Whether This Is True: "God Was Made Man"?
Objection 1: It would seem that this is false: "God was made man."
For since man signifies a substance, to be made man is to be made
simply. But this is false: "God was made simply." Therefore this is
false: "God was made man."
Obj. 2: Further, to be made man is to be changed. But God cannot be
the subject of change, according to Malachi 3:6: "I am the Lord, and
I change not." Hence this is false: "God was made man."
Obj. 3: Further, man as predicated of Christ stands for the Person of
the Son of God. But this is false: "God was made the Person of the
Son of God." Therefore this is false: "God was made man."
_On the contrary,_ It is written (John 1:14): "The Word was made
flesh": and as Athanasius says (Ep. ad Epictetum), "when he said,
'The Word was made flesh,' it is as if it were said that God was
made man."
_I answer that,_ A thing is said to be made that which begins to be
predicated of it for the first time. Now to be man is truly
predicated of God, as stated above (A. 1), yet in such sort that it
pertains to God to be man, not from eternity, but from the time of
His assuming human nature. Hence, this is true, "God was made man";
though it is understood differently by some: even as this, "God is
man," as we said above (A. 1).
Reply Obj. 1: To be made man is to be made simply, in all those in
whom human nature begins to be in a newly created suppositum. But God
is said to have been made man, inasmuch as the human nature began to
be in an eternally pre-existing suppositum of the Divine Nature. And
hence for God to be made man does not mean that God was made simply.
Reply Obj. 2: As stated above, to be made implies that something is
newly predicated of another. Hence, whenever anything is predicated
of another, and there is a change in that of which it is predicated,
then to be made is to be changed; and this takes place in whatever is
predicated absolutely, for whiteness or greatness cannot newly affect
anything, unless it be newly changed to whiteness or greatness. But
whatever is predicated relatively can be newly predicated of anything
without its change, as a man may be made to be on the right side
without being changed and merely by the change of him on whose left
side he was. Hence in such cases, not all that is said to be made is
changed, since it may happen by the change of something else. And it
is thus we say of God: "Lord, Thou art made [Douay: 'hast been'] our
refuge" (Ps. 89:1). Now to be man belongs to God by reason of the
union, which is a relation. And hence to be man is newly predicated
of God without any change in Him, by a change in the human nature,
which is assumed to a Divine Person. And hence, when it is said, "God
was made man," we understand no change on the part of God, but only
on the part of the human nature.
Reply Obj. 3: Man stands not for the bare Person of the Son of God,
but inasmuch as it subsists in human nature. Hence, although this is
false, "God was made the Person of the Son of God," yet this is true:
"God was made man" by being united to human nature.
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