Whether Christ Had Any Acquired Knowledge?
Objection 1: It would seem that in Christ there was no empiric and
acquired knowledge. For whatever befitted Christ, He had most
perfectly. Now Christ did not possess acquired knowledge most
perfectly, since He did not devote Himself to the study of letters,
by which knowledge is acquired in its perfection; for it is said
(John 7:15): "The Jews wondered, saying: How doth this Man know
letters, having never learned?" Therefore it seems that in Christ
there was no acquired knowledge.
Obj. 2: Further, nothing can be added to what is full. But the power
of Christ's soul was filled with intelligible species divinely
infused, as was said above (A. 3). Therefore no acquired species
could accrue to His soul.
Obj. 3: Further, he who already has the habit of knowledge, acquires
no new habit, through what he receives from the senses (otherwise two
forms of the same species would be in the same thing together); but
the habit which previously existed is strengthened and increased.
Therefore, since Christ had the habit of infused knowledge, it does
not seem that He acquired a new knowledge through what He perceived
by the senses.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (Heb. 5:8): "Whereas . . . He was
the Son of God, He learned obedience by the things which He
suffered," i.e. "experienced," says a gloss. Therefore there was in
the soul of Christ an empiric knowledge, which is acquired knowledge.
_I answer that,_ As is plain from A. 1, nothing that God planted in
our nature was wanting to the human nature assumed by the Word of
God. Now it is manifest that God planted in human nature not only a
passive, but an active intellect. Hence it is necessary to say that
in the soul of Christ there was not merely a passive, but also an
active intellect. But if in other things God and nature make nothing
in vain, as the Philosopher says (De Coel. i, 31; ii, 59), still less
in the soul of Christ is there anything in vain. Now what has not its
proper operation is useless, as is said in _De Coel._ ii, 17. Now the
proper operation of the active intellect is to make intelligible
species in act, by abstracting them from phantasms; hence, it is said
(De Anima iii, 18) that the active intellect is that "whereby
everything is made actual." And thus it is necessary to say that in
Christ there were intelligible species received in the passive
intellect by the action of the active intellect--which means that
there was acquired knowledge in Him, which some call empiric. And
hence, although I wrote differently (Sent. iii, D, xiv, A. 3; D,
xviii, A. 3), it must be said that in Christ there was acquired
knowledge, which is properly knowledge in a human fashion, both as
regards the subject receiving and as regards the active cause. For
such knowledge springs from Christ's active intellect, which is
natural to the human soul. But infused knowledge is attributed to the
soul, on account of a light infused from on high, and this manner of
knowing is proportioned to the angelic nature. But the beatific
knowledge, whereby the very Essence of God is seen, is proper and
natural to God alone, as was said in the First Part (Q. 12, A. 4).
Reply Obj. 1: Since there is a twofold way of acquiring knowledge--by
discovery and by being taught--the way of discovery is the higher,
and the way of being taught is secondary. Hence it is said (Ethic. i,
4): "He indeed is the best who knows everything by himself: yet he is
good who obeys him that speaks aright." And hence it was more fitting
for Christ to possess a knowledge acquired by discovery than by being
taught, especially since He was given to be the Teacher of all,
according to Joel 2:23: "Be joyful in the Lord your God, because He
hath given you a Teacher of justice."
Reply Obj. 2: The human mind has two relations--one to higher things,
and in this respect the soul of Christ was full of the infused
knowledge. The other relation is to lower things, i.e. to phantasms,
which naturally move the human mind by virtue of the active
intellect. Now it was necessary that even in this respect the soul of
Christ should be filled with knowledge, not that the first fulness
was insufficient for the human mind in itself, but that it behooved
it to be also perfected with regard to phantasms.
Reply Obj. 3: Acquired and infused habits are not to be classed
together; for the habit of knowledge is acquired by the relation of
the human mind to phantasms; hence, another habit of the same kind
cannot be again acquired. But the habit of infused knowledge is of a
different nature, as coming down to the soul from on high, and not
from phantasms. And hence there is no parity between these habits.
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