Bible Synapse
Did Jesus know all things?
Hard question · The life of Jesus · raised by 1 of the lists sceptics circulate
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The disciples say, “Now are we sure that thou knowest all things”.
Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God.
Peter says to the risen Jesus, “Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee”.
He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
Of the day and hour of the end no one knows, not the angels, “neither the Son, but the Father”.
But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.
Knowing that power had gone out of him, Jesus asks, “Who touched my clothes?”, and looks round for the woman who had done it.
And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes? And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth. And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.
The objection
The disciples tell Jesus that he knows all things, and Paul says that in Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3). Yet Jesus says that he does not know the day or the hour of the end, asks who touched him, and is said to marvel at a centurion’s faith (Matthew 8:10). Critics ask how someone who knows everything can be unaware of anything, or be surprised.
The answer
The New Testament teaches that Jesus is both truly God and truly man, and it speaks of him in both ways without embarrassment. As the eternal Son he shares the Father’s knowledge. In becoming man he “took upon him the form of a servant” (Philippians 2:7) and had a real human mind that learned and grew: as a boy he “increased in wisdom” (Luke 2:52). Mark 13:32 speaks of him on this side. As the Son sent by the Father, he was not given the day of the end to know; it is something the Father has “put in his own power” (Acts 1:7). Barnes notes that the saying is no harder than Luke 2:52: a real man grows in knowledge.
The disciples’ words in John 16:30 and 21:17 come from what they had seen. Jesus had just answered a question before they asked it (John 16:19), and John says he “knew what was in man” (John 2:25). Peter appeals to that knowledge of the heart: “thou knowest that I love thee”.
Asking a question need not mean ignorance. In Mark 5 Jesus knew at once that power had gone out of him, and he “looked round about to see her that had done this thing” (Mark 5:32). Barnes and Gill both take it that he already knew who had touched him, and Mark’s Greek speaks of the one he looked for as a woman. He asked so that she would come forward and hear him say, “thy faith hath made thee whole” (5:34). God himself asks questions to draw people out, as when he called to Adam, “Where art thou?” (Genesis 3:9). Jesus’ marvelling at the centurion’s faith (Matthew 8:10) is the true response of a man to something wonderful.
Other answers Christians give
‘Knows’ as ‘makes known’
Some older writers took Mark 13:32 to mean that the Son was not sent to make the day known. Barnes thought this unlikely, since the same verse says that the Father knows it, and the Father has not made it known either.
A limit the Son accepted
Some, drawing on Philippians 2:7, say that the Son freely chose not to use some of his divine powers while on earth. Others prefer to say that what he knew as God was not all present to his human mind. Both views place the limit in his life as a servant, not in who he is.
Still open
Christians agree that Jesus was fully God and fully man, but have long differed over how to describe the relation between his divine and his human knowledge.
From the classic commentators
After all, the passage has no more difficulty than that in Luke 2:52 , where it is said that Jesus increased in wisdom and stature. He had a human nature. He grew as a man in knowledge.Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible, on Mark 13:32 (1832)
Sources
- Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: Mark 13 (1832), at Bible Hub
- Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: Mark 5 (1832), at Bible Hub
- John Gill, Exposition of the Bible: Mark 5 (1746–1763), at Bible Hub