I read in the Gospel of John a verse which says, “No man hath seen God at any time” (John 1:18). In the same Gospel, I read another verse in which the Master Christ says, “[H]e that hath seen Me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9). Is there a contradiction between the two verses?

The answer

There are no contradictions whatsoever. God is spirit, and no one can see Him. The Master Christ was born of the Holy Spirit (Spirit of God), and is of the same essence and nature as the Father. So, whomever sees Christ (Hypostasis of the Son) sees the Father; “No man hath seen God at any time; the Only Begotten Son, Which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him” (John 1:18).

God is manifested in the flesh, and this is why we say that He is “the Incarnate Word of God.”

The Apostle John also affirms this in the prologue of his Gospel:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. (John 1:1; 14)

Truly, “without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3:16).

His Holiness Pope Tawadros II

Pope Tawadros II, My Faith: A Series of Dialogues on the Creed (Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate, 2014), 77–78.

The pages in the book (77–78)