John 17:6-19

Jesus asks for the support of His apostles in faith and their full consecration to the divine work.

It seems to me that it is altogether wrong for Weiss, with Lucke, de Wette, etc., to connect the passage, John 17:6-8, with what precedes, as developing the work of Christ on the earth, and as still intended to give a ground for the first petition: glorify me. The question henceforth is rather of what the disciples have become through the work of Christ, to the end of giving a ground for the prayer on their behalf (John 17:9). As it is with a view to the work of God that He asks His own glory again, it is also in view of this work that He commends to His Father the instruments whom He has chosen and prepared for the purpose of continuing it. This prayer has first an altogether general character: I pray for them, John 17:9; then it is given, with precision and in form, in two distinct petitions: τήρησον, keep them (John 17:11), and ἁγίασον, sanctify them (John 17:17), which are the counterpart of the δόξασόν με, glorify me, for Jesus Himself. John 17:6-8 prepare the way for the first general petition, for which John 17:9-10 will finally give the grounds.

ADDITIONAL NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

Vv. 6-19.

1. John 17:6-8 are connected both with the preceding and with the following context. In relation to the preceding verses, they indicate, by the presentation of the case of those in whom the work had been accomplished in the highest degree, and through whom, as the human instruments, it was to be carried forward in the time to come, the proof of what is stated in John 17:4. On the other hand, these verses evidently prepare the way for the petition of John 17:9, giving a reason why these persons, and not the world, are commended to the care of the Father. In these verses there is, in reality, a summing up of what has been presented in the entire record of this Gospel as connected with the reception of the Divine life: (a) The persons in question are those who have the susceptibility to the truth, Thine they were and Thou gavest them to me; (b) Jesus has made known to them the Father's name the name, here as elsewhere, standing as the representative of all that is involved in the revelation of God through Christ; (c) This revelation comes through the word which Jesus has spoken to them; and they have kept it in their heart and life; (d) In receiving and keeping the word, they have recognized fully the great truth which it involved namely, that the origin of Christ's teachings and mission is from the Father. The work which had been given Him to do is thus fulfilled in their case.

2 John 1:9; 2 John 17:9-13. The prayer is for the disciples, and not for the world. The explanation of the exclusion of the world here is, not that those who belong to the world are excluded from the prayers of Christ, but that this prayer is, like the discourses of the preceding Chapter s, a prayer of the departing one who is leaving his friends behind him. At such an hour, the prayer for enemies does not have its proper place. The petition is for the friends only, with reference to the state of separation from Jesus which was just before them.

3. The particle ὅτι of John 17:9 is to be connected with σοί εἰσιν and δεδόξασμαι, the words from the first καί to the second ἐμά of John 17:10 being parenthetical in their character. The ground of the prayer which is here presented is thus, in substance, what has been already mentioned that they belong to the Father, and that Jesus has been glorified in them. In John 17:11 the additional reason, relating to the future, is given that they were to remain in the world bereft of His care.

4. The petition for the disciples is set forth in two forms: first, in the more general way in John 17:11, keep them in thy name, and, secondly, more particularly in John 17:15; John 17:17 -in John 17:15 on the negative side, keep them from the evil, and in John 17:17 on the positive side, sanctify them in the truth.

5. The explanation of John 17:13 given by Meyer seems to be the correct one: “ But now I come to thee, and since I can no longer guard them personally as hitherto, I speak this (this prayer for thy protection, John 17:11) in the world (‘jam ante discessum meum,' Bengel), that they, as witnesses and objects of this my intercession, knowing themselves assured of thy protection, may bear my joy (as in John 15:11, not John 14:27) fulfilled in themselves. ”

6. John 17:14-19. John 17:14 is to be regarded as introductory to John 17:15, as John 17:16 is to John 17:17. In both cases, the fact that the disciples are not of the world, as Jesus Himself is not of the world and thus (John 17:14) that they are objects of the hatred and enmity of the world is made the ground of the special petition. The turn of thought, therefore, from the more general to the more particular request is made, not at John 17:15, but at John 17:14.

7. The words τοῦ πονηροῦ of John 17:15 may be neuter, or they may be masculine. This is the only instance in which the expression is found in this Gospel, but in the First Epistle of John there are five cases which may be compared with the one in this verse. In 1Jn 2:13-14 the masculine form is beyond doubt, you have overcome the evil one, τὸν πονηρόν. In 1 John 3:12 -Cain was ἐκ τοῦ πονηροῦ the connection of the verse with those which precede, in which the devil is spoken of, makes it substantially certain that the words are masculine and refer to the evil one. In 1Jn 5:18 the reference to the evil one is certain, for the words are ὁ πονηρός, and in 1 John 5:19, where the dative ἐν τῷ πονηρῷ is used, the contrast of the two closely united sentences is such as to give an overwhelming probability in favor of the same reference. So far, therefore, as the usage of the writer can be determined from these passages, the argument derived from it is altogether in favor of the same explanation of the phrase in the verse before us. The same explanation is favored by the fact that John's Gospel seems distinctly to present the idea of two spheres or kingdoms, each presided over by a ruler. The use of τηρεῖν ἐκ in Rev 3:10 may be regarded as justifying the use here, if τ. πον. is taken as masculine. Godet, who holds that this genitive with ἀπό and ῥύεσθαι in Matthew 6:13 refers to the evil one, thinks that the preposition ἐκ is more naturally referred to a domain, from which one is taken, than to a personal enemy. Of the most rrecent commentators on this Gospel, Weiss, Keil, Westcott, Milligan and Moulton, like R. V., regard the words as masculine.

8. John 17:17 gives the positive form of the request: Sanctify them in the truth. The word ἁγίασον refers, as we may believe because of its connection with the idea of τηρήσης κ. τ. λ., and also with the words of John 17:18, to that consecration of the disciples with reference to their future work, which would be accomplished for them by their being made holy in the sphere of the Divine truth. “The prayer,” says Westcott, “is that the consecration which is represented by admission into the Christian society may be completely realized in fact; that every faculty, offered once for all, may in due course be effectually rendered to God (Romans 12:1).”

9. The last sentence of John 17:17, Thy word is truth, is best understood, with Godet, DeWette and others, as denoting the means by which the sanctifying process is to be accomplished, or rather (since the ἐν of the first part of the verse is not the instrumental preposition, as Godet takes it, but means in the sphere of) as giving a more definite statement of what is referred to in the words the truth. Thy word is truth, hence when I pray for these disciples, says Jesus, I pray for their consecration in the sphere of the truth.

10. John 17:18 gives the special reason for making the prayer a prayer for their consecration namely, that they have a mission like to His own, and John 17:19 adds the declaration that to this end He also consecrates Himself in offering Himself to death. This fact: that He thus devotes and consecrates Himself, is also, like the words of John 17:18, a reason for urging His petition (John 17:17).