Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Q58 A6: Whether there is a "morning" and an "evening" knowledge in the angels?

Yes. There is a "morning" and an "evening" knowledge in the angels because their knowledge of the primordial being of things is called morning knowledge; and this is according as things exist in the Word.

But their knowledge of the very being of the thing created, as it stands in its own nature, is termed evening knowledge; because the being of things flows from the Word, as from a kind of primordial principle; and this flow is terminated in the being which they have in themselves.

Augustine (Gen. ad lit. iv, 22,31; De Civ. Dei xii, 7,20) divides the knowledge of the angels into morning and evening knowledge.