Yohanes 17:6-26

Jesus Prays for the Disciples

17:6 “I have revealed ¹  your name to the men ²  you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, ³  and you gave them to me, and they have obeyed ⁴  your word. 17:7 Now they understand ⁵  that everything ⁶  you have given me comes from you, 17:8 because I have given them the words you have given me. They ⁷  accepted ⁸  them ⁹  and really ¹⁰  understand ¹¹  that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 17:9 I am praying ¹²  on behalf of them. I am not praying ¹³  on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those you have given me, because they belong to you. ¹⁴  17:10 Everything ¹⁵  I have belongs to you, ¹⁶  and everything you have belongs to me, ¹⁷  and I have been glorified by them. ¹⁸  17:11 I ¹⁹  am no longer in the world, but ²⁰  they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them safe ²¹  in your name ²²  that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one. ²³  17:12 When I was with them I kept them safe ²⁴  and watched over them ²⁵  in your name ²⁶  that you have given me. Not one ²⁷  of them was lost except the one destined for destruction, ²⁸  so that the scripture could be fulfilled. ²⁹  17:13 But now I am coming to you, and I am saying these things in the world, so they may experience ³⁰  my joy completed ³¹  in themselves. 17:14 I have given them your word, ³²  and the world has hated them, because they do not belong to the world, ³³  just as I do not belong to the world. ³⁴  17:15 I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but that you keep them safe ³⁵  from the evil one. ³⁶  17:16 They do not belong to the world ³⁷  just as I do not belong to the world. ³⁸  17:17 Set them apart ³⁹  in the truth; your word is truth. 17:18 Just as you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. ⁴⁰  17:19 And I set myself apart ⁴¹  on their behalf, ⁴²  so that they too may be truly set apart. ⁴³ 

Jesus Prays for Believers Everywhere

17:20 “I am not praying ⁴⁴  only on their behalf, but also on behalf of those who believe ⁴⁵  in me through their testimony, ⁴⁶  17:21 that they will all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. I pray ⁴⁷  that they will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me. 17:22 The glory ⁴⁸  you gave to me I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one – 17:23 I in them and you in me – that they may be completely one, ⁴⁹  so that the world will know that you sent me, and you have loved them just as you have loved me.

17:24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, ⁵⁰  so that they can see my glory that you gave me because you loved me before the creation of the world ⁵¹ . 17:25 Righteous Father, even if the world does not know you, I know you, and these men ⁵²  know that you sent me. 17:26 I made known your name to them, and I will continue to make it known, ⁵³  so that the love you have loved me with may be in them, and I may be in them.”

[17:6]  ¹ tn Or “made known,” “disclosed.”

[17:6]  ² tn Here “men” is retained as a translation for ἀνθρώποις (anqrwpoi") rather than the more generic “people” because in context it specifically refers to the eleven men Jesus had chosen as apostles (Judas had already departed, John 13:30). If one understands the referent here to be the broader group of Jesus’ followers that included both men and women, a translation like “to the people” should be used here instead.

[17:6]  ³ tn Grk “Yours they were.”

[17:6]  ⁴ tn Or “have kept.”

[17:7]  ⁵ tn Or “they have come to know,” or “they have learned.”

[17:7]  ⁶ tn Grk “all things.”

[17:8]  ⁷ tn Grk And they.” The conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has not been translated here in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use shorter sentences.

[17:8]  ⁸ tn Or “received.”

[17:8]  ⁹ tn The word “them” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[17:8]  ¹⁰ tn Or “truly.”

[17:8]  ¹¹ tn Or have come to know.”

[17:9]  ¹² tn Grk “I am asking.”

[17:9]  ¹³ tn Grk “I am not asking.”

[17:9]  ¹⁴ tn Or “because they are yours.”

[17:10]  ¹⁵ tn Grk And all things.” The conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has not been translated here in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use shorter sentences.

[17:10]  ¹⁶ tn Or “Everything I have is yours.”

[17:10]  ¹⁷ tn Or “everything you have is mine.”

[17:10]  ¹⁸ tn Or “I have been honored among them.”

[17:10]  sn The theme of glory with which Jesus began this prayer in 17:1-5 now recurs. Jesus said that he had been glorified by his disciples, but in what sense was this true? Jesus had manifested his glory to them in all of the sign-miracles which he had performed, beginning with the miracle at the wedding feast in Cana (2:11). He could now say that he had been glorified by them in the light of what he had already said in vv. 7-8, that the disciples had come to know that he had come from the Father and been sent by the Father. He would, of course, be glorified by them further after the resurrection, as they carried on his ministry after his departure.

[17:11]  ¹⁹ tn Grk And I.” The conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has not been translated here in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use shorter sentences.

[17:11]  ²⁰ tn The context indicates that this should be translated as an adversative or contrastive conjunction.

[17:11]  ²¹ tn Or “protect them”; Grk “keep them.”

[17:11]  ²² tn Or “by your name.”

[17:11]  ²³ tn The second repetition of “one” is implied, and is supplied here for clarity.

[17:12]  ²⁴ tn Or “I protected them”; Grk “I kept them.”

[17:12]  ²⁵ tn Grk “and guarded them.”

[17:12]  ²⁶ tn Or “by your name.”

[17:12]  ²⁷ tn Grk And not one.” The conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has not been translated here in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use shorter sentences.

[17:12]  ²⁸ tn Grk “the son of destruction” (a Semitic idiom for one appointed for destruction; here it is a reference to Judas).

[17:12]  sn The one destined to destruction refers to Judas. Clearly in John’s Gospel Judas is portrayed as a tool of Satan. He is described as “the devil” in 6:70. In 13:2 Satan put into Judas’ heart the idea of betraying Jesus, and 13:27 Satan himself entered Judas. Immediately after this Judas left the company of Jesus and the other disciples and went out into the realm of darkness (13:30). Cf. 2 Thess 2:3, where this same Greek phrase (“the son of destruction”; see tn above) is used to describe the man through whom Satan acts to rebel against God in the last days.

[17:12]  ²⁹ sn A possible allusion to Ps 41:9 or Prov 24:22 LXX. The exact passage is not specified here, but in John 13:18, Ps 41:9 is explicitly quoted by Jesus with reference to the traitor, suggesting that this is the passage to which Jesus refers here. The previous mention of Ps 41:9 in John 13:18 probably explains why the author felt no need for an explanatory parenthetical note here. It is also possible that the passage referred to here is Prov 24:22 LXX, where in the Greek text the phrase “son of destruction” appears.

[17:13]  ³⁰ tn Grk “they may have.”

[17:13]  ³¹ tn Or “fulfilled.”

[17:14]  ³² tn Or “your message.”

[17:14]  ³³ tn Grk “because they are not of the world.”

[17:14]  ³⁴ tn Grk “just as I am not of the world.”

[17:15]  ³⁵ tn Or “that you protect them”; Grk “that you keep them.”

[17:15]  ³⁶ tn The phrase “the evil one” is a reference to Satan. The genitive noun τοῦ πονηροῦ (tou ponhrou) is ambiguous with regard to gender: It may represent the neuter τὸ πονηρόν (to ponhron), “that which is evil,” or the masculine ὁ πονηρός (Jo ponhro"), “the evil one,” i.e., Satan. In view of the frequent use of the masculine in 1 John 2:13-14, 3:12, and 5:18-19 it seems much more probable that the masculine is to be understood here, and that Jesus is praying for his disciples to be protected from Satan. Cf. BDAG 851 s.v. πονηρός 1.b.β and 1.b.γ.

[17:16]  ³⁷ tn Grk “they are not of the world.” This is a repetition of the second half of v. 14. The only difference is in word order: Verse 14 has οὐκ εἰσὶν ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου (ouk eisin ek tou kosmou), while here the prepositional phrase is stated first: ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου οὐκ εἰσίν (ek tou kosmou ouk eisin). This gives additional emphasis to the idea of the prepositional phrase, i.e., origin, source, or affiliation.

[17:16]  ³⁸ tn Grk “just as I am not of the world.”

[17:17]  ³⁹ tn Or “Consecrate them” or “Sanctify them.”

[17:17]  sn The Greek word translated set…apart (ἁγιάζω, Jagiazw) is used here in its normal sense of being dedicated, consecrated, or set apart. The sphere in which the disciples are to be set apart is in the truth. In 3:21 the idea of “practicing” (Grk “doing”) the truth was introduced; in 8:32 Jesus told some of his hearers that if they continued in his word they would truly be his disciples, and would know the truth, and the truth would make them free. These disciples who are with Jesus now for the Farewell Discourse have continued in his word (except for Judas Iscariot, who has departed), and they do know the truth about who Jesus is and why he has come into the world (17:8). Thus Jesus can ask the Father to set them apart in this truth as he himself is set apart, so that they might carry on his mission in the world after his departure (note the following verse).

[17:18]  ⁴⁰ sn Jesus now compared the mission on which he was sending the disciples to his own mission into the world, on which he was sent by the Father. As the Father sent Jesus into the world (cf. 3:17), so Jesus now sends the disciples into the world to continue his mission after his departure. The nature of this prayer for the disciples as a consecratory prayer is now emerging: Jesus was setting them apart for the work he had called them to do. They were, in a sense, being commissioned.

[17:19]  ⁴¹ tn Or “I sanctify.”

[17:19]  sn In what sense does Jesus refer to his own ‘sanctification’ with the phrase I set myself apart? In 10:36 Jesus referred to himself as “the one whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world,” which seems to look at something already accomplished. Here, however, it is something he does on behalf of the disciples (on their behalf) and this suggests a reference to his impending death on the cross. There is in fact a Johannine wordplay here based on slightly different meanings for the Greek verb translated set apart (ἁγιάζω, Jagiazw). In the sense it was used in 10:36 of Jesus and in 17:17 and here to refer to the disciples, it means to set apart in the sense that prophets (cf. Jer 1:5) and priests (Exod 40:13, Lev 8:30, and 2 Chr 5:11) were consecrated (or set apart) to perform their tasks. But when Jesus speaks of setting himself apart (consecrating or dedicating himself) on behalf of the disciples here in 17:19 the meaning is closer to the consecration of a sacrificial animal (Deut 15:19). Jesus is “setting himself apart,” i.e., dedicating himself, to do the will of the Father, that is, to go to the cross on the disciples’ behalf (and of course on behalf of their successors as well).

[17:19]  ⁴² tn Or “for their sake.”

[17:19]  ⁴³ tn Or “they may be truly consecrated,” or “they may be truly sanctified.”

[17:20]  ⁴⁴ tn Or “I do not pray.”

[17:20]  ⁴⁵ tn Although πιστευόντων (pisteuontwn) is a present participle, it must in context carry futuristic force. The disciples whom Jesus is leaving behind will carry on his ministry and in doing so will see others come to trust in him. This will include not only Jewish Christians, but other Gentile Christians who are “not of this fold” (10:16), and thus Jesus’ prayer for unity is especially appropriate in light of the probability that most of the readers of the Gospel are Gentiles (much as Paul stresses unity between Jewish and Gentile Christians in Eph 2:10-22).

[17:20]  ⁴⁶ tn Grk “their word.”

[17:21]  ⁴⁷ tn The words “I pray” are repeated from the first part of v. 20 for clarity.

[17:22]  ⁴⁸ tn Grk And the glory.” The conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has not been translated here in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use shorter sentences.

[17:23]  ⁴⁹ tn Or “completely unified.”

[17:24]  ⁵⁰ tn Grk “the ones you have given me, I want these to be where I am with me.”

[17:24]  ⁵¹ tn Grk “before the foundation of the world.”

[17:25]  ⁵² tn The word “men” is not in the Greek text but is implied. The translation uses the word “men” here rather than a more general term like “people” because the use of the aorist verb ἔγνωσαν (egnwsan) implies that Jesus is referring to the disciples present with him as he spoke these words (presumably all of them men in the historical context), rather than to those who are yet to believe because of their testimony (see John 17:20).

[17:26]  ⁵³ tn The translation “will continue to make it known” is proposed by R. E. Brown (John [AB], 2:773).