John 1:18Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

But perhaps someone will say: here we learn that no one has seen God. How then does the prophet say, “I saw the Lord” (Is 6:1)? The prophet saw, but not the very essence. He saw a certain likeness and a certain noetic representation, as far as he was able to see.

Moreover, one saw in one form, and another in another. From this it is clear that they did not see the Truth itself. Since It is simple in essence and without form, they would not have beheld It under different appearances.

The angels also do not see the essence of God, although it is said of them that they see the face of God (Mt 18:10). This only indicates that they always hold God in their mind.

Therefore the Son alone sees the Father and manifests Him to all men. When you hear of the bosom of the Father, imagine nothing bodily in God. The Evangelist used this term in order to show the kinship, inseparability, and co-eternity of the Son with the Father.

But the blessed prophet Isaiah says, "I saw the Lord" of Sabaoth "sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and the house was full of His glory. And the Seraphim stood around Him, six wings to one and six wings to another. With two they covered the face, with two they covered the feet, and with two they flew. And they cried one to another and said: Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Sabaoth; the whole earth is full of His glory" (Is 6:1-3).

Ezekiel also plainly and loudly declared to us that he could see the Cherubim, who had a firmament as if in the form of sapphire hanging above their heads. Upon the throne was the likeness of the Lord of Sabaoth.

He says in these very words: "And behold," he says, "a voice above the firmament that was over their heads. And above the firmament that was over their heads there was the appearance of a sapphire stone, the likeness of a throne upon it. And upon the likeness of the throne was a likeness as the appearance of a man above. And I saw as the appearance of electrum from the appearance of His loins and upward. From the appearance of His loins even downward I saw as the appearance of fire, and its brightness round about. As the appearance of a rainbow when it is in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the standing of the brightness round about. This was the vision of the likeness of the glory of the Lord" (Ezek 1:25; 2:1).

Since it was not hard to expect that not a few of the ignorant might say something like this to us, the blessed Evangelist hastens to cut off their objection. He says, "No one has ever seen God."

For the "Only-begotten," who is "God, being" in the bosom of God and "the Father," has given us this "declaration." He said very plainly to the hierarch Moses that no one will see "My face and live" (Ex 33:20).

He also once said to His disciples, "Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father" (Jn 6:46).

The Father is visible only to the Son by nature, and precisely in the manner in which one may conceive, according to divine properties, the possibility of seeing the divine nature and of its being seen. He is visible to no other among beings.

Therefore the word of the holy prophets does not lie when they cry out that they saw the Lord of Sabaoth. They do not assert that the nature of God can be contemplated as it is in its very essence. Rather, they themselves clearly cry out, "This was the vision of the likeness of the glory of the Lord" (Ezek 2:1).

Thus the form of divine glory was reflected in a veiled way according to a likeness with things among us. More accurately, it was a likeness, as if impressing upon a tablet the glory proper to the Godhead, since its true being exceeds the limits of our reason and speech.

In view of this, the Evangelist proves most wise when, after the words, "and we beheld His glory, glory as of the Only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth," he brings proof from His superiority over all.

As "from the greatness and beauty of created things" (Wis 13:5) the power of the Creator of all is contemplated, and "the heavens" soundlessly "declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims the work of His hands" (Ps 18:2), so again the Only-begotten must be shown higher and more excellent in glory.

As God, He surpasses the receiving power of the eye. Yet He is conceived and glorified by those properties through which He surpasses creation. This, I think, and no other, is the thought contained in the saying under interpretation.

But it must also be observed that he calls the Son "Only-begotten God" and says that He is "in the bosom of the Father." Thus He is shown again to stand outside consubstantiality with creation, and to have His own existence from the Father and in the Father.

For if He truly is "Only-begotten God," how can He fail to be other by nature than those who are gods and sons by adoption? The Only-begotten cannot be understood as one among many brothers, but as the only one from the Father.

According to Paul's word, there are or are called many gods in heaven and on earth (1 Cor 8:5). But since the Son is "Only-begotten God," He is evidently outside the others. He does not belong to the number of gods by grace, but is true God together with the Father.

Paul also affirms this after the words cited above: "Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things" (1 Cor 8:6).

Since the Father is one God by nature, the Word who is from Him and in Him must not remain outside being God. He is adorned with the properties of the Begetter and by essence rises to equal dignity, namely, in respect to being God by nature.

For this reason he says that He is in the bosom of the Father, so that you may again understand His being in Him and from Him, according to what is said in the Psalms: "From the womb before the morning star I begot You" (Ps 109:3).

There the expression "from the womb" is properly used in the sense of true generation "from Him," again as by a likeness with us, for children born from men come forth from the womb.

So too, when he uses the expression "in the bosom," he wishes, as it were, to indicate expressly the Son's generation by the Father's bosom. It is like a God-befitting radiance and an ineffable procession into His own hypostasis.

At the same time, the Father's bosom has Him within itself, because the divine generation of the Son from the Father did not occur by cutting off or bodily separation.

Concerning this, the Son says in one place that He is in the Father and, in turn, has the Father in Himself (Jn 14:10-11). For the very property of the Father's essence, naturally passing to the Son, manifests the Father in Him.

Again, the Father has the Son in Himself as one rooted by the unchangeable identity of essence, and as begotten from Him. Yet this is not by separation or local distance, but as existing in Him and always existing with Him.

So must we piously understand the saying that the Son is in the bosom of the Father. We must not understand it as some who have grown accustomed to fighting against God interpret it, "whose judgment is just" (Rom 3:8).

They pervert everything upright, according to the word of the prophet (Mic 3:9). They deceive the hearing of the simple and heedlessly "sin against the brethren, for whom Christ died" (1 Cor 8:12).

Yet it is necessary to say what they think, say, and try to teach others. The holy Evangelist says that the "Son" is "in the bosom" of God and "the Father." The children of the Church understand this rightly and therefore affirm that He exists from the Father and in the Father.

They very justly strive to preserve the true mode of generation. But those others, drunk with ignorance, immediately mock this and dare even to speak as follows.

"You speak nonsense," they say, "for you form an unbecoming conception of God. You think that by the statement about the generation of the Son in the Father's bosom, generation from His essence is indicated. You foolishly suppose that He is the fruit of the uncreated nature.

"Or have you not heard in the Gospel parables, when Christ Himself spoke of the rich man and Lazarus, that Lazarus died and was carried by the angels 'into Abraham's bosom' (Lk 16:22)? Because Lazarus was in Abraham's bosom, will you conclude that he exists from him and in him by nature? Or will you rightly refuse to say this and agree with us that by bosom love is meant?

"Therefore we too affirm that the statement that the Son is in the bosom of God and the Father is used instead of saying, 'in love,' as He Himself says in one place: 'The Father loves the Son'" (Jn 3:35).

If lovers of strife, capable only of reproach, think to strike us with such words, we too can set the right teaching of truth against them.

According to you, beloved, bosom means love, as we have just heard from you. But if "God loved the world" (Jn 3:16), according to the Savior's word, and "the Lord loves the gates of Zion" (Ps 86:2), according to the holy Psalmist, shall we dare say that both the world itself and the gates of Zion are in the bosom of God and the Father?

On the other hand, when He says to the hierarch Moses, "Put your hand into your bosom" (Ex 4:6), tell me, does He command him to love his hand, and not to hide it?

Then shall we not be subject to great ridicule for this, or rather fall into impiety against the Father Himself, by affirming that all things are in His bosom? We would be granting to all other beings the exclusive property of the Only-begotten alone, so that the Son would have nothing more than creation.

Therefore, having parted from their ignorant opinion, let us pass to the correct disclosure of the truth, in this sense: when the Son is said to be in the bosom of the Father, He is indicated as being from Him and in Him.

If we carefully examine the meaning of the thoughts in this saying, we shall find that it is truly so, and not otherwise.

"The Only-begotten God," he says, "who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him." As soon as he called Him "Only-begotten" and "God," he immediately added, "who is in" the bosom "of the Father." Thus the Son is understood as naturally being from Him and in Him.

He used "the bosom of the Father" in place of "essence," taking the comparison from bodily things. For visible phenomena sometimes serve as images of spiritual realities, and what happens among us guides us toward understanding what is above us.

Thus bodily things are often taken as images and convey to us an understanding of the loftiest contemplations, though in their own time they are understood according to the apparent literal meaning. Such, I think, is the saying in Moses, "Put your hand into your bosom."

The expression that Lazarus was in Abraham's bosom does not harm our teaching at all. On the contrary, it agrees with it and corresponds to our contemplations.

For Scripture says nearly this: Lazarus, who had died and had been released from life with the body, was carried into Abraham's bosom. This means that he was enrolled among the sons of Abraham.

God appointed Abraham father of many nations, as it is written in one place concerning him: "I have made you the father of many nations" (Gen 17:5; cf. Rom 4:17).

Therefore the exalted John, who was in this luminous darkness, says, “No one has ever seen God.” By these words he decisively affirms that knowledge of God’s essence is inaccessible not only to men, but to every rational nature.

Therefore, when Moses became higher in knowledge, he confessed that he saw God in the darkness. That is, he then knew that the Godhead, in His very nature, is precisely that which is beyond every knowledge and comprehension.

For it is said that Moses saw God “in the darkness” (Ex 20:21). Who is God? He is the One who “made darkness His covering” (Ps 17:12), as David says. The one initiated into the mysteries is in this darkness.

Yet God has not left us in complete ignorance. He Himself planted in the nature of each person the knowledge that God exists. The very creation of the world, its preservation, and its governance proclaim the majesty of the Godhead (Wis 13:5).

Moreover, first through the Law and the prophets, and then through His only-begotten Son, our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ, God imparted to us such knowledge of Himself as we can receive.

Therefore we receive, know, and venerate all that the Law, the prophets, the apostles, and the evangelists have handed down to us. Beyond this we investigate nothing.

For if God is good, He is also the giver of every good thing. He has no share in envy or any other passion, for envy is foreign to the divine nature, which is dispassionate and alone good.

Therefore, as all-knowing and provident for the good of each, He has revealed what we need to know. What we cannot bear, He has passed over in silence. We must be content with this, abide in it, and not transgress the eternal boundaries (Prov 22:28) or the tradition of God.

But how did the Evangelist say, “No one has ever seen God”? Isaiah saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up (Is 6:1). Ezekiel saw Him sitting upon the cherubim (Ezek 10:18). Daniel saw the Ancient of Days sitting (Dan 7:9), and others also saw Him.

Yet all of them saw Him, not as He is in His essence, but as He appeared in one likeness or another. If they had seen His very essence, they would not have seen Him in different forms. His essence is simple and without form. It neither sits, nor stands, nor walks, for all these belong to bodies.

Therefore God also said, “I multiplied visions, and through the hands of the prophets I was likened” (Hos 12:10). By this He indicated the many visions and likenesses.

The Son is called only-begotten first because He alone is begotten of the Father. He is begotten of the Father alone, and His Father is only Father, not also someone’s son, as other fathers are. Further, He is begotten only as Son, not as someone’s father, as other sons are. Finally, He is begotten in a unique and particular manner, surpassing every mind and word, and not as bodies are begotten.

He is called Son because He is of one and the same essence with the Father. He is not only of one and the same essence, but also from that same essence.

The “bosom of the Father” is spoken of, not because God has a bosom, since a bosom belongs to bodies. Rather, by the expression “who is in the bosom of the Father,” the kinship, consubstantiality, and inseparability of the Son are signified.

It may also be said otherwise. The saying that follows confirms the words, “No one has ever seen God”: “The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” That is, He taught that no one has ever seen God. Jesus Christ spoke of this in various ways, as we shall see later.

Therefore no creature, not only bodily but also bodiless, has seen God. He is invisible in His essence even to the incorporeal powers, though they see Him as far as is possible for them.

Job saw, but through cloud and darkness. Before him Abraham saw the Angel who spoke. Jacob saw Him as a man wrestling with him. Moses saw Him surrounded by darkness. So others also saw the countenance pleasing to God in dreams and conjectural veils.

The apostles saw God the Word become man in the flesh, the Son of God and Man, each according to the measure of his good work and the health of his soul. Thus a man whose bodily sight is healthy can look fully at the sun. But one whose sight is damaged can barely endure the light of a lamp or the glance of a ray.

If we see the sea from a mountain or a hill, we say that we have seen the appearance of its breadth alone. We have seen the sea only in part, because from this shore the mountain or land on the opposite shore cannot be seen with the eyes, since the air stands in the way.

Likewise the mind cannot know what is in the depth of the sea or on its very bottom. Something external always hinders the mind from understanding this. Therefore we can neither guess nor see what is on the bottom, and our thought truly falls into perplexity.

We all see the heaven, but not all in the same way. Each sees according to the health of his eyes. Thought cannot see it to the end or reach the highest form, which can exist only in thought. For, as is known, we see what is servile, but what is in heaven is not such.

If we could see, then both the visible and the invisible would stand before us, not only in part, but absolutely everything. So the Godhead is both visible and invisible to men. It is not only covered with a dense veil, but is also truly unknowable and inconceivable.

So also hay and straw cannot endure the approach of fire, but blaze up and smolder into ash. When Christ revealed a little of His Godhead on the mountain of Transfiguration, He struck terror into the pillars of the Church. Peter, James, and John immediately fell down, seized with fear and almost burned by the divine fire.

The holy Apostle, having reached this point, openly cries out about it. From the great ordering of beauty, the Creator appears without delay. Yet the heavens, the earth, and the seas cannot look upon the Perfect One. For how shall we truly contain in vision the Creator of reality?

For if the good things prepared for those who love God cannot be uttered, nor can a complete conception of them be reached, imagined, or contained by eye, ear, or heart, that is, by the mind, the highest power of the soul (1 Cor 2:9; 2 Cor 12:4), then much more will God, the Good higher than all possible goods, be hidden in the darkness of incomprehensibility (Ps 17:12), as blessed David has already said.

For what the heart is in the body, the mind is in the soul. Both guard and begin the life proper to the body and to the soul.

No one at all will say anything trustworthy from himself about God, or about the Father, or the Son, or the Spirit. If he does speak in this way, he will deserve no confidence in anything.

But the theologians themselves spoke about God. We, having heard from them and received their words, speak without doubt only what the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, revealed to us when He was personally with us.

To this we add what the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, who came after Him, taught the prophets of old and then the apostles. He guided them into all truth, according to the foretelling of the only-begotten Son Himself (Jn 14:26; Jn 16:13).

This does not affirm that chosen men did not see God at all, or had no conception of Him. It shows only that the vision or knowledge of God possessed by the incarnate Word has incomparable superiority over every human vision or knowledge of God. He possesses knowledge of the divine Being itself and therefore can communicate the most perfect revelation of Him.

“What shall we say to Isaiah, who said, ‘I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up’? What shall we say to Ezekiel, who saw the Lord sitting upon the cherubim? What shall we say to Daniel, who says, ‘The Ancient of Days sat’? What shall we say to Moses himself, who said, ‘Show me Thyself, that I may see Thee knowingly’ (Ex 33:13)?”

God Himself answers them through the mouth of the prophet: “I spoke to the prophets and multiplied visions, and through the prophets I spoke in parables” (Hos 12:11). That is, I appeared in images and likenesses, not as I am in Myself.

Not only the prophets, but even angels and archangels do not see God as He is in His essence. Only the Son and the Holy Spirit behold Him. How can created nature see the Uncreated? (Chrysostom, cf. Theophylact).

God also told Moses that no mortal can see His face. At Moses’ request, the greatest of the prophets would see only the “back parts” of God (Ex 33:20, 23). That is, “what comes after God and gives us knowledge of Him, just as the reflection and image of the sun in waters shows the sun to weak eyes, which cannot look upon it because the vividness of the light overwhelms the sense” (Gregory the Theologian).

“The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father,” or in the Father’s bosom, “He has declared Him.” To be in the bosom means to be in especially close relation to the one who holds another on his bosom or in his bosom.

This is figurative speech, taken from the custom of Eastern peoples at banquets, where one lay with his head in the bosom or leaned upon the breast of someone especially close.

“When you hear of the bosom of the Father, imagine nothing bodily in God. The Evangelist used this term in order to show the kinship, inseparability, and co-eternity of the Son with the Father” (Theophylact).

“He has declared Him” means He has revealed Him. Therefore the revelation of God communicated to humanity by Jesus Christ is incomparably higher than all former revelations of God (Heb 1:1). He communicated to humanity full knowledge of God, as far as the limited human mind can receive it (Jn 17:4, 6).

He taught humanity truly to worship the consubstantial and undivided Trinity, and He revealed the straight path into the kingdom of heaven.

The manifestation of the name of Him who is above every name is the most perfect knowledge of Him who is above every knowledge. This higher knowledge appears through man’s sanctification by the divine will. It brings him into divine love and into union with God.

In this sense no one has ever seen God. That is, no one has had complete and exact knowledge of Him. The Apostle Paul speaks even more strongly: no man has seen God, nor can see Him (1 Tim 6:16).

This does not affirm that chosen men did not see God at all, or had no concept of Him. It only shows that the vision or knowledge of God possessed by the incarnate Word has incomparable superiority over every human vision or knowledge of God.

For He possesses knowledge of the divine essence itself, and therefore can communicate the most perfect revelation concerning Him.

"What shall we say of Isaiah, who said: I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up? What of Ezekiel, who saw the Lord sitting upon the cherubim? What of Daniel, who says: the Ancient of Days sat?

"What shall we say of Moses himself, who said: Show me Thyself, that I may knowingly see Thee (Ex 33:13)?

"God Himself answers them by the mouth of the prophet: I spoke to the prophets and multiplied visions, and through the prophets I spoke in parables (Hos 12:11). That is, I appeared in images and likenesses, not as I am in Myself.

"Not only the prophets, but even Angels and Archangels do not see God as He is in His essence. Only the Son and the Holy Spirit behold Him. But how can created nature see the Uncreated?" says Chrysostom, and Theophylact likewise.

God also told Moses that none among mortals can see His face, and that Moses, the greatest of the prophets, would at his own request see only the things that are behind God (Ex 33:20, 23).

That is, "what after God gives us knowledge of Him, just as the reflection and image of the sun in the waters shows the sun to weak eyes that cannot look upon it, because the vividness of the light strikes the sense," says Gregory the Theologian.

"The Only-begotten Son," see the note on Jn 1:14, "who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him."

To be in the bosom means to be in an especially close relation to the one holding another on his breast or in his bosom.

This is figurative speech, borrowed from the custom of eastern peoples at suppers, where they reclined with the head upon the bosom or leaning against the breast of a particularly close person.

According to the teaching set forth above (Jn 1:1-3) concerning the relation of the Word to God, or of the Only-begotten Son to the Father, one may find in the expression under consideration a fuller and more exact concept.

The phrase "who is in the bosom of the Father" means that He has eternal being inseparably with the Father, and therefore is consubstantial with the Father.

He is "identical with the Father in essence. One from the One, and uniquely One," says Gregory the Theologian.

"For the Father would not have in His bosom a Son of a different essence. And the Son, if He were a slave and one of many, could not abide in the bosom of the Master," says Chrysostom.

Thus "see with what fullness the Evangelist speaks. Having said, 'No one has ever seen God anywhere,' he does not then say, 'The Son who saw Him has declared Him.' Instead he presents something different and higher than seeing: 'who is in the bosom of the Father.'

"For to be in the bosom means much more than merely to see. For the one who abides in the bosom, nothing in it is hidden from him.

"So that no one would think that the Son knows the Father more than all, yet does not know what He is in His essence, the Evangelist says that the Son abides in the bosom of the Father," says Chrysostom.

"When you hear of the bosom of the Father, do not imagine anything bodily in God. The Evangelist used this term in order to show the kinship, inseparability, and coeternity of the Son with the Father," says Theophylact.

"He has declared Him," that is, He has revealed Him. Therefore the revelation concerning God communicated to mankind by Jesus Christ is incomparably higher than all earlier revelations concerning God (Heb 1:1).

He communicated to mankind full knowledge of God, insofar as the limited human mind can contain it (Jn 17:4, 6).

He taught mankind truly to worship the Trinity, consubstantial and undivided, and opened the straight path into the Kingdom of Heaven.