Verse 9
Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and dost thou not know me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father: how sayest thou, show us the Father?
Something in the mind of natural man is reluctant to accept the evidence that Jesus of Nazareth was actually Almighty God in human form. This reluctance on Philip's part might have been the thing that prevented his becoming a very distinguished apostle. About all that has come down to us concerning him is his name and the reluctance evidenced by passages like this.
He that hath seen me hath seen the Father ... Could Jesus have stated the fact of his deity any more clearly than here? All that he had said of himself as the door, the good shepherd, the living water, the Son of God, the Son of man, the light of the world, the bread of life, the way, the truth, and the life coupled with his mighty signs - all of this had still left Philip unable to make the great step of faith in Jesus as God; and there seems to be in the Saviour's words here an element of wonder that Philip had somehow failed to take it in.
Show us the Father ... We do not know just what Philip meant by this request, but Hunter thought he desired to see a theophany:
He asks for such a revelation of God as Moses enjoyed (Exodus 24:9-1; 33:18) ... He would like Jesus to pull aside the veil separating the seen from the unseen - to disclose a great Father-figure. But such a theophany is quite unnecessary.[6]
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