Not that any one hath seen the Father, save he who is from God, he hath seen the Father. "Hearing" and "learning"" do not amount to the beatific vision. "No one [as Jn said, John 1:18] hath seen God at any time, the only begotten [Son] who is in the bosom of the Father [ πρὸς τὸν θεόν, John 1:1; εἰς τὸν κόλπον, John 1:18], he hath declared him" (cf.
Matthew 11:27). The full revelation of the Father is alone possible to one who is ( παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ) "forth from God," yet evermore standing in close association with God. Cyril and Erasmus here suggest the fact that Christ distinguishes himself from Moses, and some suggest that Christ protests against the supposition which would make the spiritual "inner Christ" of modern speculation of more value than the historical personality.
But παρὰ in association with ὢν indicates more than mission from God, and obviously stands in indissoluble relation with the teaching of the prologue, viz. the eternal pre-existence of the personal Logos—the identity of the Person who was made flesh with the Christ of this discourse.
These words bring our Lord's teaching back to a full justification or reassertion of the statement that he had come down from heaven.