Was Jesus aware that He was Jesus?

[RachelKH]

How did it affect His childhood?

 

[minichibi]

Yes… Jesus has always been aware that He was Jesus…

the question should rather be “was He aware that He was the Christ?”

That is uncertain, and nobody can give you a precise answer, I’ll just answer this according to my own belief: since God emptied Himself as a human, He was probably unaware of His divinity until He was baptized by John. However, John seemed to know He was the Lamb of God… how did he know that? Well… remember John’s and Jesus’ miraculous birth…

 

[RachelKH]

yes, I’m sorry. I meant to ask if Jesus was aware He was divine and how that affected how He was as a child – did He, as shown in one book I read a few years ago, have the ability to create life in the clay He molded while playing? Was He able to use His omnipotent powers in His teen years? How did He not?

 

[Publisher]

How did it affect His childhood?

I don’t think so…He “grew in grace and knowledge”…“He emptied himself and became a servant.”

He was not born with omniscience as a man. Not even sure he possesed omniscience prior to returning to his Father, since he had no idea of the day of his coming back. He was 100% human, and his humanity was not swallowed up by his divinity. As a human, he was…well…human.

 

[poptown]

Good question. He grows in knowledge doesn’t mean he grows in godliness.

472 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: it was exercised in the historical conditions of his existence in space and time. This is why the Son of God could, when he became man, “increase in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man”, and would even have to inquire for himself about what one in the human condition can learn only from experience. This corresponded to the reality of his voluntary emptying of himself, taking “the form of a slave”.

473 But at the same time, this truly human knowledge of God’s Son expressed the divine life of his person. “The human nature of God’s Son, not by itself but by its union with the Word, knew and showed forth in itself everything that pertains to God.” Such is first of all the case with the intimate and immediate knowledge that the Son of God made man has of his Father. The Son in his human knowledge also showed the divine penetration he had into the secret thoughts of human hearts.

474 By its union to the divine wisdom in the person of the Word incarnate, Christ enjoyed in his human knowledge the fullness of understanding of the eternal plans he had come to reveal. What he admitted to not knowing in this area, he elsewhere declared himself not sent to reveal.

 

[Usige]

The story of Jesus being found in the temple when he was 12 seems to show he was aware of his nature.

Luke 2:46-49

After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions, and all who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers.

When his parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.”

And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

 

[JerryZ]

yes, I’m sorry. I meant to ask if Jesus was aware He was divine and how that affected how He was as a child – did He, as shown in one book I read a few years ago, have the ability to create life in the clay He molded while playing? Was He able to use His omnipotent powers in His teen years? How did He not?

Do you remember when Jesus attended the wedding at Canaa and they ran out of wine?

His mother the Blesses Virgin Mary asked him to help them and what did he replay?

My time has not arrived yet!

What does that tell you?

a) His mother knew what he was capable of.

b) So did Jesus

 

[po18guy]

The story of Jesus being found in the temple when he was 12 seems to show he was aware of his nature.

Do you remember when Jesus attended the wedding at Canaa and they ran out of wine?

His mother the Blesses Virgin Mary asked him to help them and what did he replay?

My time has not arrived yet!

What does that tell you?

a) His mother knew what he was capable of.

b) So did Jesus

Amen.

 

[PaulinVA]

I think that the Holy revealed to Jesus who he was.

 

[farpinho]

Do you remember when Jesus attended the wedding at Canaa and they ran out of wine?

His mother the Blesses Virgin Mary asked him to help them and what did he replay?

My time has not arrived yet!

What does that tell you?

a) His mother knew what he was capable of.

b) So did Jesus

Interesting point… Well, we know from Luke (and Matthew) that Mary surely knew…

 

[slotty]

yes, I’m sorry. I meant to ask if Jesus was aware He was divine and how that affected how He was as a child – did He, as shown in one book I read a few years ago, have the ability to create life in the clay He molded while playing? Was He able to use His omnipotent powers in His teen years? How did He not?

Don’t take Anne Rice fiction to be indicative of the reality of God

 

[Sonny_Jim]

According to revelations revealed to various saints and holy persons, yes, the Lord knew exactly who He was, and if such revelations are to be believed, even spoke upon His birth.

Now, we aren’t required to believe private revelations, but I’m going to side with the saints and holy personages on this one.

Sorry I can’t be more helpful; I can’t for the life of me remember one revelation in particular and the saint it was revealed to, thought I bookmarked it, I guess not. I do remember a similar revelation in Anne Catherine Emmerich’s writings if that sort of thing interests you.

edit: I just realized this was in the Sacred Scripture forum and because private revelation isn’t scripture, take what I’ve said with a grain of salt.

 

[Tantum_ergo]

Let’s see. Imagine that you are one Being who happens to be both fully God and fully human.

Let me think now. Which ‘aspect’ or ‘will’, Divine or human, do you think would be stronger?

I know that I personally believe (and both Scripture and Sacred Tradition support me) that Jesus knew that He was God, and knew it perfectly.

Further comparison --most of you have heard of little Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who was an accomplished musician, playing before the Empress of Austria when he was only 6.

Probably many of you have heard of talented human beings who were admitted to college at the age of 9, who could speak and read Greek and Latin at the age of 4, etc.

Now remember, these are ordinary human beings with one, two, or several extraordinary, but STILL SOLELY HUMAN, gifts of intellect. Not a one of them is God Almighty.

Now imagine that kind of gift of intellect in every aspect of a person’s humanity–the perfectly gifted human–who is ALSO God. . .

And I don’t think that unless you are die-hard proponents of the "humanity is da bomb’ school that you will think that Jesus’s ‘DIVINE will’ was completely superseded not just by the ‘mere human’ will, but by a mere human will that was COMPLETELY CLUELESS about who He was, AS God.

 

[Porknpie]

The story of Jesus being found in the temple when he was 12 seems to show he was aware of his nature.

I was going to say this one.

But I’ll add the transfiguration since no one has mentioned it yet.

 

[Skye_Ariel]

I think Jesus knew in his heart that there was something special about Him, but how much of it His immature human mind understood, no one will ever know. I don’t think He knew as a 4,5, or 6yr old that He was going to die for our sins, but I do think He knew within His heart that he was human but that he was more than human. Then around 12yrs old He began to understand more of who He was. I think like deep in His subconscious as a child He knew who he was, and it started to slowly come to the surface when He was 12, but I’m not sure of how much of it His child human mind understood. I think if He understood too much of it too soon, it would defeat the purpose and keep Him from being a normal human child. But it is interesting to think about how much He actually knew and understood as a child.

 

[Skye_Ariel]

Let’s see. Imagine that you are one Being who happens to be both fully God and fully human.

Let me think now. Which ‘aspect’ or ‘will’, Divine or human, do you think would be stronger?

I know that I personally believe (and both Scripture and Sacred Tradition support me) that Jesus knew that He was God, and knew it perfectly.

Further comparison --most of you have heard of little Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who was an accomplished musician, playing before the Empress of Austria when he was only 6.

Probably many of you have heard of talented human beings who were admitted to college at the age of 9, who could speak and read Greek and Latin at the age of 4, etc.

Now remember, these are ordinary human beings with one, two, or several extraordinary, but STILL SOLELY HUMAN, gifts of intellect. Not a one of them is God Almighty.

Now imagine that kind of gift of intellect in every aspect of a person’s humanity–the perfectly gifted human–who is ALSO God. . .

And I don’t think that unless you are die-hard proponents of the "humanity is da bomb’ school that you will think that Jesus’s ‘DIVINE will’ was completely superseded not just by the ‘mere human’ will, but by a mere human will that was COMPLETELY CLUELESS about who He was, AS God.

That’s a good point about gifted children! I do think a part of Him knew as a small child, but I don’t know how much of it His immature child mind understood, but I definitely think the understanding started to come to Him around 12yrs old. I do believe as a small child He knew something was special about Him but didn’t fully understand it completely till around 12yrs old. Otherwise He would have been trying to do miracles as a toddler and things like that when He was too immature to handle fully understanding who He was. I think His unconscious Divinity side kept that from His conscious immature human mind till he was mature enough to handle it. Kind of like someone who blocks out traumatic events in their past, except His Divine nature purposely blocked that out from His immature child mind till the right time. So I think He knew, but He wasn’t conscious of it till later on after 12yrs old.

 

[PennyinCanada]

I think the total emptying of himself included being God within a baby. He maintained the outward appearance of a baby but contained the Godhead. Like the Eucharist, when we look at it, it just looks like bread to us, and God designed it that way. Now that is a total emptying.

How would you like to have your mind, abilities, and talents intact, and remain inside a flower? You could not talk, or see or hear, yet you remain within the confines of a flower. Perhaps feeling the breezes, knowing when you’re too dry and wilting, feeling the first frost. Hidden from all eyes yet known to God the Father. You could still pray. I believe that is how it was. Christ respected the boundaries of humanity yet could have intimate conversations with his father in the privacy of his mind, and the knowledge that He was the 2nd person of the Trinity always remained intact.

 

[PennyinCanada]

"…From the very beginning of His human life, from the moment of His conception in the womb of His Mother, Christ is the Savior of mankind. Moreover, since He was capable of rational acts and therefore of free acts from the first moment of His existence in the womb of Mary, He began even at that very moment to give to God that perfect obedience which is the soul of the sacrifice of Himself whereby He has redeemed mankind. … And that perfect obedience began at the very first instant of His existence in His human nature."
My Way of Life, Pocket Edition of St. Thomas , The Summa Simplified for Everyone.
The God-Man, Chapter lll, Christ the Savior