The “face of God” is a biblical theme from Genesis to Revelation. Not surprisingly, the subject has also piqued the interest of amateur apologists for Islam and atheism. I have, over the years, seen several memes alleging the existence of a contradiction in that Christians both affirm that no one has ever seen God and that Jesus is God. As is often the case, there is a legitimate ask behind that formulation. But that’s not why I thought it worthwhile to look into the matter. I had a friendly exchange with a Patristic scholar who studied the writings of the post-Apostolic Church Fathers some months ago. This individual made a claim that got my attention. He posits that God the Father will remain hidden from glorified believers even in the coming age. That sort of formulation usually sets the cogs and gears moving in my head. As it turns out, this is a rather fascinating and rich biblical theme. Below is my exploration of the subject.
In the Beginning in the Garden
The very first page of the Bible introduces a reader to a creator who molded humans and breathed into his nostrils. If this description is taken literally, we may reasonably surmise that the creator has a face – after all, the animated clay is supposed to have been made as an image of the creator, and it has a face. Also, as far as we can tell on Earth, breathing typically requires a face.
However, the literal reading only takes us so far. As we have explored here in the past, there are reasons to believe that the first eleven chapters of Genesis were not read literally by the original recipients. But even if we grant a literal reading, it will not resolve the issue. So, if Adam and Eve saw the creator besides hearing the sound of his walking in the cool of the day (3:8), and if God physically made the skin garments for the fallen beings (3:21), we do not have explicit indications that the humans saw his face. Even the act of animating Adam does not necessarily entail that Adam saw God’s face when he became a living being, for there could have been an interval between the breathing act and Adam coming alive. This cautious reading is important because later Jewish writers, who were familiar with this story on the first page of their Bible, would explicitly say that nobody has ever seen God’s face.
Furthermore, Paul (Col. 1:16) and John (John 1:3) would explicitly write that Jesus was the creator. If that’s true, then the creation story cannot resolve the question but only refocuses it. Of course, people saw the face of the incarnate Jesus in the First Century. Even when John saw the fear-inducing glorified Jesus in a Revelation vision, he still managed to describe his face, “the hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire” (1:14). Normally, we do not see someone’s eyes without also seeing her face – unless she wears a costume like Lagbaja. So, we have good reasons to conclude that Jesus’ face was always visible. This realization helps to refocus the matter: the hidden divine face in question is not of Jesus but of the Father. Typically, “God” refers to the Father in the Bible. John, while explicitly telling readers that Jesus is God and creator (John 1:1-3), says “no one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known” (John 1:18 ESV). So, we see here that there are two referents of the label “God” – one is invisible but the other is visible. Let’s get back to the beginning and walk forward.
The Face of God in the Hebrew Bible
Whatever we think about whether Adam and Eve saw God’s face, we soon learn that it was a prevalent belief that humans could not see God’s face and live. The stories of Moses’ encounters with God in Exodus probably influenced the notion, but there is evidence that the belief predated Moses. In Exodus 24, God summons Moses and the elders of Israel to a meeting at a mountaintop:
Exodus 24:9-11 ESV
[9] Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, [10] and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. [11] And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.
Notice the passage clearly states all 74 of the men saw God and dined with him. The “he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people” informs readers that God welcomes the visit of the men, which is why he does not harm them. Interestingly, however, we do not get any description of God’s face. In fact, the only bodily description we get concerns his feet. This suggests that they did not see all that could be seen about God. They did not see God’s face.
In Exodus 33, Moses regularly met God in a tent. Whenever Moses entered the tent, a pillar of cloud would descend and stand by the entrance to the tent (33.9), almost certainly warning the onlooking Israelites not to approach. In this way, God would speak with Moses. The implication was that God was in the tent. Indeed, the text says, “Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend” (33:11). This verse seems only to say that Moses and God had intimate conversations as humans do. If we thought this verse implies that Moses saw God’s face, we would soon be corrected. In verse 18, Moses explicitly asks God to show him his glory. Now, that was an interesting request because it suggests that whatever “glory” Moses asked for was not something that he saw when he ate and drank with God (33:11) or when he regularly met Yahweh in the tent. God responds thus:
Exodus 33:19-23 ESV
[19] “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The LORD’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. [20] But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” [21] And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, [22] and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. [23] Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”
It is as though God had understood Moses’ “glory” request as having to do with seeing his face. Hence, the passage says Moses could not see God’s face because no human may see God’s face. Notice how verse 23 helps to explain verse 20. It is not that humans can’t see God at all if he chooses – after all, Moses was allowed to see God’s back, and the elders of Israel saw God’s feet. The idea is that nobody is allowed to see God’s face specifically. As mentioned earlier, this substantiates the suggestion that the language of Moses talking face to face with God is not meant to imply that Moses saw God’s face.
Nevertheless, some people among ancient Israelites did not distinguish between seeing God and seeing God’s face. Understandably, people would rather see neither. When someone had a divine encounter, they frequently assumed they would die. The first example of such an encounter predates Moses. In Genesis 32, while Jacob prepared to meet his brother whom he had earlier robbed of a divine blessing, he wrestled with a character identified as a man. When Jacob, whom the man character renamed Israel, realized afterward that the man was a divine being, we read: “So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved” (Gen 32:30, NRSV). Notice how the belief that seeing God’s face was a bad idea existed long before Moses. This is Jacob, the ancestor of the ancient Israelites, and even he thought seeing God would mean the cessation of his life.
We see another example in Gideon’s story. In Judges 6, the angel of the LORD, a character we argued elsewhere to be a Yahweh figure and that the present passage portrays as Yahweh, appears to Gideon. The occasion was a calling of Gideon to defend the people of God militarily. But Gideon did not know that his guest was a divine being. When he later found out that it was a divine being, we read:
“Then Gideon perceived that it was the angel of the LORD and Gideon said, “Help me, Lord God! For I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face.” [23] But the LORD said to him, “Peace be to you; do not fear, you shall not die” (Judges 6:22-23 NRSV).
Notice once again that the reason Gideon cried out was because he feared he would die. It is worth adding that, as we argued elsewhere, if this Yahweh figure is the pre-incarnate Jesus, then there is no danger associated with seeing his face. Where the danger lies is in seeing the face of the Father.
Let’s consider one more example from the time of the Judges. After the time of Gideon had passed, the ancient Israelites found themselves in need of another leader. This time, God would enable a barren woman to conceive and birth a son. (That, of course, meant that Israel would have to wait much longer for her deliverer). The woman’s name was Zorah and her husband was Manoah. They would become Samson’s parents. The angel of the LORD appeared first to the wife and then to the couple together in Judges 13. They did not initially know the guest was no ordinary human. But when they realized he was a divine being, we read:
Judges 13:21-22 NRSV
[21] The angel of the LORD did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. Then Manoah realized that it was the angel of the LORD. [22] And Manoah said to his wife, “We shall surely die, for we have seen God.”
Unlike the case of Gideon above, no divine assurance was necessary here because Zorah, the wife, had sanctified commonsense. She said to her husband, “If the LORD had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering at our hands, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things as these” (Judges 13:23) – and she was right; they both lived.
A consistent idea throughout the Hebrew Bible then is that people believed seeing God was a dangerous thing because one might unknowingly behold God’s face and die. Therefore, we generally do not get descriptions of the divine body. Even when the prophets saw visions of God, they typically described details of the throne God sits on, the flowing majestic robe he wears, and the divine beings present all around him. The prophet Daniel comes the closest to seeing God’s face in a vision when he writes:
Daniel 7:9 NRSV
[9] As I watched, thrones were set in place, and an Ancient One took his throne, his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames, and its wheels were burning fire.
Daniel saw the hair of the “Ancient One.” Of course, we do not know what his angle of vision was. Whatever it was, we may safely assume that Daniel did not see the face of the Ancient of Days since we got no description.
It is interesting that Daniel, unlike the other examples we already addressed, did not say he might die after seeing God. But he did say “my spirit was troubled within me, and the visions of my head terrified me” (7:15). Like Zorah, he was probably a more contemplative human. When Isaiah saw a similar divine council vision, he freaked out like most people do:
Isaiah 6:1-5 ESV
[1] In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. [2] Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. [3] And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” [4] And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. [5] And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
Once again, notice how the description focuses more on the throne settings than the one sitting on the throne. Isaiah cognizes something sufficient enough, perhaps the glory, about God to locate him in the divine court. It could be that the “high and lifted up” language serves a double function including communicating that God was removed from Isaiah’s direct line of vision. All he could see about God was his majestic robe. Finally, note how verse 5 is reminiscent of the idea that seeing God is dangerous.
In the Psalms, “the face of God” took on a new idiomatic meaning. It became associated with divine favour. It is not hard to see how such a belief might emerge, considering that many who encountered God in the Hebrew Bible not only lived but also received blessings. Hence, the Psalmists write:
Psalm 24:3-6 ESV
[3] Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? [4] He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. [5] He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. [6] Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the FACE OF THE GOD of Jacob. Selah
Psalm 27:8-9 ESV
[8] You have said, “Seek my face.” My heart says to you, “Your face, LORD do I seek.” [9] Hide not your face from me. Turn not your servant away in anger, O you who have been my help. Cast me not off; forsake me not, O God of my salvation!
Psalm 80:7 ESV
[7] Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved!
Here, we see the language of the face of God combined with a solar metaphor. This may have derived from the idea of God’s glory, which is sometimes described in a solar language (Smith, 183).
By summarizing then, the Hebrew Bible provides data demonstrating that people believed that seeing God’s face, often simply expressed as seeing God, was risky. Nevertheless, some people did see God and lived. The sights consisted of seeing theophanies of God, especially as the Angel of the LORD, and prophetic visions of God. Whenever the visions concerned the Ancient of Days, who Jesus would later re-introduce as the Father, we did not get many descriptions of his body. The data suggest that what the people considered dangerous was seeing the face of the Father.
Invisibility of God in the New Testament
John 1:1-3, 18 ESV
[1] In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [2] He was in the beginning with God. [3] All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
[18] No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
We see here that at the time of the Apostles, the belief persisted that no one had ever seen God. But as verse 18 clarifies, the invisible God is the Father. The verse identifies another person as “the only God, who is at the Father’s side,” and this person is visible. John’s Gospel is well-known for its high Christology and view of Jesus as Yahweh.
Paul also expresses a similar idea when he writes of Jesus as being “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation” (Colossians 1:15 ESV). Two significant points are worth stressing here. First, as already demonstrated, this “invisible” language need not be taken in an absolute sense. While people did not see the bodily details of the Father in the Hebrew Bible, they perceived enough attributes of him – his glory or majestic robe, for instance – to locate him in relation to other beings in the different divine council settings. Second, the “image” language here is not of photography or mirror reflection. The idea is more of a sculpture. In saying Jesus is the image of God or, as Hebrews 1:3 puts it, the exact imprint or representation of God, Paul makes the same claim as John. Jesus is Yahweh – nothing short of Yahweh can be his exact representation. Both John and Paul (and the author of Hebrews) are saying the long-invisible God has now become visible. Note that the “firstborn” language does not undermine the idea of divinity. (See our treatment of that issue here.)
The Johannine and Pauline claim above raises two important points worth considering. First, it shows that these first-century Jews did not think Jesus was in any way better than the God of the Old Testament. They did not believe, like Marcion, that the God of the Old Testament was harsh while the God of the New Testament was gracious. Everything anyone has come to love about Jesus – love, patience, knowledge, power, miracles, grace, kindness, and so on – is also true of the God of the Old Testament. Walter Kaiser et al. summarize the point thus:
What John is saying is that if we want to find out what the Father is like, we only have to look at the Son. The “love and faithfulness” we see in Jesus is the “love and faithfulness” of the Father. The kindness we see in Jesus is the kindness of the Father. The healing we seen in Jesus is his doing the works of the Father (Jn 5:19). In sum, Jesus is the place where we get our best view of the face of the Father; in Jesus we can see what the Father’s heart is really like. When this truth sinks into our heart, many of us will receive a renewed vision of the Father and thus develop a new love for and intimacy with God.
Second, the idea that Jesus is the visible version of God whose face may not be seen sheds light on a well-known knotty passage in the Gospel of John. In chapter 14, John expounds on the idea introduced in 1:18. Here, Jesus was teaching his disciples, but they had difficulty understanding. At one point, Jesus says, “If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him” (14:7), demonstrating again John’s belief that Jesus is the exact representation of God. Confused, Philip spoke up and said what all of them probably thought, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” This request is quite reminiscent of Moses’ request to God in Exodus. But instead of another flashy and glorious demonstration – and it is interesting that John’s Gospel does not report on the transfiguration! – Jesus said to him (14:9,10 ESV),
“Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? [10] Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works
He might as well just repeat that, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). The Johannine Jesus is the visible version of the invisible God. Jesus, as John puts it, makes the Father known and visible.
What About in the Eschaton?
The idea of God (that is, the Father) being invisible runs through the Bible, from the Old Testament to the New Testament. 1 John 4:12 restates the familiar: “No one has ever seen God.” So, even after Jesus’ resurrection and appearances, the belief remained. Jesus himself affirms the integrity of the belief:
John 6:45-46 ESV
[45] It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— [46] not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father.
People heard and learned from the Father, as evidenced by the various Hebrew Bible divine council visions we have explored, but nobody has seen the Father. By now, readers should understand that seeing the Father means seeing the Father’s face and knowing him intimately. Interestingly and unsurprisingly, Jesus claims that he has seen the Father. The language of verse 46 raises a question we are now not going to trace: does it mean that no other divine being in heaven sees the Father’s face? We know about the throne-room Seraphim covering their eyes, but is that true of everyone else? We may take that question up in the future, but ultimately, it does not matter. Why? Because glorified humans are assured of seeing the Father’s face in the age to come:
Revelation 22:3-4 ESV
[3] No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. [4] They will SEE HIS FACE, and his name will be on their foreheads.
Perhaps it is something about our current constitution that makes us ill-equipped to see the Father. But when we put on the new body, we shall see the face of the Almighty – and live. Indeed, we will see more than his face. After all, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8 ESV).
Works Cited
Kaiser, Walter C., Jr., Peter H. Davids, F. F. Bruce, and Manfred T. Brauch. 1996. Hard Sayings of the Bible. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity.
SMITH, M. S. (1988). “Seeing God” in the Psalms: The Background to the Beatific Vision in the Hebrew Bible. The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 50(2), 171–183. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43719401
