Albert Barnes Commentary Mark 13:32

"But of that day or that hour knoweth no one, not even the angels in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father." — Mark 13:32 (ASV)

Neither the Son. This text has always presented serious difficulties. It has been asked, if Jesus had a divine nature, how could He say He did not know the day and hour of a future event? In reply, it has been said that the passage was missing, according to Ambrose, in some Greek manuscripts.

But it is now found in all, and there can be little doubt that the passage is genuine. Others have said that the verb rendered "knows" means sometimes to make known, or to reveal, and that the passage means, "That day and hour none makes known, neither the angels, nor the Son, but the Father." It is true, the word sometimes has that meaning, as in 1 Corinthians 2:2; but then it is natural to ask, where has the Father made it known?

In what place did He reveal it? After all, the passage has no more difficulty than that in Luke 2:52, where it is said that Jesus increased in wisdom and stature. He had a human nature. He grew as a man in knowledge. As a man, His knowledge must be finite, for the faculties of the human soul are not infinite.

As a man, He often spoke, reasoned, inquired, felt, feared, read, learned, ate, drank, and walked. Why are not all these, which imply that He was a man—that, as a man, He was not infinite—why are not these as difficult as the lack of knowledge respecting the particular time of a future event, especially when that time must be made known by God, and when He chose that the man Christ Jesus should grow and think and speak as a man?