When did Jesus know?
Recently, I've had some discussions with people about how omniscient was Jesus. He obviously knew the thoughts of the people around Him, He could tell people their past, and He foretold many events during His ministry. Still, in Matthew 24:36 Jesus says "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." According to this, we could argue that Jesus's awareness was limited and different than the Father. Also, I've been reading through the new testament with the middle school kids and I've noticed that the story of Jesus's purpose seems to evolve as I read through the gospels. Early on, Jesus seems to have some sense of His purpose (like went he stays in the temple as a child, and when he rebukes his mother at the wedding) but his experience in the wilderness praying and fasting seems to be a time of revelation for Him since He returns in ministry. Then, Jesus seems to be concerned more with calling the people to repentance, love, purity, and righteousness until later (maybe around the transfiguration) when He starts to focus on His coming death. In the garden, when He prays for mercy, He seems to think there is still the possiblity that God's will could be to spare Him. I know there is some question about the chronology of the gospels, and it's hard to know for sure, but did Jesus always know He was going to die on the cross, or was it revealed to Him slowly?
One quick comment ... and I think you're right about the "problem" of chronology, but he knew the hearts of people as God does (not meaning here to distinguish him from God). In John 6:70 (again, I don't recall the chronology), but Jesus said that he chose the 12 yet knew that one of them (Judas) was a devil. So, his omniscience was pretty extensive, but how extensive, I'm not ready to say in this blog entry (nor do I anticipate I'll ever be able to say). I like the topic. Hopefully you'll get more comments.
Obviously, I'm not a master theologian like Burly; however, I would like to add my two cents. (My husband would say I do that at every available opportunity.) I don't profess to know the answers to give a pat yes or no. For one, since Jesus was human, we would have to say that his omniscience was at first limited to his age. When he was a toddler (and probably into school age, maybe early adolescence, who knows) of course he didn't know what he knew later because he had confined himself in the mind of a child. Any of us would say we have more insight now than we did at age 2 or 4, or 14 (hopefully). I personally don't think it would be any different with Jesus since he was fully human. However, scripture does say that God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Christ. (Col. 1:19). I think you'd have to include omniscience in that. There's my two cents. Way to open a can of worms, Travis!
I'd like to psedo correct my use of the omniscience. Since omniscience means "all knowing," that's what the discussion is about. Can there be degrees of omniscience. It might be improper for me to use that term, and it's okay not to use the term since it's not a biblical term, but is a biblical concept. And by the way, it's okay to question someone who's been to seminary. I've been to seminary and there are a lot of idiots there (myself included at times). An MDiv doesn't automatically serve as a trump card in a biblical discussion.
I just noticed that Miles used the term omniscient first. That gets me off the hook. And I am off the hook, yo, if you know what I'm sayin' (yeah).
I think you're right about the impossibility of degrees of omniscience, but every one knows what we're talking about. Thanks for the comment BethAnn. I hadn't thought of that before, and I'll have to think about that angle. But I'll pose a new question: what wouldit mean to us if we determined that Jesus either knew or didn't know all that would happen to Him?
that's a good question.
I know we're talking about omniscience but I think it would be safe to say that being human Jesus gave up His omnipresence. So if he gave up his omnipresence, would he perhaps have voluntarily surrendered omniscience? I don't know the answer. Guess that's why He's God and not me.
I'll agree that we know what we're talking about when we talk about degrees of omniscience, we know what we're talking about. That being said, Jesus did have a prophetic ability (e.g. some form of omniscience) greater than that of any of the prophets before him. Some of that prophetic ability was the ability to see hearts, a right reserved to God alone (though the rest of us are able to imperfectly [and I stress imperfectly] discern motives).