CHAPTER XXVIII.
TEXTS EXPLAINED; ELEVENTHLY, Mark xill. 32 AND LUKE li. 52.
Arian explanation of the former text is against the Regula Fidei; and against the context. Our Lord said He was ignorant of the Day, by reason of His human nature. If the Holy Spirit knows the Day, therefore the Son knows; if the Son knows the 8 Ocoorvycts, supr. § 16, n. 7. infr. § 58, de Mort. Ar. 1. In tliud Omn. 6. OUSi onsets io John ii. 4. éwémAntre; and so émerinoe, Chrysost. zx Zac. Joan, and Theophyl. ws dSeomorys emitysd, Theodor. Lran. ii. p. 106, evtpémet, Anon. ap. Corder, Cat. iz loc. wéudetar, Alter Anon. ibid. ETLTLLG OVK aTiMaGwY aAAG ScopGovpevos, Euthym. 2 Zoc. ob érémAngev, Pseudo-Justin. Quest. ad Orthod. 136. It is remarkable that Athan. dwells on these words as implying our Lord’s humanity (i.e. because Christ appeared to decline a miracle), when one reason assigned for them by the Fathers is that He wished, in the words Tt mou Kal cor, to remind §. Mary that He was the Son of God and must be ‘about His Father’s business.’ ‘ Repellens ejus intempestivam festinationem,’ Iren. Her. iii. 16,n.7. It is observable that émumAjr7er and émutys@ are the words used by Cyril, &c. (infr. § 54, note 4), for our Lord’s treatment of His own sacred body, But they are very vague words, and have a strong meaning or not, as the case may be.
> Father, therefore He knows the Day; if He has all that is the Father’s, therefore knowledge of the Day; if in the Father, He knows the Day in the Father; if He created and upholds all things, He knows when they will ceaseto be. Heknowsnotas Man, argued from Matt. xxiv. 42. As He asked about Lazarus’s grave, &c., yet knew, so He knows; as S. Paul says, ‘ whether in the body I know not,’ &c., yet knew, so He knows.
He said He knew not for our profit, that we be not curious (as in Acts i. 7, where on the contrary He did not say He knew not). As the Almighty asks of Adam and of Cain, yet knew, so the Son knows [as God]. Again, He advanced in wisdom also as man, else He made Angels perfect before Himself.
He advanced, in that the Godhead was manifested in Him more fully as time went on.
42. THESE things being so, come let us now examine into ‘ But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, neither the Angels of God, nor the Son';’ for being in great ignorance as regards these words, and being stupified ” about them, they think they have in them an important argument for their heresy. But I, when the heretics allege it and prepare themselves with it, see in them the giants3 again fighting against God. For the Lord of heaven and earth, by whom all things were made, has to litigate before them about day and hour; and the Word who knows all things is accused by them of ignorance about a day; and the Son who knows the Father is said to be ignorant of an hour of a day; now what can be spoken more contrary to sense, or what madness can be likened to this? Through the Word all things have been made, times and seasons and night and day and the whole creation; and is the Framer of all said to be ignorant of His work? And the very context of the lection shews that the Son of God knows that hour and that day, though the Arians fall headlong in their ignorance. For after saying, ‘nor the Son,’ He relates to the disciples what precedes the day, saying, ‘This and that shall be, and then the end.’ But He who speaks of what precedes the day, knows certainly the day also, which shall be manifested subsequently to the things foretold. But if He had not known the hour, He had not signified the events before it, as not knowing when it should be. And as any one, who, by way of pointing out a house or city to those who were ignorant of it, gave an I Mark xiii. 32. S. Basil takes the words ovS’ 6 vids, et uh 6 maryp, to mean, ‘nor does the Son know, except the Father knows,’ or ‘nor would the Son but for, &c.’ or ‘nor does the Son know, except as the Father knows.’ ‘The cause of the Son’s knowing is from the Father.’ ZZ. 236, 2. S. Gregory alludes to the same interpretation, ov 6 vids } ws Ste 6 marnp. ‘Since the Father knows, therefore the Son.’ Naz. Ovat. 30, 16. S. lrenzeus seems to adopt the same when he says, ‘ The Son was not ashamed to refer the knowledge of that day to the Father;’ ez. ii. 28, n. 6. as Naz, sur. uses the words émit thy airiay avapepéoOw, And so Photius distinctly, cis apynv avadéperat. ‘Not the Son, but the Father, that is, whence knowledge comes to the Son as from afountain.’ AZ¢Z. p. 342. ed. 1651.
account of what comes before the house or city, and having described all, said, ‘Then immediately comes the city or the house,’ would know of course where the house or the city was (for had he not known, he had not described what comes before lest from ignorance he should throw his hearers far out of the way, or in speaking he should unawares go beyond the object), so the Lord saying what precedes that day and that hour, knows exactly, nor is ignorant, when the hour and the day are at hand.
43. Now why it was that, though He knew, He did not tell His disciples plainly at that time, no one may be curious' where He has been silent; for ‘Who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been His counsellor??’ but why, though He knew, He said, ‘no, not the Son knows,’ this I think none of the faithful is ignorant, viz. that He made this as those other declarations as man by reason of the flesh. For this as before is not the Word’s deficiency3, but of that human nature+ whose property it is to be ignorant. And this again will be well seen by honestly examining into the occasion, when and to whom the Saviour spoke thus. Not then when the heaven was made by Him, nor when He was with the Father Himself, the Word ‘disposing all things,’ nor before He became man did He say it, but when ‘the Word became flesh ®.’ On this account it is reasonable to ascribe to His manhood everything which, after He became man, He speaks humanly. For it is proper to the Word to know what was made, nor be ignorant either of the beginning or of the end of these (for the works are His), and He knows how many things He wrought, and the limit of their consistence. And knowing of each the beginning and the end, He knows surely the general and common end of all. Certainly when He says in the Gospel concerning Himself in His human character, ‘Father, the hour is come, glorify Thy Son?,’ it is plain that He knows also the hour of the end of all things, as: the Word, though as man He is ignorant of it, for ignorance is proper to man®, and especially 8 Though our Lord, as having two natures, had a human as well as a divine knowledge, and though that human knowledge was not only limited because human, but liable to ignorance in matters in wnich greater knowledge was possible; yet it is the doctrine of the [later] Caurch, that 7 fact He was not ignorant even in His human nature, according to its capacity, since it was from the first taken out of its original and natural condition, and ‘deified’ by its union with the Word. As then (supr. ii. 45, note 1) His manhood was created, yet He may not be called a creature even in His manhood, and as (sufr. ii. 14, note 5) His flesh was in its abstract nature a servant, yet He is not a servant in fact, even as regards the flesh; so, though He took on Him a soul which left to‘itself had been partially ignorant, as other human: souls, yet as ever enjoying the beatific vision from its oneness with ignorance of these things. Moreover this is proper to the Saviour’s love of man; for since He was made man, He is not ashamed, because of the flesh which is ignorant9, to say ‘I know not,’ that He may shew that knowing as God, He is but ignorant according to the flesh?°, And therefore He said not, ‘no, not the Son of God knows,’ lest the Godhead should seem ignorant, but simply, ‘no, not the Son,’ that the ignorance might be the Son’s as born from among men.
44. On this account, He alludes to the Angels, but He did not go further and say, ‘not the Holy Ghost;’ but He was silent, with a double intimation; first that if the Spirit knew, much more must the Word know, considered as the Word, from whom the Spirit receives?; and next by His silence about the Spirit, He made it clear, that He said of His human ministry, ‘no, not the Son.’ And a proof of it is this; that, when He had spoken humanly? ‘No, not the Son knows,’ the Word, it never was ignorant really, but knew all things which human soul can know. vid. Eulog. af. Phot. 230. p. 884. As Pope Gregory expresses it, ‘Novit in natura, non ex natura humanitatis.’ Eff. x. 39. However, this view of the sacred subject was received by the Ghurch only after S, Athanasius’s day, and it cannot be denied that others of the most eminent Fathers seem to impute ignorance to our Lord as man, as Athan. in this passage. Of course it is not meant that our Lord’s soul has the same perfect knowledge as He has as God. This was the assertion of a General of the Hermits of S. Austin at the time of the Council of Basel, when the proposition was formally condemned, animam Christi Deum videre tam clare et intense quam ¢lare et intense Deus videt seipsum. vid. Berti Of/. t. 3. p. 42. Yet Fulgentius had said, ‘I think that in no respect was full knowledge of the Godhead wanting to that Soul, whose Person is one with the Word: whom Wisdom so assumed that it is itself that same Wisdom.’ ad Ferrand. iii. p. 223. ed. 1639. Yet, ad Trasmund. 1. 7. AA of ignorance attaching to our Lord’s human nature, x0 And is Athan. ad Sera. ii. 9. S. Basil on the question being asked him by S. Amphilochius, says that he shall give him the answer he had ‘heard from a boy from the fathers,’ but which was more fitted for pious Christians than for cavillers, and that is, that ‘our Lord says many things to men in His human aspect; as “Give.me to drink,”...yet He who asked was not flesh without a soul, but Godhead using flesh which had one.’ Z/. 236,1. He goes on to suggest another explanation which has been mentioned § 42, note x. Cf. Cyril Zvi. pp. 623, 4. vid. also Thes. p. 220. “As he submitted as man to hunger and thirst, so...to be ignorant.’ p. 22t. vid. also Greg. Naz. Orat. 30, 15. Theodoret expresses the same opinion very strongly, speaking of a gradual revelation to the manhood from the Godhead, but in an argument where it was to his point to do so; in Anath, 4. t. v. p. 23. ed.
Schulze. Theodore of Mopsuestia also speaks of arevelation made by the Word. ap. Leont. ¢. West. (Canis. 1. p. 579+) 2 Leporius, in his Retractation, which S. Augustine subscribed, writes, ‘That I may in this respect also leave nothing to be cause of suspicion to any one, I then said, nay I answered when it was put to me, that our Lord Jesus Christ was ignorant as He was man, (secundum hominem), But now not only do I not presume to say so, but I even anathematize my former -opinion expressed on this point,’ ap. Sivm. t. i. p. 219. A subdivision also of the Eutychians were called by the name of Agnoetz from their holding that our Lord was ignorant of the day of judgment. ‘They said,’ says Leontius, ‘that He was ignorant of it, as we say that He underwent toil.’ de Sect. 5. circ. fn. Felix of Urgela held the same doctrine according to Agobard’s testimony, see § 46, n.2. Montfaucon observes on the text, that the assertion of our Lord’s ignorance ‘seems to have been condemned in no one in ancient times, unless joined to other error.’ And Petavius, after drawing out the authorities for and against it, says, © Of these two opinions, the latter, which is now received both by custom and by the agreement of divines, is deservedly preferred to the former. For it is more agreeable to Christ’s dignity, and more befitting His character and office of Mediator and Head, that is, Fountain of all grace and wisdom, and moreoverof Judge, who is concerned in knowing the time fixed for exercising that function, Ee Ri ee ee ee ee ee eee He yet shews that divinely He knew all things. For that Son whom He declares not to know the day, Him He declares to know the Father; for ‘No one,’ He says, ‘knoweth the Father save the Son3.’ And all men but the Arians would join in confessing, that He who knows the Father, much more knows the whole of the creation; and in that whole, its end. And if already the day and the hour be determined by the Father, it is plain that through the Son are they determined, and He knows Himself what through Him has been determined‘, for there is nothing but has come to be and has been determined through the Son. Therefore He, being the Framer of the universe, knows of what nature, and of what magnitude, and with what limits, the Father has willed it to be made; and in the how much and how far is included its period. And again, if all that is the Father’s, is the Son’s (and this He Himself has5 said), and it is the Father’s attribute to know the day, it is plain that the Son too knows it, having this proper to Him from the Father. And again, if the Son be in the Father and the Father in the Son, and the Father knows the day and the hour, it is clear that the Son, being in the Father and knowing the things of the Father, knows Himself also the day and the hour. And if the Son is also the Fathers Very Image, and the Father knows the day and the hour, it is plain that the Son has this likeness © also to the Father of knowing them. And it is not wonderful if He, through whom all things were made, and in whom the universe consists, Himself knows what has been brought to be, and when the end will be of each and of all together; rather is it wonderful that this audacity, suitable as it is to the madness of the Ario-maniacs, should have forced us to have recourse to so long a defence. For ranking the Son of God, the Eternal Word, among things originate, they are not far from venturing to maintain that the Father Himself is second to the creation; for if He who knows the Father knows not the day nor the hour, I fear lest the knowledge of the creation, or rather of the lower portion of it, be greater, as they in their madness would say, than knowledge concerning the Father.
45. But for them, when they thus blaspheme the Spirit, they must expect no remission ever of such irreligion, as the Lord has said; but In consequence, the former opinion, though formerly it received the countenance of some men of high eminence, was afterwards marked as a heresy.’ Jncarn. xi. 1. § 15.
6 Basil. ZA. 236, 1. Cyril. Thes. p. 220. Ambros. de fid. v. 107. Hence the force of the word ‘living’ commonly joined to such words as éikwv, afpayis, Bovdy, évépyera, when speaking of our Lord, e.g. Naz. Orat. 30, 20, c. Vid. § 63, fi. note.
let us, who love Christ and bear Christ within us, know that the Word, not as ignorant, considered as Word, has said ‘I know not,’ for He knows, but as shewing His manhood, in that to be ignorant is proper to man, and that He had put on flesh that was ignorant 3, being in which, He said according to the flesh, ‘I know not.’ And: for this reason, after saying, ‘No not the Son knows,’ and mentioning the ignorance of the men in Noah’s day, immediately He added, ‘Watch therefore, for ye know not in what hour your Lord doth come,’ and again, ‘In such an hour as ye think not, the Son of man cometh+.’ For I too, having become as you for you, said ‘no, not the Son.’ For, had He been ignorant divinely, He must have said, ‘ Watch therefore, for I know not,’ and, ‘In an hour when I think not;’ but in fact this hath He not said; but by saying ‘ Ye know not’ and ‘When ye think not,’ He has signified that it belongs to man to be ignorant; for whose sake He too having a flesh like theirs and having become man, said ‘ No, not the Son knows,’ for He knew not in flesh, though knowing as Word. And again the 2 It is a question to be decided, whether our Lord speaks of actual ignorance in His human Mind, or of the natural ignorance of that Mind considered as human; ignorance z# or ex natura; or, which comes to the same thing, whether He spoke of a real ignorance, or of an economical or professed ignorance, in a certain view of His incarnation or office, as when He asked, ‘ How many loaves have ye?’ when ‘ He Himself knew what He would do,’ or as He is called sin, though sinless. Thus it has been noticed, supr.ii. 55, n. 7, that Ath. seems to make His infirmities altogether only imputative, not real, as if shewing that the subject had not in his day been thoroughly worked out. In like manner S. Hilary, who, if the passage be genuine, states so clearly our Lord’s ignorance, de Trin. ix. fin. yet, as Petavius observes, seems elsewhere to deny to Him those very affections of the flesh to which he has there paralleled it. And this view of Athan.’s meaning is favoured by the turn of his expressions. He says such a defect belongs to ‘¢zat human nature whose property it is to be ignorant;’ § 43. that ‘since He was made man, He is not ashamed, because of the flesh which is ignorant, Zo say, ‘I know not;”’ ibid. and, as here, that ‘as skewing His manhood, in that to be ignorant is proper to man, and that He had put on a flesh that was ignorant, being in which, He sazd according to the flesh, ‘‘I know not;”’ ‘that He might skew that as man He knows not;’ § 46, that ‘as man’ (i.e. on the ground of being man, not in the capacity of man), ‘He knows not;’ ibid. and that, “He asks about Lazarus humanly,’ even when ‘ He was on His way to raise him,’ which implied surely knowledge in His human nature. The reference to the parallel of S. Paul’s professed ignorance when he really knew, § 47. leads us to the same suspicion. And so ‘for our profit as I think, did He this.’ §§ 48—so. The natural want of precision on such questions in the early ages was shewn or fostered by such words as oikovoytxds, which, in respect of this very text, is used by S. Basil to denote both our Lord’s Incarnation, ZZ. 236, 1 fin. and His gracious accommodation of Himself and His truth, £/, 8, 6. and with the like variety of meaning, with reference to the same text, by Cyril. 77x. p. 623. and Thesaur. p. 224. (And the word dzsfensatio in like manner, Ben. note on //z2, x. 8.) In the latter Ef. S. Basil suggests-that our Lord ‘ economizes by a feigned ignorance.’§ 6. And.S, Cyril.
Thesaur. p. 224. And even in de Triz. vi. he seems to recognise the distinction laid down just now between the natural and actual state of our Lord’s humanity; and so Hilary, 772. ix. 62. And he gives reasons why He ‘professed ignorance, n. 67. viz. as S. Austin words it, Christum se dixisse nescientem, in quo alios facit occultando nescientes. ZZ. 180, 3. S. Austin follows him, saying, Hoc nescit quod nescienter facit. 7yim.i.23. Pope Gregorysays that the text ‘is most certainly to be referred to the Son not as He is Head, but as to His body which we are.’ Fp x. 39. And S. Ambrose de fid. v. 222. And so Cesarius, Qu. 20, and Photius Epp. p. 366. Chrysost.in Matt. Hom.77,3. Theodoret, however, but in controversy, is very severe on the principle of Economy, ‘ If He knew the day, and wishing to conceal it, said He'was ignorant, see what a blasphemy is the result. Truth tells an untruth.’ 1. c. pp. 23, 4. 3 § 48. 4 Matt. xxiv. 42, 44.
DISCOURSEaliL example from Noah exposes the shamelessness of Christ’s enemies; for there too He said, not, ‘I knew not,’ but ‘They knew not until the flood came 5.’ For men did not know, but He who brought the flood (and it was the Saviour Himself) knew the day and the hour in which He opened the cataracts of heaven, and broke up the great deep, and said to Noah, ‘Come thou and all thy house into the ark®’ For were He ignorant, He had not foretold to Noah, ‘ Yet seven days and I will bring a flood upon the earth.’ But if in describing the day He makes use of the parallel of Noah’s time, and He did know the day of the flood, therefore He knows also the day of His own coming.
46. Moreover, after narrating the parable of the Virgins, again He shews more clearly who they are who are ignorant of the day and the hour, saying, ‘Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour". He who said shortly before, ‘No one knoweth, no not the Son,’ now says not ‘I know not,’ but ‘ ye know not.’ In like manner then, when His disciples asked about the end, suitably said He then, ‘no, nor the Son,’ according to the flesh because of the body; that He might shew that, as man, He knows not; for ignorance is proper to man?. If however He is the Word, if it is He who is to come, He to be Judge, He to be the Bridegroom, He knoweth when and in what hour He cometh, and when He is to say, ‘Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light 3.’ For as, on becoming man, He hungers and thirsts and suffers with men, so with men, as man He knows not; though divinely, being in the Father Word and Wisdom, He knows, and there is nothing which He knows not. In like manner also about Lazarus+ He asks humanly, who was on His way to raise him, and knew whence He should recall Lazarus’s soul; and it was a greater thing to know where the soul was, than to know where the body lay; but He asked humanly, that He might raise divinely. So too He asks of the disciples, on coming into the parts of Czsarea, 5 Matt. xxiv. 39. 6 Gen. vii. z. I Matt. xxv. 13.
2 The mode in which Athan. here expresses himself, is as if he did not ascribe ignorance literally, but appayent ignorance, to our Lord’s soul, vid. suv. 45. n. 2; not certainly in the broad sense in which heretics have done so. As Leontius, e.g. reports of Theodore of Mopsuestia, that he considered Christ ‘to be ignorant so far, as not to know, when He was tempted, who tempted Him;’ contr. Nest. iii. (Canis. t. i. p. 579.) and Agobard of Felix the Adoptionist that he held “ Our Lord Jesus Christ according to the* flesh. zvufy to havey/been;ignorant of the septlchre of Lazarus, when He said'tovhis sisters, “Where have ye laid him?’ and was truly ignorant of the day ofjudgment; and was ¢7zly ignorant what the two disciples were saying, as they: walked bythe way, of what had been done at Jerusalem; and: wasstrvuly ignorant whether He was?more loved by Peter than by the other disciples, when He said, ‘Simon Peter, Lovest thou Me more than these?’ B.P.t.9. p. 1177. Cf. Prolegg. ch. iv. § 5+] though knowing even before Peter made answer. For if the Father revealed to Peter the answer to the Lord’s question, it is plain that through the Son was the revelation, for ‘No one knoweth the Son,’ saith He, ‘save the Father, neither the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him ©.’ But if through the Son is revealed the knowledge both of the Father and the Son, there is no room for doubting that the Lord who asked, having first revealed it to Peter from the Father, next asked humanly; in order to shew, that asking after the flesh, He knew divinely “what Peter was about to say. The Son then knew, as knowing all things, and knowing His own Father, than which knowledge nothing can be greater or more perfect.
47. This is sufficient to confute them; but to shew still further that they are hostile to the truth and Christ’s enemies, I could wish to ask them a question. ‘The Apostle in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians writes, ‘I knew a man in Christ, above fourteen years ago, whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know; God knoweth?.’ What now say ye? Knew the Apostle what had happened to him in the vision, though he says ‘I know not,’ or knew he not? If he knew not, see to it, lest, being familiar with error, ye err in the ttespass? of the Phrygians 3, who say that the Prophets and the other ministers of the Word know neither what they do nor concerning what they announce. But if he knew when he said ‘I know not,’ for he had Christ within him revealing to him all things, is not the heart of God’s enemies indeed perverted and ‘ selfcondemned?’ for when the Apostle says, ‘I ‘know not,’ they say that he knows; but when tthe Lord: says, ‘I know not,’ they say that He does not know. For if since Christ was within him, Paul knew that of which he says, ‘I know not,’ does not much more Christ Himself know, though He say, ‘I know not?’ The Apostle then, the Lord revealing it to him, knew what happened to him; for on this account he rsays, ‘I knew a man in Christ;) and knowing the man, he knewalso how the man was caught away. Thus Elisha, who beheld Elijah, knew S. Augustine understands the passage differently, i.e. that S. Paul really did not know whether or not he was in the body. Gen. ad Ut. xii. 14.
34Cf. Jerome, ‘ He speaks not in ecstasy, as Montanus, Prisca, and Maximilla rave;’ Pref in Naum. In like manner Tertullian speaks-of ‘amentia, as the spiritalis vis qua constat prophetia;’ de Anim. 21. Cf. Eusebius, Hist. v. 16. Epiphanius too,noticing:the failure of Maximilla’s propheetes, says, “ Whatever the-prophets have said, they'spoke with understanding, following the sense. Har. 48. p.403. In the de Syn. 4. Athan. speaks of the Montanists as making a fresh beginning of Christianity; i.e. they were the first heretics who professed to prophesy and to introduce a new or additional revelation.
I 2 Cor. xii. 2.
Ee 2 also how he was taken up; but though knowing, yet when the sons of the Prophets thought that Elijah was cast upon one of the mountains by the Spirit, he knowing from the first what he had seen, tried to persuade them; but when they urged it, he was silent, and suffered them to go after him. Did he then not know, because he was silent? he knew indeed, but as if not knowing, he suffered them, that they being convinced, might no more doubt about the taking up of Elijah. Therefore much more Paul, himself being the person caught away, knew also how he was caught; for Elijah knew; and had any one asked, he would have said how. And yet Paul says ‘I know not,’ for these two reasons, as I think at least; one, as he has said himself, lest because of the abundance of the revelations any one should think of him beyond what he saw; the other, because, our Saviour having said ‘I know not,’ it became him also to say ‘I know not,’ lest the servant should appear above his Lord, and the disciple above his Master.
48. Therefore He who gave to Paul to know, much rather knew Himself; for since | He spoke of the antecedents of the day, He also knew, as I said before, when the Day and when the Hour, and yet though knowing, He says, ‘No, not the Son knoweth.’ Why then said He at that time ‘I know not,’ what He, as Lord?, knew? as we may by searching conjecture, for our profit, as I think at least, did He this; and may He grant to what we are now proposing a true meaning! On both sides did the Saviour secure our advantage; for He has made known what comes before the end, that, as He said Himself, we might not be startled nor scared, when they happen, but from them may expect the end after them. And concerning the day and the hour He was not willing to say according to His divine nature, ‘I know,’ but after the flesh, ‘I know not,’ for the sake of the flesh which was ignorant3, as I have said before; lest they should ask Him further, and then either He should have to pain the disciples by not speaking, or by speaking might act to the prejudice of them and us all. For whatever He does, that altogether He does for our sakes, since also for us ‘the Word became flesh.’ For us therefore He said ‘ No, not the Son knoweth; and neither was He untrue in thus saying (for He said humanly, as man, ‘I know not’), nor did He suffer the disciples to force Him to speak, for by saying ‘I know 2 This expression; which repeatedly occurs in this and the following sections, surely implies that there was something economical in our Lord’s profession of ignorance. He said with a purpose, not as a mere plain fact or doctrine. [But see Prolegg.
not’ He stopped their inquiries. And so in the Acts of the Apostles it is written, when He went upon the Angels, ascending as man, and carrying up to heaven the flesh which He bore, on the disciples seeing this, and again asking, ‘When shall the end be, and when wilt Thou be present?’ He said to them more clearly, ‘It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in His own power4.’ And He did not then say, ‘No, not the Son,’ as He said before humanly, but, ‘It is not for you to know.’ For now the flesh had risen and put off its mortality and been deified; and no longer did it become Him to answer after the flesh when He was going into the heavens; but henceforth to teach after a divine manner, ‘It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father hath put in His own power; but ye shall receive Power’,’ And what is that Power of the Father but the Son? for Christ is ‘God’s Power and God’s Wisdom.’
49. The Son then did know, as being the Word; for He implied this in what He said,— ‘T know, but it is not for you to know; for it was for your sakes that sitting also on the mount I said according to the flesh, ‘ No, not the Son knoweth,’ for the profit of you and all. For it is profitable to you to hear so much both of the Angels and of the Son, because of the deceivers which shall be afterwards; that though demons should be transfigured as Angels, and should attempt to speak concerning the end, you should not believe, since they are ignorant; and that, if Antichrist too, disguising himself, should say, ‘1 am Christ,’ and should try in his turn to speak of that day and end, to deceive the hearers, ye, having these words from Me, ‘ No, not the Son,’ may disbelieve him also. And further, not to know when the end is, or when the day of the end, is expedient for man, lest knowing, they might become negligent of the time between, awaiting the days near the end; for they will argue that then only must they attend to themselves?. Therefore also has He been silent of the time when each shall die, lest men, being elated on the ground of knowledge, should forthwith neglect themselves for the greater part of their time. Both then, the end of all things and the limit of each of us hath the Word concealed from us (for in the end of all is the end of each, and in the end of each the end of all is comprehended), that, whereas it is uncertain and 4 Actsi. 7. 5 Vid. Basil. #4, 8, 6. Cyril. Thes. p. 222. Ambros. de fid. v. 212. Chrysost. and Hieron. 7% loc. Matt. 1 Vid. Hilar. in Matt. Comment. 26, 4; de Trin. ix. 67; Ambros. de Hid, v. ¢. 17. i Isidor. Pelus. ZZ. i. 117. Chrysost.
DISCOURSE Il.
always in prospect, we may advance day by day as if summoned, reaching forward to the things before us and forgetting the things behind’. For who, knowing the day of the end, would not be dilatory with the interval? but, if ignorant, would not be ready day by day? It was on this account that the Saviour added, ‘Watch therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come;’ and, ‘In such an hour as ye think not, the Son of man cometh3,’ For the advantage then which comes of ignorance has He said this; for in saying it, He wishes that we should always be prepared; ‘for you,’ He says, ‘know not; but I, the Lord, know when I come, though the Arians do not wait for Me, who am the Word of the Father.’
50. The Lord then, knowing what is good for us beyond ourselves, thus secured the disciples; and they, being thus taught, set right those of Thessalonica+ when likely on this point to run into error. However, since Christ’s enemies do not yield even to these considerations, I wish, though knowing that they have a heart harder than Pharaoh, to ask them again concerning this. In Paradise God asks, ‘ Adam, where art Thous?’ and He inquires of Cain also, ‘Where is Abel thy brother®?? What then say you to this? for if you think Him ignorant and therefore to have asked, you are already of the party of the Manichees, for this is their bold thought; but if, fearing the open name, ye force yourselves te say, that He asks knowing, what is there extravagant or strange in the doctrine, that ye should thus fali, on finding that the Son, in whom God then inquired, that same Son who now is clad in flesh, inquires of the disciples as man? unless forsooth, having become Manichees, you are willing to blame? the question then put to Adam and all that you may give full play® to your perverseness. For being exposed on all sides, you still make a whispering? from the words of Luke, which are rightly said, but ill understood by you.
2 Vid, Phil. iti. 13. 3 Matt. xxiv. 42; Luke xii. 40, 5 Gen. iii. 9; iv.9. This seems taken from Origen, tm Matt. t. 10, § 14. vid. also Pope Gregory and Chrysost. mfr. +