“If Jesus is God, he must be all-knowing. But in Mark 13:32 he says: But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. This proves that Jesus is not God.”
The passage Mark 13:32 is not evidence against the divinity of Christ, but rather a key to the mystery of the Incarnation. Jesus is not “a god beside God,” but God himself, the eternal Word who became flesh (John 1:14). As God, he is all-knowing (John 16:30; John 21:17); as true man, he truly assumed the limitations of our nature (Phil 2:7).
The “not knowing” in Mark 13:32 must therefore be understood in the context of self-emptying. Augustine explains: “As God the Son knew the day; as man he did not know it, because it was not his role to reveal it to the disciples” (De Trinitate I,12). Athanasius clarifies: “The not knowing is not ignorance, but withholding of revelation” (Contra Arianos III,42). Thus, Jesus speaks as a teacher who wants to train the disciples to be watchful, not as one who lacks divine knowledge.
Moreover, in other passages he clearly demonstrates supernatural knowledge. He sees into hearts (John 2:25), foretells his Passion three times in detail (Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:33–34), predicts Peter’s threefold denial (Luke 22:34), and knows who will betray him (John 13:11). All this testifies to omniscience, which belongs to God alone.
Therefore, since the Council of Chalcedon (451), the Church confesses: Jesus Christ is one divine person in two natures, unmixed and undivided. His knowledge is truly divine—and at the same time he assumes a human knowledge that appears limited in his role as teacher. Mark 13:32 thus does not reveal weakness, but the greatness of his plan of salvation: God conceals what he knows in order to prepare us.
Counterargument from the Other Side
“But the text clearly says: not even the Son knows it.”
Brief Refutation:
The Gospel here speaks in the language of the Incarnation: the Son in his human self-emptying. Anyone who reads the verse in isolation overlooks the overall evidence that Jesus reveals divine knowledge. The “not knowing” does not mean actual ignorance, but that he does not release the time for revelation.
The context is decisive: Immediately afterward, Jesus says to the disciples: “You do not know when that time will come” (Mark 13:33). The ignorance thus explicitly concerns humans, not God. By saying “not even the Son,” he merely emphasizes that even the Incarnation gives no right to inquire into this hour. The meaning is pedagogical: Watch, instead of speculating.