John 17:1-4

Jesus prays with full consciousness that the crisis of His earthly career is come. Will His death prove the annihilation of His person and work, or its glorification, the transition to a higher form of life, in which His life-work on earth shall be consummated in fuller life under circumstances of wider opportunity? The glory for which He prays is not for Himself but to disclose what the Son really is, that by the completion of His life-work, which has shown God's purpose of love for men, God may be glorified, revealed in His true nature of Love. He knows the prophets-' wider outlook of blessing for all men through the Jews, and that His commission of authority extends to all flesh. The Heb. form of expression is to be noticed. So He prays to enter into the wider life in which He can fulfil the wider purpose of His mission, which during His earthly life was confined to Palestine. The author adds that this eternal life consists in growing acquaintance with God, which can be had by getting to know Jesus Christ, whom He sent, the man who lived on earth a human life, that He might be the Messiah of His race, God's Messenger to all men. The London Papyri offer a curious parallel to the language of this passage: Lady Isis, glorify me as I glorified the name of thy son Horus.