Aquinas experts! Citation help

I was listening to a Great Courses lecture, and the professor quoted Aquinas, "Scripture speaks according to the opinion of the people," in context of a traditional Christian (and Jewish) principle of accommodation.

I hadn't heard this cite from Aquinas before, and googling doesn't find it. I can find “Scripture speaks according to the notions of the people” used, but also without a citation.

Can anyone point me to where Aquinas expresses this principle?

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Dave Colclough

Closest I can find is this:

As Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. xii. 27), it is stated in Exodus that the Lord spoke to Moses face to face; and shortly afterwards we read: “Show me Thy glory.” Therefore he perceived what he saw and he desired what he saw not. Hence he did not see the very Essence of God; and consequently he was not taught by Him immediately. Accordingly when Scripture states that He spoke to him face to face, this is to be understood as expressing the opinion of the people, who thought that Moses was speaking with God mouth to mouth, when God spoke and appeared to him, by means of a subordinate creature, i.e., an angel and a cloud.—Again we may say that this vision face to face means some kind of sublime and familiar contemplation, inferior to the vision of the Divine Essence.¹

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¹Thomas Aquinas. (n.d.). Summa theologica. (Fathers of the English Dominican Province, Trans.). London: Burns Oates & Washbourne.

MJ. Smith

Not the answer but a hint towards the answer:

[quote]

Accordingly when Scripture states that He spoke to him face to face, this is to be understood as expressing the opinion of the people, who thought that Moses was speaking with God mouth to mouth, when God spoke and appeared to him, by means of a subordinate creature, i.e., an angel and a cloud.

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province (London: Burns Oates & Washbourne, n.d.).

Keep Smiling 4 Jesus :)

Apologies since did not find phrase "Scripture speaks according to the opinion of the people," in my library, but did find opinion NEAR people

Keep Smiling [:)]

Stephen Terlizzi

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/863849#Comment_863849

I think it is in reference to the following "secundum opinionem populi loquitur scriptura" in the Summa Theologica at STh., I-II q.98 a.3.

Here is the english translation:

Accordingly when Scripture states that He spoke to him face to face, this is to be understood as expressing the opinion of the people, who thought that Moses was speaking with God mouth to mouth, when God spoke and appeared to him, by means of a subordinate creature, i.e., an angel and a cloud.—Again we may say that this vision face to face means some kind of sublime and familiar contemplation, inferior to the vision of the Divine Essence.

Thomas Aquinas. (n.d.). Summa theologica. (Fathers of the English Dominican Province, Trans.). London: Burns Oates & Washbourne.

I hope this helps.

Agape,

Steve

Ben

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/863867#Comment_863867

Thank you all!

Ted Hans

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/863874#Comment_863874

When in Exodus 33 we hear that the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a friend speaks to his friends (verse 11), we can read those words only because, so Thomas somewhat sweepingly declares, secundum opinionem populi loquitur Scriptura, ‘Scripture speaks according to the opinion of the people’—describing the causality of things as it was generally viewed. The real causality was certainly angelic. As Aquinas explains, the function of angels is communication (the very word ‘angel’ tells us so).

Nichols, A. (2002). Discovering Aquinas: An Introduction to His Life, Work, and Influence (p. 26). Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.