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St. John of Damascus steadfastly distinguishes åê and äéá, for him äéá does not compromise any causal factor. "Through the Son" expresses a completely special relationship between the Second and Third Hypostases — a kind of "mediation" of the Son as the "preceding" in the order of the Holy Trinity, as the Second before the Third." The Holy Spirit is of the Father, the Spirit is of the Son but not from out of the Son. The Spirit is the Spirit of God’s mouth, the proclaimer of the Logos. The Holy Spirit is an image of the Son, as the Son is an image of the Father. This means that the Logos is revealed in the Holy Spirit as the Father is revealed in the Logos. For the Logos is the herald of the Mind, and the Holy Spirit is the disclosure of the Logos. The Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father, rests in the Son as his power of manifestation. In speaking of the appearance, the "passage," the "shining" of the Holy Spirit through the Son, the fathers of the fourth and fifth centuries meant primarily to reveal and affirm the truth of Trinitarian consubstantiality, and the most genuine eternal unity of the Holy Spirit with the Logos and the Father. Therefore, one must not limit" through the Son" only to the fact of the Holy Spirit’s descent in time to creation.

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