Jesus's Prophetic Knowledge and the Gospels

In 1965, at that adventitious moment when a classical dogmatic formation of the Church's critically trained exegetes could still simply be assumed, a young Raymond Brown addressed the twentieth annual convention of the Catholic Theological Society on the broad topic of Jesus's knowledge in a way and in a context that is today difficult to imagine. The survey he offered is honestly rather boring. Its interest is above all that it was in many ways the first and last study of its kind. Importantly, though he could not at the time guess that his contribution would find no echo, Brown did note that: "Dogmatic theologians, not exegetes, have led the way in the modern discussion of Jesus' human knowledge. If exegetes had begun the discussion, the orientation might have been different."¹

The lassitude of Catholic exegetical investigations into this theme certainly owes something to magisterial interventions. Pius X's condemnations in Lamentabili are only one of several factors that might be mentioned.² The neo-Modernist panic of the early 1960s also made Brown's effort a manifestly delicate exercise.³ More than half a century later, the air has cleared, but the knowledge of Christ, for all its importance in the Scholastic tradition, is still not a concern that shapes contemporary exegesis. One may lament the fact, but before promptly construing this as yet another index of the theological insensitivity of modern Scripture scholars (such indices are not wanting), it is only fair also to reverse the charge. Systematic theologians investigating this theme have shown themselves remarkably disinterested in probing its scriptural foundations. A thin film of parenthetical proof texts still marks the general depth of the engagement.⁴ At its worst—and I wish I were only thinking of manuals from the 1920s—biblical revelation is flagrantly overruled.⁵

Traditionally, of course, in addition to his divine knowledge, Christ was reckoned to posses three types of human knowledge: acquired,⁶ infused or prophetic (which are overlapping but not coextensive categories),⁷ and beatific.⁸ As a rule, the arguments formulated in favor of Christ's possession of infused science follow formal logical lines such as appeal to the necessary perfection of his knowledge,⁹ its regulative role in his meritorious deeds,¹⁰ or the necessary fullness of his charismatic endowments,¹¹ ignoring the fundamental testimony of the Gospels. It is appropriate, however, and indeed imperative to ask: Do the Scriptures reveal Jesus as possessed of infused, prophetic species, and if so, in what way and in what specific connections? It is to be held de fide, as the First Vatican Council teaches, that Christ both performed miracles and uttered prophecies (Denzinger-Schönmetzer [DS], no. 3009). Is there anything more, or more interesting, left for the Gospels to say? The question is plainly rhetorical. If sacra doctrina is indeed a single science, the contributions of positive and speculative theology must here (as elsewhere) be better synthesized.

So, if exegetes had begun the discussion—or if even now we have the liberty to intervene—in which direction might the investigation go? In what follows I would like to suggest that upon inspection the evangelists attribute prophetic knowledge to Jesus less often and less fantastically, but in far more provocative and diverse ways, than is often assumed or understood in dogmatic discussion. Let me say that, although I will attempt to thread the needle and avoid some extremes as I see them, I do not discount the possibility of a maximalist construction of the Lord's hidden knowledge. His words in John 16:12 certainly leave open a tempting crack in the speculative door: "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now." Nevertheless, I stick to the positive evidence revealed in the Scriptures—which seems to me little preoccupied with demonstrating a plenary endowment.

Let me start with a curious irony. Leaving aside Augustine's scientia vespertina, the infused angelic knowledge that he detected lurking behind Genesis 1,¹² the category of so-called "infused science," while it appears...