Key Arguments

• He identifies the creative Word with the divine Logos of John 1: ‘You call us, therefore, to understand the Word, God who is with you God (John 1: 1).’
• He asserts that this Word is ‘spoken eternally’ and that by it ‘all things are uttered eternally’: ‘That word is spoken eternally, and by it all things are uttered eternally.’
• He denies any temporal succession in the divine speaking: ‘It is not the case that what was being said comes to an end, and something else is then said, so that everything is uttered in a succession with a conclusion, but everything is said in the simultaneity of eternity.’
• He argues that if there were succession in the Word, time and change would already exist and true eternity and immortality would be lost: ‘Otherwise time and change would already exist, and there would not be a true eternity and true immortality.’
• He contrasts the mutability of creatures (‘A thing dies and comes into being inasmuch as it is not what it was and becomes what it was not.’) with the immutability of the Word: ‘No element of your word yields place or succeeds to something else, since it is truly immortal and eternal.’
• He summarizes: ‘And so by the Word coeternal with yourself, you say all that you say in simultaneity and eternity, and whatever you say will come about does come about. You do not cause it to exist other than by speaking. Yet not all that you cause to exist by speaking is made in simultaneity and eternity.’

Source Quotes

Whatever it might have been which became the basis for such an utterance, unless it was created by you, it could not exist. Therefore for the creation of a physical entity to become the basis for those words, what kind of word would you have used? vii (9) You call us, therefore, to understand the Word, God who is with you God (John 1: 1). That word is spoken eternally, and by it all things are uttered eternally.

Therefore for the creation of a physical entity to become the basis for those words, what kind of word would you have used? vii (9) You call us, therefore, to understand the Word, God who is with you God (John 1: 1). That word is spoken eternally, and by it all things are uttered eternally. It is not the case that what was being said comes to an end, and something else is then said, so that everything is uttered in a succession with a conclusion, but everything is said in the simultaneity of eternity.

That word is spoken eternally, and by it all things are uttered eternally. It is not the case that what was being said comes to an end, and something else is then said, so that everything is uttered in a succession with a conclusion, but everything is said in the simultaneity of eternity. Otherwise time and change would already exist, and there would not be a true eternity and true immortality.

It is not the case that what was being said comes to an end, and something else is then said, so that everything is uttered in a succession with a conclusion, but everything is said in the simultaneity of eternity. Otherwise time and change would already exist, and there would not be a true eternity and true immortality. This I know, my God, and give thanks.

A thing dies and comes into being inasmuch as it is not what it was and becomes what it was not. No element of your word yields place or succeeds to something else, since it is truly immortal and eternal. And so by the Word coeternal with yourself, you say all that you say in simultaneity and eternity, and whatever you say will come about does come about.

No element of your word yields place or succeeds to something else, since it is truly immortal and eternal. And so by the Word coeternal with yourself, you say all that you say in simultaneity and eternity, and whatever you say will come about does come about. You do not cause it to exist other than by speaking.

Key Concepts

• You call us, therefore, to understand the Word, God who is with you God (John 1: 1).
• That word is spoken eternally, and by it all things are uttered eternally.
• everything is said in the simultaneity of eternity.
• Otherwise time and change would already exist, and there would not be a true eternity and true immortality.
• No element of your word yields place or succeeds to something else, since it is truly immortal and eternal.
• by the Word coeternal with yourself, you say all that you say in simultaneity and eternity, and whatever you say will come about does come about.

Context

Book XI, vii (9): Drawing together his reflections on speech, creation, and eternity, Augustine sets out a doctrine of the eternal, coeternal Word, whose non‑successive speaking grounds both creation and the distinction between God’s eternity and temporal becoming.