unto you now, and grief hath [50] come and taken possession of your hearts[John 16:7] But I say the truth unto you; It is better for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Paraclete will not come unto you; [51] [Arabic, p. 177] but if I go away, I will send him unto you. And when he cometh, he will reprove the world for sin, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 27, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)
The unity and equality of the Trinity are demonstrated out of the Scriptures; and the true interpretation is given of those texts which are wrongly alleged against the equality of the Son. (HTML)
The Texts of Scripture Explained Respecting the Subjection of the Son to the Father, Which Have Been Misunderstood. Christ Will Not So Give Up the Kingdom to the Father, as to Take It Away from Himself. The Beholding Him is the Promised End of All Actions. The Holy Spirit is Sufficient to Our Blessedness Equally with the Father. (HTML)
... “Even so the things of God knoweth no one, but the Spirit of God:” so that these perverse men might, upon this ground, go on to say that none but the Holy Spirit teaches even the Son the things of God, as the greater teaches the less; to whom the Son Himself ascribes so much as to say, “But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you.”[John 16:6-7]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 31, footnote 16 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)
The unity and equality of the Trinity are demonstrated out of the Scriptures; and the true interpretation is given of those texts which are wrongly alleged against the equality of the Son. (HTML)
In What Manner the Son is Said Not to Know the Day and the Hour Which the Father Knows. Some Things Said of Christ According to the Form of God, Other Things According to the Form of a Servant. In What Way It is of Christ to Give the Kingdom, in What Not of Christ. Christ Will Both Judge and Not Judge. (HTML)
25. But that which is prepared by His Father is prepared also by the Son Himself, because He and the Father are one. For we have already shown, by many modes of speech in the divine Scriptures, that, in this Trinity, what is said of each is also said of all, on account of the indivisible working of the one and same substance. As He also says of the Holy Spirit, “If I depart, I will send Him unto you.”[John 16:7] He did not say, We will send; but in such way as if the Son only should send Him, and not the Father; while yet He says in another place, “These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you; but the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 40, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)
The equality of the Trinity maintained against objections drawn from those texts which speak of the sending of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
The Son and Holy Spirit are Not Therefore Less Because Sent. The Son is Sent Also by Himself. Of the Sending of the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
... Son continually speaks of Himself as being sent by the Father; and the Father is also greater than the Holy Spirit, because Jesus has said of the Spirit, “Whom the Father will send in my name;” and the Holy Spirit is less than both, because both the Father sends Him, as we have said, and the Son, when He says, “But if I depart, I will send Him unto you.” I first ask, then, in this inquiry, whence and whither the Son was sent. “I,” He says, “came forth from the Father, and am come into the world.”[John 16:7] Therefore, to be sent, is to come forth forth from the Father, and to come into the world. What, then, is that which the same evangelist says concerning Him, “He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not;” and then ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 65, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
Why Christ, After His Resurrection, Withdrew His Presence from the World. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 633 (In-Text, Margin)
... sight, and conferring no such thing on the flesh of any one of them as He had displayed in His own flesh, in order that they too “might live by faith,” and in the present world might wait in patience and without visible inducements for the reward of that righteousness in which men live by faith,—a reward which should hereafter be visibly and openly bestowed. To this signification I believe that passage must be referred which He speaks concerning the Holy Ghost: “He will not come, unless I depart.”[John 16:7] For this was in fact saying Ye shall not be able to live righteously by faith, which ye shall have as a gift of mine,—that is, from the Holy Ghost,—unless I withdraw from your eyes that which ye now gaze upon, in order that your heart may advance in ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 536, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)
On the words of the Gospel, John xvi. 7, ‘I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away,’ etc. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4242 (In-Text, Margin)
... convinces the world, that it believeth not on Him. “I tell you the truth,” He saith, “It is expedient for you that I go away. For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you. And when He shall come, He will convince the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin, because they believe not on Me. Of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and ye shall see Me no more. Of judgment, because the prince of this world is already judged.”[John 16:7-11]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 537, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)
On the words of the Gospel, John xvi. 7, ‘I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away,’ etc. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4253 (In-Text, Margin)
4. Forasmuch then as we could in no way have had this blessedness by which we see not and yet believe, unless we received it of the Holy Ghost; it is with good reason said, “It is expedient for you that I go away. For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you.”[John 16:7] By His Divinity indeed He is with us always; but unless He had in Body gone away from us, we had always seen His Body after the flesh. and never believed after a spiritual sort; by the which belief justified and blessed we might attain with cleansed hearts to contemplate the Very Word, God with God, “by whom all things were made,” and ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 334, footnote 3 (Image)
Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters
Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)
Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)
Discourse I (HTML)
Texts Explained; Secondly, Psalm xlv. 7, 8. Whether the words 'therefore,' 'anointed,' &c., imply that the Word has been rewarded. Argued against first from the word 'fellows' or 'partakers.' He is anointed with the Spirit in His manhood to sanctify human nature. Therefore the Spirit descended on Him in Jordan, when in the flesh. And He is said to sanctify Himself for us, and give us the glory He has received. The word 'wherefore' implies His divinity. 'Thou hast loved righteousness,' &c., do not imply trial or choice. (HTML)
... of gladness,’ which He Himself interprets to be the Spirit, saying by the Prophet, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because the Lord hath anointed Me;’ as also the Apostle has said, ‘How God anointed Him with the Holy Ghost. ’ When then were these things spoken of Him but when He came in the flesh and was baptized in Jordan, and the Spirit descended on Him? And indeed the Lord Himself said, ‘The Spirit shall take of Mine;’ and ‘I will send Him;’ and to His disciples, ‘Receive ye the Holy Ghost[John 16:7].’ And notwithstanding, He who, as the Word and Radiance of the Father, gives to others, now is said to be sanctified, because now He has become man, and the Body that is sanctified is His. From Him then we have begun to receive the unction and the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 326, footnote 7 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
The Fifth Theological Oration. On the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3736 (In-Text, Margin)
... breathed upon them, and appearing in fiery tongues. And indeed it is by little and little that He is declared by Jesus, as you will learn for yourself if you will read more carefully. I will ask the Father, He says, and He will send you another Comforter, even the spirit of Truth. This He said that He might not seem to be a rival God, or to make His discourses to them by another authority. Again, He shall send Him, but it is in My Name. He leaves out the I will ask, but He keeps the Shall send,[John 16:7] then again, I will send,—His own dignity. Then shall come, the authority of the Spirit.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 29, footnote 7 (Image)
Basil: Letters and Select Works
De Spiritu Sancto. (HTML)
In what manner in the confession of the three hypostases we preserve the pious dogma of the Monarchia. Wherein also is the refutation of them that allege that the Spirit is subnumerated. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1099 (In-Text, Margin)
... mode of the ineffable existence is safeguarded. He is moreover styled ‘Spirit of Christ,’ as being by nature closely related to Him. Wherefore “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” Hence He alone worthily glorifies the Lord, for, it is said, “He shall glorify me,” not as the creature, but as “Spirit of truth,” clearly shewing forth the truth in Himself, and, as Spirit of wisdom, in His own greatness revealing “Christ the Power of God and the wisdom of God.” And as Paraclete[John 16:7] He expresses in Himself the goodness of the Paraclete who sent Him, and in His own dignity manifests the majesty of Him from whom He proceeded. There is then on the one hand a natural glory, as light is the glory of the sun; and on the other a glory ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 140, footnote 4 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
Chapter VI. The Spirit rebukes just as do the Father and the Son; and indeed judges could not judge without Him, as is shown by the judgments of Solomon and Daniel, which are explained in a few words, by the way; and no other than the Holy Spirit inspired Daniel. (HTML)
... rebukes, as the Father rebukes, and as the Son rebukes. For so it is written: “O Lord, rebuke me not in Thine anger, neither chasten me in Thy displeasure.” Then in the forty-ninth [fiftieth] Psalm, the Lord speaks thus: “I will rebuke thee, and will set thy sins before thy face.” And in like manner the Son said of the Holy Spirit: “When I go away, I will send the Paraclete to you. And He, when He is come, will rebuke the world, concerning sin, and concerning righteousness, and concerning judgment.”[John 16:7-8]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 265, footnote 1 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
Exposition of the Christian Faith. (HTML)
Book IV. (HTML)
Chapter II. None can ascend to heaven without faith; in any case, he who hath so ascended thither will be cast out wherefore, faith must be zealously preserved. We ourselves each have a heaven within, the gates whereof must be opened and be raised by confession of the Godhead of Christ, which gates are not raised by Arians, nor by those who seek the Son amongst earthly things, and who must therefore, like the Magdalene, be sent back to the apostles, against whom the gates of hell shall not prevail. Scriptures are cited to show that the servant of the Lord must not diminish aught of his Master's honour. (HTML)
... and all things; and that He may send forth upon thee His Holy Spirit. It is expedient for thee that thou shouldst believe that He hath ascended and is sitting at the right hand of the Father, for if in impious thought thou detain Him amongst things created and earthly, if He depart not for thee, ascend not for thee, then to thee the Comforter shall not come, even as Christ Himself hath told us: “For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart, I will send Him unto you.”[John 16:7]