JOHN 17. THE HIGH-PRIESTLY PRAYER. Various guesses (they are nothing more) have been made as to the scene: the upper chamber, or the way to Gethsemane, or the courts of the Temple. The substance of such a prayer may well have been remembered and handed down. It is clear that the language is Johannin... [ Continue Reading ]
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 w... [ Continue Reading ]
JOHN 13:33 TO JOHN 17:26. THE LAST DISCOURSES AND PRAYER. Perhaps this is the best place to consider the general arrangement and character of the final discourses. They present the same problems of style and language, of content and of arrangement, that are raised elsewhere in this gospel. The langu... [ Continue Reading ]
It is a return to former glory for which He prays. Are we to regard this petition as exclusively the author's addition, on the lines of his theology of the pre-existent Logos, or the real expression of Christ's consciousness of former life with God, expressed in language which could be used in speak... [ Continue Reading ]
On the ground of this accomplished work He now prays for these disciples. The world, which is not beyond the sphere of His love, is excluded from this part of His prayer. It can be reached only through them. These disciples, His by God's gift, are the object of the love and care of both, for whom al... [ Continue Reading ]
The prayer now passes to those whom they shall make disciples, the fruits of their missionary labours. For them He asks unity, in the Father and the Son, corresponding to the unity of Father and Son. Such unity will convince the world of His own Divine mission and of God's love for men. The way to G... [ Continue Reading ]
JOHN 17:25 F. reviews, after the author's wont, the main points of the whole, in a final appeal to the Father's justice on behalf of the disciples against the world, the refusal of the world to accept the message which gives knowledge of God, Christ's own knowledge, and the disciples-' knowledge at... [ Continue Reading ]