"No one had ever seen God. God's only begotten, Him being in the bosom of the Father, related Him in full."

Thanks to a question from Ronny in Stockholm in an online theology forum, new inspiration to look at the problem of John 1:18 arose. This verse is usually translated in such a way that there is a conflict with other propositions found in the New Testament (e.g. John 14:9) and Orthodox Christian thought generally about the divine incarnation. 

But this conflict disappears if one translates consistently with the New Testament (theologically) and with Luke 1:22 and Luke 9:36 (grammatically), reading a pluperfect sense for the Ancient Greek verb form ἑώρακεν (heóraken):

"No one had ever seen God. God's only begotten, Him being in the bosom of the Father, related Him in full." (John 1:18)

Compare with Luke 1:22. 

"And when he came out, he could not speak to them, and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple; and he made signs to them and remained dumb." (RSV)

And Luke 9:36d. 

"... and [they] told no one in those days anything of what they had seen." (RSV)

This new translation of John 1:18 was also facilitated by the insights provided in A. Andrason and C. Locatell, "The Perfect Wave: A Cognitive Approach to the Greek Verbal System", Biblical and Ancient Greek Linguistics, 2016 (5), p. 47 (link).

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RSV: Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.