Friday, August 04, 2006

Q33 A4: Whether it is proper to the Father to be unbegotten?

Yes. The Father is known by the fact that He is not from another (and this belongs to the property of innascibility, signified by this word "begotten") because in the divine Persons, in Whom there is no before or after, is formed the principle not from a principle, Who is the Father, and the principle from a principle, Who is the Son.

Now in things created a first principle is known in two ways: in one way as the first "principle," by reason of its having a relation to what proceeds from itself; in another way, inasmuch as it is a "first" principle by reason of its not being from another. Thus therefore the Father is known both by paternity and by common spiration, as regards the persons proceeding from Himself.