In Luke 4 does Jesus know He is God and does Satan?

[GoldenKingGaze]

In Luke 4, Jesus is tempted being asked, "If you are the Son of God" did Jesus know for certain who He was, and did Satan?

I always thought Satan did and he was testing Jesus faith in Himself. But I read Gregory of Nyssa thought that it was Satan who was not sure.

Jesus had the most faith, and seeing is not believing but knowing. In John we read He was sure He came down from Heaven and had seen the Father, also He prayed and knew who to make His 12 disciples...

 

[PloverWing]

I don't know whether Jesus fully knew that he was the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Trinity while he was living his human, earthly life. Part of being fully incarnate was having a limited human mind (recall the Apollinarian heresy), with limited human knowledge.

What I see in Luke 4 is that Jesus has just heard a voice from heaven at his baptism (Luke 3) saying "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased." And now he goes off to think about that for a long time. What does it mean to be God's beloved son? Does it mean that he has power to manufacture bread to keep himself comfortable? Does it mean that he should rule like a king? Does it mean that he should do showy miracles to call attention to himself? All of these are temptations for someone who's just been told he's God's beloved son.

We're told almost nothing about the tempter in this story, other than what the temptations are. I voted for uncertainty on the part of both Jesus and the tempter.

 

[ChubbyCherub]

This is the most enlightening and confusing thing I think I have ever come across on this forum!

 

[David Lamb]

In Luke 4, Jesus is tempted being asked, "If you are the Son of God" did Jesus know for certain who He was, and did Satan?

I always thought Satan did and he was testing Jesus faith in Himself. But I read Gregory of Nyssa thought that it was Satan who was not sure.

Jesus had the most faith, and seeing is not believing but knowing. In John we read He was sure He came down from Heaven and had seen the Father, also He prayed and knew who to make His 12 disciples...

Luke 4 also contains a passage which shows that demons knew Who Jesus Christ is:

“33 Now in the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon. And he cried out with a loud voice, 34 saying, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!”” (Lu 4:33-34 NKJV)

If the demons knew, surely the "arch-demon" Satan knew too.

 

[GoldenKingGaze]

For God to be certain is an great absolute. Satan has a finite memory and field of vision. I think he could see some way into spirits and tell much of who they were. Maybe remembering things about them and today too, Satan remembers us. The fullness of the Godhead dwelling bodily would stand out to him.

 

[Lukaris]

The Lord clearly knew Himself ( Luke 4:40-41 etc.) interestingly the demons knew & Satan did not ( from what I gather).

I just noticed post #4, I wasn’t making any reference or debating that post this was just my observation ( fwiw) from Luke 4.

 

[GoldenKingGaze]

So I felt I had to add two more options. Jesus having part of a sighting, memory of being with the Father and being separated for special purposes. Then from a young age, knew by faith, prayer and like a prophet, seeing into Heaven in prayer, knew who He was praying to. He knew what to do by faith.