Who is this Holy Spirit

Against the law of the Saracens

By Fr. Riccoldo da monte di Croce, O.P.
Florence; c. 1243-1320

Chapter 15

Question 2

The second question is that since the Quran makes very frequent mention of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God ^[11] , who is this Holy Spirit, and what is this Word of God?

For in the chapter Elbachera he says of the Holy Spirit in the person of God: " We gave Jesus, the son of Mary, that he might do wonders and manifest miracles, and we perfected him by the Holy Spirit"; and he repeats the same throughout in the same chapter. Likewise in the chapter Elembya he says of Mary: " We breathed into her of our spirit". And in many other places he says similar things about the Holy Spirit.

(76) The question is then asked: Who is the Holy Spirit? And the Muslims cannot say that he is some creature, for example some good angel, because they speak of him singularly as "one, holy, ours," whereas holy angels are many and all are God's. What reason would there be for God to speak of him singularly as "ours" and "holy"?

(82) And furthermore, it would not be a great commendation of Christ, whom the Quran intends to commend singularly, that God had given him a guardian angel, because every man has a guardian angel. For "God makes spirits angels and our messengers," as it is said in the Quran in the chapter Elmelayche . And furthermore, angels do not sanctify men, but God immediately and alone, just as God alone can forgive sins, as it is said in the Quran.

(88) But if the aforesaid spirit is true God, but it is true God who speaks of the aforesaid spirit, saying, " We have given the holy spirit" and " We have breathed in from our spirit," since therefore the divine essence is one and simple and cannot be divided or distinguished ^[12] , and there is a giver and a given, a giver who says, "We have given" and a given spirit who is said to be given and breathed in, and a distinction is required between the giver and the given, it is necessary that God the giver and breather, and the spirit - the holy Spirit ^[13] given and breathed in - be distinguished personally only, and not essentially ^[14] .

(97) And thus they are distinguished and differ only by relations . And this is the only distinction that Christians place in the divine persons ^[15] .

[11] Cf. R. ARNALDEZ, Jésus, fils de Marie, prophète de l'Islam, Paris 1980, pp. 239-40; GARDET-ANAWATI, Introduction..., op. cit., p. 38.

[12] Cf. St. Thomas, Summa theol ., ^Part I, 3, 7 ( Whether God is altogether simple ) (EL 4, pp. 46-47).

[13] L'editore J.-M. Mérigoux riteneva qui che spiritus avesse generato una iterazione di copia, e di consecutione aveva soppreso il secondo spiritus . I believe instead, in the context of the ricoldian argumentation, that it is not si tratti di indebita iterazione, bensì di esplicitazione in theologia cristiana di spiritus in Spiritus sanctus. Restituisco pertente il testo, così come nel testimone manoscritto.

[14] Cf. St. Thomas, Part I^, 38, 1 ( Whether a gift is a personal name ) and 2 ( Whether a gift is the proper name of the Holy Spirit ) (EL 4, pp. 392-94).

[15] Cf. S. THOMAS, Part I^, 29, 4 ( Utrum hoc nomen persona significat relationem ) (EL 4, pp. 333-34) and 30 ( De pluralitate personarum in divinis ) (pp. 336-41); JH NICOLAS, De la Trinité à la Trinité , Fribourg (Suisse), 1985, NB le Ch. 3: «Les personnes divines», pp. 135-187.