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John 17

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Jesus Prays for His Glorification 1–5

1
These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: ​
2
As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.
3
And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. ​
4
I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. ​
5
And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. ​

Jesus Prays for His Immediate Disciples 6–19

6
I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. ​
7
Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.
8
For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.
9
I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. ​
10
And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.
11
And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. ​
12
While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. ​
13
And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
14
I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
15
I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. ​
16
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
17
Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. ​
18
As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. ​
19
And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. ​

Jesus' Prayer for All Believers 20–26

20
Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; ​
21
That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. ​
22
And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: ​
23
I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
24
Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. ​
25
O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.
26
And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. ​

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for John 17

Verse 1

the hour is come — Hora, the appointed time that John has marked since Christ's earlier 'The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified' (John 12:23). 'Glorify' (doxazo) stands twice here: the Son is glorified by the Father, and so glorifies him (cf. John 13:31–32).

Verse 3

life eternal — Eternal life is defined by knowing (ginosko), a knowing of a person, not by length of days. 'Only true' is alethinos, genuine as against false gods; the Father is known together with 'Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent' (cf. 1 John 5:20; Jer 9:24).

Verse 4

I have finished the work — Teleioo, to bring to completion; the same verb is 'made perfect' in v.23 and 'finish' in 'to finish his work' (John 4:34). The work was given by the Father. The tense speaks of it as already accomplished, and the glory is 'on the earth'.

Verse 5

the glory which I had with thee — 'With' is para, 'beside', compare 'the Word was with God' (John 1:1). Christ asks for no new honour but for the glory held 'before the world was', as 'being in the form of God' (Phil 2:6); compare v.24, 'before the foundation of the world'.

Verse 6

I have manifested thy name — Phaneroo, to make apparent. The 'name' is the Father himself as made known, and the men are 'gavest me out of the world', already the Father's ('thine they were'). 'Kept' is tereo, to guard, the verb Christ later asks the Father to use for them (vv.11, 15).

Verse 9

I pray not for the world — Erotao, to request. The prayer is limited here to those given to Christ, but not closed: in vv.20–21 he prays 'that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.' 'World' (kosmos) in this verse is the order that stands opposed to the Father (cf. v.25).

Verse 11

Holy Father — Hagios; the title stands beside the request to 'keep' (tereo) the disciples 'through thine own name', the name Christ has already made known (v.6). The model of their oneness is the Father and the Son: 'I and my Father are one' (John 10:30).

Verse 12

the son of perdition — Apoleia, ruin; it is the noun kin to 'is lost' (apollymi). John names Judas as the betrayer (John 6:71) and Christ had cited Scripture of him: 'He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me' (John 13:18). Paul uses the same title in 2 Thess 2:3.

Verse 15

keep them from the evil — Tereo again, 'guard'. 'The evil' is poneros, which may be read as the evil one, as in 1 John 5:18, 'that wicked one toucheth him not'. The same word ends the last petition of the Lord's Prayer: 'deliver us from evil' (Matt 6:13). The disciples are to remain 'in the world' (v.11).

Verse 17

Sanctify them through thy truth — Hagiazo, to set apart as holy, from hagios (v.11). 'Through' is literally 'in': the truth is the sphere of the setting apart, and 'thy word is truth'. Christ's own cleansing of the church is 'by the word' (Eph 5:26); the verb returns in v.19.

Verse 18

As thou hast sent me — The verb is apostello, the root of 'apostle', the same as 'whom thou hast sent' in v.3. The Son's mission is the pattern for theirs: 'as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you' (John 20:21). They are sent 'into the world' they are not 'of' (v.16).

Verse 19

I sanctify myself — The same verb hagiazo as v.17, here of Christ setting himself apart for the Father's work, 'for their sakes' (huper, on their behalf). The sanctifying of the many rests on it: 'we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all' (Heb 10:10).

Verse 20

which shall believe on me through their word — The prayer widens from the eleven to all later believers, who come to faith dia, 'through', the apostles' logos, their spoken and written message. 'Believe on' (pisteuo eis) means trust directed into Christ.

Verse 21

that they all may be one — Heis, one. The pattern is the mutual indwelling, 'as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee', and the believers are one 'in us'. The stated purpose is 'that the world may believe that thou hast sent me', and v.23 adds 'that the world may know'.

Verse 22

the glory which thou gavest me I have given them — Doxa. What the Father gave the Son (v.24, 'my glory, which thou hast given me') the Son passes on, again 'that they may be one, even as we are one'. Compare believers 'changed into the same image from glory to glory' (2 Cor 3:18).

Verse 24

I will that they also — Thelo, 'I will', the language of settled desire, not tentative asking. The wish echoes 'that where I am, there ye may be also' (John 14:3). To 'behold' (theoreo) is to look on his glory, given because the Father 'lovedst me before the foundation of the world'.

Verse 26

I have declared unto them thy name — Gnorizo, to make known; 'and will declare it' looks beyond the cross, as in 'I will declare thy name unto my brethren' (Ps 22:22). The aim is love (agape): the love of the Father for the Son 'in them, and I in them', as in John 15:9.