Indeed, in their own scriptures the term “son” is applied to anyone whom God, blessed and exalted, has nurtured. In the language of the prophets they transmit, that word is never used except for a created, contingent being, and it is applied only to the human nature, never to the divine nature. Thus, in their books Israel is called a son of God, David is called a son of God, and so are the disciples.

In the Gospel of John, moreover, it says concerning the Messiah: “He came to his own, but his own did not receive him; yet to all who did receive him he gave authority to become sons of God—sons born not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but born of God.” This passage states that they may all become sons of God, while they themselves concede that no divinity is united with their humanity; every one of them is nothing but pure humanity. It is therefore clear that the scriptures testify that the phrase “son of God” refers only to the human nature, and nowhere do they employ it to mean one of God’s attributes.

Hence their claim that the Messiah intended by the word “son” the divine nature is a manifest falsehood against him. The Messiah is not called a son in that sense, and the expression “Holy Spirit” has never been used