Thomas Aquinas on the Omnitemporal Truth of Enuntiabilia. A Reappraisal

Over the last years some scholars called attention to a couple of theological questions which are significant for the relation between time, tense and modality. Both questions concern the case of the so-called enuntiabilia, namely the infinitive propositions corresponding to spoken or written statements. The two questions are: (Q1) first, whether God can have knowledge of enuntiabilia; (Q2) second, whether enuntiabilia are true eternally. The present study focuses on the response Aquinas gives to those questions. As to (Q1), Aquinas thinks that God’s knowledge is out of time, but this does not entail that God cannot have knowledge of things that are in time and of tensed statements. So it cannot be said that all that which God once knew, now too He knows. God knows things all at once but He can know them in different ways. As to (Q2), Aquinas always maintains the position that no truth can be eternal except for the first truth, which is God’s intellect. So it cannot be said that if an enuntiabile is true once, it is true always.