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In this article St. Thomas has in mind to reconcile the various
texts of Sacred Scripture. On the one hand, Christ said: "Now
they have both seen and hated both Me and My Father,"[1807]
and in the parable of the wicked husbandmen, these said: "This is
the heir, come let us kill him."[1808] St. Matthew makes the
additional comment farther on: "And when the chief priests and
Pharisees had heard His parables they knew that He spoke of
them."[1809] On the other hand, Christ said: "Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do."[1810] St.
Paul, too, remarks: "If they had known it, they would never have
crucified the Lord of glory,"[1811] and St. Peter,
likewise, says to the Jews: "I know that you did it through
ignorance, as did also your rulers."[1812]
St. Thomas solves the difficulty by distinguishing between the elders
and the common people, and also for the elders by distinguishing
between Christ's Messiahship and His Godhead. He says:
"According to St. Augustine[1813] the elders, who were
called rulers, knew, as did also the devils, that He was the Christ
promised in the Law: for they saw all the signs in Him, which the
prophets said would come to pass; but they did not know the mystery of
His Godhead. Consequently the Apostle says that, if they had known
it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory. It must,
however, be understood that their ignorance did not excuse them from
crime, because it was, as it were, affected ignorance. For they saw
manifest signs of His Godhead, yet they perverted them out of hatred
and envy of Christ, and they would not believe His words, whereby
He avowed that He was the Son of God"[1814]
St. Thomas, however, goes on to remark: "But those of lesser
degree, namely, the common folk, who had not grasped the mysteries of
the Scriptures, did not fully comprehend that He was the Christ or
the Son of God. For although some of them believed in Him, the
multitude did not; and if they were inclined to believe sometimes that
He was the Christ, on account of the manifold signs and force of His
teaching,[1815] nevertheless they were deceived afterward by
their rulers so that they did not believe Him to be the Son of God or
the Christ."[1816] This article seems to be the expression of
most sublime wisdom and penetration.
The replies to the first, second, and third objections confirm what
is said in the body of this article.
Reply to the third objection. It says: "Affected ignorance does
not excuse from guilt, but seems rather to aggravate it; for it shows
that a man is so strongly attached to sin that he wishes to incur
ignorance lest he avoid sinning. The Jews therefore sinned not only
as crucifiers of the man Christ, but also as crucifiers of God."
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