TO SEE GOD

The statement is shockingly simple yet infinitely profound.  "From now on (απ αρτι) you know Him (God) and you have seen Him" (John 14:7). You all (plural) know God now (γινωσκετε). The present tense indicative verb emphasizes continuing knowledge from this point onward. You all have seen God (εωρακατε). The perfect tense indicative verb emphasizes past action that stands accomplished in the present (Burton, Moods & Tenses, p.40). Jesus expands His thought with two more perfect tense verbs in response to Philip's question. "The one who has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). It is not that they will see God. They have seen God - in Jesus. Jesus makes a staggering claim.

There are two Greek words often used for sight. βλεπω means to see in terms of the physical senses or as an intellectual function of paying attention. The word used here, οραω, refers to spiritual perception (BAGD, Lexicon, p.578). John uses οραω for what the Son in His preexistence saw when He was with the Father in eternity past (John 3:11, 32; 6:46; 8:38; Colin Brown, NIDNT, 3:515-517). No one else has seen the Father - until now, Jesus asserts! The Bible teaches that God is invisible (Col. 1:15; 1 Tim. 1:17). The word is a verbal adjective related to οραω with the alpha negative added (α - ορατος). Moses "saw" God in the Old Testament but it was a theophony - a manifestation of God (Ex. 33:13,18). Jesus now claims that the disciples have seen God in a way that Moses never did precisely because they have seen Jesus.

How have they seen God?  John uses the word for seeing by faith (John 12:45). The believer perceives the Father in the Son. The unbeliever does not. I like what John Baillie said, "Through God alone can God be known!" Jesus is not saying here that He represents the Father or is the Father's ambassador to humans.  You cannot know someone through knowing someone who knows him. Jesus claims that you actually know the Father when you know the Son. He claims that when you see Jesus, you have seen the invisible God!

KNOWING JESUS

John 14:7 can be translated in two very different ways because of a textual problem.  (1) "If you had know me, you would have known my father also" (ESV). (2) "If you really knew me, you will know my father as well" (NIV). The first version is a rebuke and the second is a promise. Is Jesus rebuking them for not knowing him as they should have known him or is Jesus promising them that they will know the father because they already know the son?

The protasis (condition) is essentially the same in both cases (minor textual differences), but the apodosis (result) has a major textual problem. The form of the apodosis determines the nature of the protasis. (1) "You would have known (αν ηδειτε or εγνωκειτε αν) my father." There are two variant readings in the manuscript evidence. The condition becomes a contrary to fact condition rebuking them for not knowing him as they should have known him.  (2) "You will know (γνωσεσθε) my father." In this case, the condition is assumed to be true resulting in a promise that they will know the father based on what Jesus said in verse 6.  The manuscript evidence is strong for both forms of the text.

I take it to be a rebuke. "If you had known me, you would have known my father also." There are two reasons for this conclusion.  (1) Jesus made the same statement in John 8:19 to the Jews in the temple. They did not know Jesus so they could not know his father.  (2) This translation is consistent with the rebuke Jesus gives to Philip in John 14:9.  Philip immediately proved he did not really know Jesus by his question (v.8), so Jesus rebuked him for his lack of knowledge.

The conditional sentence implies that the disciples have not really known Jesus so have not known God the father. They knew Jesus on one level. They walked, talked and worked with him. On another level, they did not yet know him so did not really know the father because to really know Jesus is to know the father. To know Christ means that we know him in such a way that the knowledge changes how we live like knowing a spouse in the fullest sense changes how we relate to everyone else. Our knowledge changes the choices we make in life. So, knowing Jesus changes how we live and this level of knowledge is the only way to know God as father.