---
title: Exodus 33:20
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/exodus-33-20/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/exodus-33-20.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Exodus 33:20
testament: OT
section: Law
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Exodus 33:20

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> But He added, “You cannot see My face, for no one can see Me and live.”

## JW Usage

JWs cite Exodus 33:20 — "no man can see me and live" — to argue that God is entirely invisible and that OT appearances of God were mediated through angels or visions, not direct encounters with a divine person. Since Jesus is understood as a created spirit being (Michael the Archangel), the OT theophanies are attributed to angelic agency rather than to a pre-incarnate divine Son.

## Protestant Usage

Exodus 33:20 creates a theological puzzle when combined with other OT texts: God says "no man can see me and live," yet Genesis 32:30 records Jacob saying "I have seen God face to face," Exodus 24:10-11 says the elders "saw the God of Israel" and ate and drank in his presence, and Isaiah 6:1 records Isaiah seeing "the Lord sitting on a throne." The NT resolves the tension: John 6:46 says "no one has seen the Father except the one who is from God," and John 1:18 confirms "no one has ever seen God; the only-begotten god who is at the Father's side has explained him." If the Father has never been seen, yet God was visibly present in the OT, the person appearing must be the pre-incarnate Son. Every OT theophany becomes evidence for Christ's deity and pre-existence — not as a created angel, but as the visible manifestation of the invisible God.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Who Appeared to Abraham?](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/ot-christophany.md) — If no one has seen the Father, the OT appearances were Christ [Deity of Christ]
- [Seeing the Father in Jesus](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/john14-9-seen-the-father.md) — John 14:9 / Hebrews 1:3 / Colossians 2:9 [Deity of Christ]