John 17

Jesus said these things. Then he looked up to the sky and said, "Father, the time has come. Give glory to your Son, so that your Son may give glory to you.

1These 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:

Note"The hour is come": earlier in this Gospel Jesus repeatedly says his "hour" has not yet come (2:4, 7:30, 8:20). The word does not mean a point on a clock; it means the appointed moment of his arrest, death, and return to the Father. "Glorify" translates a Greek verb built on doxa, meaning weight, splendor, public honor; to glorify someone is to make their real worth visible to others. Lifting the eyes to heaven was the ordinary posture of Jewish prayer, standing with the head up and the eyes open, not bowed with eyes closed.

2You gave him authority over all people, so that he may give eternal life to everyone you have given him.

2As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.

Note"All flesh" is a Hebrew idiom meaning all living human beings; it is not a contrast between body and soul. "Power" here translates a Greek word meaning rightful authority or delegated right, which is the sense "power" carried in 1611, rather than sheer force.

3And this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent.

3And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

Note"Know" here has the sense it carries in Hebrew and Greek of knowing a person by direct acquaintance, as one knows a friend or a spouse, rather than knowing facts about someone. "Christ" is not a surname but a title: it is the Greek translation of the Hebrew mashiach, "anointed one."

4I have brought you glory here on earth. I have finished the work you gave me to do.

4I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.

Note"I have finished the work" uses a Greek verb meaning to bring something to its intended completion. It is from the same family as the word behind "made perfect" in verse 23 and is closely related to the cry "It is finished" at 19:30.

5And now, Father, give me glory at your own side, the same glory I had with you before the world existed.

5And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.

6I have made your name known to the people you gave me out of the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have held on to your word.

6I 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.

Note"Thy name": in Hebrew usage a person's name stands for the person: their identity, their character, their reputation. To have "manifested thy name" means to have made God himself known, not to have taught a word to pronounce. "They have kept thy word" means they have held on to it and guarded it, the way one keeps a command or keeps watch, not merely that they remembered it.

7Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you.

7Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.

8I gave them the words you gave me, and they took them in. They knew for certain that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.

8For 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.

9I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world, but for the ones you have given me, because they belong to you.

9I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.

Note"The world" (Greek kosmos) in this Gospel rarely means the planet or the natural creation. It usually means human society as it runs itself without reference to God, the order that, as 1:10 puts it, "knew him not." That is the sense it carries through the rest of this chapter. "I pray" translates an ordinary Greek verb meaning to ask or request something of someone; it is not a specialized religious term.

10Everything that is mine is yours, and everything that is yours is mine. And I have been given glory through them.

10And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.

11I am not in the world any longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep safe by your own name the ones you have given me, so that they may be one, just as we are one.

11And 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.

Note"Keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me": the Greek here is read two ways. The better attested wording attaches the phrase "which thou hast given me" to the name, giving "keep them in your name, the name you have given me," which is how most modern translations take it. The manuscripts behind the King James attach it instead to the people, "those whom thou hast given me." "Keep" means guard or protect, not retain.

12While I was with them in the world, I kept them safe by your name. I guarded the ones you gave me, and not one of them is lost, except the one headed for destruction. This happened so that the scripture would come true.

12While 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.

Note"Son of perdition" is a Hebrew style of expression in which "son of" plus a quality describes a person marked by that quality or headed for that end. "Perdition" is an old English word for ruin or destruction, and the Greek makes a play on words: none was lost except the son of lostness. The reference is to Judas. No particular scripture is named here; earlier, at 13:18, Jesus applies Psalm 41:9 to the betrayer, "He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me."

13But now I am coming to you. I say these things while I am still in the world, so that my joy may be complete inside them.

13And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

14I have given them your word, and the world has hated them, because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.

14I 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.

15I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one.

15I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

Note"From the evil": the Greek phrase is grammatically either masculine, "the evil one," meaning a personal adversary, or neuter, "evil" in general. The King James leaves the ambiguity open; the plain rendering has chosen one of the two readings.

16They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.

16They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

17Set them apart as holy by your truth. Your word is truth.

17Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

Note"Sanctify" translates a Greek verb meaning to set apart for God's exclusive use. In Israel's worship it was the regular word for dedicating priests, vessels, and days to sacred service. It is about designation and ownership first, not primarily about making someone morally better.

18Just as you sent me into the world, I have also sent them into the world.

18As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

19And for their sake I set myself apart, so that they too may be set apart by the truth.

19And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.

Note"I sanctify myself" uses the same setting-apart word as verse 17. In the older scriptures that word is applied both to a priest consecrated for service and to an animal or gift set apart to be offered, so it carries the sound of both roles at once.

20I am not praying only for these men, but also for the people who will believe in me because of their message.

20Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;

21I pray that all of them may be one. Just as you, Father, are in me, and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me.

21That 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.

22I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, just as we are one:

22And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:

23I in them, and you in me, so that they may be brought together completely as one, and so that the world may know that you sent me and have loved them just as you have loved me.

23I 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.

Note"Made perfect in one": the Greek verb means brought to completion or wholeness, finished as intended. In 1611 English "perfect" meant complete or fully formed rather than morally flawless.

24Father, I want the ones you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they may see my glory, the glory you gave me because you loved me before the world was made.

24Father, 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.

Note"I will that" is not a statement about the future. In 1611 "will" was an ordinary verb meaning to want, wish, or intend, so the sense is "my desire is that." "The foundation of the world" is a standard idiom for the founding or creation of the world, so "before the foundation of the world" means before anything was made.

25Righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you, and these men know that you sent me.

25O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.

26I have made your name known to them, and I will keep on making it known, so that the love you have for me may be in them, and so that I may be in them."

26And 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.