HOW MUCH DID JESUS KNOW?
Russell H. Bowers, Jr.
Introduction
"The Christological problem is whether Christ became human completely and
in the fullest sense, or whether he merely projected a human image--that appeared
human--whereas in actual fact he lived in this world as a divine being."
1
Who is this Jesus whom Christians worship? What is he? How can the
Christian follow his example if Christ is something other than what he himself is?
Such puzzles have knitted brows since before the crucifixion. As the New
Testament was written, answers to the question "Who is Jesus?" emerged along two
lines: he is human, but he is also God. After centuries of church debate, the Council
of Chalcedon (A.D. 451) proposed that
this very same Son is complete in his deity and complete--the very same--in his humanity,
truly God and truly a human being [
qeo\n a)lhqw=j, kai\ aÃnqrwpon a)lhqw=j
], . . . coessential
with the Father as to his deity and coessential with us--the very same one--as to his humanity,
being like us in every respect apart from sin. . . . [He exists] unconfusedly, unalterably,
undividedly, inseparably in two natures, since the difference of the natures is not destroyed
because of the union, but on the contrary, the character of each nature is preserved and comes
together in one person and one hypostasis, not divided or torn into two persons. . . .
2
In short, Chalcedon asserts that Jesus is truly God and truly man united in one person
for eternity. While this formula (as far as it goes) does fit scripture and deny early
heresies, not all questions touching the person of Christ are answered by it.
Specifically, we need to ferret out the implications of Christ's being "truly
human." "It is with the humanity of Christ . . . that theology and the church have had
the most difficulty coming to terms through the centuries."
3
But come to terms it
must, not only because the scriptures teach Christ's humanity, but also because to
modern thinkers "[i]f Jesus lived at all, if his existence is not to be counted as a matter
of spiritistic mysticism, then he was a man like us."
4
This article therefore addresses how the humanity of Christ should shape our
understanding of how much he knew while on earth. It then suggests that the
1
D. Otto Michel, "Zur Exegese von Phil. 2,511," in Theologie als Glaubenswagnis--
Festschrift für Karl Heim zum 80. Geburtstag, dargebracht von der Evang.-Theol. Fakultät in
Tübingen (Hamburg: Furche-Verlag, 1954), 89f. My translation of, "[Das christologische] Problem
[ist], ob Christus im vollkommenen Sinn und ganz Mensch wurde, oder ob er nur das Bild eines
Menschen darbietet, das anzusehen war wie ein Mensch, während er in Wirklichkeit auch in dieser
Welt ein Gottwesen bleib[.]"
2
"The Council of Chalcedon's `Definition of the Faith'," in Rusch, William G., ed., Sources
of Early Christian Thought (Philadelphia: Fortress), The Christological Controversy (1980), trans. and
ed. by Richard A. Norris, Jr., 159.
3
Arland J. Hultgren, "Speaking of Jesus: Reclaiming Critical Aspects of New Testament
Christology," Word and World 6 (1986): 327.
4
Wolfhart Pannenberg, Jesus--God and Man, 2nd ed., trans. Lewis L. Wilkins and Duane A.
Priebe (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1977), 189.
"How Much Did Jesus Know?" page 1 of 10