In his recent book, Dan Vogel reveals that he is not familiar with biblical scholarship:
The declaration in John 1:18 that “no
man hath seen God at any time” seemed to contradict Moses seeing God “facto
face, as a man speaketh unto his friend” in Exodus 33:11. Smith changed it to
read: “No man hath seen God at any time, except he hath borne record of the
son, for except it is through him no man can be saved.” Similarly, 1 John
4:12—“No man hath seen God at any time”—was changed to read: “No man hath seen
God at any time, except them who believe.” (Dan Vogel, Charismas
Under Pressure: Joseph Smith American prophet 1831-1839 [Salt Lake City:
Signature Books, 2023], 164)
At
least on this score, the interpretation of these passages by Joseph Smith et
al., have sound exegetical support (even without the JST editions thereof). On
this, see, for e.g.:
One can download the slides (which contains more information than discussed above) here.
