John 1:18

No one has ever seen God. But God’s only Son, Jesus, who has always had a very close relationship with God, has told us about God.

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him .

In Context

17Moses proclaimed God’s laws to our ancestors. But what Jesus Christ did for us was much better. He acted in kindness toward us in ways we did not deserve and told us the truth about God.

19The Jewish leaders [SYN] in Jerusalem city sent some Jewish priests and ◄Levites/men who worked in the temple► to where John was, to ask him some questions. They said to him, “What do you claim about yourself?”

Read all of John 1

Cross References

Genesis 16:13Then Hagar realized that the angel was really Yahweh, so she said to herself, “◄It is difficult to believe that I have really seen the back of Yahweh, the one who sees me!/Have I really seen the back of Yahweh, the one who sees me?►” [RHQ] So she called him ‘Yahweh, the one who sees me’.

Genesis 32:28The man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob. Your name will be Israel, which means ‘he struggles with God’, because you have struggled with God and with people, and you have won.”

Exodus 3:4When Yahweh saw that he/I had come closer, he called to Moses/me from the middle of the bush, saying, “Moses! Moses!” He/I replied, “ Yes, here I am.”

Exodus 33:18Then Moses/I said, “Please let me see your glorious presence!”

Numbers 12:8So I talk to him face-to-face. I speak to him ◄clearly/using words that he will understand easily►, not using parables. He has even seen what I look like. So you should be afraid to criticize my servant Moses!”

Joshua 5:13One day when Joshua came near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him. The man was holding a sword in his hand. Joshua approached him and asked him, “Are you going to fight for us or against us?”

Matthew Henry on John 1:16-19

John's Testimony to Christ. 15 John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me. 16 And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. 17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. 18 No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. In these verses, I. The evangelist begins again to give us John Baptist's testimony… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

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