THE ONLY BEGOTTEN GOD

18 No one has seen God at any time. The only conceived Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him

qeon oudeiV ewraken pwpote monogenhV qeoV o wn eiV ton kolpon tou patroV ekeinoV exhghsato

Verse 18 No man hath seen God at any time (qeon oudeiß ewraken pwpote). "God no one has ever seen." Perfect active indicative of oraw. Seen with the human physical eye, John means. God is invisible (Exodus 33:20; Deuteronomy 4:12). Paul calls God aoratoß ( Colossians 1:15; 1 Timothy 1:17). John repeats the idea in John 5:37; John 6:46. And yet in John 14:7 Jesus claims that the one who sees him has seen the Father as here. The only begotten Son (o monogenhß uioß). This is the reading of the Textus Receptus and is intelligible after wß monogenouß para patroß in verse John 14.  But the best old Greek manuscripts (Aleph B C L) read monogenhß qeoß (God only begotten) which is undoubtedly the true text. Probably some scribe changed it to o monogenhß uioß to obviate the blunt statement of the deity of Christ and to make it like John 3:16. But there is an inner harmony in the reading of the old uncials. The Logos is plainly called qeoß in verse John 1.  The Incarnation is stated in verse John 14, where he is also termed monogenhß. He was that before the Incarnation. So he is "God only begotten," "the Eternal Generation of the Son" of Origen's phrase. Which is in the bosom of the Father (o wn eiß ton kolpon tou patroß). The eternal relation of the Son with the Father like proß ton qeon in verse John 1. In John 3:13 there is some evidence for o wn en twi ouranwi used by Christ of himself while still on earth. The mystic sense here is that the Son is qualified to reveal the Father as Logos (both the Father in Idea and Expression) by reason of the continual fellowship with the Father. He (ekinoß). Emphatic pronoun referring to the Son. Hath declared him (exhghsato). First aorist (effective) middle indicative of exhgeomai, old verb to lead out, to draw out in narrative, to recount. Here only in John, though once in Luke's Gospel (Luke 24:35) and four times in (Acts 10:8; Acts 15:12,14; Acts 21:19). This word fitly closes the Prologue in which the Logos is pictured in marvellous fashion as the Word of God in human flesh, the Son of God with the Glory of God in him, showing men who God is and what he is