5

Trinitarian Christianity and other major denominations contend that Jesus was fully man and fully God at the same time. Did Jesus in his human nature, know that he had another nature (as "God the son") inside of him or that he had two "natures"? If so, why was it that when the fully man Jesus prayed, he didn't pray to his divine nature but prayed to "the father"? Did Jesus (the man) take advantage of his "God side/nature" in order to have power to perform the miracles that he performed?

This being my first question, forgive if I make mistakes.

2
  • 2
    As others have already said, yes, our Lord was aware he had both a human and divine nature. The more interesting question would be something like, At what age/stage did he come to realise he had a divine nature? (To argue he always knew from his birth would be to deny the reality of his human nature.) Commented Sep 19 at 10:43
  • Philippians 2, read carefully, gives a good feel for this. There is MUCH written on this passage. Commented Sep 21 at 2:54

5 Answers 5

9

Did he know he was human?

He repeatedly referred to himself as the Son of Man, through the Gospels.

Did He know He was God?

"I and the Father are one." (Jn 10:30)

"He who has seen Me has seen the Father." (Jn 14:9)

"Before Abraham was, I AM." (Jn 8:58) This "I AM" is a direct reference to God's name "I AM" ("Yahweh"); Jews knew exactly what this meant -- he was claiming it as his name -- and prepared to stone him.

So, yes on both counts.

In John 5:19 He says: "Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.'" I didn't exactly understand the "taking advantage" question, but this is what I could find about where He got His abilities.

5
  • Son of Man is a divine title... Commented Sep 19 at 17:02
  • Ezekiel 2:1, 3:1, 3:10, 4:1, 8:5, and many others can help clear that up.
    – Maverick
    Commented Sep 19 at 18:37
  • Apparently not! The son of Man, not a son of Man. Commented Sep 19 at 20:29
  • 1
    @TheChaz2.0 The Son (of man). It is ambiguous. But, yes, it can be considered a Divine title. Agreed.
    – Nigel J
    Commented Sep 20 at 7:09
  • Let's consider the other divine titles we know. They're not just random phrases ("I AM," "The Lord our Provider," "Master," "The Lord our Righteousness"); since God's no liar, they are accurate descriptions. Jesus is no liar, so when He says He's the Son of Man, He's not just giving a nonsense phrase. He's accurately describing Himself. Divine titles aren't just titles. They're correct titles (if God Himself gives them). Right?
    – Maverick
    Commented Oct 16 at 13:21
7

Did Jesus in his human nature, know that he had another nature (as "God the son") inside of him or that he had two "natures"?

Yes, if we mean simply as a human. Christ is one person; for Him not to know about the divine nature would mean that He didn't know himself because God has perfect knowledge of all things, including himself. Or to put it another way, to imply Christ knew one thing as as one nature but not as the other implies not a personal (hypostatic) union but a union of persons.

No, if we mean did Christ know his divinity via human knowledge because a human soul cannot have knowledge something above its nature.

why was it that when the fully man Jesus prayed, he didn't pray to his divine nature but prayed to "the father"?

Because prayer is directed to a Person not a Nature. Praying to his divine nature doesn't make sense (nor really would praying to Himself).

Did Jesus (the man) take advantage of his "God side/nature" in order to have power to perform the miracles that he performed?

"Take advantage" can be read in different ways. The power of miracles certainly did not come from his humanity.

1
2

@Maverick's answer already gives you the Biblical basis of a "yes" answer, but if you want to move from a bunch of textual statements (though indispensable) to processing further philosophically to envision how these truths are embodied in Jesus, this answer is for you.

The theory

There are 3 resources that can help you:

  1. Fr. Thomas J. White covered this precise question about Christ's human knowledge and self-awareness in his Tough Christology Question interview starting at minute 25:28 ("the relationship between Christ's divine and human knowledge) followed by Christ's beatific vision and "self-awareness" starting at minute 31:47.

  2. Fr. Dominic Legge lecturing on The Church Fathers and Aquinas on Christ's Human Knowledge.

  3. Dr. Eleonore Stump explaining philosophically the relationship between Jesus's divine and human nature in a 12-minute video interview (transcript here).

Basically, Jesus is a 100% divine person possessing his divine nature completely, but most of the time chose not to access it (i.e. not operate in it), preferring to interact with the world through his human nature which is also 100% his since the human nature is added on to his divine nature upon Incarnation. So Jesus can make non-moral mistakes as a regular human being, as well as can be ignorant on certain areas such as not being able to speak English or to know nuclear physics. The analogy given by Fr. Thomas White is that of a person who IS able to play a violin concerto but CHOOSE not to perform or even to let other people know that he can play violin.

But of his mission as Savior of Humanity, this is too important to be left out from his awareness. While we do not know the extent of his knowledge (example: in his human nature Jesus might not know (or want to know) the date/time of the end of the world), Fr. Thomas and Fr. Dominic above argued that Jesus must have had Beatific Vision from babyhood signaled by John 1:14 ("full of grace and truth") which enabled him to receive all revelations that the Holy Spirit wanted to inspire him and to transmit via prophetic revelation to his human mind. Therefore, in areas where Jesus MUST know prophetically to fulfill his mission, Jesus (as a human servant) accessed his divine nature for the necessary knowledge and assurance of God's plan and will for him while on earth. Beyond knowledge about his mission, out of solidarity Jesus might have accessed only the knowledge that we need to know for our own salvation.

Answering your questions

The following is largely a speculation but helps to show that your questions can be answered with logical consistency and coherence within the bounds of orthodox Trinitarianism.

Did Jesus in his human nature, know that he had another nature (as "God the son") inside of him or that he had two "natures"?

For Trinitarian Christians, it's very important to see Jesus as the pre-existing Word taking on flesh (John 1:1-18), so the human nature is added to the Divine person. Thus, it is not symmetrical: in His divine nature, He always knows about the two natures, but when operating in his human nature, his baby soul might need to grow until at least his teenage years for Jesus to fully realize that he is a divine person, relying on the prophetic revelation he receives as a human being (for example, when hearing the voice from heaven and seeing the symbol of the Holy Spirit during his baptism). Due to his immaculate conception untainted by original sin, he would not have the messed up psyche we have, which would have blocked direct intuition of the Father loving him and communicating to him since babyhood. But we don't know at which point of his life on earth he knew of his divine nature for sure (since the Bible didn't tell us explicitly), but by the time he started his ministry he must have known since it is critical to communicate his role as God for human salvation. Otherwise, saying that he is the lamb who takes away the sins of the world would be ludicrous / megalomaniac if he didn't know he is God (listen to how Fr. Thomas White explained it).

If so, why was it that when the fully man Jesus prayed, he didn't pray to his divine nature but prayed to "the father"?

In his human nature, doing as an example for us, in his prayer he must have been depending and worshiping the Father. Even though the Father is technically of the same essence as his own Person (the Word), remember that there are 2 minds in Jesus, so his human mind (which is in time) prays to his divine mind (which is outside time). It is a human to divine "I-Thou" relationship, just how we would relate to God the Father. Furthermore, Trinitarians postulate immanent relations among the 3 "persons" of the divine essence, so as Son incarnate, Jesus always assumes the character/role of the Son in relating to the person of the Father, a divine to divine relationship. The same Father-Son relationship was made visible in the flesh for our benefit.

Did Jesus (the man) take advantage of his "God side/nature" in order to have power to perform the miracles that he performed?

Of course. As man, he performs the miracle that as God giving him the 1) direction for the right occasion to do it, as well as 2) the power to do so. If Elijah could bring back the dead by the power of God, Jesus could of course do that too.

5
  • I don't know if "blinding" is the best way of describing the dual nature of Christ... his human nature thinks as a human, and his divine nature thinks as divine. Blinding implies his human nature would be omniscient if it weren't being actively repressed, which I don't think is right. And I'm sure that saying that the divine nature couldn't access his human mind/senses is wrong.
    – curiousdannii
    Commented Sep 18 at 22:53
  • @curiousdannii on hindsight, "blinding" may suggest kenoticism which is problematic, but I intend "blinding" not as permanent obscuring, but as deliberately not accessing his divine nature while operating in his human nature. I want to emphasize that it is ONE person here. Since the capacity of human nature is a subset of divine nature, I thought using the analogy "blinding" is appropriate. If my description is faulty, I just want to rephase how Eleonore Stump & Fr. Thomas White explained it. I hope with my edit, I paraphrase it better. Commented Sep 19 at 1:01
  • "most of the time chose not to access it (i.e. not operate in it)" I don't think that's true, but it's more debatable. Edit did help!
    – curiousdannii
    Commented Sep 19 at 2:21
  • @GratefulDisciple "deliberately not accessing his divine nature while operating in his human nature" cannot work if, for instance, he walked on water.
    – user77014
    Commented Sep 20 at 4:38
  • @JimmyOsbert So in that occasion he operates in both natures. My point is not that he NEVER accessed his divine nature, but when he doesn't, he deliberately chose to be "merely human" like us, at which time his divine nature is somewhat obscured from him. See this article which uses the walking on water miracle as illustration, especially the section "But Who Really Walked on Water?". Commented Sep 20 at 4:52
2

Divine Answer*
The answer to this all important question can best be answered by listening to the words proceeding from the mouth of Jesus Himself. Answers given at both the beginning and the ending of His earthly existence.

First
Notice the reply Jesus gave to His earthly parents in the Temple during the Feast of Passover at the very young age of twelve (12) years:

And all that heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers.
And when His parents saw Him, they were amazed, and His mother said to Him, "Son, why have you dealt thus with us? Behold, thy father and I have sought for you sorrowing.
And Jesus said to them, "How is it that you sought me? Don't you know that I must be about my Father's business?" (Luke 2:47-49)

Jesus was keenly aware that, even though Joseph was His step-father, He was related to another Father, a heavenly Father. As a fleshly incarnated person, He submitted to the normal parental raising of a human son. He "learned obedience" just as teen-agers must do. (Hebrews 12:5-11) The mixture of human and divine was evident.

Secondly
Notice the response that Jesus gave at the end of His ministry:

And as soon as it was day, the elders of the people and the chief priests and the scribe came together, and led Him to their council, saying, "Art thou the Christ? Tell us!
And Jesus said to them...Hereafter shall the Son of Man sit on the right hand of God."
Then they all asked, "Are you then the Son of God?
And He said to them, "You say that I am!"
And they replied, "What need we any further witness? For we ourselves have heard His own mouth." (Luke 22:66-71)

Jesus flat out declared His divinity and place next to the royal throne of the Father God in heaven! Notice the reference to "Son of Man" drawn from the 7th chapter of Daniel! Jesus used this terminology over 80 times when referring to Himself for the last 3 1/2 years. He was indeed the fulfilment of the majestic prophecy of the One who was to receive the Kingdom, Glory, and Power of God. (Compare Matthew 28:18 "all power given")

In Between
All throughout His ministry, Jesus was keenly aware of His divine nature and special relationship with the Father (Deity). The scriptures are too numerous to list them all, but a survey of these will suffice to establish the fact that Jesus was aware of His dual nature. Physically, He endured and suffered every day life just as we do. And spiritually, Jesus manifested supernatural power and divine attributes.

John 5:19, 8:58, 10:30, 14:9. But especially consider John 8:

And the Pharisees said to Him, "Where is thy father?"
Jesus answered, "You neither know Me, nor my Father. If you had known Me, you would have known My Falther also...
And Jesus said to them, "You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. (John 8:19-23)

Conclusions
In order to understand some of the verbage in the life of Jesus portrayed in the Gospels, a reader must realize the tension of describing an incarnation between the human and the divine. Some language seems like Jesus is merely human; and others like He is totally divine. But this ambiguity is to be expected when dealing with the "incarnation" of any person. The local incidents swing back and forth.

But when examining the whole narrative and the declaration of Jesus Himself, there is no doubt that Jesus was vitally aware of His Divinity...from childhood to Ascension.

2

Yes, Jesus knew who He was and all about His nature. He planned it all with His Father in Heaven before the creation. It is called generally the 'council of peace'. Zechariah 6:12.13.

God's Son volunteered to pay the penalty for anyone who broke the holy law.

The Father agreed (no doubt reluctantly, knowing the suffering it would cause) and they made a covenant between them. This is the foundation of the everlasting covenant between the Father and His Son.

When Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness, on two temptations the devil said, If you are the Son of God...' Matthew 4:3.6. The devil knew who He was and most certainly Jesus needed to know.

And He did, right from the time He had turned 13 and was taken to the temple. Just before He went to the wilderness, His Father spoke audibly, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Matthew 3:17.

Satan wanted Him to forget, but Jesus never did. He understood who He was -- God's only begotten Son.

This is the security of our salvation. John 3:16.

3
  • Welcome to the site, Margaretha, and thanks for your answer. On this site, evidence is looked for; quotes or logical arguments to prove the point one is making. If you could add the Bible references for the points you make, that would be helpful. Also, if you have not already done so, do take the Tour [link at the bottom l.h.s. of this page].
    – Anne
    Commented Nov 23 at 12:12
  • Is your answer based on an article written by J. Nelson Darby? bibletruthpublishers.com/the-counsel-of-peace/…
    – Lesley
    Commented Nov 23 at 15:32
  • 1
    No, my answer is not based on Darby or anyone else. It is from my own study of the Bible as the Word of God since 1961. Commented Nov 26 at 11:36

You must log in to answer this question.