John 14:9
John 14:99Jesus replied, “Philip, I have been with you all this time, and still you do not know Me? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
Read as Jesus declining Philip's request and redirecting him toward an agency reading: Jesus reflects the Father's qualities the way Moses' face reflected glory after Sinai (), or the way a son resembles a father without being his father. Seeing Jesus shows what God is like, not who God is.
Jesus does not say "whoever has seen me has seen what the Father is like." He says "whoever has seen me has seen the Father also" — the NWT preserves that wording. Pair the verse with ("to whom will you liken God?") and ("no one can see me and live") and the conclusion sharpens: no creature can be the full revelation of the Creator. The only way Jesus' claim is true and the Old Testament restrictions remain intact is if Jesus shares the Father's divine nature — which is exactly what ("exact representation of his very being") and ("all the fullness of the divine quality dwells bodily") affirm. Even Moses' fading glory (2 Cor 3:7-13) is the wrong analogy — Moses reflected, then faded; Jesus reveals, and is.