No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.

—John 1:18

“No One Has Ever Seen God the Father”

What does John mean that no one has ever seen God? There are a few records of men seeing “God” in the Scriptures,

1. Abraham two whom Yahweh came in the company of two angels on the eve of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah [Gen 18:1,17-19,25]
2. Jacob who called the man he had wrestled with till day break, “God” [Gen 32:30]. It must be noted that the man who wrestled with Jacob referred to himself as “God” [Gen 32:28]. This is confirmed by Hosea [Hos 12:3-5]
3. Moses who saw Yahweh’s back on Mount Sinai [Exo 33:20-23; 34:5-8]
4. Isaiah who saw Yahweh in the temple on a Throne high and exalted [Isa 6:1,5]
5. Ezekiel who saw the Likeness of the Glory of Yahweh [Eze 1:1].

Apparently, the apostle John does not consider any of these men to have seen God, i.e., to John, it wasn’t God the Father that they had seen.

We may divide these visions in two, those who met “God” physically such as Abraham, and Jacob, etc., and those who saw him in a vision such as Daniel.

1. First, for those who met God physically, it is certain that John does not consider that they actually met God the Father but a representative of him.
2. Second, for those who saw God in a vision, we would further divide them in two—
   1. Those who may have seen a representative of God, perhaps the same one men like Abraham met and
   2. Those who certainly saw God the Father.
   3. In the group of those who certainly saw the Father is Daniel whom he called the Ancient of Days [Dan 7:9,13,21]. We can be sure of this because the Messiah, whom John here considers to be a representation of God—“One Like a Son of Man” [Dan 7:13]—was in the dream different from the Ancient of Days. John does not consider even this to be seeing God.

Did Moses See the Back of God The Father in Very Person?

The only reason one may raise this question is a supposition that what John may have meant was that no one ever saw the front part or face of God. In other words, seeing the back of God, however closely, is not seeing God. (If that is not seeing God then what is it?)

It is, however, never a good practice to interpret any part of scripture while ignoring its scriptural context. If we want to be sure of our interpretation, then we must ensure that our interpretation agrees with the context.

So, in interpreting these words, we ought to consider the whole statement.

“No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.”

“No one has ever seen God” as used by John here is equivalent to “No one has ever met with God”.

When John says that “No one has ever seen God, but… Jesus has made him known” we can see that what he has in mind is that “No one can speak about God from a firsthand knowledge of him except for Jesus”.

The correct understanding of these words, therefore, rule out Moses as having “met” with God the Father on the Mount because

1. If that was the Father, then, even though it was just his back that he saw, Moses had firsthand knowledge of him.
2. Furthermore, please note that Yahweh God did not simply show His back to Moses but in fact conversed with him and
3. Furthermore, still, they were together on the Mountain for forty days! Even if the meeting was for an hour, certainly, if this was the Father, then no one can really say that Moses did not know Him firsthand.

This rules out Daniel’s vision of the Ancient of Days since

1. It was in a dream and
2. Was set in the future (so, except Daniel time traveled, he certainly did not really see God)
3. Secondly, Daniel saw him from afar and had no conversation with him (he does not have firsthand knowledge of him)

Who Did Moses See?

Though Moses saw him the closest and was the only one who directly conversed with him, Moses was actually not the only one to have seen the Yahweh he saw. As a matter of fact, although at an earlier time, Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and Seventy Elders of Israel, along with Moses saw “the God of Israel”. The account implies that they ought to have died because they had seen God but were, however, spared [Exo 24:9-11]. The One these men saw was “the God of Israel”, he is the same person Moses saw.

Quite certainly, these men saw the same Person Ezekiel saw by the Kebar River,

1. What they saw of him—the Sapphire-like pavement under his feet—and what Ezekiel describes are the same [Exo 24:10 cf., Eze 1:22,26]. A blue pavement of sapphire, clear as the sky, and an expanse of ice.
2. The One they saw was called the God of Israel, just as the One Ezekiel saw was called [Exo 24:10 cf., Eze 10:20].

Ezekiel’s description of the God of Israel that he saw as

1. “The Likeness of the Glory of Yahweh” [Eze 1:28] and
2. “The Glory of the God of Israel” [Eze 8:4; 9:3,19; 44:2]

Tell us that this was not God the Father in person.

One cannot be his own likeness, nor can he be his own glory, therefore, Ezekiel shows us an awareness and plainly teaches us that this is not God the Father himself but His Image, a representative of Him.

The fact that Ezekiel calls him the “Likeness” of the Glory of Yahweh means that he is in fact not God the Father himself but his likeness—God the Father cannot be his own likeness.

In addition to all this, Ezekiel called the One he saw “the Glory of Yahweh” [Eze 3:12,23] and this was what Moses asked of Yahweh, “Show me Your Glory” [Exo 33:18].

Moses and Ezekiel Table

Conclusion

So, just as John says, Moses did not see God the Father.

So who did they all see if not God the Father?