ather, and no man
knoweth who the Son is save the Father, and who the Father is save the
Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him" (Luke x. 22;
Matt. xi. 27); and his confession of the limits of his own knowledge: "But
of that day and hour knoweth no one, not even the angels in heaven,
neither the Son, but the Father" (Mark xiii. 32). The confession of
ignorance, by the position given to the Son in the climax which denied
that any save the Father had a knowledge of the time of the end, is quite
as extraordinary as the claim to sole qualification to reveal the Father.

257. The similarity of these last two sayings to the discourses in the
fourth gospel has often been remarked; the likeness is particularly close
between them and the claims of Jesus recorded in the fifth chapter of
John. It is interesting to note that in the incident which introduces the
discourse in that chapter Jesus shows that he preferred, after healing the
man at the pool, to avoid the attention of the multitudes, precisely as in
Galilee he sought to check too great popular excitement by withdrawing
from Capernaum after his first ministry there (Mark i. 35-39), and
enjoining silence on the leper who had been healed by him (Mark ii. 44).
When, however, he found himself opposed by the criticism of the Pharisees
he spoke with unhesitating self-assertion and exalted personal claim, even
as he did in like situations in Galilee. During his earlier ministry in
Judea he had not shown this reserve. The cleansing of the temple, although
it was no more than any prophet sure of his divine commission would have
done, was a bold challenge to the people to consider who he was who
ventured thus to criticise the priestly administration of God's house. In
his subsequent dealings with Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman Jesus
manifested a like readiness to draw attention to himself. From the time of
the feeding of the multitudes all four of the gospels represent him as
asserting his claims, with this difference, however, that in John it is
the rule rather than the exception to find sayings similar to the two in
which the self-assertion in the other gospels reaches its highest
expression. Although the method of Jesus varied at different times and in
different localities, yet it is evident that he stood before the people
from the first with the consciousness that he had the right to claim
their allegiance as no one of the prophets who preceded him would have
b