Ambrosiaster, Questions on the Old and New Testaments:
QUESTION 71. JACOB WAS CALLED THE MAN WHO SEES GOD (GEN. 32:30), AND MOSES SAW GOD FACE TO FACE. (EXOD. 33:11) THE LORD ALSO SAYS, "I SAW WITH MY OWN EYES THE GOD OF ARMIES.” (ISAIAH 6:5) ON THE CONTRARY, THE EVANGELIST ST. JOHN SAYS: "NO MAN HAS EVER SEEN GOD. (1 JN. 4:12) SO HERE THERE IS A CONTRADICTION. — To speak according to the truth, no man has really seen God, neither the Father, nor the Son. If the Scripture tells us that men have seen Him, it is by intelligence, for it could only appear to them in figure. Just as without knowing the emperors, we see them in image and not in reality, so God was seen in the sense that men understood that God appeared to them in a rational and not substantial way, for God cannot be seen in his nature. To put the difficulty of this question into the light of day, let us try to explain the meaning of John's words. For he wanted here to reveal to us a hidden truth which is part of the doctrine of salvation: "No man," he says, "has ever seen God; the only Son who is in the bosom of the Father has manifested Himself.” (Jn. 1:18) Let us examine the meaning of these words of the Evangelist; to show us that there is no truth that no man has ever seen God, he places this statement on the lips of the Son himself, who cannot be deceived because he is in the bosom of the Father. Now, what is the bosom of the Father, except the feeling of love of the true Father for his Son by the unity of nature which is common to them? No one has ever seen God except the only begotten Son, which is what the Apostle of God revealed among other things to St. John the Baptist: "It is not that anyone has seen the Father, there is only one who is of God who has seen the Father.” Now it is to condemn the Jews who would neither hear, nor believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, that the Evangelist proves to them that it is this same Christ who appeared as God to the patriarchs, and that the Father has never been seen except by the Son. Indeed, by denying that God the Father was ever seen, and declaring, however, that God appeared to the patriarchs, the Son of God wants to reveal himself and show that it is he who appeared as God to their fathers. This is why he says to the Jews in speaking of his Father: "You have never heard his voice nor seen his face.” (Jn. 5:37) So there is no contradiction in saying that God all at once has been seen and is invisible. (pp. 83-84)
QUESTION 2. THE GOSPEL DECLARES THAT NO ONE HAS SEEN GOD (JN. 5:46, 1 TIM. 6:16, JN. 1:18); WHILE JACOB, MOSES, AND ISAIAH CLAIM TO HAVE SEEN HIM. IT MAY BE SAID: NO ONE HAS. SEEN THE FATHER; WHAT CAN THIS DO? IF WE HAVE SEEN THE SON, WE HAVE SEEN THE FATHER, SINCE THE FATHER AND THE SON ARE ONE GOD IN THEIR NATURE, IN THEIR IMAGE, FOR BOTH HAVE ONLY ONE IMAGE, AND AS THE SAVIOR SAYS: THE ONE WHO SEES ME ALSO SEES MY FATHER. (JN. 14:9) HOW IS IT THEN THAT NO ONE HAS SEEN GOD THE FATHER, SINCE THE SON TESTIFIES THAT WE SEE THE FATHER WHEN WE SEE HIM, BECAUSE THERE IS NO OTHER GOD. IF, THEN, THERE IS NONE ELSE, IT IS HIMSELF WHOM WE HAVE SEEN AS GOD, SINCE THERE IS ONLY ONE. — It is from God the Father that the Evangelist wants to speak when he says that no one has seen God, except the only Son who is in the bosom of the Father and who has made it known to us. (Jn. 1:18) Let us then mark to the Son, He taught us that no one except He saw God. Now, he speaks in this way to teach us that it is he who has constantly appeared to the patriarchs and the prophets. These words, therefore, do not apply to the only God, but to the Person of the Father whom we cannot call otherwise than God the Father. As for the Son, he declares that he has been seen, but in an invisible way for those who thought he saw him. The vision here is the intellect, because it is not in the eyes of the body but in the eyes of the intellect that he was manifested, and to have seen him, it is to have understood that God revealed himself in this appearance. Now, when the Savior says, "He who sees me, see also my Father," (Jn. 14:9) he wants to speak not of the vision of the eyes, but of the mind, and to make us understand that there is no difference between the Father and the Son. Neither were seen in their nature. In apparitions, the Son has been seen only by the intellect and not by the eyes of the body, because he is invisible as the Father. (p. 234)
