Hi lunike,
I’d like to expand on Verbum’s answer. Hopefully it will be useful to you. I don’t want to detract from Verbum’s elegant response, though, so please ignore the following if it is not helpful to you.
how can you reconcile Jesus growing in wisdom if he already knew everything?
Short answer: different
modes of knowledge. I’ll explicate that further in a moment, but first,
A basic canon of statutory construction requires the plain meaning of a passage to control. Applied to this passage, does this not expressly indicate that Jesus was not omniscient?
Your J.D. is showing.
Canons of statutory construction only apply, as I think you are aware, to a certain class of writing, namely to legislative code. It is entirely inapplicable to scripture. Although there is a somewhat similar rule in regard to scripture, which is that the various senses of scripture must be based upon the
literal sense (even if only figurative). As an aside, you’ve got to love that phrase “basic canon of statutory construction” – and it makes me wonder what kind of law school would have taught you that since
statutory construction seems ill treated these days.
In any event, the literal sense is that Jesus grew in knowledge.
Our Lord is a Divine Person, who has Divine Nature and a human nature. His human nature includes a human soul, which has the powers of intellect and will. In Christ’s human intellect we can identify
three modes of knowledge:
*]knowledge of the Beatific Vision (Beatific knowledge)
*]knowledge infused directly by God (infused knowledge)
*]knowledge acquired through the senses (experiential knowledge)
1. Beatific Knowledge
Because even in human intellect Jesus possessed the immediate vision of God (the Beatific Vision) he also possessed, secondarily, knowledge of those things outside of God but beheld in God as their source. For example, in *Mystici Corporis Christi, *we read that “in that vision all the members of His Mystical Body were continually and unceasingly present to Him, and He embraced them with His redeeming love.” Similarly we read in the Catechism that Christ “in his human knowledge also showed the divine penetration he had into the secret thoughts of human hearts.” (CCC 473)
2. Infused Knowledge
It is fitting that Christ in His human intellect would also know things by virtue of infused knowledge, which was the same knowledge given to man before the fall. This is knowledge of those things natural to man to know, as well as knowledge of those things supernaturally revealed. This is similar to the type of knowledge angels have, they don’t rely on experiential knowledge gained via any bodily senses.
3. Experiential Knowledge
As man, having a human nature and all that which it entails, namely bodily senses and powers of the soul, Christ acquired knowledge through experience. This knowledge was “exercised in the historical conditions of his existence in space and time.” (CCC 472).
It is this last mode of knowledge, experiential knowledge, in which Jesus “increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man”.
It is important to note that this knowledge was new only as to the mode by which it was obtained – it was not new in content. The content would already have been known by Jesus in his human intellect either through His knowledge of the Beatific Vision, or through infused knowledge.
Does this mean that Jesus had a partitioned brain with his human part unable to access his divine intellect???
As can be seen from the above, it is unnecessary to inquire whether or not Jesus’ human intellect had access to His divine intellect, because he possessed knowledge of the Beatific Vision and infused knowledge in His human intellect. The content of that knowledge was not hidden to him, certainly. As he grows and he does go on to acquire some of that knowledge in a different mode.
I also will point out that all of the above was in relation to Christ’s human intellect. Christ, as a Divine Person, also possesses the Divine Intellect. Christ’s human intellect is finite and limited, whereas His Divine Intellect is infinite and unlimited. “This human soul that the Son of God assumed is endowed with a true human knowledge. As such, this knowledge could not in itself be unlimited. . .”(CCC 472)
The above is, to the best of my knowledge, not at variance with the mind of the Church. If it should be found that anything I said is at variance with true teaching, it should be disregarded. It is due either to my own ignorance or my inability to communicate.
What do you think?
VC
