Annotation CLXIX

”And the Word was with God.” — John 1:1

Whether the Word [was] "to God" or "with God."

The interpretation of Thomas Cajetan, Ambrose [Catharinus] reprehends, in book 1 of the Annotations, writing thus: “That [reading] displeased [me] vehemently — that he so changes what follows, ‘And the Word was with God’ [apud Deum], into ‘And the Word was toward God’ [ad Deum], commending to us here a certain loftier interpretation. For, he says, ‘to be’ of the Word is ‘to be toward God’ — that is, [the Word] is referred to God — which can be said of no [created] substance.” These [things] he [Cajetan says], but utterly falsely. For neither is the being of the divine substance said to be “toward,” nor is the being of the Word said [to be referred] “to God,” but “to the speaker,” according to the proper expression of relation. For the son too is called son of the father, not of the man, or of Socrates: or otherwise, if the relative be sought in divine [matters], Christ is called not “Son of God,” but “Son of the Father”: and thus the Word is fittingly called not “the Word of God,” but “the Word of the speaker.” In which place I wonder at the man who, from Aristotle’s Categories, did not notice this.