Not knowing how to speak is greater than human speech
But someone will say: Even if you can refer 'he does not know' to the Savior, does it not offend you to say these things about the Only-begotten, about the firstborn of all creation, about the one announced before the conception according to the word, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you'? And you say he does not know how to speak?
See whether you can see something worth saying, and great, about the Savior in this place: that not knowing certain things, he is greater in not knowing them than in knowing them. And I use his own voice as a witness that he does not know certain things. He says to those who tell him, 'Did we not eat in your name, and drink in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works?' 'Depart from me; I never knew you.' Does that 'I never knew you' present his power as lesser, or as greater and more wonderful, because he did not know the worse and those who are perishing? For he knew the things that matter, the better things, and 'the Lord knew those who are his,' and 'if anyone is ignorant, he is not known.' So the sinner is not known by God.
Someone among the hearers will say to me: You have shown that he does not know the sinners; you have shown that he does not know those who work lawlessness, for they are not worthy of his knowledge. How will you show that it is a great and glorious thing for the Savior to say, 'I do not know how to speak'? Speaking is a human thing. To speak is to use a dialect: the speech of the Hebrews, say, or of the Greeks, or of some others. If you go up to the Savior and see him as Word 'in the beginning with God,' you will see that he does not know how to speak, because speaking is human. He does not know it, because what he knows is greater than speaking. And if you compare the tongues of angels with the tongues of men, and see that he is greater even than angels, as the apostle bore witness in the letter to the Hebrews, you will say that he was greater even than the tongue of angels when he was God, the Word with the Father.
So he learns, and as it were takes on, a knowledge not of great things but of lesser and smaller ones. Just as I force myself to lisp when I talk with little children (for not knowing how to speak in baby-talk, being full-grown I force myself to talk with children), in the same way the Savior, being 'in the Father' and in the greatness of the glory of God, does not speak human things and does not know how to utter speech to those below. But when he comes into a human body he says at the beginning, 'I do not know how to speak, because I am younger.' Younger because of the bodily birth; older according to 'firstborn of all creation'; younger because he came at the completion of the ages and visited this life later. So he says, 'I do not know how to speak': I know things greater than speaking, I know things greater than this human sound. You want me to speak to men? I have not yet taken up a human dialect. I have your dialect, O God. I am your Word, O God. I know how to speak with you. I do not know how to speak to men. I am younger.
Greek
Ἀλλ᾿ ἐρεῖ τις· εἰ καὶ δύνασαι ἐπὶ τὸν σωτῆρα αναγαγεῖν τὸ >οὐκ οἶδεν< αὐτὸν λαμβάνειν, οὐ προσκόπτει σοι ταῦτα λέγειν περὶ τοῦ μονογενοῦς, περὶ τοῦ πρωτοτόκου πάσης κτίσεως, περὶ τοῦ πρὶν συλλήψεως εὐαγγελισθέντος κατὰ κατὰ τὸ «πνεῦμα ἅγιον ἐπελεύσεται ἐπὶ σέ, καὶ δύναμις ὑψίστου ἐπισκιάσει σοι«· καὶ λέγεις· οὐκ ἐπίσταται λαλεῖν; ὅρα εἰ δύνασαί τι ἀξιόλογον καὶ μέγα περὶ τὸν σωτῆρα ἐν τῷ τόπῳ ἰδεῖν· ὅτι τινὰ μὴ ἐπιστάμενος, μείζων ἐστὶ μὴ ἀπιστάμενος ἢ ἐπιστάμενος αὐτά. καὶ χρῶμαι αὐτοῦ τῇ φωνῇ μαρτυροῦντος, ὅτι τινὰ οὐκ ἐπίσταται. λέγει γοῦν τοῖς φάσκουσιν αὐτῷ· «οὐ τῷ ὀνόματί σου ἐφάγομεν, καὶ τῷ ὀνόματί σου ἐπίομεν, καὶ τῷ ὀνόματί σου δαιμόνια ἐξαβάλομεν, καὶ δυνάμεις πολλὰς ἐποιήσαμεν; ἀποχωρεῖτα ἀπ᾿ ἐμοῦ, οὐδέποτε ἔγνων ὑμᾶς. ἀρα τὸ «οὐδέποτε ἔγνων ὑμᾶς« ἐκεῖ λεγόμενον ὑπὸ τοῦ σωτῆρος ἐλάττονα τὴν δύναμιν αὐτοῦ παρίστησιν ἢ μείζονα καὶ θαυμασιωτέραν, διότι τοὺς χείρονας καὶ τοὺς ἀπολλυμένους οὐκ ἔγνω; ἔγνω γὰρ τά διαφέροντα καὶ κρείττονα, καὶ «ἔγνω κύριος τοὺς ὄντας αὐτοῦ«, καὶ «εἴ τις ἀγνοεῖ, ἀγνοεῖται. οὐκοῦν ὀ ἁμαρτωλὸς ἀγνοεῖται ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ.
Ἐρεῖ μοί τις τῶν ἀκροατῶν· ἔδειξας ὅτι οὐκ οἶδε τοὺς ἁμαρτωλούς, ἔδειξας ὅτι οὐκ οἶδε τοὺς ἐργαζομένους τὴν ἀνομίαν· οὐ γὰρ ἄξιοί εἰσι τῆς γνώσεως αὐτοῦ. πῶς [γὰρ] παραστήσεις μέγα ἔνδοξον εἶναι τὸ «οὐκ ἐπίσταμαι λαλεῖν‘ λεγόμενον ὑπὸ τοῦ σωτῆρος; τὸ λαλεῖν ἀνθρώπινόν ἐστι· τὸ λαλεῖν διαλέκτῳ χρή- σαθαί ἐστιν, ὥστε εἰπεῖν Ἑβραίων, φέρε εἰπεῖν, φωνὴν ἢ Ἑλλήνων ἢ ἄλλωντινῶν. ἐὰν ἐὰν ἀναβῇς ἐπὶ τὸν σωτῆρα καὶ εἰδῇς αὐτὸν λόγον «ἐν ἀρχῇ πρὸς τὸν θεόν«, ὄφει ὅτι οὐκ ἐπίσταται λαλεῖν ἀνθρωπίνου ὄντος τοῦ λαλεῖν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ ἐπίσταται ἐπεί ἐστι μεῖζον ὃ ἐπίσταται τοῦ λαλεῖν.
ἐὰν δὲ καὶ ἀγγέλων γλώσσας συγκρίνῃς ἀνθρώπων γλώσσαις, καὶ εἰδῇς ὅτι οὑτος μείζων ἐστὶ καὶ ἀγγέλων, ὡς ἐμαρτύρησεν ἐν τῇ πρὸς Ἑβραίους ὁ ἀπόστολος ἐπιστολῇ ἐρεῖς ὅτι καὶ τῆς ἀγγέλων γλώσσης μείζων ἦν, ὅτε θεὸς ἦν λόγος πρὸς τὸν πατέρα<. μανθάνει οὖν καὶ οἱονεὶ ἀναλαμβάνει ἐπιστήμην οὐ μεγάλων, ἀλλ᾿ ὑποδεεστέρων καὶ μικροτέρων. καὶ ὥσπερ μανθάνω βιαζόμενος ἐμαυτὸν ψελλίζειν, ὅ ε παιδίοις διαλέγομαι (οὐ γὰρ ἐπιστάμενος παιδιστί, ἵν οὕτως εἴπ(??), λαλεῖν, βιάζομαι τέλειος ὢν διαλέγεσθαι παιδίοις), τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον καὶ ὁ σωτήρ, ὢν μὲν «ἐν τῷ πατρὶ« καὶ ἐν τῇ μεγαλειότητι τῆς δόξης τοῦ θεοῦ τυγχάνων, οὐ λαλεῖ ἀνθρώπινα, οὐκ οἶδε φθέγγεσθαι τοῖς κάτω.
ὅτε δὲ ἔρχεται εἰς σῶμα ἀνθρώπινον, λέγει κατὰ τὰς ἀρχάς· «οὐκ ἐπίσταμαι λαλεῖν, ὅτι νεώτερος ἐγώ εἰμι«· νεώτερος δὲ διὰ τὴν γένεσιν τὴν σωματικήν, πρεσβύτερος δὲ κατὰ τὸ «πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως«, νεώτερος, ὅτι ἐπὶ συντελείᾳ τῶν αἰώνων‘ καὶ ὕστερον τῷ βίῳ ἐπιδεδήμηκε. λέγει οὐν τὸ «οὐκ λαλεῖν«, οἶδά τινα μείζονα τοῦ λαλεῖν, οἶδά τινα μείζονα τοῦ φθόγγου τούτου τοῦ ἀνθρωπίνου. θέλεις με λαλεῖν ἀνθρώποις; οὔπω διάλεκτον ἀνθρωπίνην ἀνείληφα, ἔχω διάλεκτον σοῦ, τοῦ Μοῦ, λόγος εἰμὶ σοῦ, τοῦ θεοῦ, σοὶ οἶδα προσδιαλέγεσθαι, ἀνθρώποις οὐκ ἐπίσταμαι λαλεῖν,« «νεώτερός εἰμι.