Some often appeal to Jesus’ knowledge of peoples' thoughts and future events (e.g., Mark 2:8; 8:31) in mortality as evidence, if not proof, of the Hypostatic Union, an essential doctrine of Trinitarian Christology. Notwithstanding, such is selective, as it ignores Jesus’ ignorance of the date of his Second Coming (Mark 13:32//Matt 24:36; cf. Luke 2:52; also see Rev 1:1 where, even after his ascension and exaltation, Jesus has to be “given” a revelation by God the Father!), something that has led to all types of mental gymnastics (see Jesus Growing in Wisdom and Knowledge and Trinitarian Theological and Exegetical Gymnastics). In a recent scholarly work on Mark’s Christology, Adam Winn wrote the following brief note addressing this issue which is rather spot-on:
While some interpreters have questioned whether the knowledge of other’s thoughts indicates divine knowledge (see for example Vincent Taylor, The Gospel According to Saint Mark, 2nd ed. [London: MacMillan, 1966], 196; Taylor also cites others), the majority of recent interpreters attribute this knowledge to supernatural power (see Joel Marcus, Mark 1-8: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, AB 27 [New York: Doubleday, 2000], 217; Adela Yarbro Collins, Mark: A Commentary, Hermeneia [Minneapolis: Fortress, 2007], 185-86). It should also be noted that at times the Markan Jesus lacks knowledge of future events and thus Jesus’ divine knowledge is not absolute at times it is limited. (Adam Winn, Reading Mark’s Christology Under Caesar: Jesus the Messiah and Roman Imperial Ideology [Downer’s Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic, 2018], 4 n. 3)
For more on Jesus’ knowledge and Trinitarian Christology, see the section The Hypostatic Union Examined in my paper:
