Ishodad the Assyrian on the Day & Hour

The following quotations are taken from The commentaries of Ishodad of Merv, bishop of Hadatha (c. 850 A.D.) in Syriac and English, translated by Mrs. Margaret Dunlop (Smith) Gibson, published by Cambridge, University press in 1911. This 9^th century Syriac Christian bishop addresses our Lord’s statements in Matthew 24:36 and Mark 13:32 regarding the Father alone knowing the day and hour. All emphasis is mine.

... When Elia will come for the revelation of our Lord, it is not known how long it will be; some say it will be forty days; the words being mixed with each other, the words that were spoken about the desolation and about the end; for from this, that there shall not be left lure one stone upon another, etc., until this, that this My Gospel shall be preached, He speaks of the end of the world; but other things that He brought in between, were about the destruction of Jerusalem. He said Heaven and Earth, it is clear that they shall pass away if I wish it, but My words cannot be falsified. Again this, that till the Heavens pass away, He does not say that in every way they will pass away, but of that which may be if the Lord wills, but He does not will, inasmuch as also in the world to come they will be required; but nevertheless they will be renewed and changed, and will rest and cease from the accomplishment of their service. And it is like this, that all of them shall wax old as doth a garment, and like a vesture and like this, that we shall be changed, etc. For if He knoweth not the day nor the hour, how is it said that I and my Father are one? for If He is not one in knowledge, in what is He one? and if He knoweth not the day like the Father, how did He say that all things that the Father hath are Mine? and if the Father hath anything that the Son knoweth not, the Son hath something that the Father knoweth not, and how is it said, that no man knoweth the Father but the Son, nor the Son, etc.; and how are they one, when the Father knows something that the Son does not know? and this not among things that are remote and precious, but things that are less in comparison with others? Again, if He knows the Father as the Father also knows Him, and knows not the day, then the day is of more importance than the Father; and again, if all is in His hands, and by Him everything was created that is in the Heavens and in the earth, as is said, and He knows not the day, how did He create anything, of which He does not know when it will end? can it be that the day is not one of His creatures? and if the Spirit searcheth all things, even the deep things of God, but the Spirit is the Spirit of the Christ, how does He not know the things that are in His hand, etc., and how does He know that the end will come in the night?

He says, Two shall he in a bed; the one shall he taken and the other left; and yet He does not know the day and how does He know the things that are before and after that day?

Immediately after the tribulation of these days, the Sun shall be darkened, etc., but yet He does not know the day that comes into the middle of these things; like a man who knows the things that are outside the walls of a city, and the things that are within it, but should say of the wall that is between them, "I know it not." And which of these is it? is it either that the Son does not wish to ask and learn the day? or that the Father is not persuaded to reveal it? Therefore He spake the word providentially and suitably; for because there was a long period in the interval, but they were supposing that the time of the end of the world was near, and that His manifestation should be in their days, as Paul also wrote to those who were of this opinion, saying, that ye be not shaken in mind, neither by word, nor by spirit, as if behold the day of Christ is at hand; He cherishes them like children, inasmuch as they would have reaped no advantage from a knowledge of the day, either they or the ages afterwards, but rather little loss; just as God also has not revealed to us the hour of our death, because of the great losses we would reap from a knowledge of it; for even in this our Lord gives us an illustration, that there are times when we should abstain from an unsuitable question, and that we should take refuge providentially in ignorance, that He does not give a serpent to the children instead of a fish. Therefore as it was useless that the day should be known, lie forbade them to ask, and hid it from them, in order that they might be assiduous and not idle; and this is evident from what He said afterwards, Watch, for ye know not when your Lord shall come; for it was also a custom with our Lord, to speak with a purpose like this, such as, Do ye not yet understand? and like this which lie said to the foolish virgins, Verily I say unto you, I know you not; and like this, It is not Mine to give, but to those for whom it is prepared, etc. ; and like this, I judge no man; and like this, that now I have known all things come from Thee, etc., and other such sayings. And we must know that Mark alone said, nor the Son knoweth, while Matthew does not say it; for because Matthew on the one hand preached his Gospel to the Hebrews, but Mark on the other hand to the Romans; the Hebrews on the one hand were doubting about the Divinity of our Lord, and the Romans on the other hand about His humanity, because of the bad seed that Simon had sown among them, that is to say, imaginations and fancies about the manhood of our Lord. therefore Mark added this of neither the Son, but the Father, teaching them that He was not only God, but also true Man ; for the Jews on the one hand needed to be taught that our Lord was God; and the Romans on the other hand needed to be taught that He was Man. Timotheus says that our Lord does not here call Himself the Son, but believers, who are many times called sons, and by means of baptism are made worthy of the Spirit of adoption; and He calls Himself the Father; He says he is the Father of the world to come, and Him hath God as Father sealed; and Children, yet a little while I am with; and Behold I and the children whom the Lord hath given Me. Therefore because the name of the Father falls on both the Father and the Son: on the Father, on the one hand, by nature, on the Son, on the other hand, by Providence; because of this, our Lord here used the equality of the name with His disciples; for many times also, as in the parables. He uses the equality of the names, sometimes, on the one hand, with Mary and Joseph, saying, Wist ye not that I must be in my Father's house? and they ceased from asking, for they thought that His word alluded to them, while He spoke about His Father: and what He said once, Destroy this temple, and in three days I [will build it], etc., and He was alluding to the temple of His body; but the Jews thought that He was speaking of that temple of stone; and once He said, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod, and other such sayings; thus also the disciples, when they heard neither the Son, but the Father, thought that He spoke of the Father as God, and that He was calling Himself the Son; and they ceased from asking, as it was of no use at all to them or to others that it should be known; for if He did speak of the Father, that He knew the day and the hour, what marvel would it be if He who possessed by nature the knowledge of all, should know the day? but this would be worthy of marvel, that the Manhood of our Lord should possess the foreknowledge of all things, because of His unity with God the Word. Again, He distinguishes and removes the soul from the spirit, just as He being Life and Power, etc., used all in humility)', in that He slept, and was tired, and hungry, etc.; so here He professed not to know the day, because the disciples wished to learn things that were too high for them. Again, He says, nor the Angels, that they might not be distressed that the secret was not revealed to them. (Pp. 93-96)

BOOK XI.

About this, that of that day and that hour knoweth no man, etc., we will say this first, that we must not understand the Holy Scriptures according Mrk. 12.29 to their outward sound; but when it says that our God is a consuming fire; is He therefore a consumer, and a destroyer, and not a preserver and a vivifier? and is He corporeal, and composed of various substances? and is He subject to innumerable passions, and is angry, and sleeps, and awakes, and repents, and is grieved, and errs, and does not know, and searches with a candle, etc.? and like this, whosoever is not born, etc. Behold, many have conquered in the strife of the passions, and have not been baptized; and even the Thief entered Paradise, when he had not a portion in the grace of Baptism; and no one can say that Jesus is Lord, except, etc.; and behold, Manichaeans and Marcionites and others use this expression, without the grace of the Spirit; and like they have all gone aside together; and all of them who came are thieves and robbers, and other such like; thus also this, that of that day and that hour He knoweth not: which heretics apply as an expression about God; and otherwise, how did the Apostle say that in Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge? and how did our Lord Himself say, that no man knoweth the Father but the Son, nor the Son, but the Father? and if He knoweth the Father, it is evident that [He knoweth] also all His knowledge. Now the Father knoweth of that day and of that hour, and of necessity the Son knoweth like Him; and if it is not so, the Father also is seen not to know the day; or how is His knowledge of that day in any way greater than the knowledge about the Father and about His knowledge? and if He is the Maker of all as it is said, how does He not know His work? or is that day not reckoned among His works? or is it not even reckoned in the number of the days of the year, and if they tell us thus, of what does it consist or its place? for every day consists of a night and a day, and the hours are couriers of its variations; but an hour, according to wise men, does not exist at all, inasmuch as the one that is past, does not exist, and the one that is to come is not yet. Again, if this, that He knows not the day, and this, that "He said to the foolish ones, I know you not," and this, that "I never knew you," which He said to the Heretics, is to be understood as an outward occurrence, therefore also many things like these which are said about the Father; like this, that "God remembered Noah," as if He really had forgotten him; and like this, "I will go down and see whether they have done according to the cry which is come unto Me, and if not, I will know"; and like this, that they have done something which I commanded them not, neither came it upon My heart”; and like this, "Where art thou, Adam?" and "Where is Abel thy brother?" etc.; and if these voices of weakness pursue after the Father, who has not been clothed with weak flesh, how much more may we speak weakly of Him who did wear the weak flesh? and just as a tree which is far away and hidden and distant, is known by its fruits which are manifest and near, thus also our Lord is known by His signs and deeds, and the prophecies about Him; and not from weak voices, even though He clothed Himself in weak flesh. There are people who deny His birth from a woman, and [say] that He is not the Son of the Creator; but the son of strangers, and that He was a hallucination and a phantasm, etc.; how much more if weak voices had not been heard about Him, either in the Old Testament or in the New? therefore this, that He knows not the day is not that He does not know, BUT THAT HE DOES NOT WISH TO REVEAL [it], because it would have been no profit that it should be known to them or to others, because many were slack in cultivating virtue, until that time; but now, because the coming of the Judge is hidden from us, we stand in fear every hour.

Again, for it was fitting for God, that knowing, He should be silent, and not reveal; but [it was fitting] to man that He should do this, which was mercy; therefore, because He was still believed to be Man only, it was not hateful that He should hide from them the day; but if He had confessed to them that He knew, but that He had not revealed [it]. He would have been thought evil and invidious; and if He had revealed it, slackness would have come in. (Pp. 138-140)