There are many texts in the Bible which poses exegetical problems for “conventional” Christologies, including those where the person of Jesus speaks of not knowing something (such as the time of the Second Coming) and texts that speak of the person of Jesus increasing in wisdom. I stress person as many claim, without textual support, that such passages speak of only the human nature of Jesus, notwithstanding even Chalcedon, which defined the Hypostatic Union, declaring Jesus to be a single person (apart from putting the exegetical cart before the horse, many Trinitarians are guilty of “splitting” Jesus into two people).
We see this, not just among modern defenders of Trinitarian Christology, but historical ones, too. Matthew Poole (1624-1679), in his commentary on the New Testament, offered the following commentary.
On Matt 24:36 (cf. Mark 13:32-33), where Jesus explicitly states he does not know when the Second Coming would be, Poole wrote:
36 but of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
Mark addeth chap. xiii. 32, neither the Son, but the Father. Of that day and hour, that is, the particular time when the heavens and the earth shall pass away, as he had before said, or when the end of the world shall be, which was one of the questions propounded to him by his disciples, ver. 3. Knoweth no man, no mere man, nor have men any reason to be troubled at it; for it is a piece of knowledge which the Father hath reserved in his own power, and his own pleasure, from the angels, who continually behold his face. Nay, I myself, as a man, know it not. Nor is it more absurd, or derogating from the perfection of Christ, than for to say, that Christ, as a man was not omnipotent, or omniscient, &c. By the way, this gives a great check to the curiosity of men’s inquiries after the particular time or year when the world shall have an end, or the day of judgement begin, or be. (Matthew Poole, A Commentary on the Holy Bible, volume 3: The New Testament [1685; repr., Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1963, 1990], 116; note that the earliest and best manuscripts of Matt 24:36 does have οὐδὲ ὁ υἱός “nor the son,” so the phrase is not an addition to the Gospel of Mark, but something later scribes removed due to theological embarrassment from the Gospel of Matthew)
On Luke 2:52 and Jesus increasing in wisdom, Poole noted:
52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.
If any ask how he, who was the eternal Wisdom of the Father, (who is the only wise God,) increased in wisdom they must know that all things in Scripture which are spoken of Christ, are not spoken with respect to his entire person, but with respect to the one or the other nature united in that person; he increased in wisdom, as he did in age, or stature, with respect to his human, not to his Divine nature. And as God daily magnified his grace and favour toward him, so he gave him favour with the neighbourhood and people of Galilee, so as that when he came forth to be a public minister, he came forth as a bishop (the chief Bishop of souls especially) ought to do, having a good repute even of those without. (Ibid., 200)
Latter-day Saints are in the enviable position of having a Christology that allows for us to accept at face value these texts without having to engage in all types of theological and exegetical gymnastics. For more, see:
