When Did Jesus Fully Comprehend His Divinity?

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During a recent Parish Council meeting my pastor informed our group that Jesus did not fully understand his divinity until after his resurection from the dead. I have always been under the impression that at least since the start of his ministry on earth Jesus knew he was one person with two natures - fully devine and fully human. I quoted a couple of scripture verses such as John 10:16, “I and the Father are one” and John 8:58, “before Abraham was I Am” in order to demonstrate that it would appear that Jesus did fully comprehend His divinity. But at this my pastor simply said that Jesus did not fully comprehend His divinity until after His resurection and that’s just the way it is. I dropped the matter as it did not seem that Father was “in the mood” to help us understand what he meant and I did not think it appropriate to say anything that might undermine him in front of the council.

Can anyone help me? Is there any way or in any sense that it could be understood that Jesus did not fully comprehend his own divinity until after his resurection?
 
Jesus said and did so many things to show His divinity. He knew Himself to be Prophet, Priest( Matthew 17:1-26) and King (John 28:36). He knew he had the power to exercise judgement and grant forgiveness (Mt. 9:1-.8). He calls Himself “the Resurrection and the Life”(John 11-25.) He said before Caiaphas, “I am” (Mark 14:62.) I am was rendered “Yaweh”, the unspeakable Name of God.
 
Here is some more:

In the Garden of Gethsemane, John:18: 1-8 states "Jesus, knowing everything that was going to happen to Him, went out and said to them, “Whom are you looking for? They answered Him, ‘Jesus the Nazorean.’ He said to them, ‘I AM.’ …When He said to them, ‘I AM,’ they turned away and fell to the ground.”

There was power in that proclamation. In the garden scene alone Jesus’ “I AM” is repeated three times. Jesus wasn’t in the dark about who He was. He is “I AM.”
 
I think it’s clear that He knew when He was a child in the temple teaching the priests and answering his mother with, " Didn’t you know that I must be about my Father’s business".
 
Grey Goose:
During a recent Parish Council meeting my pastor informed our group that Jesus did not fully understand his divinity until after his resurection from the dead.
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Wow, this one is hard to believe!

What about when he was 12 and said to his parents after he had been missing “Did you not know I would be in my Father’s house?”

There is His baptism when the Holy Spirit descended, saying “This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”

There is His transfiguration on the mountain when the cloud overshadowed them and the voice said “This is my beloved Son, listen to Him.”

In John 8:58, Jesus says “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I Am.”

John 18:36 “My kingship is not of this world; if my kingship were of this world, my servants would fight, that I might not be handed over to the Jews…”

There are MANY more verses that show Jesus knew exactly who He was and exactly what His mission was on earth!
 
Sounds to me like you were right and the pastor was wrong, as has been demonstrated by previous posters.

In any case, it’s rather dangerous for us, as mere creatures, to speculate on the internal psychology of Jesus, the God-Man.

Certainly, as God, he knew everything. As man, we might say that he learned and grew in human knowledge as he matured. But the scriptures quoted above show that He knew who he was and what his mission was. After all, his Person, that in him which says “I,” is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.

I have read some theologians who say that after the resurrection, because of the changed condition of his resurrected body, there was an ‘explosion’ of his human knowledge, rather like what we will experience at our own resurrection. But this is only theological speculation.

JimG
 
That is funny.

Jesus asked the disciples: “Who do you say that I am?” And Peter was the only one who answered correctly: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” To which Jesus replied: “Blessed are you for flesh and blood did not reveal this to you but my Father who is in heaven. I say to you, you are the rock and on this rock…”

Very curious that Jesus did not understand His own divinity and yet Peter did…

Besides I thought Pope Leo delt with this one for y’all at the Council of Chalcedon?

-C
 
The Catechism of the Catholic Church presents us with a very different Christ than what your pastor has in mind:

[The] 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”.

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.

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.

In other words, Christ was not the most surprised person on earth when He rose from the dead.
 
When Did Jesus Fully Comprehend His Divinity?

This question is not as easy to answer as some are making it out to be. An image of Jesus as God zipped up in a human suit does not cut it, theologically speaking. Jesus is a true man, like us in all things except sin. Did Jesus walk by faith? Did he expect us to live by faith when he himself never had to live by faith? Did Jesus grow in “wisdom and grace”? The scriptures say that he did. How does Wisdom grow in wisdom? Did Jesus have to struggle with human doubt about his mission? No? Then in what way did he share the human condition with us?
 
He had a divine and human nature…Jesus knew what he must do…even when he was younger.

Luke 2:49 (child Jesus in the temple), “Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business?”

When he is older – John 16:32 – “Behold, [the] hour is coming, and has come, that ye shall be scattered, each to his own, and shall leave me alone; and [yet] I am not alone, for the Father is with me.”

Consider the following:

John 2:4 (Jesus at Cana) – “Dear woman, why do you involve me? My time has not yet come.”

Jesus said, “The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born” (Matt 26:24).

John 17:12, “While I was with them, I kept them in thy name which thou hast given me: and I guarded them, and not one of them perished, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.”

John 6:70, "Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? "

I believe “The Passion” booklet words it very well.

Q: So, in the Garden, Jesus knew He was going to die?

A: Yes. Since Jesus is the all-knowing God, He knew He was going to die. But, because He was fully man as well, He suffered terrible anguish anticipating the torture and death He was about to endure. You and I, as human beings, possess a human nature. Jesus, though, as God Incarnate, possessed two natures: human and divine. So, in His divine nature He knew things that only God could know; in His human nature He experienced everthing as we do – except sin. He hungered, He thirsted, and He felt pain.
 
Something to think about…

St. Louis De Montfort:

“If we examine closely the rest of our Blessed Lord’s life, we shall see that it was His will to begin His miracles by Mary. He sanctified St. John in the womb of his mother, St. Elizabeth, but it was by Mary’s word. No sooner had she spoken than John was sanctified; and this was His first miracle of grace.
At the marriage of Cana He changed the water into wine, but it was at Mary’s humble prayer; and this was His first miracle of nature. He began and continued His miracles by Mary, and He will continue them to the end of ages by Mary.” (Necessity 19, True Devotion to Mary)
 
  • [The] 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”*
IOW, Jesus didn’t have FULL knowledge of his divinity (if he did, he would have been omniscient in his knowledge, not limited in his knowledge). Jesus was a man of faith.
 
I do not think that Jesus Human Nature can ever fully comprehend His Divine Nature…Human Nature of Jesus is always inferior to the Divine Nature…Even presently Jesus Human Nature cannot comprehend GOD(Trinity)…BUT Jesus as a Person is the 2nd person of the Trinity…therefore he Knows all things…Because of the Hypostatic Union Jesus Created Human Soul always beheld the Beautific vision of God from Conception…and at Conception Begins the Hypostatic union forever…I would go so far to say that Maybe because of His Beautific Vision and the Hypostatic union at Conception he saw Himself in the WORD (2nd Person of the Trinity) with a Human Nature having a Begining in created Time…(Maybe) smiles

PS: Boy,🙂 am I going to get into trouble on this
 
Grey Goose:
During a recent Parish Council meeting my pastor informed our group that Jesus did not fully understand his divinity until after his resurection from the dead. I have always been under the impression that at least since the start of his ministry on earth Jesus knew he was one person with two natures - fully devine and fully human. I quoted a couple of scripture verses such as John 10:16, “I and the Father are one” and John 8:58, “before Abraham was I Am” in order to demonstrate that it would appear that Jesus did fully comprehend His divinity. But at this my pastor simply said that Jesus did not fully comprehend His divinity until after His resurection and that’s just the way it is. I dropped the matter as it did not seem that Father was “in the mood” to help us understand what he meant and I did not think it appropriate to say anything that might undermine him in front of the council.

Can anyone help me? Is there any way or in any sense that it could be understood that Jesus did not fully comprehend his own divinity until after his resurection?
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I’ve heard numerous borderline heretical beliefs…and fallacious arguments made by Protestants…from…

Equating Jesus’s divine nature…to nothing more than supernatural intuition.

to…

Jesus didn’t know his destiny until his mother told him how he was conceived…and showed him what he needed to know via scripture.
 
Oh…and the answer to your question Grey…

See:

newadvent.org/cathen/08675a.htm

“It has already been stated that the knowledge in Christ’s Divine nature is co-extensive with God’s Omniscience. As to the experimental knowledge acquired by Christ, it must have been at least equal to the knowledge of the most gifted of men; it appears to us wholly unworthy of the dignity of Christ that His powers of observation and natural insight should have been less than those of other naturally perfect men.” Etc. etc.
 
Adding on to my last statement I will conclude that at the Moment of Conception Jesus Human soul was aware of His Divine Nature But He knew that he would never comprehend it …Because of the his soul Beautific vision from conception which is only revealed to the Intellect of Christ…He saw His mission on earth and all those who will be in the mystical body of Christ, He saw that he was sent by God and that he was with Him before he took on Human Nature though this is revealed to His Human Intellect. That is why he could say before Abraham, I am…Jesus Human Nature for saw many things with absolute certitude as well as reading the thoughts of Others only because he beheld the beautific vision and His Hypostatic union…Jesus said many times I come to do the will of Him who sent me and I always do what pleases the Father…Jesus Human Nature was always aware he had a Divine Nature because His human soul saw Himself in the WORD having His own Begining in time with a uncreated nature having no begining and having no space as his human nature has…He saw Himself as son of Man,son of GOD(TRINITY) and Son of the Father for His divine nature is only begotton from the Father therefore related to the Father as son alone…🙂
 
Many theologians have settled upon…that the limit of Christ’s human knowledge…is limited to the range of the “scientia visionis.” Scientia visionis being His knowledge of whatever has existence before His view; that is, of all that is, has been, or is decreed to be. Ie…things of the past, the present, and the future…foreseeing the free acts of rational creatures with complete certainty, etc. while God’s Omniscience embraces also the range of the possibilities.
 
Grey Goose,

I would be interested to ask your pastor a few other questions. Keep digging and you may be shocked what he believes. Be careful!!

Peace,
John
 
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