Chapter 13.—Still Further of the Difference Between the Knowledge and Word of Our Mind, and the Knowledge and Word of God.

But is it so, that God the Father, from whom is born the Word that is God of God,—is it so, then, that God the Father, in respect to that wisdom which He is to Himself, has learned some things by His bodily senses, and others by Himself? Who could say this, who thinks of God, not as a rational animal, but as One above the rational soul? So far at least as He can be thought of, by those who place Him above all animals and all souls, although they see Him by conjecture through a glass and in an enigma, not yet face to face as He is. Is it that God the Father has learned those very things which He knows, not by the body, for He has none, but by Himself, from elsewhere from some one? or has stood in need of messengers or witnesses that He might know them? Certainly not; since His own perfection enables Him to know all things that He knows. No doubt He has messengers, viz. the angels; but not to announce to Him things that He knows not, for there is nothing He does not know. But their good lies in consulting the truth about their own works. And this it is which is meant by saying that they bring Him word of some things, not that He may learn of them, but they of Him by His word without bodily sound. They bring Him word, too, of that which He wills, being sent by Him to whomever He wills, and hearing all from Him by that word of His, i.e. finding in His truth what themselves are to do: what, to whom, and when, they are to bring word. For we too pray to Him, yet do not inform Him what our necessities are. “For your Father knoweth,” says His Word, “what things ye have need of, before you ask Him.”981    Matt. vi. 8 Nor did He become acquainted with them, so as to know them, at any definite time; but He knew beforehand, without any beginning, all things to come in time, and among them also both what we should ask of Him, and when; and to whom He would either listen or not listen, and on what subjects. And with respect to all His creatures, both spiritual and corporeal, He does not know them because they are, but they are because He knows them. For He was not ignorant of what He was about to create; therefore He created because He knew; He did not know because He created. Nor did He know them when created in any other way than He knew them when still to be created, for nothing accrued to His wisdom from them; but that wisdom remained as it was, while they came into existence as it was fitting and when it was fitting. So, too, it is written in the book of Ecclesiasticus: “All things are known to Him ere ever they were created: so also after they were perfected.”982    Ecclus. xxiii. 20 “So,” he says, not otherwise; so were they known to Him, both ere ever they were created, and after they were perfected. This knowledge, therefore, is far unlike our knowledge. And the knowledge of God is itself also His wisdom, and His wisdom is itself His essence or substance. Because in the marvellous simplicity of that nature, it is not one thing to be wise and another to be, but to be wise is to be; as we have often said already also in the earlier books. But our knowledge is in most things capable both of being lost and of being recovered, because to us to be is not the same as to know or to be wise; since it is possible for us to be, even although we know not, neither are wise in that which we have learned from elsewhere. Therefore, as our knowledge is unlike that knowledge of God, so is our word also, which is born from our knowledge, unlike that Word of God which is born from the essence of the Father. And this is as if I should say, born from the Father’s knowledge, from the Father’s wisdom; or still more exactly, from the Father who is knowledge, from the Father who is wisdom.

CAPUT XIII.

Item de differentia scientiae ac verbi mentis nostrae, a scientia et Verbo Dei. Sed numquid Deus Pater, de quo natum est Verbum de Deo Deus; numquid ergo Deus Pater in illa sapientia quod est ipse sibi, alia didicit per sensum corporis sui, alia per se ipsum? Quis hoc dicat, qui non animal rationale, sed supra animam rationalem Deum cogitat; quantum ab eis cogitari potest, qui eum omnibus animalibus et omnibus animis praeferunt, quamvis per speculum et in aenigmate conjiciendo videant, nondum facie ad faciem sicuti est? Numquid Deus Pater ea ipsa, quae non per corpus, quod est ei nullum, sed per se ipsum scit, aliunde ab aliquo didicit, aut nuntiis vel testibus, ut ea sciret, indiguit? Non utique: ad omnia quippe scienda quae scit, sufficit sibi illa perfectio. Habet quidem nuntios, id est Angelos, non tamen qui ei quae nescit annuntient; non enim sunt ulla quae nesciat: sed bonum eorum est de operibus suis ejus 1076 consulere veritatem; et hoc est quod ei dicuntur nonnulla nuntiare, non ut ipse ab eis discat, sed ut ab illo ipsi per Verbum ejus sine corporali sono. Nuntiant etiam quod voluerit, ab eo missi ad quos voluerit, totum ab illo per illud Verbum ejus audientes; id est, in ejus veritate invenientes quid sibi faciendum, quid, quibus, et quando nuntiandum sit: Nam et nos oramus eum, nec tamen necessitates nostras docemus eum. Novit enim, ait Verbum ejus, Pater vester quid vobis necessarium sit, priusquam petatis ab eo (Matth. VI, 8). Nec ista ex aliquo tempore cognovit, ut nosset: sed futura omnia temporalia, atque in eis etiam quid et quando ab illo petituri fueramus, et quos et de quibus rebus vel exauditurus vel non exauditurus esset, sine initio ante praescivit. Universas autem creaturas suas, et spirituales et corporales, non quia sunt ideo novit; sed ideo sunt quia novit. Non enim nescivit quae fuerat creaturus. Quia ergo scivit, creavit; non quia creavit, scivit. Nec aliter ea scivit creata, quam creanda: non enim ejus sapientiae aliquid accessit ex eis; sed illis existentibus sicut oportebat, et quando oportebat, illa mansit ut erat. Ita et scriptum est in libro Ecclesiastico: Antequam crearentur, omnia nota sunt illi; sic et postquam consummata sunt (Eccli. XXIII, 29). Sic, inquit, non aliter, et antequam crearentur, et postquam consummata sunt, sic ei nota sunt. Longe est ergo huic scientiae scientia nostra dissimilis. Quae autem scientia Dei est, ipsa et sapientia; et quae sapientia, ipsa essentia sive substantia. Quia in illius naturae simplicitate mirabili, non est aliud sapere, aliud esse; sed quod est sapere, hoc est et esse, sicut et in superioribus libris saepe jam diximus. Nostra vero scientia in rebus plurimis propterea et amissibilis est et receptibilis, quia non hoc est nobis esse quod scire vel sapere: quoniam esse possumus, etiam si nesciamus, neque sapiamus ea quae aliunde didicimus. Propter hoc, sicut nostra scientia illi scientiae Dei, sic et nostrum verbum quod nascitur de nostra scientia, dissimile est illi Verbo Dei quod natum est de Patris essentia. Tale est autem ac si dicerem, De Patris scientia, de Patris sapientia; vel, quod est expressius, De Patre scientia, de Patre sapientia.