ACC ~ Mark 13 v32 - 37

OVERVIEW:

Augustine’s comment on this passage focused upon the perplexing question of the Son’s not knowing the final day. When the Son is said not to know the final day, it is not because he is ignorant of it but because he causes it not to be known by them for whom it is not expedient to know it. He does not show it to them, and they will not learn it from him. It would not have been for our good to have known everything that was known to him. He spoke of knowing something by analogy, in the sense of knowing that which was fitting that hearers should know from him. The fullness of time is not yet humanly known as present but only as future. Christ “knew not that day” with no other meaning than that he, by concealing it, caused others not to know it. It is according to a common form of speech that the Son is said not to know what he does not teach; hence he is said not to know what he causes us not to know (AUGUSTINE).

Insofar as he truly assumes and participates in our ordinary humanity, the Son shares our human limitations of not seeing into the future (ATHANASIUS). The not knowing is attributed to the humanity of the incarnate Lord, not to the Godhead (GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS). It is not a defect in the truly human Son of God that he does not know the final hour but that it is not yet the time to speak or within the divine plan to act (HILARY OF POITIERS). Jesus knew the hour of judgment in the nature of his humanity but not from the nature of his humanity (GREGORY THE GREAT). Faith watches for the day of which it remains ignorant and trembles daily for that for which it daily hopes (TERTULLIAN). Watchfulness for final judgment is not occasional but belongs to the continuing response of believers (APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIONS). If we knew the future, we would easily be tempted to postpone all human seriousness and delay all decision making (ATHANASIUS). The pride that pretends one knows something one does not know is a greater moral danger than awareness of limited knowledge (AUGUSTINE). Since everything is not yet revealed, the text calls us to humility (IRENAEUS).

13:32a | That Hour No One Knows, Not Even the Son

IGNORANCE OF THE FUTURE IS OUR ORDINARY HUMAN CONDITION

ATHANASIUS: When his disciples asked him about the end, he said with precision: Of that day or that hour no one knows, not even he himself [1] —that is, when viewed according to the flesh, because he too, as human, lives within the limits of the human condition. He said this to show that, viewed as an ordinary man, he does not know the future, for ignorance of the future is characteristic of the human condition. Insofar as he is viewed according to his divinity as the Word who is to come, to judge, to be bridegroom, however, he knows when and in what hour he will come. … For as upon becoming human he hungers, thirsts and suffers, [2] along with all human beings, similarly as human he does not see the future. But viewed according to his divinity as the Word and wisdom of the Father, he knows, and there is nothing which he does not know. FOUR DISCOURSES AGAINST THE ARIANS 3.46. [3]

[1] Cf. Mt 24:36; Mk 13:32.

[2] HE BEGINNING OF THE GOSPEL | MARK 1:1-5

[3] NPNF 2 4:419*; TLG 2035.042, 26.420.29-38, 421.1-5. The God-man according to his humanity shares with us our ordinary human condition of ignorance of the future.

WHETHER THE SON IS DEFICIENT IN KNOWLEDGE

HILARY OF POITIERS: It is sometimes turned into a reproach against the only begotten God that he did not know the day and the hour. It is said that, though God, born of God, he is not in the perfection of divine nature, since he is subjected to the limitation of ignorance, namely, to an external force stronger than himself, triumphing, as it were, over his weakness. The heretics in their frenzy would try to drive us to this blasphemous interpretation: that he is thus captive to this external limitation, which makes such a confession inevitable. The words are those of the Lord himself. What could be more unholy, we ask, than to corrupt his express assertion by our attempt to explain it away? But, before we investigate the meaning and occasion of these words, let us first appeal to the judgment of common sense. Is it credible, that he, who stands to all things as the author [1] of their present and future, should not know all things? … All that is derives from God alone its origin, and has in him alone the efficient cause of its present state and future development. Can anything be beyond the reach of his nature, through which is effected, and in which is contained, all that is and shall be? Jesus Christ knows the thoughts of the mind, as it is now, stirred by present motives, and as it will be tomorrow, aroused by the impulse of future desires. … Whenever God says that he does not know, he professes ignorance indeed, but is not under the defect of ignorance. It is not because of the infirmity of ignorance that he does not know, but because it is not yet the time to speak, or in the divine plan to act. … This knowledge is not, therefore, a change from ignorance, but the coming of a fullness of time. He waits still to know, but we cannot suppose that he does not know. Therefore his not knowing what he knows, and his knowing what he does not know, is nothing else than a divine economy in word and deed. ON THE TRINITY 9.58-62. [2]

[1] Cf. Heb 12:2.

[2] Cetedoc 0433, 62A.9.58.4; NPNF 2 9:175-77**. The hour referred to is the fullness of time, which is not yet known as present but is known as future. It is not a defect in the Son of God that he does not know, but it is not yet the time to speak.

WHETHER THE SON KNOWS ALL THAT THE FATHER KNOWS

AUGUSTINE: According to “the form of God” [1] everything that the Father has belongs to the Son: for “All things that are mine are yours, and yours are mine.” [2] According to the form of a slave, [3] however, his teaching is not his own, but of the One who sent him. Hence “Of that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.” [4] He is ignorant of this in the special sense of making others ignorant. He did not “know it” in their presence in such a way as to be prepared to reveal it to them at that time. Recall that in a similar way it was said to Abraham: “Now I know that you fear God,” [5] in the sense that now I am taking you through a continuing journey to know yourself, because Abraham came to know himself only after he had been tried in adversity. … Jesus was “ignorant” in this sense, so to speak, among his disciples, of that which they were not yet able to know from him. He only said that which was seasonally fitting for them to know. Among those with mature wisdom he knew in a different way than among babes. [6] ON THE TRINITY 1.12.23. [7]

[1] Cf. Phil 2:6.

[2] Jn 17:10.

[3] Cf. Phil 2:7.

[4] Mt 24:36; Mk 13:32.

[5] Cf. Gen 22:12.

[6] Cf. 1 Cor 3:1.

[7] Cetedoc 0329, 50.1.11.31; FC 45:34-35**.

FIGURATIVE SPEECH CONCERNING WHAT THE SON DOES NOT WILL TO KNOW

AUGUSTINE: I am by no means of the opinion that a figurative mode of expression can be rightly termed a falsehood. For it is no falsehood to call a day joyous because it makes people joyous. A lupine seed is not sad because it lengthens the face of the eater because of its bitter taste. So also we say that God “knows” something when he makes his hearers know it (an instance quoted by yourself in the words of God to Abraham, “Now I know that you fear God” [1] ). These are by no means false statements, as you yourself readily see. Accordingly, the blessed Hilary threw light on an obscure point by this kind of figurative expression, showing how we ought to understand the words that “he did not know the day,” [2] with no other meaning than this: In proportion as he had made others ignorant by concealing his meaning, he spoke of it figuratively as his own lack of knowledge. So by concealing it, he so to speak caused others not to know it. He did not by this explanation condone lying, but he proved that it was not lying to use the common figures, including metaphors, as a form of speech available to all, a mode of expression entirely familiar to all in daily conversation. Would anyone call it a lie to say that vines are jeweled with buds, or that a grainfield waves, or that a young man is in the flower of his youth, because he sees in these objects neither waves nor precious stones, nor grass, nor trees to which these expressions would literally apply? LETTER 180, TO OCEANUS 3. [3]

[1] Gen 22:12.

[2] Cf. Mt 24:36; Mk 13:32.

[3] Cetedoc 0262, 180.44.3.698.26; NPNF 1:547-48**; cf. FC 30:119. This is a true statement figuratively understood, for Christ knew not that day with no other meaning than that he, by concealing it, caused others not to know it.

THE TIME NOT DISCLOSED TO FLESH

AUGUSTINE: No one should arrogate to oneself the knowledge of that time by any computation of years. For if that day is to come after seven thousand years, everyone could learn its advent simply by adding up years. What comes then of the Son’s even “not knowing” this? This is said with this meaning, that his hearers do not learn this from the Son, not that he by himself does not know it. It is to be understood according to that form of speech by which “The Lord your God tries you that he may know,” [1] which means, that he may make you know. Again, the phrase “arise, O Lord” [2] means make us arise. Thus when the Son is said not to know this day, it is not because he is ignorant of it, but because he causes those to know it not for whom it is not yet expedient to know it, for he does not show it to them. ON THE PSALMS 6.1. [3]

[1] Deut 13:3.

[2] Ps 3:7.

[3] Cetedoc 0283, 38.6.1.9; NPNF 1 8:15**. When the Son is said not to know this day, it is not because he is ignorant of it but because he does not disclose its time to those for whom this knowledge would not be helpful.

13:32b | Only the Father

WHETHER EVERYTHING IS ALREADY REVEALED

IRENAEUS: The gnostics presumptuously assume acquaintance with the unspeakable mysteries of God. Remember that even the Lord, the very Son of God, allowed that the Father alone knows the very day and hour of judgment. … If then the Son was not ashamed to ascribe the knowledge of that day to the Father only, but declared what was true regarding the matter, neither let us be ashamed to reserve for God those enigmatic questions which come our way. AGAINST HERESIES 2.28.6. [1]

[1] AHR 1:355; ANF 1:401*. The text calls us to humility.

THE ALL-KNOWING GOD

GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS: The last day and hour no one knows, not even the Son himself, but the Father. [1] Yet how can the source of wisdom be ignorant of anything—that is, wisdom who made the world, who perfects all, who remodels all, who is the limit of all things that were made, who knows the things of God and the spirit of a person, knowing the things that lie deep within? [2] For what can be more perfect than this knowledge? How then can you say that all things before that hour he knows accurately, and all things that are to happen about the time of the end, but of the hour itself he is ignorant? For such a thing would be like a riddle. It is as if one were to say that he knew accurately all that was in front of the wall, but did not know the wall itself. Or that, knowing the end of the day, he did not know the beginning of the night. Yet knowledge of the one necessarily implies the other. Thus everyone must see that the Son knows as God, and knows not as man (if we may for the purposes of argument distinguish that which is discerned by sight from that whichis discerned by thought alone). For the absolute and unconditioned use of the name “the Son” in this passage, without the addition of whose Son, [3] leads us to conclude: We are to understand the ignorance in the most reverent sense, by attributing it to his human nature, and not to the Godhead. ORATION 30, ON THE SON, SECOND ORATION 15. [4]

[1] Mt 24:36; Mk 13:32.

[2] 1 Cor 2:2.

[3] Whether the reference is to the son of Mary or Son of God.

[4] TLG 2022.010, 15.1-17; NPNF 2 7:315**.

NOT FOR OUR GOOD TO KNOW ALL

AUGUSTINE: It was not part of his office as our master that through him the day should become known to us. [1] It remains true that the Father knows nothing that the Son does not know, since his Son, the Word, is his wisdom, and his wisdom is to know. But it was not for our good to know everything which was known to him who came to teach us. He surely did not come to teach us that which it was not good for us to know. As master he both taught some things and left other things untaught. He knew both how to teach us what was good for us to know, and not to teach us what was not for our good to know. It is according to this common form of speech that the Son is said “not to know” what he does not choose to teach. We are in the daily habit of speaking in this way. Accordingly he is said “not to know” what he causes us not to know. ON THE PSALMS 37.1. [2]

[1] Augustine is asking whether it would have been for our good to have known everything that was known to God.

[2] Cetedoc 0283, 38.36.1.1.5; NPNF 1 8:91**. It is according to a common form of speech that the Son is said not to know what he does not teach; hence he is said not to know what he causes us not to know.

THE SON’S DISCERNMENT OF THE FUTURE

GREGORY THE GREAT: When we speak of a glad day, we do not mean that the day itself is glad, but that it makes us glad. So also the Almighty Son says that he does not know the day which he causes not to be known. It is not that he himself does not know it, but that he does not allow it to be known. Only the Father is said to know the future in this same way. [1] The Son, who according to his divinity is of the same essential nature with the Father, has knowledge of that which the angels are ignorant. The only begotten, being incarnate and made for us a perfect man, knew indeed in the nature of his incarnate humanity the day and hour of the judgment, but still it was not from the nature of his humanity as such that he knew it. What then he knew in his humanity he knew not from it. EPISTLE 41, TO EULOGIUS. [2]

[1] Similarly we say the Father alone knows, not so as to imply that it is known only by the Father and not the Son. The eternal Son knows what the eternal Father knows.

[2] Cetedoc 1714, 10.21.47; NPNF 2 13:48** (italics added).

13:33a | Take Heed, Watch

THE COMING JUDGMENT

TERTULLIAN: How useless is the advice of those simplistic moralists who teach that after death rewards and punishments fall with lighter weight! That is, if any judgment at all awaits the soul! Rather it ought to be assumed that judgment will be weightier at the end of life than during it. For nothing is more telling and complete than that which comes at the very end. So no judgment could be more complete than God’s. Accordingly, God’s judgment will be incomparably radical and comprehensive, because it will be pronounced at the very last, in an eternal irrevocable sentence, both of punishment and of consolation. Then souls will not conveniently dissolve into senselessness, but will return into their own proper bodies. All this occurs once for all, on “that day, too, of which the Father only knows,” [1] in order that a full trial be made of faith, and of faith’s concerned sincerity which awaits in trembling expectation, keeping her gaze ever fixed on that day, in her perpetual ignorance of when it will arrive, daily trembling at that for which she yet daily hopes. ON THE SOUL 33. [2]

[1] Mt 24:36; Mk 13:32.

[2] Cetedoc 0017, 33.72; ANF 3:215**; cf. AEG 5:164. Faith remains calm in watching for the day of which it remains ignorant and confident even in trembling daily for that for which it daily hopes.

DAILY READINESS

ATHANASIUS: The end of all things is concealed from us. For in the end of all is the end of each, and in the end of each is the end of all [on the last day]. Whereas this time is uncertain and always in prospect, we may advance day by day as if summoned, reaching forward to the things before us and forgetting the things behind. [1] For who, if they knew the day of the end, would not disregard the interval? But if ignorant, would they not be more ready day by day? It was on this account that the Savior said: “Watch; for you do not know when the time will come.” [2] FOUR DISCOURSES AGAINST THE ARIANS 3.49. [3]

[1] Phil 3:13.

[2] Mt 25:13; Mk 13:33.

[3] NPNF 2 4:420-21*; TLG 2035.042, 26.428.14-26.

13:33b | You Do Not Know When the Time Will Come

THE PRETENSE OF KNOWING SOMETHING UNKNOWN

AUGUSTINE: A person does not go wrong when he knows that he does not know something, but only when he thinks he knows something which he does not know. LETTER 199, TO HESYCHIUS 52. [1]

[1] Cetedoc 0262, 199.57.13.289.16; FC 30:398-99*.

13:35 | You Do Not Know When the Master of the House Will Come

SOBER HEARTS

PRUDENTIUS:

“Away,” he cries, “with dull repose,

The sleep of death and sinful sloth;

With hearts now sober, just and pure,

Keep watch, for I am very near.”

A HYMN FOR COCK-CROW.

13:37 | What I Say to You, I Say to All - Watch

FORMER GOOD DEEDS UNPROFITABLE

APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIONS: Watch therefore, and pray, that you do not sleep unto death. [1] For your former good deeds will not profit you if in the end of your life you go astray from the true faith. [2] CONSTITUTIONS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES 7.2.31. [3]

[1] Cf. Lk 21:36.

[2] Cf. Ezek 18:24; 33:13; 1 Tim 1:18-19.

[3] PG 1:1021; ANF 7:471.

HIS SECOND COMING

AUGUSTINE: The first coming of Christ the Lord, God’s Son and our God, was in obscurity. The second will be in sight of the whole world. When he came in obscurity, no one recognized him but his own servants. When he comes openly, he will be known by both the good and the bad. When he came in obscurity, it was to be judged. When he comes openly, it will be to judge. He was silent at his trial, as the prophet foretold. … Silent when accused, he will not be silent as judge. Even now he does not keep silent, if there is anyone to listen. But it says he will not keep silent then, because his voice will be acknowledged even by those who despise it. SERMONS 18.1-2. [1]

[1] Cetedoc 0284, 18.41.7; JF B 10; PL 38, 128-29; cf. WSA 3 1:373, Sermon 18.1-2.

COMING SUDDENLY TO THOSE UNPREPARED

AUGUSTINE: Who are the “all” to whom he says this if not his elect and his beloved, the members of his body which is the church? [1] Therefore, he said this not only to those who then heard him speaking, but also to those who came after them and before us, as well as to us and to those who will come after us until his final coming. Is that day going to encounter only those currently living, or is anyone likely to say that these words are also addressed to the dead, when he says: “Watch, lest he comes suddenly and finds you asleep?” [2] Why, then, does he say to all what concerns only those who will then be living? For that day will come to every single one, when the day comes for him to leave this life, such as it is, to be judged on the last day. [3] For this reason, every Christian ought to watch lest the coming of the Lord find him unprepared. But the last day will find unprepared anyone whom this day will find unprepared. [4] This at least was certainly clear to the apostles. Even if the Lord did not come in their times, while they were still living here in the flesh, yet who would doubt that they watched most carefully and observed what he said to all, lest coming suddenly he might find them unprepared? LETTER 199, TO HESYCHIUS 3. [5]

[1] Col 1:18, 24.

[2] Mk 13:35-36.

[3] Cf. Jn 12:48.

[4] Cf. Mt 25:1-13.

[5] Cetedoc 0262, 199.57.1.246.13; FC 30:359*. We the living are also called to watch for his coming, as did the apostles.