I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and gave symbols, by the witness of the prophets.
All Commentaries on Hosea 12:10 Go To Hosea 12
John Chrysostom
AD 407
How is it, then, that John said, “No one has at any time seen God”? He was affirming that all those instances were manifestations of his humbling of himself, not the vision of pure Being itself. If they had actually seen the very nature of God, they would not have beheld it under different appearances. For that which is itself simple, and without shape, and not made up of parts, and not restricted by limits, does not sit or stand or walk about, since all these are functions of material bodies. However, he alone knows how he exists. Now, to show this, God the Father declared by one of the prophets, “I have multiplied visions, and by the hands of the prophets I have used similitudes,” that is, “I reached out for the lowly. I did not appear as I was in myself.” His Son was soon to appear to us in the guise of real flesh. But in the prophets he gave them experience of this beforehand by allowing them to see something of the substance of God in the way in which it was possible for them to see him.
