No man has seen God at anytime?

The objection by a unbeliever, saying that there is contradiction in John 1:18 and Judges 13:22 where John says No one has seen God but then Manoh and his wife saw God??

No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
John 1:18

-Cf

And Manoah said to his wife, “We shall surely die, for we have seen God.”
Judges 13:22

Is that a legitimate contradiction? No

A careful read of verse 18 in John 1, you’ll see he said “The Only God, who is at The Father’s side, he has made him known” it shows that there is another God that reveals God and he is the Word of God.
I’ll explain this by referring to some Old Testament passages to show that the Word of God reveals God to us and he is person.

The example of Samuel in 1 Samuel 3:7, God was speaking directly to him but he thought Eli the priest was speaking but then he found out it was God who speaking not the priest the reason for that because the Word of God was not revealed to him yet (though he was reading “the scriptures” in the temple) read 1 Samuel 3:1-8 for full context.

Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, nor was the word of the Lord yet revealed to him.
1 Samuel 3:7
cf
And the Lord continued to appear in Shiloh, for the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord.
1 Samuel 3:21

The example of God revealing himself to prophet Elijah in 1 kings 19:7-15, The Lord first appeared to him through the Angel of The Lord v1 and then the word of God in v3.
God appeared to him in a small voice and he acknowledged that it was Yahweh himself v13-14

⁷And the angel of the Lord came back the second time, and touched him, and said, “Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.” 

⁸So he arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God.

⁹And there he went into a cave, and spent the night in that place; and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

¹⁰So he said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.”

¹¹Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; 

¹²and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.

¹³So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him, and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

¹⁴And he said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts; because the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.”

¹⁵Then the Lord said to him: “Go, return on your way to the Wilderness of Damascus; and when you arrive, anoint Hazael as king over Syria.
1 kings 19:7-15

I hope this clarify what John meant by ” No one has seen God…”

In Christ, 

Mustafa