e was born of a woman." Consequently we must say that the Blessed
Virgin is called the Mother of God, not as though she were the Mother
of the Godhead, but because she is the mother, according to His human
nature, of the Person who has both the divine and the human nature.

Reply Obj. 3: Although the name "God" is common to the three Persons,
yet sometimes it stands for the Person of the Father alone, sometimes
only for the Person of the Son or of the Holy Ghost, as stated above
(Q. 16, A. 1; First Part, Q. 39, A. 4). So that when we say, "The
Blessed Virgin is the Mother of God," this word "God" stands only for
the incarnate Person of the Son.
_______________________

FIFTH ARTICLE [III, Q. 35, Art. 5]

Whether There Are Two Filiations in Christ?

Objection 1: It would seem that there are two filiations in Christ.
For nativity is the cause of filiation. But in Christ there are two
nativities. Therefore in Christ there are also two filiations.

Obj. 2: Further, filiation, which is said of a man as being the son
of someone, his father or his mother, depends, in a way, on him:
because the very being of a relation consists _in being referred to
another;_ wherefore if one of two relatives be destroyed, the other
is destroyed also. But the eternal filiation by which Christ is the
Son of God the Father depends not on His Mother, because nothing
eternal depends on what is temporal. Therefore Christ is not His
Mother's Son by temporal filiation. Either, therefore, He is not her
Son at all, which is in contradiction to what has been said above
(AA. 3, 4), or He must needs be her Son by some other temporal
filiation. Therefore in Christ there are two filiations.

Obj. 3: Further, one of two relatives enters the definition of the
other; hence it is clear that of two relatives, one is specified from
the other. But one and the same cannot be in diverse species.
Therefore it seems impossible that one and the same relation be
referred to extremes which are altogether diverse. But Christ is said
to be the Son of the Eternal Father and a temporal mother, who are
terms altogether diverse. Therefore it seems that Christ cannot, by
the same relation, be called the Son of the Father and of His Mother
Therefore in Christ there are two filiations.

_On the contrary,_ As Damascene says (De Fide Orth. iii), things
pertaining to the nature are multiple in Christ; but not those things
that pertain to the Person. But filiation belongs espe