The union of the Divine and human intellect in Christ

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I have been reading a bit of St. Athanasius, on the issue of whether there are things that Jesus only knew in his Divine nature, and not in his human nature. I did that because of a discussion with a friend, about whether Jesus knew the “day and hour”. My friend argued, that Jesus as a person didn’t know it when he was here at earth, not even in his Divine nature, whereas I argued, that Jesus in his Divine nature could not be ignorant of anything. Then I was asked, whether this is not a contradiction; that Jesus should be both limited and omniscient at once? So I decided to consult Athanasius. Unfortunately, he is dead, so I can’t ask him questions (well, I can’t expect him to answer me in any hearable way, anyway)

I am not sure, that I follow the argument of Athanasius, so I hope someone here may be able to help me out in clarifying these things.

Is knowing in the Divine nature just a totally different mode of knowing than knowing in the human nature? If so, can perfect knowledge co-exist with partial knowledge?

Is it the “nature” that knows something, or is it the person?

Or does a sentence like “the Son doesn’t know the day and hour, but only the Father” simply mean, that it is not part of the knowledge, that the Son of Man (as a ministerial title) is supposed to reveal? That Jesus for some reason (hyperbolic?) describes that, which does not belong to the ministry of the Son of Man as “something the Son of Man doesn’t know”?

Does “know” = “is supposed to reveal” here?

It seems a little clumsy, is there a better way to express it?
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We cannot hope to understand fully how the divine and human nature of Jesus are related but to become a physical person implies being restricted in time and space. A human brain is obviously restricted in its capabilities and we have to select from an immense range of possibilities. The decision to focus our attention in certain directions inevitably leads to unawareness and neglect of other aspects of reality. By becoming a man Jesus imposed these limitations on Himself. That is why on the Cross it is possible to understand why He was tempted to despair when experiencing extreme agony and desolation. Everything else was driven out of His mind yet at the point of death a person’s thoughts often turn towards eternity. It is not surprising that He said “It is consummated” and “Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit”…
 
St. Thomas Aquinas is the one to look toward for a clearer answer. There are two intellects in Christ, human and divine. The Divine intellect is omniscient, and the human is not. However, the human has access to the Divine for whatever is needed (or wants).
 
Katholish said:
St. Thomas Aquinas is the one to look toward for a clearer answer. There are two intellects in Christ, human and divine. The Divine intellect is omniscient, and the human is not. However, the human has access to the Divine for whatever is needed (or wants).
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That makes sense to me.

It is obvious that Jesus human intellect, being human, is limited. It is also obvious that his divine intellect is all-knowing. He is one person, operating through two natures. When he operates through his human nature, he is as human as you or me. But as one divine Person, he has access to both the divine and human nature.

And yes, the divine nature is a different mode of knowing than the human nature.
 
A distinction that I make in the knowledge of the Divine and the knowledge of a person is that “knowledge” is inherent in the very construct of what the Divine is, whereas with a person, “knowledge” is a conclusion based on prior awareness.

A circle “knows” the true value of PI, but a person cannot “know”.
 
James S Saint,

I think that the observation that omniscience is identical with the Divine Nature is an excellent one, and has a lot of bearing on this discussion. However, your statement that a circle knows PI and man does not has me some what confused as to you meaning. Something without an intellect simply cannot have knowledge, so a circle cannot know its own nature and cannot know PI. A man however, can know PI even though he does not directly share that nature, through having the form of PI in his mind, he in a sense does have that nature accidentally and not substantially which can give him definite knowledge.
 
Define “knowledge”.

We say that a book “contains knowledge”, but the truth is that a book contains paper and a bunch of ink.

The book has an arrangement of ink such that a person can “surmise understanding from it”.

So the question is, does a Divine entity “surmise understanding”? Why would it need to? The circle has no need to display PI in the decimal form that we would understand. the circle already has that information in the form that it would need and thus has no “need”.

The answer to the conundrum lies simply with an unambiguous definition of “knowledge” and perhaps “understanding”.
 
I think you described something very cool ContraBass.

What if Jesus is using the word “know” to mean “having the decision over” (for lack of a better phrasing) instead of “to recognize or have knowledge of”. That it is the Father who “chooses” the “day and the hour”. Later on Jesus says all power in heaven and on the earth is given to me. And we talk about the Second Coming of Christ to be the day when Christ comes. Maybe at that point, Jesus is with the Father in “having the decision over” the “day and the hour” even though time seems to be limited to our side of existence.
 
James S. Saint,

Trying to nail down an extact definition of knowledge sounds like fun, but perhaps slightly off-topic. It would seem to necessarily entail the immaterial possession by a subject of the form of another thing (object).
 
It is probably impossible to try to dissect the psychology of Jesus’ two natures. Fr. William Most has, I believe, written a well thought out book on the subject, however.

In any case, when a divine Person takes on a human nature (while still retaining the divine nature) it is obvious that only a limited amount of the divine nature can be poured into the human nature, or only a limited amount of divine knowledge can be absorbed by a human nature. That’s why it was possible for Jesus to grow in knowledge and wisdom. As a human, he had to learn in the same way that we do. At the same time, as a Divine Person possessing a divine nature, he was entirely omniscient.
 
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