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cf., Sent.I.D35.Q1.A2; SCG1.C48-49; QDeVer.Q2.A3; CT.BookI.C30; Metaph.Bk12.L11; LibCaus.L13
Now, a difficulty arises. In order to protect the independence and perfection of God, we have demonstrated that the proper object of God's knowledge is Himself. Yet, revelation teaches us that God also knows things outside Himself. But, to know something is to be assimilated to it and to have a real relation to it. Yet, this is absolutely inadmissible to the supreme perfection of God, for, this would make God dependent and mutable (since in God Being and Knowing is one and the same act).
St. Thomas solves this issue by distinguishing between knowing something in seipso and in altero, i.e., knowing something in itself vs. in another.