De gradibus humilitatis et superbiae
How Christ Knew Mercy in Two Ways
Christ knew mercy eternally through his divinity and learned it experientially in time through his flesh.
So it shouldn't seem absurd if we say that Christ didn't begin to know something he had never known before — that he knew mercy in one way from all eternity through his divinity, yet learned it in another way in time through his flesh.
The Lord's Denial of Knowing the Last Day
The author raises the puzzle of Christ claiming not to know the last day despite containing all wisdom and asks why he denied what he must have known.
Be careful to notice that a similar turn of speech applies to what was said when the Lord, after his disciples asked him about the last day, answered that he himself did not know.✦ For how could he not have known that day, in which all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden?✦ Why, then, did he deny that he knew what he certainly could not have failed to know?
Christ Neither Deceived Nor Was Ignorant
The author rules out deception and affirms that as Wisdom and Truth itself, Christ could neither be ignorant nor lie.
Surely he didn't want to lie to them by hiding something he couldn't usefully make known? Far be it. Just as he could not be ignorant of anything, since he is Wisdom itself, so neither could he lie, since he is Truth itself.✦
Restraining Curiosity, Not Concealing Truth
Christ denied knowing the last day not from ignorance but to curb his disciples' useless curiosity, speaking truthfully in a particular sense.
But wanting to restrain his disciples from the useless curiosity of their prying, he denied knowing what they were asking about — not in every sense, but in a particular way in which he could truthfully say he did not know.
Divine Sight and Bodily Experience
Christ surveyed all things through divine contemplation but had not yet experienced eschatological events through his bodily senses.
For although in the contemplation of his own divinity he equally surveyed all things—past, present, and future—and so had that day openly before him, he had not recognized it through any bodily senses of his own flesh by actual experience.✦1
What Christ Had Not Yet Seen with Fleshly Eyes
Christ had not yet bodily witnessed the destruction of the Antichrist, the resurrection trumpet, or the separation of sheep and goats.
Otherwise, he would already have killed the Antichrist with the breath of his mouth; he would already have heard with the ears of his body the Archangel crying out and the trumpet sounding—the blast at whose noise the dead are to be raised; and he would already have seen with the eyes of his flesh the sheep and goats who are to be separated from one another.✦✦✦23
Read the original Latin
Non ergo debet absurdum videri, si dicitur Christum non quidem aliquid scire coepisse, quod aliquando nescierit, scire tamen alio modo misericordiam ab aeterno per divinitatem, et aliter in tempore didicisse per carnem. Vide ne et simili locutionis modo illud dictum sit, quod Domino requirentibus discipulis de die ultimo se nescire respondit. Nam quomodo diem illud ille nesciebat, in quo omnes thesauri sapientiae et scientiae absconditi sunt? Cur ergo se scire negabat, quod certum est quia nescire non poterat? Numquid forte mendaciter eis voluit celare, quod utiliter non valuit innotescere? Absit. Sicut nil ignorare poterat, cum sapientia sit, sic nec mentiri, cum veritas sit. Sed volens discipulos ab inutilis inquisitionis curiositate compescere, quod inquirebant se scire negavit: non omni modo quidem, sed tali quodam modo, quo negare veraciter potuit.
Nam etsi suae divinitatis intuitu aeque omnia praeterita scilicet, praesentia atque futura perlustrando, diem quoque illum palam habebat, non tamen ullis carnis suae sensibus experiendo agnoverat. Alioquin iam spiritu oris sui Antichristum interfecerat; iam auribus sui corporis Archagelum vociferantem et tubam sonantem, in quo strepitu mortui suscitandi sunt, audierat; iam oculis suae carnis oves haedosque, qui ab invicem segregandi sunt, perspexerat.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Mark.13.32;Acts.1.7 — But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Acts.1.7 — But he said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has set by his own authority."
- ↩Col.2.3 — in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
- ↩John.14.6 — Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'
- ↩Mark.13.32;Acts.1.7 — But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Acts.1.7 — But he said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has set by his own authority."
- ↩2Thess.2.8 — And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord [Jesus] will destroy with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the manifestation of his coming.
- ↩1Thess.4.16 — For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
- ↩Matt.25.32-Matt.25.33 — And all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them from one another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. Matt.25.33 — And he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at his left.
Notes
- 1 ↩The distinction here is between Christ's divine knowledge (intuitus divinitatis) and knowledge acquired through the senses of his assumed human flesh (sensibus carnis). The point is that he truly 'did not know' the day in the latter sense, not the former.
- 2 ↩Alioquin introduces a counterfactual: if Christ had known the day through his human senses, he would already have experienced these last things. The repeated iam ('already') underscores the absurdity of the implication.
- 3 ↩The imagery draws on 2 Thessalonians 2:8 (killing the lawless one with the breath of his mouth), 1 Thessalonians 4:16 (the voice of the Archangel and the trumpet of God), and Matthew 25:32–33 (the separation of sheep and goats). These are candidate allusions pending Moses resolution.
De gradibus humilitatis et superbiae (On the Steps of Humility and Pride) companion
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