Church Fathers Commentary John 1:18

"No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared [him]." — John 1:18 (ASV)

Origen of Alexandria: Heracleon asserts that this is a declaration of the disciple, not of the Baptist. This is an unreasonable supposition. For if the words, Of His fullness we have all received, belong to the Baptist, does the connection not run naturally? He received the grace of Christ—a second grace in place of the first—and confessed that the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Did he not then understand that no man has seen God at any time, and that the Only Begotten, who is in the bosom of the Father, had entrusted this declaration of Himself to John and to all who, with him, had received of His fullness? For John was not the first to declare Him; He Himself, who was before Abraham, tells us that Abraham rejoiced to see His glory.

St. John Chrysostom: Or, to put it another way, the Evangelist, after showing the great superiority of Christ’s gifts compared with those dispensed by Moses, next wishes to supply an adequate reason for the difference. The one, being a servant, was made a minister of a lesser dispensation; but the other, who was Lord and Son of the King, brought us far higher things, being ever coexistent with the Father and beholding Him. Then follows the verse, No man has seen God at any time.

St. Augustine of Hippo: What then of Jacob’s statement, I have seen God face to face? And what of that which is written of Moses, that he talked with God face to face? And what of the prophet Isaiah’s own words, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne?

St. Gregory the Great: This plainly shows us that while we are in this mortal state, we see God only through the medium of certain images, not in the reality of His own nature. A soul influenced by the grace of the Spirit may see God through certain figures but cannot penetrate into His absolute essence. This is why Jacob, who testifies that he saw God, saw nothing but an angel. It is also why Moses, who talked with God face to face, says, Show me Your way, that I may know You. He meant that he ardently desired to see in the brightness of His own infinite Nature the one whom he had, up to that point, only seen reflected in images.

St. John Chrysostom: If the ancient fathers had seen that very Nature, they would not have contemplated It in such various ways, for It is in Itself simple and without form. It does not sit; It does not walk; these are the qualities of bodies. This is why He said through the prophet, I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets; that is, "I have condescended to them; I appeared as that which I was not." For since the Son of God was about to manifest Himself to us in actual flesh, people were at first raised to the sight of God in ways that allowed them to see Him.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Now it is said, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God; and again, When He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. What then is the meaning of the words here, No man has seen God at any time? The reply is easy: those passages speak of God as someone to be seen, not as someone already seen. It says, They shall see God, not "they have seen Him"; nor is it "we have seen Him," but we shall see Him as He is. For no man has seen God at any time—neither in this life, nor yet in the angelic life—as He truly is, in the same way that physical things are perceived by bodily vision.

St. Gregory the Great: If, however, anyone, while inhabiting this corruptible flesh, can advance to such an immeasurable height of virtue as to be able to discern the eternal brightness of God by contemplative vision, their case does not affect what we are saying. For whoever sees wisdom—that is, God—is wholly dead to this life, being no longer occupied by the love of it.

St. Augustine of Hippo: For unless someone in some sense dies to this life—either by leaving the body altogether, or by being so withdrawn and alienated from carnal perceptions that he might well not know, as the Apostle says, whether he was in the body or out of the body—he cannot be carried away and lifted up to that vision.

St. Gregory the Great: Some hold that in the place of bliss, God is visible in His brightness but not in His nature. This is to indulge in excessive subtlety. For in that simple and unchangeable essence, no division can be made between the nature and the brightness.

St. Augustine of Hippo: If we say that the text, No one has seen God at any time, applies only to humans—so that, as the Apostle more plainly interprets it, whom no man has seen nor can see, the phrase "no one" is understood here to mean "no human being"—then the question can be solved. This interpretation does not contradict what our Lord says: their angels do always behold the face of my Father. Therefore, we must believe that angels see what no one—that is, no human being—has ever seen.

St. Gregory the Great: There are some, however, who believe that not even the angels see God.

St. John Chrysostom: That very existence which is God, neither prophets, nor even angels, nor yet archangels, have seen. For ask the angels; they say nothing concerning His Substance but sing, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will. Indeed, ask even the Cherubim and Seraphim; you will hear in reply only the mystic melody of devotion, and that heaven and earth are full of His glory.

St. Augustine of Hippo: This is true in the sense that no bodily or even mental vision of a human has ever encompassed the fullness of God. For it is one thing to see, and another to comprehend the whole of what you see. A thing is seen if even a glimpse of it is caught, but we only see a thing fully when we have no part of it unseen—when we see around its outermost limits.

St. John Chrysostom: In this complete sense, only the Son and the Holy Ghost see the Father. For how can created nature see that which is uncreated? So then, no one knows the Father as the Son knows Him. Hence what follows: The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him. So that we might not be led by the identical name to confuse Him with sons made so by grace, the article ("the") is added first. Then, to put an end to all doubt, the name "Only-Begotten" is introduced.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: The truth of His nature did not seem sufficiently explained by the name "Son" unless its unique force, as belonging properly to Him, were also expressed, thus signifying His distinctness from all others. For in calling Him not only "Son" but also "Only-Begotten," the evangelist completely cut off any suspicion of adoption, since the nature of the Only-Begotten guarantees the truth of the name.

St. John Chrysostom: He adds, who is in the bosom of the Father. To dwell in the bosom is much more than simply to see. For one who merely sees does not have thorough knowledge of what he sees, but one who dwells in the bosom knows everything. When you hear, then, that no one knows the Father except the Son, do not suppose that this means He only knows the Father more than any other, but not fully. The Evangelist emphasizes His residing in the bosom of the Father for this very reason: namely, to show us the intimate communion of the Only-Begotten and His co-eternity with the Father.

St. Augustine of Hippo: In the bosom of the Father means, that is, in the secret reality of the Father. For God does not have a fold of cloth on His chest as we do, nor must He be imagined to sit as we do, nor is He bound with a belt so as to have a fold. Rather, because our own bosom is innermost, the secret reality of the Father is called the "bosom of the Father." Therefore, He who knew the Father in this secret reality is the one who has declared what He saw.

St. John Chrysostom: But what has He declared? That God is one? The other prophets and Moses proclaim this. What else have we learned from the Son who was in the bosom of the Father? First, that the very truths the others declared were declared through the operation of the Only-Begotten. Second, we have received a far greater doctrine from the Only-Begotten: namely, that God is a Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth, and that God is the Father of the Only-Begotten.

The Venerable Bede: Furthermore, if the word "declared" refers to the past, it must be considered that He, having been made man, declared the doctrine of the Trinity in unity, and taught us how and by what acts we should prepare ourselves to contemplate it. If it refers to the future, then it means that He will declare the Father when He introduces His elect to the vision of His brightness.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Yet there have been people who, deceived by the vanity of their hearts, maintained that the Father is invisible and the Son is visible. Now, if they call the Son visible with respect to His connection with the flesh, we do not object; that is the catholic doctrine. But it is madness for them to say He was so before His incarnation—that is, if it is true that Christ is the Wisdom of God and the Power of God. The Wisdom of God cannot be seen by the eye. If the human word cannot be seen by the eye, how can the Word of God?

St. John Chrysostom: The text, then, No man has seen God at any time, applies not only to the Father but also to the Son. For He, as Paul said, is the image of the invisible God; but He who is the image of the invisible must Himself also be invisible.