John 1:18
No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
KJV
θεὸν οὐδεὶς ἑώρακεν πώποτε· ὁ μονογενὴς υἱὸς ὁ ὢν εἰς τὸν κόλπον τοῦ πατρός, ἐκεῖνος ἐξηγήσατο.
Greek NT
Deum nemo vidit umquam : unigenitus Filius, qui est in sinu Patris, ipse enarravit.
Vulgate
No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
ASV
No man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten Son who is in the Bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
Douay-Rheims
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In the original Greek
13 distinct Greek words appear in this verse.
εἰμί
eimi
verb · 2461×
εἰς
eis
preposition · 1769×
θεός
theos
noun · 1311×
κόλπος
kolpos
noun · 6×
μονογενής
monogenes
adjective · 9×
οὐδείς
oudeis
adjective · 235×
πατήρ
pater
noun · 412×
πώποτε
popote
adverb · 6×
υἱός
uios
noun · 375×
ἐκεῖνος
ekeinos
demonstrative · 240×
ἐξηγέομαι
exegeomai
verb · 6×
ὁ
o
article · 19778×
ὁράω
orao
verb · 682×
Textual variants
2 variant units attested by manuscript witnesses and modern critical editions.
minor
SBLGNT: μονογενὴς θεὸς | WH/Treg/NIV: μονογενὴς θεὸς | RP: ὁ μονογενὴς υἱός
- μονογενὴς θεὸς — SBLGNT
- μονογενὴς θεὸς — Westcott-Hort, Tregelles, Reader's GNT (NA27)
- ὁ μονογενὴς υἱός — Robinson-Pierpont
source: sblgnt-apparatus
major
A theologically significant variant concerning the nature of the Son. The earliest papyri and best Alexandrian manuscripts read 'only begotten God' (μονογενὴς θεός), while most later manuscripts read 'only begotten Son' (μονογενὴς υἱός). The difference is profound: 'only begotten God' is a striking affirmation of the deity of Christ, while 'only begotten Son' aligns with more common Johannine usage.
- μονογενὴς θεός — P66; P75; Codex Sinaiticus (01/ℵ); Codex Vaticanus (03/B); Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (04/C*); Coptic MSS; Clement of Alexandria; Origen
- ὁ μονογενὴς υἱός — Codex Alexandrinus (02/A); Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (04/C³); Majority of Byzantine MSS; Old Latin MSS; Vulgate; Peshitta; Irenaeus; Chrysostom
source: curated
Themes
Doctrines that cite this verse
Historic Christian voices
22 passages from patristic writers, Reformers, and church catechisms citing this verse.
Catechism of the Catholic Church · 3 passages
§151For a Christian, believing in God cannot be separated from believing in the One he sent, his "beloved Son", in whom the Father is "well pleased"; God tells us to listen to him.18 The Lord himself said to his disciples: "Believe in God, believe also in me."19 We can believe in Jesus Christ because he is himself God, the Word made flesh: "No one has ever seen God; the only Son, w…
§473But at the same time, this truly human knowledge of God's Son expressed the divine life of his person.104 "The human nature of God's Son, not by itself but by its union with the Word, knew and showed forth in itself everything that pertains to God."105 Such is first of all the case with the intimate and immediate knowledge that the Son of God made man has of his Father.106 The …
§1996Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life.46
Against Heresies (Adversus Haereses) · 2 passages
Proofs in continuation, extracted from St. John's Gospel. The Gospels are four in number, neither more nor less. Mystic reasons for this. 1. John, the disciple of the Lord, preaches this faith, and seeks, by the proclamation of the Gospel, to remove that error which by Cerinthus had been disseminated among men, and a long time previously by those termed Nicolaitans, who are an …
That one God formed all things in the world, by means of the Word and the Holy Spirit: and that although He is to us in this life invisible and incomprehensible, nevertheless He is not unknown; inasmuch as His works do declare Him, and His Word has shown that in many modes He may be seen and known. 1. As regards His greatness, therefore, it is not possible to know God, for it i…
Homilies on the Gospel of John · 2 passages
1. Do we then run and labor in vain? Are we sowing upon the rocks? Does the seed fall upon the rocks? Does the seed fall without our knowing it by the wayside, and among thorns? I am greatly troubled and fear, lest our husbandry be unprofitable; not as though I shall be a loser as well as you, touching the reward of this labor. For it is not with those who teach as it is with h…
1. The Prophet said to the Jews, You had the countenance of a harlot, thou were shameless towards all men. Jeremiah 3:3, Septuagint Now it seems fitting to use this expression not only against that city, but against all who shamelessly set their faces against the truth. For when Philip said to Christ, Show us the Father, He replied, Have I been so long time with you, and have y…
§50Christ enlightens His whole Church, as numberless passages from the Sacred Scriptures and the holy Fathers prove. "No man hath seen God at any time: the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father he hath declared him"[82] Coming as a teacher from God [83] to give testimony to the truth [84] He shed such light upon the nascent apostolic Church that the Prince of the Apo…
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Calvin expounds the eternal divinity of the Word with great care. The Word was not created in time but existed from all eternity with the Father. "The Word was God" — here is a clear declaration of the deity of Christ. The Word was made flesh — this is the mystery of the incarnation, the union of th…
God must therefore be left to Himself in His own majesty, for in this regard we have nothing to do with Him, nor has He willed that we should have anything to do with Him. But we have something to do with Him insofar as He is clothed and set forth in His Word, through which He offers Himself to us. It is with this God, the God clothed in promises, that we must deal in this life…
Chapter 1. On God. 1. I know that some will attempt to say that, even according to the declarations of our own Scriptures, God is a body, because in the writings of Moses they find it said, that our God is a consuming fire; and in the Gospel according to John, that God is a Spirit, and they who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Fire and spirit, according to t…
62. But if He is also called 'First-born of the creation ,' still this is not as if He were levelled to the creatures, and only first of them in point of time (for how should that be, since He is 'Only-begotten?'), but it is because of the Word's condescension to the creatures, according to which He has become the 'Brother' of 'many.' For the term 'Only-begotten' is used where …
Can any created intellect see the essence of God? Is the essence of God seen by the intellect through any created image? Can the essence of God be seen by the corporeal eye? Is any created intellectual substance sufficient by its own natural powers to see the essence of God? Does the created intellect need any created light in order to see the essence of God? Of those who see G…
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, the only-begotten; that is, of the essence of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made both in heaven and on earth.
Heidelberg Catechism · 2 passages
Q. Why is he called Christ, meaning anointed? A. Because he has been ordained by God the Father and has been anointed with the Holy Spirit to be our chief prophet and teacher who perfectly reveals to us the secret counsel and will of God for our deliverance; our only high priest who has set us free by the one sacrifice of his body, and who continually pleads our cause with the …
Q. Why is he called God's only begotten Son when we also are children of God? A. Because Christ alone is the eternal, natural Son of God. We, however, are adopted children of God — adopted by grace through Christ.
Man, then, was thus snared by the assault of the arch-fiend, and broke his Creator's command, and was stripped of grace and put off his confidence with God, and covered himself with the asperities of a toilsome life (for this is the meaning of the fig-leaves ); and was clothed about with death, that is, mortality and the grossness of flesh (for this is what the garment of skins…
God transcends all human categories and cannot be captured by any name, concept, or definition. He is not a genus, not a species, not a quality, not a quantity — He is beyond all predication. And yet this unknowable God has made Himself known through His Son, who is the image of the invisible God. The negative theology of Clement anticipates the later apophatic tradition while …
It was not the Father of all who is invisible that the prophets saw, but the Son, who condescended to be with men. And this is what the prophet said: 'No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.' See John i. 18. For from the beginning the Son is the one who teaches the knowledge of the Father, since He is wit…
Cross-references
- 1Cor 1:30 — But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
- 1John 1:2 — (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)
- 1John 4:9 — In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
- 1John 4:12 — No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
- 1John 4:12 — No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
- 1John 4:20 — If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
- 1John 5:20 — And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and
- 1John 5:20 — And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and
- 1Tim 1:17 — Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
- 1Tim 1:17 — Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
- 1Tim 6:16 — Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.
- 1Tim 6:16 — Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.
- 2Cor 4:4 — In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
- Amos 9:1 — I saw the LORD standing upon the altar: and he said, Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake: and cut them in the head, all of them; and I will slay the last of them with the sword: he
- Col 1:15 — Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
- Col 1:15 — Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
- Deut 4:12 — And the LORD spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice.
- Exod 3:4 — And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.
- Exod 23:21 — Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him.
- Exod 24:10 — And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness.
- Exod 33:18 — And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.
- Exod 33:18 — And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.
- Exod 33:20 — And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.
- Exod 33:23 — And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.
- Exod 34:5 — And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.
- Ezek 1:26 — And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man a
- Gen 16:13 — And she called the name of the LORD that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me?
- Gen 18:33 — And the LORD went his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned unto his place.
- Gen 32:28 — And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
- Gen 32:30 — And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.
- Gen 48:15 — And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day,
- Hos 12:3 — He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God:
- Isa 6:1 — In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the LORD sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
- Isa 6:1 — In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the LORD sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
- Isa 40:11 — He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.
- Isa 60:2 — For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.
- Job 42:5 — I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.
- John 1:1 — In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
- John 1:10 — He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
- John 1:14 — 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.