Bible Dictionaries
Kenosis

　　KENOSIS.—The word renders ‘made himself of no reputation,’ but the Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885γινώσκειν, see Westcott in loco). He sought guidance from God in prayer (Luke 5:16; Luke 6:12; Luke 9:18; Luke 9:28; Luke 10:21). The necessity of the cup offered by His Father’s will was not at first evident to Him (Matthew 26:39), and, when convinced that His Father’s will required it, He was not sure that His strength to drink it would endure (Matthew 26:42; cf. Hebrews 5:7-8). His cry of desolation (Matthew 27:46) on the cross was not only the culmination of His Passion, but in being this it was also the temporary obscuration of His knowledge of the Father, who in that moment had not forsaken Him. Instances of supernatural knowledge are found in the Gospels. Some of these: the getting of the ass (Matthew 21:2), and of the upper room (Matthew 26:17-19), the finding of the money in the fish’s mouth (Matthew 17:27), are only apparent, and allow another explanation. The statement to the woman of Samaria about the number of her husbands (John 4:17-18) is very perplexing; and possibly, as the conversation was probably reported by the woman, may have been made more definite by her guilty conscience than it actually was, even as she exaggerates in her account of what Christ had told her (John 4:29). The command to the disciples about casting their net (Luke 5:5) was probably an act of faith in God, even as the command to the storm (Mark 4:39). The other cases fall into two classes: prophetic anticipations (His own death and resurrection, the doom of Jerusalem), or exercises of an exceptional moral insight and spiritual discernment. We may admit occasionally, for the fulfilment of His vocation, miraculous knowledge as well as power, without the constant possession of omniscience or omnipotence.

　　We cannot dissever the intellectual from the moral life; and the development of the latter involves necessarily some limitations in the former. Omniscience cannot be ‘tempted in all points even as we are,’ nor can it exercise a childlike faith in God such as Jesus calls us to exercise along with Him. Moral and religious reality is excluded from the history of Jesus by the denial of the limitation of His knowledge. He was tempted (see articles on Temptation and Struggles of Soul). In the Wilderness the temptation was possible, because He had to learn by experience the uses to which His miraculous powers might legitimately be put, and the proper means for the fulfilment of His vocation. Without taint or flaw in His own nature, the expectations of the people regarding the Messiah, and the desires they pressed upon Him, afforded the occasions of temptation to Him. The necessity of His own sacrifice was not so certain to Him as to exclude the possibility of the temptation to escape it. That Jesus was Himself conscious of being still the subject of a moral discipline is suggested by His refusal of the epithet ‘good’ (Mark 10:18). Although morally tempted and developing, Jesus betrays no sign of penitence for sin or failure, and we are warranted in affirming that He was tempted without sin, and in His development knew no sin. But that perfection would have been only a moral semblance had there been no liability to temptation and no limitation of knowledge. As Son of God, He lived in dependence on God (Matthew 11:27 a) and submission to Him (Matthew 11:25, Matthew 26:39). It is the Fourth Gospel that throws into special prominence this feature (John 3:34; John 5:19-20; John 8:28; John 15:15; John 17:1; John 17:8). The Son delivers the words and performs the deeds given by the Father. There are a few utterances given in this Gospel which express a sense of loss for Himself and His disciples in the separation from the Father that His earthly life involves (John 14:28), a desire for the recovery of the former conditions of communion (John 17:5), and an expectation of gain in His return to the Father (John 14:19-20). Jesus was subject to human emotion: He groaned (John 11:33; John 11:38), sighed (Mark 7:34; Mark 8:12), wept at the grave of Lazarus (John 11:35) and over Jerusalem (Luke 13:34; Luke 19:41, Matthew 23:37). He endured poverty (Matthew 8:20, Luke 9:58), labour (Mark 6:3), weariness (John 4:6, Matthew 21:7), weakness (Matthew 27:32), hunger (Matthew 4:2; Matthew 21:18), thirst (John 4:7; John 19:28), pain (Matthew 27:34-35), and death (Matthew 27:50, John 19:30). Some have conjectured from the evidence of John 19:34 that He died literally of a broken heart (see Farrar’s Life of Christ, note at the end of chap. lxi.). This Kenosis did not obscure His moral insight and spiritual discernment; did not involve any moral defect or failure, any religious distrust; did not weaken or narrow His love, mercy, or grace; did not lower His authority, or lessen His efficiency as Revealer of God and Redeemer of men; but, on the contrary, it was necessary, for only under such human conditions and limitations could He fulfil His mission, deliver His message, present His sacrifice, and effect His salvation. That He might receive the name of Saviour and Lord, which is above every other name, He must empty Himself.

　　Literature.—Works referred to in the art.; Liddon, BL