1. We must hold this in regard to the fullness of wisdom in the intellect of Christ: that in the Word incarnate, namely, Christ our Lord, there was all fullness of wisdom as to things known, the modes of knowing, and the differences of knowledge. In Christ there was an eternal knowledge on the part of His divinity, a sense knowledge on the part of His sensual nature and flesh, and an abstract knowledge on the part of his mind and spirit, and thus there was a threefold knowledge: some knowledge through nature, some through grace, and some through glory. Hence He had wisdom both as God and as man, as the one comprehending all and as the wayfarer, as one enlightened by grace and as one uprightly formed by nature. Thus in all these were in Christ five modes of knowledge. The first was according to divine nature, and in this way He knew all things actual and possible, finite and infinite, by an actual and complete knowledge. The second was through glory, and in this way he knew all things actual and infinite by an actual and complete knowledge, but the infinite only by an extra knowledge due to that state. The third was through grace, and in this way He knew all things referring to the redemption of mankind. The fourth was according to the integral nature that Adam had, and in this way He knew all that referred to the constitution of the universe. The fifth was according to sense experience, and in this way He knew all that comes in contact with the sense organs, and of this mode it is said that 'He learned obedience by the things which He had suffered.' (Heb 5:8)
   Christ's knowledge has become within modern times an area of great debate. I have seen several people argue that Christ did not possess the fullness of knowledge. They believe Hee was limited to what He knew. For their proof, they quote Scripture which seems to indicate the ignorance of Christ. For example, Christ seems to indicate His ignorance in relation to the end-of-time when He states "But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father (Mark 13:32." They also indicate the verse which says, "And Jesus increased in wisdom" (Luke 2:52) as a place in Scripture which seems to show that at one point, Christ was not in the fullness of wisdom. These and other passages are used by them to indicate that it seems Christ experienced ignorance.
    However, on the other side of this, is a position which Saints have taken. They say that there was no time in which Christ was ignorant, but instead, He possesses the fullness of knowledge. Yes, Scripture sometimes seems to indicate differently, but each passage which can be brought forth can be discussed in its own right to indicate that where it appears Christ is indicating ignorance, it is not necessarily so. The Saints would examine each passage separately and show what is truly being said in the passage, why there is at each point a place where it seems that ignorance is shown in Christ. Philosophy, when it is used to examine the question, can show the necessity of Christ possessing the fullness of knowledge. Hence we must follow with that which is necessary: Christ's fullness of knowledge, instead of that which is not necessary, which is Christ's ignorance.
    It can be asked, how are we sure that Christ possesses the fullness of knowledge? Before looking at St. Bonaventure's detailed analysis of this topic, it is best to look at a brief explanation for the necessity of Christ's fullness of knowledge. Jesus Christ is the Incarnation of the Logos, the Word of God, through whom all things were made. The Logos, who created all things, is said to be the Wisdom of God. Now, the Wisdom of God would not be wise if the Wisdom did not know all the things it created. In the processes of creation, since the Word made all things, the Word would have a knowledge of all existing things. In the Incarnation, the Word assumed a human nature, but never abandoned His own nature: there was no loss for the Word of His divinity. The person is divine, but now He is united with human nature. That same person who created all things is now known to us as Jesus Christ. Jesus would know all the knowledge that He possesses as the Word, even though He is also a man. As the Word, He possesses the fullness of wisdom, and possesses the fullness of knowledge; as man, thus, the same person, who knows all things as God, must still keep His infinite knowledge, or else there would have been a change in the divine person, of which the divine person would than be said to be ignorant: and whence, then, Wisdom? Thus, St. Gregory the Great in a letter to the Patriarch of Alexandria wrote, "For with what meaning can one that confess that the very wisdom of God was incarnate say that there is anything that the Wisdom of God is ignorant of?" (St. Gregory the Great, Epistles, Book X Letter XXXIX, Nicene-Post Nicene Fathers Series II Book 13).
    St. Bonaventure understanding this, looks at the relationship of the two natures of Christ, and how they relate to each other in relation to Christ's knowledge. He establishes five modes of Christ's knowledge: the first, according to His divinity; the second, through the glorification of the human nature, whereby the human nature's natural ability is raised by the glory of the divine nature in the same person; the third, was in relation to grace, so that Christ understood the interaction of God's grace with creation, and especially in relation to human nature; the fourth is the natural ability of man to comprehend the natural mechanizations of the world; the fifth is that of the senses, the fullness of knowledge by which the senses can impart on a man. Thus, four of these modes are in relation to the human nature, and thus, human intellect, assumed by the divine person, while the highest, the first mode of knowledge, is in relation to Christ's divine knowledge, which knows all things naturally.

    2.The explanation of this is as follows: Just as it belongs to the redeeming principle to redeem us by a most generous grace, so too He redeems by a most provident wisdom. Because creation was according to the order of wisdom, redemption cannot be without light and the order of wisdom. Hence just as Christ ought to be free from all fault, so He ought to be removed from all ignorance and completely filled with the light and splendor of supernal wisdom. Hence He had a perfect knowledge in accord with each nature and cognitive power and in according with all existing things.
   Here, St. Bonaventure establishes his explanation for the fullness of Christ's knowledge. First, since the creation of the world was through wisdom, it would be necessary that the restoration of the universe must itself follow through with that same wisdom. From this, St. Bonaventure establishes that the one who provides the grace to restore creation, Christ, must be without fault and filled with the light of wisdom. Here, thus, is a two-fold explanation for the Incarnation: first, the need for someone pure, someone without fault to restore creation; secondly, in order to restore with the same wisdom of creation, the one restoring the universe must thus have the same wisdom. Thus, the one who created would have to be the one who brings about the restoration, which would itself require the Incarnation. However, St. Bonaventure goes further: in relation to Christ's perfection, He would have to be free from vice and ignorance. For indeed, it is through ignorance that vice becomes established in the universe (as St. Bonaventure previously established in Part III Chapter 1, where he showed the origin of evil in the universe); it is through ignorance that one sins. Christ, being free from sin and all impurity, would need to be free from all ignorance and either directed by the wisdom of God (as the Saints who keep purity are, through grace, raised in knowledge), or would have to be God himself. Hence, in either fashion, Christ could not remain in ignorance, and would require the fullness of knowledge in all modes of which He possesses. According to each of His natures, he held the fullness of their capabilities: in the divinity, His abilities are infinite by nature, and in His human nature and intellect, participate in the infinite in accordance to glory.

    3.Because things have existence in the eternal plan, in the human mind, and in their own genus, Christ necessarily had this threefold knowledge of things. Because a thing can be known in two ways in His plan, either by the Artificer Himself or by another viewing the plan, it similarly has to be and be known in His mind, except that He could not acquire this knowledge for that would be improper in Christ because it bespeaks imperfection; rather He possessed it as either an innate habit or an infused habit. Hence there were necessarily to be found in Christ, as God and man, for the perfect fullness of knowledge, the five above stated modes so that He knew things in the eternal plan, but the nature of His divinity and by the glory of understanding; in His own mind and a natural or innate habit such as Adam and the angels knew; by a freely bestowed and infused habit as the saints of God enlightened by the Holy Ghost; in their own genus by the paths of sense, memory, and experience, which in us causes an unknown thing to be known, but in Christ it makes a thing that is known in one way to be known in another.
    Christ knows things in relation to His divine knowledge, in relation to human knowledge, and in relation to their genus, that is, He knows a thing as it is eternally in the plan of God, he knows things in relation to the human ability to comprehend the thing, and then He knows the thing as it is in itself. Similarly, He also knows all things in relation to His own divine knowledge of it as both its creator and as a viewer of creation: He knows in accordance of being God as well as in accordance of how a subject of creation views creation. He knows all things as creator and created. However, because it is impossible to speak of Christ gaining knowledge, thus indicating at one point He had ignorance, instead St. Bonaventure states that Christ knows his knowledge naturally as God, and as man naturally in relation to what is known naturally by man, and with infused knowledge as man to that which is beyond the innate ability of man. Thus, at the start of the Incarnation, according to His human side, He knew all things both in a natural format but also with all knowledge infused within him, so He did not have to learn but rather already knew what man generally learns from experience.

    4. Because divine substance, power, and operation is immense, it follows that, according to the first mode of knowledge which is through the nature of divinity, He actually understands the infinite, for in some ineffable way, at the height of infinity, all infinity is finite.
   Here, St. Bonaventure returns to his first five-fold distinction of knowledge, and begins with Christ's knowledge as God. There is an interesting discussion on infinity: the limit of infinity is something finite. Thus we can see that Christ, who knows all things as God, knows all infinite things in such a way that its nature, while infinite, He knows it in relation to its limit, which makes it finite in relation to Christ's natural knowledge. I think a good way to understand this would be to chart on a graph several infinite where each one is limited in the chart of the areas where it fits, while the whole graph, the whole area of which these lines are in, encompasses and surrounds the lines themselves, hence showing that elements which are infinite can be surrounded, comprehended by something which is even greater. Hence, through the immensity of the divine power, substance and operation in Christ, the immensity is greater than the infinity of all objects which can be known and would thus allow Christ to comprehend all things in relation to his divine nature.

    5. Because the substance, power, and operation of the creature though it be a higher level is finite so that the human mind does not rest except in the infinite good and it cannot comprehend that properly because the infinite is not comprehended by the finite if comprehension is properly understood, it follows that, as regards the second mode of knowledge, the soul of Christ by the glory of comprehension achieved whatever knowledge it is possible for a finite nature, beatified by the infinite good to which it is united, to achieve. Hence it extended to things finite by actually comprehending them; to the infinite it did not extend except perchance in an infused way or exceeding itself, for the soul cannot be equal to the Word in knowledge or in any other way.
    Here we begin to see St. Bonaventure's discussion of the human-side of the knowledge of Christ. It is also an examination of what St. Bonaventure believes to be the end of human knowledge: human knowledge will be infused with grace to achieve something greater than its natural, original state. In its natural state, because the human mind is finite, for the human is himself finite, its ability to grasp is limited: it can achieve a comprehension, naturally, of all things naturally, but of the infinite, the creature is limited. When he says, "if comprehension is understood properly," St. Bonaventure is following a very traditional understanding of comprehension: to comprehend something in the traditional sense, the intellect which is comprehending is able to extend itself around that which it comprehends, because it is said to be greater and thus circumscribes that which it comprehends. Or in other words, the human mind is said to grasp what it comprehends, but if what it is trying to hold is greater than its ability to grasp, the mind will not comprehend what it sought to grasp. Hence the human intellect being immense is able to comprehend an infinite amount of finite objects (though not necessarily all finite objects); however, God, the infinite good, is beyond the natural ability of the human intellect to comprehend, for the human mind, however great it is, is far inferior to God's being and essence. Hence, God is said to be able to comprehend man, but man is not able to comprehend God.
    In looking at Christ, we see in his human side that which we shall become in our deification. As such, St. Bonaventure states that Christ's human intellect is beatified by the infinite good so that through this grace, the human intellect is able to go beyond its natural ability. It is given a new ability to grasp, greater than what it once had. While previously man was not necessarily able to comprehend all finite objects, through the infusion of grace, even that which was beyond the grasp of man is within his grasp; hence, Christ was able to comprehend all things in his human nature, even that which was beyond the normal natural intellect of man, because Christ's human intellect was also always united with the infinite good. St. Bonaventure ends his discussion by stating that no matter how highly beatified and blessed the soul and intellect of the human nature of Christ is, it is nonetheless inferior to the divine side of Christ. Some might think this is an indication of ignorance in Christ, but we must remember that this discussion is via nature, and not via person: as a person, Christ is divine and all that is in His divine side He knows divinely, and that which His human side knows, He also knows, in a humanly fashion, and the two are combined sources and ways Christ knows.

    6.Again, because grace looks mostly to the work of redemption, Christ, according to the third mode of knowledge, knew through a most perfect grace all that refers to our redemption much more acutely and better than any of the prophets or even the angels
   One side of the Incarnation is that of the redemption of mankind. As such, Christ knows beyond all others-- angels, or men, the way by which He established the means for the restoration of man and even of creation. It is through His infinite grace that He has planned out this redemption of man. Because it is His plan, because it is His grace, there is of course every reason to say and believe that whatever can be known of the plan and means of redemption, Christ, being the one achieving it and being the one who planned it out, would know beyond all others, the way it is achieved. The prophets only had a shadow of it; the angels possibly understood more within the light of Christ than man, but they too have been said to have marveled at the means and way God has restored creation. Thus, Christ has within Him a knowledge of the redemption of man which no others know; all that we know of it, Christ knows, and then He knows even more. The mysteries of redemption, which are mysteries for us, are fully understood by Christ.

    7. Further, because the nature of man, being well instituted, was created to be pre-eminent among all creatures and to know what should be subservient to it as was clear in the creation of the first man, hence, according to the fourth mode of knowledge, Christ knew all that referred to the understanding of the earthly mechanism much more fully than did Adam.
   Adam was created on the earth to be that which guided all that was on the earth, to protect all of its inhabitants. Thus, he was to be the custodian of the earth. For such a task, Adam was created with a knowledge about the things of the earth itself. He had an understanding of the creatures of the earth, so that he was able to identify them in their essential nature when he encountered them (as symbolized by his naming of all creatures on the earth). He was able to understand how the earth itself should be guided, and to help create a harmony through the means of his guidance. That harmony was guided by Adam's knowledge of the earthly mechanism, that is, the interrelations of all within the earth itself. Adam, in that sense, could be considered a great physicist, a great biologist, a great naturalist. His knowledge in these areas were exceptional, and his knowledge of how to interact within these realms can be said to be represented as superior to that which we now can do. They were enacted, not only with great knowledge, but the natural benefits of man when man is in his purity: abilities which we see several Saints grow to possess as they grow in purity (for example, St. Francis of Assisi's interaction with animals, communicating with them). However superior Adam's natural ability to interact with the earthly mechanism, his ability in this relationship and harmony is inferior to that of Christ. As the first man, Adam represents the initial understandings of all these harmonies and relationships; and, as history can show us, man's knowledge of creation was much more symbolic and relational than what modern man know holds. The initial understanding of mankind of creation and nature was much more based upon natural relationships, man with nature, nature with itself, all known on the natural level, and not on the individualistic level which we now hold. Christ, being the Second Adam, reinstitutes this side of man, but beyond man's initial understanding: He takes what man originally understood of these relations, and in Himself he has increased that knowledge manifold, thus allowing all of humanity an advance beyond Adam's initial knowledge. He represents, thus, the end, while Adam represents the beginning of man's knowledge.

   8. Lastly, because a man does not perceive things unless the object is present, Christ as regards His sensitive knowledge did not understand all things, but in one way some and in another way others as they offered an opportunity for achieving the redemption of mankind.
   The last mode of knowledge is that which is achieved through the senses. It is an experiential knowledge; the knowledge which is achieved through interaction with one's environment and learning what one's senses indicate and provide through such an interaction. It does not necessarily provide abstract knowledge, but it nonetheless provides a level of knowledge which confirms what is already known; it provides experiences to enrich one's use of one's knowledge; it provides, so to speak, the practical side to contemplative knowledge. It is here, through the senses, that Christ is said to speak to "grow in knowledge." It is here, through the senses, that Christ's experiences on the earth grow, allowing Him to gain access to a so-called knowledge which allows Him to grow, from childhood to adulthood, in wisdom. Many people in reading Scripture confuse it when it states "Jesus grew in wisdom", because they think it indicates on the abstract level, on the level of knowledge proper, Christ who is God, was ignorant; nay, it is not so; it is here, that through experience, through a sensual life alone that Christ grew in wisdom. This kind of knowledge, if it is to be called knowledge, is inferior and provides no real comprehension of things, but instead only an understanding of one's immediate surroundings (hence, as St. Bonaventure states, man does not perceive things unless an object is present). It only provides on a very miniscule level knowledge which is only confirmational rather than one which provides new sources of information.
    This last mode of knowledge, the fifth, would be said to be by the Platonists, the mode of opinion; for indeed, it is reflective on the changes of a changeable world, and so what one senses one moment will be different in another moment. Hence this kind of knowledge is limited and provides insight moment from moment, but not universally. For all those who experience time (and Christ, as man, experienced time), one constantly learns from moment to moment his surroundings and gains new insight moment from moment from his senses. Hence, one constantly grows in this kind of learning-- for it is indeed, the progression of time, and small insignificant moments of sensual data which is being learned. Since it has no universal side to it, this kind of learning, this kind of knowledge-- though a part of the life of man, does not provide us any reason for us to say Christ is ignorant of any Truth, but that what He learns is opinion.

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