Augustine of Hippo, on John 1:32

“And John gave testimony, saying: I saw the Spirit coming down, as a dove from heaven, and he remained upon him.”

“(de Agon. Christiano, c. 24. [22.]) We do not attribute to Christ only the possession of a real body, and say that the Holy Spirit assumed a false appearance to men’s eyes: for the Holy Spirit could no more, in consistency with His nature, deceive men, than could the Son of God. The Almighty God, Who made every creature out of nothing, could as easily form a real body of a dove, without the instrumentality of other doves, as He made a real body in the womb of the Virgin, without the seed of the male.”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.

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