A number of biblical passages
complicate assertions of the divine Being’s imperceptibility and indicate some
ambiguity about God’s absolute and consistent invisibility. Consequently, they
also raise the question of whether divine representations are truly impossible.
Significantly, the only Hebrew scripture texts that seem to imply God’s
invisibility is a passage in Deuteronomy in which Moses reminds the Israelites
that they saw no form when the Lord spoke to them at Horeb and heard only a
voice speaking from the midst of the fire (Deut 4:12-13). Yet even this passage
does not say that God is invisible—only that the Israelites could not see the
divine form. Furthermore, Hebrew scripture stores in which individuals
encounter God as a physical presence imply that God can be seen as well as
heard.
The New Testament contains
passages, however, that firmly assert God’s essential invisibility and the
human inability to see God. The prologue to the fourth gospel proclaims that no
one has ever seen God (John 1:18)—which, however, once again does not precisely
say that God is invisible. The Epistle to the Hebrews states that Moses
persevered against Pharaoh’s anger as though he had seen the One who is
invisible (Heb 11:27). The clearest assertion of God’s invisibility comes from the
First Epistle to Timothy, which describes God as dwelling in unapproachable
light and says no one has ever seen or can see God (1 Tim 1:17, 6:16). (Robin
M. Jensen, From Idols to Icons: The Rise of the Devotional Image in Early
Christianity [Oakland, Calif.: University of California Press, 2022], 53)
Further Reading:
Lynn Wilder vs. Latter-day Saint (and Biblical) Theology on Divine Embodiment
