Charles Ellicott 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)

But of that day and that hour.—See Notes on Matthew 24:36-41.

Neither the Son.—The addition to Saint Matthew’s report is every way remarkable.

It indicates the self-imposed limitation of the divine attributes which had belonged to our Lord as the eternal Son, and the acquiescence in a power and knowledge which, like that of the human nature He assumed, were derived and therefore finite.

Such a limitation is implied by Saint Paul, when he says that our Lord being in the form of God . . . made Himself of no reputation (or better, emptied Himself), and took upon Him the form of a servant. (See Note on Philippians 2:6-7.)

It is clear that we cannot consistently take the word “knoweth” as having a different meaning in this clause from that which it bears in the others; and we must therefore reject all interpretations which explain away the force of the words as meaning only that the Son did not declare His knowledge of the time of the far-off event.