All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knows the Son, but the Father; neither knows any man the Father, except the Son, and he to whomever the Son will reveal him.
Read Chapter 11
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
Cont. Maxim in. ii. 12: For if He has aught less in His power than the Father has, then all that the Father has, are not His; for by begetting Him the Father gave power to the Son, as by begetting Him He gave all things which He has in His substance to Him whom He begot of His substance.
De Trin., i, 8: And because their substance is inseparable, it is enough sometimes to name the Father, sometimes the Son; nor is it possible to separate from either His Spirit, who is especially called the Spirit of truth.
De Trin., vii, 3: The Father is revealed by the Son, that is, by His Word. For if the temporal and transitory word which we utter both shows itself, and what we wish to convey, how much more the Word of God by which all things were made, which so shows the Father as He is Father, because itself is the same and in the same manner as the Father.
Quast Ev., i, 1: When He said, “None knoweth the Son but the Father,” He did not add, And he to whom the Father will reveal the Son. But when ...
The one who sees the Son, who has the image of the Father in himself, sees the Father himself. … These things are to be understood in a manner befitting to God. He said, “Everything has been handed down to me” so that he might not seem to be a member of a different species or inferior to the Father. Jesus added this in order to show that his nature is ineffable and inconceivable, like the Father’s. For only the divine nature of the Trinity comprehends itself. Only the Father knows his own Son, the fruit of his own substance. Only the divine Son recognizes the One by whom he has been begotten. Only the Holy Spirit knows the deep things of God, the thought of the Father and the Son.
Or that we may not think that there is any thing less in Him than in God, therefore He says this.
And also in the mutual knowledge between the Father and the Son, He teaches us that there is nothing in the Son beyond what was in the Father; for it follows, “And none knoweth the Son but the Father, nor does any man know the Father but the Son.”.
For this mutual knowledge proclaims that they are of one substance, since He that should know the Son, should know the Father also in the Son, since all things were delivered to Him by the Father.
So that it might not be supposed that anything in him is less than what is in God, Jesus said that everything was entrusted to him by his Father, that he alone was known to his Father and that his Father was known to him alone or to one to whom he himself had wished to reveal his Father. By this revelation Jesus showed that the same essence of both Father and Son existed in their knowledge of each other. One who could know the Son would also know the Father in his Son, because everything was handed down to him from the Father. Moreover, nothing else was handed down than what was known to the Father in the Son alone, but the things that belonged to the Father were known to be revealed in the Son alone. Thus in this mystery of mutual knowledge it is understood that nothing else existed in the Son than what was known to be in the Father.
The Father entrusts. The Son receives. What is entrusted? All things have been entrusted to the Son, but this does not mean cosmically heaven and earth and the elements and the rest of nature which God himself made and established. Rather, it refers personally to the people who have access to the Father through the Son and who were formerly rebellious but afterward began to know God. .
But when you hear, they are delivered, do not surmise anything human. For He uses this expression, to prevent your imagining two unoriginate Gods. Since, that He was at the same time both begotten, and Lord of all, He declares in many ways, and in other places also.
Then He says what is even greater than this, lifting up your mind; And no man knows the Son, but the Father; neither knows any man the Father, but the Son. Which seems indeed to the ignorant unconnected with what went before, but has full accordance therewith. As thus: having said, All things are delivered unto me of my Father, He adds, And what marvel, so He speaks, if I be Lord of all? I who have also another greater privilege, the knowing the Father, and being of the same substance. Yea, for this too He covertly signifies by His being the only one who so knew Him. For this is His meaning, when He says, No man knows the Father but the Son.
And see at what time He says this. When they by His works had received the ce...
Because He had said, “I confess unto thee, Father, because thou hast hid these things from the wise,” that you should not suppose that He thus thanks the Father as though He Himself was excluded from this power, He adds, “All things are committed to me by my Father.” Hearing the words are committed, do not admit suspicion of any thing human, for He uses this word that you may not think there be two gods unbegotten. For at the time that He was begotten He was Lord of all. Or when He says, “All things are committed to him,” He may mean, not the heaven and earth and the elements, and the rest of the things which He created and made, but those who through the Son have access to the Father.
By this that He only knows the Father, He shows covertly that He is of one substance with the Father. As though He had said, What wonder if I be Lord of all, when I have somewhat yet greater, namely to know the Father and to be of the same substance with Him?.
When He says, “Neither does any know the Fat...
This may seem to the uninitiated quite disconnected with the passage that went before, but the two stand in full accord. Having said “all things have been delivered to me by my Father,” he adds, “and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” In this he is quietly signifying his great privilege of knowing the Father and being of the same substance with him, he being the only One who knows the Father so intimately. … Note the timing and context in which he said this. It was just after he had worked miracles and the disciples of John had received proofs of his might by his works. He then thanks the Father that “that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes.” The Gospel of Matthew, Homily
. He says something great, "There is nothing marvelous in My being the Master of all things since I possess something even greater, that is, to know the Father, and knowing Him, to reveal Him to others." Consider, then: He said, above, that the Father has revealed the mysteries to babes, and here, that the Son reveals the Father. You see, then, the single power of the Father and the Son, since both the Father and the Son reveal.
In His preceding words, He said to the Father, "Father, Thou hast revealed." Lest you think that He Himself does nothing and that everything is of the Father, He says, "All things have been given to Me and both the Father and I have the same authority." And when you hear "given" do not think that means given as to a servant or a subordinate, but rather as bestowed upon a son. It is because He was begotten of the Father that those things were given to Him. For if He were not begotten and yet were of the same essence as the Father, those things need not have been given to Him because He would have already possessed them. See what He says: all things have been given, not by a master, but by My Father. As, for example, when a handsome child is born of a handsome father, the child says, "I have been given, that is, I have inherited, my father’s beauty."
