Whether the Prophets See the Very Essence of God?
Objection 1: It would seem that the prophets see the very essence of
God, for a gloss on Isa. 38:1, "Take order with thy house, for thou
shalt die and not live," says: "Prophets can read in the book of
God's foreknowledge in which all things are written." Now God's
foreknowledge is His very essence. Therefore prophets see God's very
essence.
Obj. 2: Further, Augustine says (De Trin. ix, 7) that "in that
eternal truth from which all temporal things are made, we see with
the mind's eye the type both of our being and of our actions." Now,
of all men, prophets have the highest knowledge of Divine things.
Therefore they, especially, see the Divine essence.
Obj. 3: Further, future contingencies are foreknown by the prophets
"with unchangeable truth." Now future contingencies exist thus in God
alone. Therefore the prophets see God Himself.
_On the contrary,_ The vision of the Divine essence is not made void
in heaven; whereas "prophecy is made void" (1 Cor. 13:8). Therefore
prophecy is not conveyed by a vision of the Divine essence.
_I answer that,_ Prophecy denotes Divine knowledge as existing afar
off. Wherefore it is said of the prophets (Heb. 11:13) that "they
were beholding . . . afar off." But those who are in heaven and in
the state of bliss see, not as from afar off, but rather, as it were,
from near at hand, according to Ps. 139:14, "The upright shall dwell
with Thy countenance." Hence it is evident that prophetic knowledge
differs from the perfect knowledge, which we shall have in heaven, so
that it is distinguished therefrom as the imperfect from the perfect,
and when the latter comes the former is made void, as appears from
the words of the Apostle (1 Cor. 13:10).
Some, however, wishing to discriminate between prophetic knowledge
and the knowledge of the blessed, have maintained that the prophets
see the very essence of God (which they call the "mirror of
eternity") [*Cf. De Veritate, xii, 6; Sent. II, D, XI, part 2, art.
2, ad 4], not, however, in the way in which it is the object of the
blessed, but as containing the types [*Cf. I, Q. 15] of future
events. But this is altogether impossible. For God is the object of
bliss in His very essence, according to the saying of Augustine
(Confess. v, 4): "Happy whoso knoweth Thee, though he know not
these," i.e. creatures. Now it is not possible to see the types of
creatures in the very essence of God without seeing It, both because
the Divine essence is Itself the type of all things that are
made--the ideal type adding nothing to the Divine essence save only a
relationship to the creature--and because knowledge of a thing in
itself--and such is the knowledge of God as the object of heavenly
bliss--precedes knowledge of that thing in its relation to something
else--and such is the knowledge of God as containing the types of
things. Consequently it is impossible for prophets to see God as
containing the types of creatures, and yet not as the object of
bliss. Therefore we must conclude that the prophetic vision is not
the vision of the very essence of God, and that the prophets do not
see in the Divine essence Itself the things they do see, but that
they see them in certain images, according as they are enlightened by
the Divine light.
Wherefore Dionysius (Coel. Hier. iv), in speaking of prophetic
visions, says that "the wise theologian calls that vision divine
which is effected by images of things lacking a bodily form through
the seer being rapt in divine things." And these images illumined by
the Divine light have more of the nature of a mirror than the Divine
essence: since in a mirror images are formed from other things, and
this cannot be said of God. Yet the prophet's mind thus enlightened
may be called a mirror, in so far as a likeness of the truth of the
Divine foreknowledge is formed therein, for which reason it is called
the "mirror of eternity," as representing God's foreknowledge, for
God in His eternity sees all things as present before Him, as stated
above (Q. 172, A. 1).
Reply Obj. 1: The prophets are said to read the book of God's
foreknowledge, inasmuch as the truth is reflected from God's
foreknowledge on the prophet's mind.
Reply Obj. 2: Man is said to see in the First Truth the type of his
existence, in so far as the image of the First Truth shines forth on
man's mind, so that he is able to know himself.
Reply Obj. 3: From the very fact that future contingencies are in God
according to unalterable truth, it follows that God can impress a
like knowledge on the prophet's mind without the prophet seeing God
in His essence.
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