Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Q58 A7: Whether the morning and evening knowledge are one?

No. The evening knowledge cannot exist together with the morning knowledge because the angels know through a twofold medium, namely, by innate ideas, or by the forms of things existing in the Word.

For by beholding the Word, they know not merely the being of things as existing in the Word, but the being as possessed by the things themselves; as God by contemplating Himself sees that being which things have in their own nature.

If, therefore, it be called evening knowledge, insofar as when the angels behold the Word, they know the being which things have in their proper nature, then the morning and the evening knowledge are essentially one and the same, and only differ as to the things known.

If it be called evening knowledge, insofar as through innate ideas they know the being which things have in their own natures, then the morning and the evening knowledge differ.