Christ's Infused Knowledge: What It Is, and the Scriptural Case

Thesis II: Besides the scientia beata, the soul of Christ from the moment of its conception also possessed a knowledge immediately infused by God (scientia infusa).

Beatific knowledge is the immediate, intuitive vision — through the light of glory — of God and His creatures as mirrored in the Divine Essence. Infused knowledge, by contrast, is knowledge of creatures in themselves. Like beatific knowledge, it is independent of the senses, though it still requires intelligible concepts (species intelligibiles).

Infused knowledge, as distinct from acquired or experimental knowledge, is the angels’ connatural mode of knowing; for man it is available only as a preternatural gift of grace.¹ St. Augustine calls it “evening knowledge” (cognitio vespertina), as against the “morning knowledge” (cognitio matutina) by which the angels intuit all things, natural and supernatural, directly in the Divine Essence. Infused knowledge thus differs sharply from our ordinary knowledge, which depends on sense perception and concepts abstracted from mental images. When granted to a human soul — as it was, for instance, to Adam and Solomon — infused knowledge adapts itself to the recipient’s own nature. St. Thomas, on Christ’s infused knowledge specifically: “Just as, according to the same Augustine, a twofold knowledge is posited in the angels — one, ‘morning’ knowledge, by which they know things in the Word, and another, ‘evening’ knowledge, by which they know things in their own nature through species implanted [infused] in them — so too in Christ, besides the divine and uncreated knowledge, there is in His soul the beatific knowledge, by which He knows the Word and things in the Word, and the infused or implanted knowledge, by which He knows things in their own nature through intelligible species proportioned to the human mind.”² This passage effectively answers Schell’s objection that “the body is merely an external addition designed to create the semblance of a human nature — a spirit who happens to have a body, even animating it as its substantial form, is at most a compound of angel and man.”³ The soul’s inner unity and harmony is no more disturbed by possessing two higher modes of cognition than it is by the ordinary coexistence of sense and intellect. Even after separation from the body, the soul attains heavenly beatitude in two ways: primarily through the vision of God, and secondarily through a twofold knowledge of objects distinct from God — first as mirrored in the Logos, second as they are in themselves. After the resurrection of the flesh, man will possess a third kind of knowledge too, experimental knowledge dependent on sense impressions (treated in Eschatology). Why should these three modes of knowledge be incompatible in Christ?

We do not propose this thesis as theologically certain — but whoever grants that Christ’s soul possessed the beatific vision from the moment of its creation can hardly deny it was also endowed with infused knowledge. Denying the latter would not incur theological censure, since we are dealing with a speculative deduction rather than directly revealed truth. The case is different, however, if one claims Christ’s human soul had neither beatific nor infused knowledge, but only acquired, experimental knowledge — that would contradict the Catholic faith outright. The Church has always held, against Nestorius, Leporius, and the Agnoetae, that Christ’s human nature possessed the highest wisdom and was wholly exempt from ignorance and error. It is the common teaching that our Lord’s human knowledge was both beatific and infused.

The Scriptural Case

Though this thesis cannot be rigorously demonstrated from Scripture, it gains strong probability from texts like Isaiah 11:2: “And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: the spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of counsel, and … of knowledge.” St. Thomas comments on this clearly Messianic passage: “…under these are comprehended all things knowable; for wisdom pertains to knowledge of all things divine, understanding to knowledge of all things immaterial, knowledge to knowledge of all conclusions, and counsel to knowledge of all things to be done.”⁴ “The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,” then, means Christ is established in possession of all knowledge, and that His knowledge is infused.⁵

Christ’s human knowledge, on this reading, is relatively infinite in extent — the highest, most complete knowledge any creature can possess under the present order, the ideal of all knowledge both natural and supernatural. This is confirmed by John the Baptist’s testimony: “For he whom God hath sent, speaketh the words of God: for God doth not give the spirit by measure” (John 3:34). St. Fulgentius comments: “For He it is who gives, and He it is who receives; and because He is able to give without measure, He could not receive by measure either. For remaining in the form of God, He gives the Spirit; taking the form of a servant, He received the Spirit — but since He Himself gives without measure, He did not receive by measure; for that which He gives by measure to others, He Himself received in its entirety.”⁶

Whether Colossians 2:3 can also be cited in support is considerably more doubtful.⁷

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