Whether This Is True: "God Is Man"?
Objection 1: It would seem that this is false: "God is man." For
every affirmative proposition of remote matter is false. Now this
proposition, "God is man," is on remote matter, since the forms
signified by the subject and predicate are most widely apart.
Therefore, since the aforesaid proposition is affirmative, it would
seem to be false.
Obj. 2: Further, the three Divine Persons are in greater mutual
agreement than the human nature and the Divine. But in the mystery of
the Incarnation one Person is not predicated of another; for we do
not say that the Father is the Son, or conversely. Therefore it seems
that the human nature ought not to be predicated of God by saying
that God is man.
Obj. 3: Further, Athanasius says (Symb. Fid.) that, "as the soul and
the flesh are one man, so are God and man one Christ." But this is
false: "The soul is the body." Therefore this also is false: "God is
man."
Obj. 4: Further, it was said in the First Part (Q. 39, A. 4) that
what is predicated of God not relatively but absolutely, belongs to
the whole Trinity and to each of the Persons. But this word "man" is
not relative, but absolute. Hence, if it is predicated of God, it
would follow that the whole Trinity and each of the Persons is man;
and this is clearly false.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (Phil. 2:6, 7): "Who being in the
form of God . . . emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant,
being made in the likeness of man, and in habit found as a man"; and
thus He Who is in the form of God is man. Now He Who is in the form
of God is God. Therefore God is man.
_I answer that,_ This proposition "God is man," is admitted by all
Christians, yet not in the same way by all. For some admit the
proposition, but not in the proper acceptation of the terms. Thus the
Manicheans say the Word of God is man, not indeed true, but
fictitious man, inasmuch as they say that the Son of God assumed an
imaginary body, and thus God is called man as a bronze figure is
called man if it has the figure of a man. So, too, those who held
that Christ's body and soul were not united, could not say that God
is true man, but that He is figuratively called man by reason of the
parts. Now both these opinions were disproved above (Q. 2, A. 5; Q.
5, A. 1).
Some, on the contrary, hold the reality on the part of man, but deny
the reality on the part of God. For they say that Christ, Who is God
and man, is God not naturally, but by participation, i.e. by grace;
even as all other holy men are called gods--Christ being more
excellently so than the rest, on account of His more abundant grace.
And thus, when it is said that "God is man," God does not stand for
the true and natural God. And this is the heresy of Photinus, which
was disproved above (Q. 2, AA. 10, 11). But some admit this
proposition, together with the reality of both terms, holding that
Christ is true God and true man; yet they do not preserve the truth
of the predication. For they say that man is predicated of God by
reason of a certain conjunction either of dignity, or of authority,
or of affection or indwelling. It was thus that Nestorius held God to
be man--nothing further being meant than that God is joined to man by
such a conjunction that man is dwelt in by God, and united to Him in
affection, and in a share of the Divine authority and honor. And into
the same error fall those who suppose two supposita or hypostases in
Christ, since it is impossible to understand how, of two things
distinct in suppositum or hypostasis, one can be properly predicated
of the other: unless merely by a figurative expression, inasmuch as
they are united in something, as if we were to say that Peter is John
because they are somehow mutually joined together. And these opinions
also were disproved above (Q. 2, AA. 3, 6).
Hence, supposing the truth of the Catholic belief, that the true
Divine Nature is united with true human nature not only in person,
but also in suppositum or hypostasis; we say that this proposition is
true and proper, "God is man"--not only by the truth of its terms,
i.e. because Christ is true God and true man, but by the truth of the
predication. For a word signifying the common nature in the concrete
may stand for all contained in the common nature, as this word "man"
may stand for any individual man. And thus this word "God," from its
very mode of signification, may stand for the Person of the Son of
God, as was said in the First Part (Q. 39, A. 4). Now of every
suppositum of any nature we may truly and properly predicate a word
signifying that nature in the concrete, as "man" may properly and
truly be predicated of Socrates and Plato. Hence, since the Person of
the Son of God for Whom this word "God" stands, is a suppositum of
human nature this word man may be truly and properly predicated of
this word "God," as it stands for the Person of the Son of God.
Reply Obj. 1: When different forms cannot come together in one
suppositum, the proposition is necessarily in remote matter, the
subject signifying one form and the predicate another. But when two
forms can come together in one suppositum, the matter is not remote,
but natural or contingent, as when I say: "Something white is
musical." Now the Divine and human natures, although most widely
apart, nevertheless come together by the mystery of the Incarnation
in one suppositum, in which neither exists accidentally, but [both]
essentially. Hence this proposition is neither in remote nor in
contingent, but in natural matter; and man is not predicated of God
accidentally, but essentially, as being predicated of its
hypostasis--not, indeed, by reason of the form signified by this word
"God," but by reason of the suppositum, which is a hypostasis of
human nature.
Reply Obj. 2: The three Divine Persons agree in one Nature, and are
distinguished in suppositum; and hence they are not predicated one of
another. But in the mystery of the Incarnation the natures, being
distinct, are not predicated one of the other, in the abstract. For
the Divine Nature is not the human nature. But because they agree in
suppositum, they are predicated of each other in the concrete.
Reply Obj. 3: "Soul" and "flesh" are taken in the abstract, even as
Godhead and manhood; but in the concrete we say "animate" and
"carnal" or "corporeal," as, on the other hand, "God" and "man."
Hence in both cases the abstract is not predicated of the abstract,
but only the concrete of the concrete.
Reply Obj. 4: This word "man" is predicated of God, because of the
union in person, and this union implies a relation. Hence it does not
follow the rule of those words which are absolutely predicated of God
from eternity.
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