Bibliotheca Catholicaa library of libraries
Support
Summa Theologiae · Suppl., q. 89, a. 8

Whether at the coming judgment the angels will be judged?

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Supplement, question 89, Of Those Who Will Judge and of Those Who Will Be Judged at the General Judgment, article 8. About 3 min.

Read in the reading room → This article at New Advent

From the Supplement, compiled after Aquinas’s death from his Commentary on the Sentences and transcribed here from the 1917 to 1922 printings. About the Supplement.

Text: Summa Theologiae, Supplement to the Third Part (Supplementum Tertiae Partis), transcribed from Internet Archive scans, translated by the Fathers of the English Dominican Province. The Supplement, compiled after Aquinas’s death from his earlier Commentary on the Sentences, in the same English Dominican translation as the Gutenberg Parts. Transcribed by Bibliotheca Catholica from the OCR of four Internet Archive scans of the pre-1931 printings (Questions 1 to 33 from the 1917 Washbourne and Benziger volume, 34 to 68 from the 1922 volume, 69 to 86 from the 1921 volume, and 87 to 99 from the 1922 Benziger volume), with OCR errors corrected and doubtful passages marked, not rewritten. 99 questions and 446 articles. The two appendices printed after Question 99 are not included. Sources, SHA-256 of each OCR file, and the method are in the source record. Rights: Public domain (US)

The Supplement is not a Project Gutenberg text. It is Bibliotheca Catholica’s transcription of public-domain scans at the Internet Archive; obvious OCR errors were corrected, and passages marked “OCR uncertain” could not be confidently corrected, so check them against the linked scan page.

One passage on this page is marked “OCR uncertain”; check it against the scan.

Objection 1: It would seem that the angels will be judged at the coming judgment. For it is written (1 Cor. vi. 3): Know you not that we shall judge angels? But this cannot refer to the state of the present time. Therefore it should refer to the judgment to come.

Obj. 2: Further, It is written concerning Behemoth or Leviathan, whereby the devil is signified (Job xl. 28): In the sight of all he shall be cast down; and (Mark i. 24)* the demon cried out to Christ: Why art Thou come to destroy us before the time? for, according to a gloss, the demons seeing our Lord on earth thought they were to be judged forthwith. Therefore it would seem that a final judgment is in store for them.

Obj. 3: Further, It is written (2 Pet. ii. 4): God spared not the angels that sinned, but delivered them drawn down by infernal ropes to the lower hell, unto torments, to be reserved unto judgment. Therefore it seems that the angels will be judged.

On the contrary, It is written |(Nahum i. 9) according to the Septuagint version: God will not judge the same thing a second time. But the wicked angels are already judged, wherefore it is written (Jo. xvi. 11): The prince of this world is already judged. Therefore the angels will not be judged in the time to come. [OCR uncertain: |(Nahum. Check the scan, image 45, 46.]

[*The reference should be Matth. viii. 29: Avt Thou come hither to torment us before the time? The text of Mark reads: Art Thou come to destroy us?]

Further, Goodness and wickedness are more perfect in the angels than in men who are wayfarers. Newsome men, good and wicked, will not be judged as stated in the text of iv. Sent.D. 47. Therefore neither will good or wicked angels be judged.

I answer that, The judgment of discussion nowise concerns either the good or the wicked angels, since neither is any evil to be found in the good angels, nor is any good liable to judgment to be found in the wicked angels. But if we speak of the judgment of retribution, we must distinguish a twofold retribution. One corresponds to the angels' personal merits and was made to both from the beginning, when some were raised to bliss, and others plunged into the depths of woe. The other corresponds to the merits, good or evil, procured through the angels, and this retribution will be made in the judgment to come, because the good angels will have an increased joy in the salvation of those whom they have prompted to deeds of merit, while the wicked will have an increase of torment through the manifold downfall of those whom they have incited to evil deeds. Consequently the judgment will not regard the angels directly, neither as judging nor as judged, but only men; but it will regard the angels indirectly somewhat, in so far as they were concerned in men's deeds.

Reply Obj. 1: This saying of the Apostle refers to the judgment of comparison, because certain men will be found to be placed higher than the angels.

Reply Obj. 2: The demons will then be cast down in the sight of all because they will be imprisoned for ever in the dungeon of hell, so that they will no more be free to go out, since this was permitted to them only in so far as they were directed by Divine providence to try the life of man.

The same answer applies to the Third Objection.

Also online, linked only: the same translation at New Advent and the Latin text at Corpus Thomisticum. Neither is copied here.

Source: Thomas Aquinas. Summa Theologica, Supplement to the Third Part. Internet Archive scans: Third Part, Fourth Number (QQ. LXXXIV to Suppl. XXXIII), 1917, Third Part (Supplement), QQ. XXXIV to LXVIII, 1922, Third Part (Supplement), QQ. LXIX to LXXXVI, 1921, and Third Part (Supplement), QQ. LXXXVII to XCIX and Appendices, 1922; two curled pages of the 1921 volume are read from another scan of the same printing. Public domain in the USA. Printed in 1917, 1921, and 1922, before 1931. Outside the U.S., check local copyright rules. Transcription, OCR file checksums, and method: source record.