Sunday, August 06, 2006

Q34 A1: Whether Word in God is a personal name?

Yes. The name of Word in God, if taken in its proper sense, is a personal name, and in no way an essential name because "word" is taken strictly in God, as signifying the concept of the intellect.

"Word" taken in its proper sense has a threefold meaning; while in a fourth sense it is taken improperly or figuratively:
1. the interior concept of the mind (the signification of the sound)
2. the exterior word spoken by the voice (signifying the interior concept)
3. the imagination of the vocal sound (not pronounced by a vocal word, but uttered in the heart)
4. some deed signified by the word either by way of assertion or of command (that which is signified or effected by a word)

The concept itself of the heart has of its own nature to proceed from something other than itself--namely, from the knowledge of the one conceiving.

Hence "Word," according as we use the term strictly of God, signifies something proceeding from another (which belongs to the nature of personal terms in God, inasmuch as the divine persons are distinguished by origin).

Although Word may be sometimes said of God metaphorically, nevertheless we must also admit Word in the proper sense, and which is said personally.

Nothing belonging to the intellect can be applied to God personally, except word alone; for word alone signifies that which emanates from another. For what the intellect forms in its conception is the word.

Only the Person who utters the Word is "speaker" in God, although each Person understands and is understood, and consequently is spoken by the Word.