Chapter 239 of 404

The Son’s Knowledge Limited

Some sayings attributed to Jesus that are almost certainly authentic claim his Sonship in a special sense. For example, in Mk 13:32, Jesus claims that no one knows the day nor the hour, not even “the Son,” a saying that is surely authentic. ⁶⁵ Especially because Scripture already attested that the Lord knows the time (Zech 14:7), the early church would hardly have created a saying limiting divine omniscience to the Father;⁶⁶ no circle of first-century Christianity securely known to us would have readily invented such a christological concession. Had early Christians simply needed a saying to address the delay of the parousia, they would more naturally have created a claim that Jesus denied the imminence of the parousia, not that he was ignorant of its timing.⁶⁷

The saying fits a Palestinian Jewish milieu; Diaspora Jews tended to be far less interested in end-time speculation. In the early centuries of this era, some Jewish futurists even set dates for the end of the age,⁶⁸ eliciting a strong reaction among more conservative teachers.⁶⁹ Although some later rabbis thought that God revealed all things to his angels, those later rabbis who commented on the subject generally doubted that angels knew the time of Israel’s deliverance,⁷⁰ and angels were rarely viewed as omniscient.⁷¹

If we accept the saying as authentic, however, it incidentally verifies the view that Jesus called himself the son of God in a distinctive sense, and assigns himself a role among or above the angels.⁷²

↑ Back to top