Why didn’t Jesus know the date of His second advent?

Jesus said that “not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” knows the day or the hour of His second advent (Mt. 24:36; Mk. 13:32). This says that Jesus didn’t know something. Are there any other passages in the Gospels that say or imply that Jesus didn’t know something? I can only find one other. Luke says that “Jesus grew in wisdom” when He was young (Lk. 2:52), which refers to His mental development and implies that He learned as He grew. This means that He didn’t know everything when He was young.

What about when Jesus asked “who touched my clothes” (Mk. 5:30)? Didn’t He know who touched Him and was healed? In the following verses we see that the question was asked so the woman could publicly declare her faith in Christ, not because Jesus didn’t know the answer.

What about when Jesus prayed for the cup of suffering to be taken from Him, if that was possible (Matt. 26:39)? Does this indicate that He thought there could be another alternative to the crucifixion? Is this a lack of knowledge? There was no answer to this prayer because it was rhetorical. It shows us that there was no other way for sinners to be saved than for Christ to die as our substitute on the cross.

On the other hand, we know that Jesus knew what others were thinking (Mk. 2:8; Lk. 11:17). He knew the Samaritan woman had five husbands and knew everything she had done (Jn. 4:18-19, 29). He knew the future (Mt. 16:21) and He knew everything (Jn. 16:29-30; 21:17).

An explanation

The apparent inconsistency between Jesus not knowing something and knowing everything can be resolved by looking at the relationship between Christ’s divine nature and His human nature. Jesus was both fully divine and fully human. This means that He could demonstrate the attributes of either nature. For example, his mortal body was human, and not divine. While His omniscience and omnipotence was divine, and not human. As a human being, Jesus had limited knowledge of certain things, but He was still divine. As the divine God, Jesus knew everything, but He was still human. His human nature was always evident, but His divine nature was sometimes hidden (but was evident when He did miracles).

Let’s apply this to our question about Jesus not knowing the date of His second advent. Jesus said that “not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” knows the day or the hour when He comes to establish His kingdom on earth (Mt. 24:36; Mk. 13:32). Angels are finite beings created by God with limited knowledge, so it isn’t surprising that they don’t know the date. This is the case for all of God’s creation, including humanity. At the other extreme, God the Father knows everything, so it isn’t surprising that He knows the date. As God the Son, Jesus is both human and divine. Therefore one would expect that His human nature wouldn’t know the date, but His divine nature would know the date.

So, when the Bible says that Jesus didn’t know the date of His second advent it is referring to him as a finite human being, not as the divine Son of God.

Some also note that Jesus said, “a servant does not know his master’s business” (Jn. 15:15). So, in the sense that Jesus came as a Servant who was obedient to God the Father (Mt. 20:28; Heb. 10:5-7), we could say that Jesus didn’t know the date of His second advent.

Written, February 2015

Also see: Did Jesus use any of His divine power when He was on earth?