Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
John 16:12
There are 22 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 253, footnote 18 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
The Prescription Against Heretics. (HTML)
Attempt to Invalidate This Rule of Faith Rebutted. The Apostles Safe Transmitters of the Truth. Sufficiently Taught at First, and Faithful in the Transmission. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2086 (In-Text, Margin)
... heaven? Not as if He thus disapproved of all the rest, but because “by three witnesses must every word be established.” After the same fashion, too, (I suppose,) were they ignorant to whom, after His resurrection also, He vouchsafed, as they were journeying together, “to expound all the Scriptures.” No doubt He had once said, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot hear them now;” but even then He added, “When He, the Spirit of truth, shall come, He will lead you into all truth.”[John 16:12-13] He (thus) shows that there was nothing of which they were ignorant, to whom He had promised the future attainment of all truth by help of the Spirit of truth. And assuredly He fulfilled His promise, since it is proved in the Acts of the Apostles ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 27, footnote 2 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
On the Veiling of Virgins. (HTML)
Truth Rather to Be Appealed to Than Custom, and Truth Progressive in Its Developments. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 276 (In-Text, Margin)
... from advancing? whereas the reason why the Lord sent the Paraclete was, that, since human mediocrity was unable to take in all things at once, discipline should, little by little, be directed, and ordained, and carried on to perfection, by that Vicar of the Lord, the Holy Spirit. “Still,” He said, “I have many things to say to you, but ye are not yet able to bear them: when that Spirit of truth shall have come, He will conduct you into all truth, and will report to you the supervening (things).”[John 16:12-13] But above, withal, He made a declaration concerning this His work. What, then, is the Paraclete’s administrative office but this: the direction of discipline, the revelation of the Scriptures, the reformation of the intellect, the advancement toward ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 59, footnote 6 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
On Monogamy. (HTML)
The Spiritualists Vindicated from the Charge of Novelty. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 583 (In-Text, Margin)
Now concerning each point the Lord Himself has pronounced. For in saying, “I still have many things to say unto you, but ye are not yet able to bear them: when the Holy Spirit shall be come, He will lead you into all truth,”[John 16:12-13] He sufficiently, of course, sets before us that He will bring such (teachings) as may be esteemed alike novel, as having never before been published, and finally burdensome, as if that were the reason why they were not published. “It follows,” you say, “that by this line of argument, anything you please which is novel and burdensome may be ascribed to the Paraclete, even ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 253, footnote 7 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen De Principiis. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
On the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
... them to us by His Holy Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, even the deep things of God;” and again in the Gospel, when the Saviour, speaking of the divine and profounder 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 ye cannot bear them now; but when the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, is come, He will teach you all things, and will bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”[John 16:12-13] We must understand, therefore, that as the Son, who alone knows the Father, reveals Him to whom He will, so the Holy Spirit, who alone searches the deep things of God, reveals God to whom He will: “For the Spirit bloweth where He listeth.” We are ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 430, footnote 2 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
Chapter II (HTML)
... of Peter, and of the teachers of Christianity to the circumcision, I do not deem it out of place to quote a certain declaration of Jesus taken from the Gospel according to John, and to give the explanation of the same. For it is there related that Jesus said: “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all the truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak.”[John 16:12-13] And when we inquire what were the “many things” referred to in the passage which Jesus had to say to His disciples, but which they were not then able to bear, I have to observe that, probably because the apostles were Jews, and had been trained up ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 156, footnote 2 (Image)
Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius
Anatolius and Minor Writers. (HTML)
Theognostus of Alexandria. (HTML)
From His Seven Books of Hypotyposes or Outlines. (HTML)
Part II. (HTML)
... has also despised the third, can no longer find pardon. For by the first term and the second, he says, is meant the teaching concerning the Father and the Son; but by the third is meant the doctrine committed to us with respect to the perfection and the partaking of the Spirit. And with the view of confirming this, he adduces the word spoken by the Saviour to the disciples: “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. But when the Holy Spirit is come, He will teach you.”[John 16:12-13]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 115, footnote 36 (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 3239 (In-Text, Margin)
... possession of your hearts 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, and for righteousness, and for judgement: [52, 53] for sin, because they have not believed in me; and for righteousness, because I go [54] to my Father; and for judgement, because the Archon of this world hath been [55] judged.[John 16:12] And further have I many things to speak unto you, but ye cannot tarry [56] now. Howbeit when the Spirit of truth is come, he will remind you of all the truth: he will say nothing from himself; but everything that he heareth, that shall [57] he say: ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 81, footnote 12 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
The Confessions (HTML)
He describes the twenty-ninth year of his age, in which, having discovered the fallacies of the Manichæans, he professed rhetoric at Rome and Milan. Having heard Ambrose, he begins to come to himself. (HTML)
Of Manichæus Pertinaciously Teaching False Doctrines, and Proudly Arrogating to Himself the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 387 (In-Text, Margin)
... make a profession of them; but confession to Thee is piety. It was therefore with this view that this straying one spake much of these matters, that, standing convicted by those who had in truth learned them, the understanding that he really had in those more difficult things might be made plain. For he wished not to be lightly esteemed, but went about trying to persuade men “that the Holy Ghost, the Comforter and Enricher of Thy faithful ones, was with full authority personally resident in him.”[John 16:12-13] When, therefore, it was dis covered that his teaching concerning the heavens and stars, and the motions of sun and moon, was false, though these things do not relate to the doctrine of religion, yet his sacrilegious arrogance would become ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 30, footnote 22 (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)
... disciples at the fitting time; speaking of which yet future as if past, He says, “Henceforth I call you not servants, but friends; for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you;” which He had not yet done, but spoke as though He had already done it, because He certainly would do it. For He says to the disciples themselves, “I have yet many things to say unto you; but ye cannot bear them now.”[John 16:12] Among which is to be understood also, “Of the day and hour.” For the apostle also says, “I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified;” because he was speaking to those who were not able to receive higher things ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 491, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
Against Lying. (HTML)
Section 23 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2414 (In-Text, Margin)
... lies. In defense of these kinds of lies, very many examples from holy Scripture are accounted to lend their support. It is not, however, the same thing to hide the truth as it is to utter a lie. For although every one who lies wishes to hide what is true, yet not every one who wishes to hide what is true, tells a lie. For in general we hide truths not by telling a lie, but by holding our peace. For the Lord lied not when He said, “I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.”[John 16:12] He held His peace from true things, not spoke false things; for the hearing of which truths He judged them to be less fit. But if He had not indicated this same to them, that is, that they were not able to bear the things which He was unwilling to ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 541, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Predestination of the Saints. (HTML)
A Treatise on the Gift of Perseverance. (HTML)
When the Truth Must Be Spoken, When Kept Back. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3659 (In-Text, Margin)
... it; and let them receive it who are able, lest, perchance, while we are silent on account of those who cannot receive it, they be not only defrauded of the truth but be taken captive by falsehood, who are able to receive the truth whereby falsehood may be avoided. For it is easy, nay, and it is useful, that some truth should be kept back because of those who are incapable of apprehending it. For whence is that word of our Lord: “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now”?[John 16:12] And that of the apostle: “I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal: as if unto babes in Christ I have given you to drink milk, and not meat, for hitherto ye were not able, neither yet indeed now are ye able”? Although, in a ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 56, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount. (HTML)
On the Latter Part of Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, Contained in the Sixth and Seventh Chapters of Matthew. (HTML)
Chapter XX (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 444 (In-Text, Margin)
... the parties to whom they are disclosed are unable to bear,—they may do more harm than if they were to conceal them altogether and always, He very rightly adds: “Give not that which is holy to the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.” For the Lord Himself, although He never told a lie, yet showed that He was concealing certain truths, when He said, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.”[John 16:12] And the Apostle Paul, too, says: “And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 13, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm V (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 132 (In-Text, Margin)
... of madness, it is clear it must not be returned then, lest he kill either himself or others, until soundness of mind be restored to him. Here then is no duplicity, because he, to whom the sword was intrusted, when he promised that he would return it at the other’s demand, did not imagine that he could require it when in a fit of madness. But even the Lord concealed the truth, when He said to the disciples, not yet strong enough, “I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now:”[John 16:12] and the Apostle Paul when he said, “I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal.” Whence it is clear that it is not blamable, sometimes not to speak what is true. But to say what is false is not found to have been allowed to the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 112, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XXXIX (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1022 (In-Text, Margin)
... praise what they approve; but as for what they disapprove, perhaps, among much that they praise they rather excuse than cavil at it; on account of what persons then dost thou “take heed to thy ways,” and place a guard on thy lips “that thou mayest not sin with thy tongue”? Hear: it is, “While the wicked standeth over against me.” It is not “by me” that he takes up his station, but “against me.” Why?…Even the Lord Himself says, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.”[John 16:12] And the Apostle, “I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal.” Yet not as to persons to be despaired of, but as to those who still required to be nourished. For he goes on to say, “As babes in Christ, I have fed you with milk, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 256, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2438 (In-Text, Margin)
12. …For even the Lord saith, “Many things I have to say to you, but ye cannot bear them now.”[John 16:12] What is therefore, “These two things I have heard”? These two things which to you I am about to say not of myself to you I say, but what things I have heard I say. “Once hath God spoken:” One Word hath He, the Only-begotten God. In that Word are all things, because by the Word were made all things. One Word hath He, “in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.” One Word He hath, “once hath God spoken.” “These two things,” which to ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 11, page 562, footnote 3 (Image)
Chrysostom: Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistle to the Romans
The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans (HTML)
Homily XXXII on Rom. xvi. 17, 18. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1707 (In-Text, Margin)
... 38, 39.) What pinions doth not this discourse seem to thee to have? what eyes? (Ez. x. 12.) It was owing to this that he said, “for we are not ignorant of his devices.” (2 Cor. ii. 11.) Owing to this did the devils flee not only at hearing him speak, but even at seeing his garments. This is the mouth, the dust whereof I would fain see, through which Christ spake the great and secret things, and greater than in His own person, (for as He wrought, so He also spake greater things by the disciples,[John 16:12]) through which the Spirit gave those wondrous oracles to the world! For what good thing did not that mouth effect? Devils it drave out, sins it loosed, tyrants it muzzled, philosophers’ mouths it stopped, the world it brought over to God, savages it ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 376, footnote 15 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
Treatises. (HTML)
Against Jovinianus. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4546 (In-Text, Margin)
39. The day would not be long enough were I to attempt to relate all that the Apostle enjoins concerning purity. These things are those concerning which our Lord said to the Apostles:[John 16:12-13] “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the truth.” After the crucifixion of Christ, we find in the Acts of the Apostles that one house, that of Philip the Evangelist, produced four virgin daughters, to the end that Cæsarea, where the Gentile Church had been consecrated in the person of Cornelius the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 296, footnote 1 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
The Second Theological Oration. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3482 (In-Text, Margin)
... threatens to give proof of Christ speaking in him, the great doctor and champion of the truth. Wherefore he estimates all knowledge on earth only as through a glass darkly, as taking its stand upon little images of the truth. Now, unless I appear to anyone too careful, and over anxious about the examination of this matter, perhaps it was of this and nothing else that the Word Himself intimated that there were things which could not now be borne, but which should be borne and cleared up hereafter,[John 16:12] and which John the Forerunner of the Word and great Voice of the Truth declared even the whole world could not contain.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 61, footnote 2 (Image)
Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus
Title Page (HTML)
De Trinitate or On the Trinity. (HTML)
De Trinitate or On the Trinity. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
33. Let us hear from our Lord’s own words what is the work of the Holy Ghost within us. He says, I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now[John 16:12]. For it is expedient for you that I go: if I go I will send you the Advocate. And again, I will ask the Father and He shall send you another Advocate, that He may be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth. He shall guide you into all truth, for He shall not speak from Himself, but whatsoever things He shall hear He shall speak, and He shall declare unto you the things that are to come. ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 143, footnote 1 (Image)
Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus
Title Page (HTML)
De Trinitate or On the Trinity. (HTML)
De Trinitate or On the Trinity. (HTML)
Book VIII (HTML)
... have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He shall guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak from Himself: but what things soever He shall hear, these shall He speak; and He shall declare unto you the things that are to come. He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine and shall declare it unto you. All things whatsoever the Father hath are Mine: therefore said I, He shall receive of Mine and shall declare it unto you[John 16:12-15]. Accordingly He receives from the Son, Who is both sent by Him, and proceeds from the Father. Now I ask whether to receive from the Son is the same thing as to proceed from the Father. But if one believes that there is a difference between receiving ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 149, footnote 6 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
Chapter XIV. Besides the evidence adduced above, other passages can be brought to prove the sovereignty of the Three Persons. Two are quoted from the Epistles to the Thessalonians, and by collating other testimonies of the Scriptures it is shown that in them dominion is claimed for the Spirit as for the other Persons. Then, by quotation of another still more express passage in the second Epistle to the Corinthians, it is inferred both that the Spirit is Lord, and that where the Lord is, there is the Spirit. (HTML)
98. But we cannot deny it, since the Lord said of Him: “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of Truth, shall come, He will lead you into all truth.”[John 16:12-13] And David says of Him: “Thy good Spirit shall lead me into the right way.”
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 12, page 190, footnote 6 (Image)
Leo the Great, Gregory the Great
The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great. (HTML)
Sermons. (HTML)
On Whitsuntide, I. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1143 (In-Text, Margin)
... before the day of His Passion promised the coming of the Holy Spirit to His disciples, He said, “I have yet many things to say to you, but ye cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of Truth shall have come, He shall guide you into all the Truth. For He shall not speak from Himself, but whatsoever He shall have heard, He shall speak and shall announce things to come unto you. All things that the Father hath are Mine: therefore said I that He shall take of Mine, and shall announce it to you[John 16:12-15].” Accordingly, there are not some things that are the Father’s, and other the Son’s, and other the Holy Spirit’s: but all things whatsoever the Father has, the Son also has, and the Holy Spirit also has: nor was there ever a time when this communion ...