ACC ~ John 14 v7

CHRIST’S APPEARANCE PROVIDES KNOWLEDGE OF THE FATHER

IRENAEUS: The Son reveals the knowledge of the Father through his own manifestation. For the manifestation of the Son is the knowledge of the Father, since all things are manifested through the Word. AGAINST HERESIES 4.6.3. [1]

[1] ANF 1:468*; SC 100:442.

THE TIME OF SEEING AND THE TIME OF KNOWING

HILARY OF POITIERS: How can knowledge of him be knowledge of the Father? For the apostles see him wearing the aspect of that human nature that belongs to him. But God is not encumbered with body and flesh and is unrecognizable by those who dwell in our weak and fleshly body. The answer is given by the Lord, who asserts that under the flesh that, in a mystery, he had taken, his Father’s nature dwells within him. … He makes a distinction between the time of seeing and the time of knowing. He says that from this time onward they shall know him whom they had already seen and so shall possess, from the time of this revelation onward, the knowledge of that nature on which, in him, they had gazed for so long. ON THE TRINITY 7.34. [1]

[1] NPNF 2 9:132-33*; CCL 62:301.

DIVINE SONSHIP PRODUCES RECOGNITION OF DIVINE FATHER

HILARY OF POITIERS: It was not the carnal body that he had received by birth from the Virgin that could manifest to them the image and likeness of God. The human aspect that he wore could be no aid toward the mental vision of the incorporeal God. But God was recognized in Christ by those who recognized Christ as the Son on the evidence of the powers of his divine nature. And a recognition of God the Son produces a recognition of God the Father. For the Son is in such a sense the image as to be one in kind with the Father and yet in a way that indicates that the Father is his origin. ON THE TRINITY 7.37. [1]

[1] NPNF 2 9:133-34*; CCL 62:304.

SEEING THE FATHER IN THE SON

CHRYSOSTOM: He does not contradict himself. They knew him indeed, but not as they should have. God they knew, but they did not yet know the Father. For afterward, when the Spirit came upon them, he formed in them all knowledge. It is as if he had said, “If you had known my essence and my dignity, you would have known that of the Father also. And from this time onward you shall know him, and you have seen him.” The [knowing] belongs to the future; the [seeing] belongs to the present. Both are brought about “by me.” By “sight,” he means knowledge by intellectual perception. For those who are seen we may see but not know. Those, however, who are known we cannot both know and not know. … These words are used so that you may learn that the one who has seen him knows him who begat him. [1] But they beheld him not in his unveiled essence but clothed with flesh. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 73.2. [2]

[1] The Son.

[2] NPNF 1 14:269**.