Apologeticae sive Theologiae Fundamentalis, Tomus I: Demonstratio Christiana

1. The prophetic knowledge of Christ considered in general.

That Jesus Christ was endowed with a prophetic knowledge such as no prophet ever possessed is attested with certainty by the Gospels when compared with the books of the prophets.

In the other seers the prophetic light is present not by way of a habit or permanent form, but by way of a kind of passion or passing impression, by which God actually illuminates the prophet's intellect.¹ When this actual light ceases, the prophets are left to their own natural ignorance. The prophets themselves indicate this in many ways: "And the word of the Lord came to me",² "And the word of the Lord came to me a second time";³ "And the word of the Lord came to me, saying";⁴ "And it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month ... the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God ... the word of the Lord came"⁵

Like a disciple before his master, so the prophet listens attentively before the Lord to learn what he is taught.⁶ Again and again he waits in vain for the divine illumination, until at last he confesses: "The Lord hath hidden it from me, and hath not told me."⁷

Jesus, however, as though reading from an open book, always read the most hidden things; indeed, he gazed upon the deepest mysteries of God perfectly and unceasingly.

He does not await the moment of illumination and of the communication of supernatural knowledge. He possesses within himself the spirit of prophecy; he utters prophecies on every occasion, and brings them forth at his own will and from the treasury of his knowledge, as though they were the most obvious of matters. This divine-prophetic knowledge of Jesus shines forth above all in his cardiagnosis, that is, his scrutiny of hearts.⁸

2. The cardiagnostic knowledge of Christ in particular.

Jesus knows and reveals the inmost thoughts both of his friends and of his enemies.

a) Of his friends. He recognizes Simon's natural and individual character at first sight and gives him a name suited to that character: "And looking upon him, he said: Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is interpreted Peter."⁹ Seeing Nathanael for the first time, he says: "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile." To Nathanael, who asks: "Whence knowest thou me?" Jesus answers: "Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee." To which he replies: "Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel."¹⁰ He lays open to the Samaritan woman her sinful life and reveals all that she herself had done, so that she cries out in astonishment: "Lord, I perceive that thou art a prophet."¹¹ The Pharisee Simon thinks within himself: "This [Jesus], if he were a prophet, would know surely who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: that she is a sinner." Jesus reads that thought with such penetration as if it had been expressed in words.¹² The disciples dispute about which of them should be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. "But Jesus, seeing the thoughts of their heart", reproved them, because they alone had spoken of such things on the way.¹³

b) Of his enemies. The scribes set themselves to accuse Jesus of having healed on the sabbath. "But he knew their thoughts" and sharply reproved them.¹⁴

The Pharisees complain of the casting out of demons, as though he had done it by the power of Beelzebub. "But Jesus, knowing their thoughts", confounds his accusers.¹⁵ And straightway he justifies himself by a miracle: "And astonishment took hold upon them all, and they glorified God. And they were filled with fear, saying: We have seen wonderful things to day."¹⁶

He sees through the minds of the traitor and of those who plotted against him from the beginning, and is deceived by none of their pretense: "For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that did not believe, and who he was that would betray him."¹⁷ "But Jesus did not trust himself unto them, for that he knew all men, and because he needed not that any should give testimony of man: for he knew what was in man."¹⁸

It would be ridiculous to compare this cardiagnosis of Jesus with the natural transmission of thoughts which they call telepathy. Telepathic phenomena seem to be traceable to the continuous motion of the brains (Gehirnwellen) that accompanies every thought and excites vibrations in the ether. These vibrations, excited through the brain of one man, can indeed be perceived by the brain of another man, but only under certain conditions. It is required that the perceiving subject have the most delicate nerves; that he exert the keenest attention; that he be trained by the longest experience; that he be not far distant from the person whose thoughts he wishes to divine; and that this person be conscious of the experiment being undertaken. And even when all the conditions are present, the telepathic medium at length attains this or that thought, with the greatest fatigue, by a guess more or less probable.¹⁹

Jesus, however, scrutinizes the hearts of men with exactly that ease and penetration with which we little men behold the things placed before the eyes of the body. Such cardiagnosis, moreover, belongs to God alone, who alone "knoweth the secrets of the heart"²⁰ and "understandeth all the thoughts of the mind"²¹. Hence the cardiagnosis of Jesus firmly proves the divinity of the Savior.