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Has Anyone Ever Seen Jesus?
By Bible Researcher Eli Kittim 🎓
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Jesus Christ, Whom No Human Being Has Ever Seen
Writing at the end of the first century AD, 1 Timothy 6.14-16 (SBLGNT) surprisingly says that Jesus Christ “WILL BE REVEALED” in due time:
τηρῆσαί σε τὴν ἐντολὴν ἄσπιλον
ἀνεπίλημπτον μέχρι τῆς ἐπιφανείας τοῦ
κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, ἣν καιροῖς
ἰδίοις δείξει ὁ μακάριος καὶ μόνος
δυνάστης, ὁ βασιλεὺς τῶν βασιλευόντων
καὶ κύριος τῶν κυριευόντων, ὁ μόνος ἔχων
ἀθανασίαν, φῶς οἰκῶν ἀπρόσιτον, ὃν εἶδεν
οὐδεὶς ἀνθρώπων.
Translation (NJB):
do all that you have been told, with no faults
or failures, until the appearing of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who at the due time will be
revealed by God, the blessed and only Ruler
of all, the King of kings and the Lord of
lords, who alone is immortal, whose home is
in inaccessible light, whom no human being
has seen.
According to Bible scholars, the First Epistle to Timothy was written by an unknown author in Macedonia, Greece at the end of the first century AD. But according to the gospels, the chronology of Jesus’ ministry (which is typically dated to around 27-36 AD) supposedly took place at least 64 years earlier. Yet these two accounts appear to contradict each other. If either one of them is true, the other must be false. However, in my view, both of them are true. We’re just comparing different genres (Theological versus Didactic literature).
About whom is the passage written? The aforementioned passage is clearly talking about the so-called “king of kings and lord of lords,” a title that is uniquely associated with Jesus Christ. In fact, it mentions him by name and says that he will be revealed in due time. That means that he was never previously revealed! It further exhorts believers to do good “until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ … whom no human being has seen.”
First Timothy 6.14-16 therefore confirms Heb. 9.26b, 1 Peter 1.20, and Rev. 12.5, among other verses, that Christ’s initial revelation takes place in the end-times!
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The Son of Man Comes at Some Point in Human History
2 John 1.7 (SBLGNT) reads:
πολλοὶ πλάνοι ἐξῆλθον εἰς τὸν κόσμον,
οἱ μὴ ὁμολογοῦντες Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν
ἐρχόμενον ἐν σαρκί · οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ πλάνος
καὶ ὁ ἀντίχριστος.
Translation (YLT):
many leading astray did enter into
the world, who are not confessing Jesus
Christ coming in flesh; this one is he who is
leading astray, and the antichrist.
Yet in deference to Biblical usage, I’m not denying John’s proclamation of “Jesus Christ coming in [the] flesh” (2 John 1.7) but rather qualifying it in terms of its chronological relevance. In other words, I deny the *timing* of this event, not the event itself! Put differently, I certainly don’t deny the notion of Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh at some point in human history. I’m simply asking, “WHEN,” according to Scripture.
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