But, that we may not have the appearance of intentionally passing by his
charges through inability to refute them, we have resolved to answer
each one of them separately according to our ability, attending not to
the connection and sequence of the nature of the things themselves, but
to the arrangement of the subjects as they occur in his book. Let us
therefore notice what he has to say by way of impugning the bodily
appearance of the Holy Spirit to our Saviour in the form of a dove. And
it is a Jew who addresses the following language to Him whom we
acknowledge to be our Lord Jesus: “When you were bathing,” says the Jew,
“beside John, you say that what had the appearance of a bird from the
air alighted upon you.” And then this same Jew of his, continuing his
interrogations, asks, “What credible witness beheld this appearance? or
who heard a voice from heaven declaring you to be the Son of God? What
proof is there of it, save your own assertion, and the statement of
another of those individuals who have been punished along with you?”