This last
paragraph is omitted from many mss., though
contained in several of high authority. It offers a different
explanation from that which Hilary has adopted in the rest of the book
(see especially c. 59), where he maintains that Christ avoided
revealing what He really knew, by saying that He did not know.
The line adopted here is the same as that in the passage found by
Erasmus and inserted by him in Book x. c. 8. This is one of
several interpolations made in later, though still early, times to
correct or supplement Hilary’s teaching; cf. x. 8, with the
note.We must not
therefore think, because He said He did not know the day and the
moment, that the Son did not know. As man He wept, and slept, and
sorrowed, but God is incapable of tears, or fear, or sleep.
According to the weakness of His flesh He shed tears, slept, hungered,
thirsted, was weary, and feared, yet without impairing the reality of
His Only-begotten nature; equally so must we refer to His human nature,
the words that He knew not the day or the hour.