Can man see God and live?

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Gen 32:30 And Jacob called the name of the place Phanuel, saying: I have seen God face to face, and my soul has been saved.
John 1:18 No man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

So how do we explain this contradiction ?
 
God told Moses in Exodus:
‘No man can see My Face. For if he does he will surely die. But you will see My Back as I pass you by.’

We cannot enter the complete Beatific Vision of God the Father, while in body form on earth. Until we die and are purified in purgatory.
 
Uriel1 said:
Gen 32:30 And Jacob called the name of the place Phanuel, saying: I have seen God face to face, and my soul has been saved.
John 1:18 No man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

So how do we explain this contradiction ?
Click to expand...
Go a little further in John
Consider Jesus answer Here
 
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you didn’t deal with the contradiction at all. Can you read it and try again please
 
Moses saw God’s back.

The Jews wrote according to their customed way of talking.

To see someone to the Jews, meant to see their face.
 
not relevant - that’s 13 chapters on
One says he saw God, one says no-one has seen God
 
I believe Jacob saw an Avatar of God, much like Isiahs’ call in the temple
& Ezekiels’ vision. Or maybe he wrestled with an Archangel & felt he was God
 
Jesus = God.

Jesus said whoever has seen him has seen the Father.

Some Old Testament (OT) scholars suggest that whenever someone saw or spoke to God in the OT they were seeing and speaking to Jesus. I tend to accept this theory since God the Father has no physical form (belief in both Christianity and Judaism) so our current human eyes couldn’t see him anyway. Hence, the incarnation of Christ from “before all ages”.
 
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Uriel1 said:
not relevant - that’s 13 chapters on
One says he saw God, one says no-one has seen God
Click to expand...
🤔 who is it that you are challenging?
Jesus is God. His Father is God. And Jesus is saying you see me you’ve seen the Father.

The OT reality isn’t the NT reality.
 
YoungCatholicGuy said:
‘No man can see My Face. For if he does he will surely die. But you will see My Back as I pass you by.
Click to expand...
And Jehovah said to Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast said; for thou hast found grace in mine eyes, and I know thee by name. 18 And he said, Let me, I pray thee, see thy glory. 19 And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thy face, and I will proclaim the name of Jehovah before thee; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy. 20 And he said, Thou canst not see my face; for Man shall not see me, and live. 21 And Jehovah said, Behold, [there is] a place by me: there shalt thou stand on the rock. 22 And it shall come to pass, when my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand, until I have passed by. 23 And I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see me from behind; but my face shall not be seen. Ex 33 17-23

So we couldn’t see God in Moses’ day and in John 1:18 no-one had seen Him either
 
Uriel1 said:
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YoungCatholicGuy:
‘No man can see My Face. For if he does he will surely die. But you will see My Back as I pass you by.
Click to expand...
And Jehovah said to Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast said; for thou hast found grace in mine eyes, and I know thee by name. 18 And he said, Let me, I pray thee, see thy glory. 19 And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thy face, and I will proclaim the name of Jehovah before thee; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy. 20 And he said, Thou canst not see my face; for Man shall not see me, and live. 21 And Jehovah said, Behold, [there is] a place by me: there shalt thou stand on the rock. 22 And it shall come to pass, when my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand, until I have passed by. 23 And I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see me from behind; but my face shall not be seen. Ex 33 17-23

So we couldn’t see God in Moses’ day and in John 1:18 no-one had seen Him either
Click to expand...
John the Baptizer, is saying Jn 1:18 and Jesus said Jn 14
 
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Yes, I was taught that Jesus probably appeared to Abraham with the two angels, wrestled with Jacob, etc., in His pre-incarnated form. Perhaps Adam and Eve also walked with Jesus in the Garden.

When God passed by Moses, he probably didn’t see a form as much as he saw a little of God’s glory, which was so dazzling that his face always shone after that. It’s possible that he also saw the back of Jesus in His glory.

There isn’t a contradiction. No one saw God the Father’s face, but Jesus allows us to behold the Father and live.

When the prophets like Isaiah and Ezekiel saw God’s glory in Heaven in their visions, they felt they would die from am awareness of their sinfulness. They did not actually die because they were seeing a glimpse of His glory in a vision, so from a distance, not directly face-to-face. It could be they were also seeing Jesus on His throne.

Peter, James, and John were also dazzled when they saw Jesus’ glory in the Transfiguration, but they didn’t die.
 
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The Catholic Church teaches that the Old Testament has a few errors, and must be read through the lens of the New Testament
 
Do you have a source that says the Church explicitly teaches that there are errors in the OT?
 
It is a reference to seeing God the Father.

Jesus was God in transfigured ‘human form’.
 
Jesus=God, so when we see Jesus, yes, we are seeing God in human form.

God is outside of time, so if He wanted to appear in ancient times as Jesus, before the Incarnation in Bethlehem, He could have.

And yes, since we are post-Incarnation and have the NT, we can interpret what happened in the OT more clearly.

That’s quite different than saying that the OT has errors, though. We just have more perspective than they did.
 
Jacob had wrestled an angel, unlike Moses. Looking at the context is an essential skill…
 
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Jacob did not truly see the invisible, incomprehensible God in totality. He seems to have wrestled an angel, or some theologians have suggested Jesus.
 
Wesrock said:
Jacob did not truly see the invisible, incomprehensible God in totality. He seems to have wrestled an angel, or some theologians have suggested Jesus.
Click to expand...
Really?
Jacob said, “I have seen God face to face”
Did he lie?
 
I’m becoming concerned that you are not responding to any of the brilliant answers posters have given, and instead seeming to opt only for those that allow you make comments accusing biblical figures of lying to trying to discredit the reliability of scripture. What this meant to be a question, start a discussion, or start an argument? It’s good to define the terms and goals of a conversation so everyone can be on the same page going into it…Just my two cents.
 
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