Son understands. Therefore some word belongs
to the Son; and consequently to be Word is not proper to the Son.

Obj. 5: Further, it is said of the Son (Heb. 1:3): "Bearing all
things by the word of His power;" whence Basil infers (Cont. Eunom.
v, 11) that the Holy Ghost is the Son's Word. Therefore to be Word is
not proper to the Son.

_On the contrary,_ Augustine says (De Trin. vi, 11): "By Word we
understand the Son alone."

_I answer that,_ "Word," said of God in its proper sense, is used
personally, and is the proper name of the person of the Son. For it
signifies an emanation of the intellect: and the person Who proceeds
in God, by way of emanation of the intellect, is called the Son; and
this procession is called generation, as we have shown above (Q. 27,
A. 2). Hence it follows that the Son alone is properly called Word in
God.

Reply Obj. 1: "To be" and "to understand" are not the same in us.
Hence that which in us has intellectual being, does not belong to our
nature. But in God "to be" and "to understand" are one and the same:
hence the Word of God is not an accident in Him, or an effect of His;
but belongs to His very nature. And therefore it must needs be
something subsistent; for whatever is in the nature of God subsists;
and so Damascene says (De Fide Orth. i, 18) that "the Word of God is
substantial and has a hypostatic being; but other words [as our own]
are activities if the soul."

Reply Obj. 2: The error of Valentine was condemned, not as the Arians
pretended, because he asserted that the Son was born by being
uttered, as Hilary relates (De Trin. vi); but on account of the
different mode of utterance proposed by its author, as appears from
Augustine (De Haeres. xi).

Reply Obj. 3: In the term "Word" the same property is comprised as in
the name Son. Hence Augustine says (De Trin. vii, 11): "Word and Son
express the same." For the Son's nativity, which is His personal
property, is signified by different names, which are attributed to
the Son to express His perfection in various ways. To show that He is
of the same nature as the Father, He is called the Son; to show that
He is co-eternal, He is called the Splendor; to show that He is
altogether like, He is called the Image; to show that He is begotten
immaterially, He is called the Word. All these truths cannot be
expressed by only one name.

Reply Obj. 4: To be intelligent belongs to the Son, in the same way
as it belongs to Him to be God, si