Abstract

In the Gospel of John, “seeing Jesus” appears as a crucial theme (e.g., John 1:14, 18, 34; 2:23; 6:46; 8:19; 9:1–7, 33; 13:12–15; 14:9–10; 20:29). This study examines the meaning of seeing Jesus within the framework of theosis, a theology of the early church fathers that has been the subject of discussion in recent New Testament scholarship. While Johannine themes such as mission, incarnation, sacrament, and sonship have been connected to the concept of theosis, the theme of seeing Jesus has not been explored according to the significance of theosis. In John’s Gospel, seeing is not merely limited to the act of physical sight. Rather, it involves perceiving God revealed in Jesus, which yields knowledge of God. Moreover, this knowledge becomes believers’ participation in the life of God, who shares his life with us. The dynamics of this participation are rooted in the relationship between God and Jesus. Jesus sees God as the giver of life, and by acting according to what he sees, Jesus participates in the life-giving works of God, thereby embodying theosis (e.g., John 5:26; 9:7; 10:38; 14:11). Likewise, believers behold the divine life revealed in Jesus and become partakers of the divine life. In particular, Jesus’s washing of the disciples’ feet in John 13 serves as a quintessential model of “seeing-knowledge-participation” structure. By seeing Jesus’s washing of their feet, the disciples come to live out the life of love and service after the pattern of Jesus’s life, thereby becoming partakers of Jesus’s life-giving work (John 13:12–14).