He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you.
All Commentaries on John 16:14 Go To John 16
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
He will glorify Me. By showing Me to be the Son of God: or with S. Augustine (in log.), "By shedding abroad love in men"s hearts, and making them spiritual, He declared to them that the Son was equal to the Father, though they had before known Him in the flesh. And the Apostles, filled with boldness by that very love, and having banished fear, proclaimed Christ to men, and thus was His fame spread abroad over the whole world; for that which they would do by the Holy Spirit, He said that the Holy Spirit would Himself do."
For He shall receive of mine. That Isaiah , of My Divine Essence, says Nazianzen (Orat. de Fide.), and consequently of My will and knowledge, for this He ought to announce to you, say S. Cyril, Chrysostom, Jansenius, Toletus, and others. Didymus observes: "The Song of Solomon , in giving, loses not that which He bestows, nor does He impart it to others, to His own loss. Nor does the Holy Spirit receive that which He had not before. The Holy Spirit must be understood to receive from the Son in such a manner that the substance of both the giver and receiver should be recognised as One: and so also the Son receives His subsistence from the Father." Maldonatus thus, "He will receive of Mine, that Isaiah , He will come in My name, and as My Legate will teach no other doctrine than Mine." But this seems foreign to the subject. Nonnus wrongly paraphrased, "He shall receive of My Father," as though the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father only.
From this passage the Fathers (and even the Council of Florence, sess25) prove both the Divinity of Christ, and the Procession of the Holy Spirit from both the Father and the Son. Maldonatus quotes them fully, and also Bellarmine (de Christo, lib. ii23,24chap.) And Theodorus of Heraclea (in Cat. Grc.) learnedly says, "The Holy Spirit was a witness of the Divinity of the Only Begotten, since He came of His essence, and made known His essence," for the Holy Spirit could not have been breathed forth except by Him who was God.
But why did Christ say "of Mine" and not "of Me"? I reply, Because the Holy Spirit received not from the Son all that is in the Son. He received His essence, but not His filiation. But it is from His essence and filiation that He is constituted as the Song of Solomon , according to our mode of conceiving it. And Christ so explains it in the next verse, "All things that the Father hath are mine," &c. Hence it is plain that "of Mine" means the same as "all things that the Father hath are Mine," i.e, the Godhead with all its attributes. Hence Theophylact explains, "of Mine," i.e, of the Treasure of the Godhead, which is in Me. Heretics therefore wrongly contended from these words that the Holy Spirit was not God by nature, but only by participation (see S. Augustine in loc, and S. Cyril, Thesaur. xiii4), for He participates in the Divine Nature, which has no parts, but is wholly indivisible and most simple Being.
He will receive. That Isaiah , He has received from all eternity, still receives, and will ever receive; for the future embraces all time, and is most like eternity, for it endures for ever, just like the breathing of the Holy Spirit. The meaning of the passage is this: Sorrow not, because when I am gone ye will be deprived of your Teacher. For I will send you the Holy Ghost, who, as being purely the Divine Spirit, will teach you all things which concern the salvation of your spirit. But when He is teaching you, because He receives all things from Me from whom He proceeds, He will make known to you My Brightness and Glory, for He will receive from Me all things which He will declare to you, and thus I shall speak through Him, and show Myself to you. And marvel not at this: for I, by My eternal generation, have received from My Father everything which He Himself has, and I have therefore received from Him to be with Him the one principle (origin) of the Holy Spirit.
