Open an explanation beneath verses with notes. Your notes and highlights stay on this device.
Jesus said these things, then lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may also glorify you;
Verse 1. Glorify thy Son, by signs and miracles, lest dying so disgraceful a death, I seem to be no more than another man: that thy Son may glorify thee, that my death may make thee praised and glorified. Witham.
even as you gave him authority over all flesh, so he will give eternal life to all whom you have given him.
Verse 2. Power over all flesh, that he may give life everlasting to all [1] whom thou hast given him. He speaks of himself, as made man, and the Redeemer of mankind. If we ask, who are they, who in this sense are said to be given to Christ: it is true, only the elect, or predestined, are given by a special and uncommon mercy. In this sense Saint Augustine says, (tract. 111. p. 779.) They are not said to be given, to whom he shall not give life everlasting. Yet not only the elect, but all believers, nay, all men whatsoever, may be said to be given to him, inasmuch as by his coming to redeem all, sufficient helps and means are offered to all men, whereby they may be saved: and inasmuch as Christ came, suffered, died, and offered up his death for all men. See 2 Corinthians 5:15. Witham.—Thou hast given him power over all flesh: by this our Saviour shewed, that his preaching was directed, not to the Jews only, but to every nation of the earth. Are then all saved? Christ has done sufficient for the salvation of all, and if they are not saved, it is the fault, not of him that speaketh, but of those that receive not his word. Saint John Chrysostom hom. lxxix in Joan.
This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ.
Verse 3. This is life everlasting; that is, the way to life everlasting, that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent [2]. The Arians, from these words, pretended that the Father only is the true God. Saint Augustine and divers others answer, that the sense and construction is, that they may know thee, and also Jesus Christ thy Son, whom thou hast sent to be the only true God. We may also expound them with Saint John Chrysostom and others, so that the Father is here called the only true God, not to exclude the Son, and the Holy Ghost, who are the same one true God with the Father; but only to exclude the false gods of the Gentiles. Let the Socinians take notice, that (1 John 5:20) the Son of God, Jesus Christ, is expressly called the true God, even with the Greek article, upon which they commonly lay so much stress. Witham.—Life everlasting. Both the life of glory in heaven, and of grace here, consisteth in the knowledge of God; the former in perfect vision, the latter in faith working by charity. For knowledge of God, without keeping his commandments, is not true knowledge, but unprofitable knowledge. 1 John 2.
I glorified you on the earth. I have accomplished the work which you have given me to do.
Now, Father, glorify me with your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world existed.
Verse 5. And now, glorify thou me, O Father, with thyself, with the glory which I had with thee, before the world was. Glorify me, is the same as make me known to men; so that the sense may be, make men know, that I had the same glory with thee, before the world was created, and from all eternity. Others understand, that Christ as man, here prays that his eternal Father would make known to men, that glory, which it was decreed from eternity should be given him: that is, that all creatures should be made subject to him, even as he was man, and appointed to be judge of the living and the dead. See 1 Corinthians 15:26. Ephes. 1:22. Witham.
“I revealed your name to the people whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours, and you have given them to me. They have kept your word.
Verse 6. To the men whom thou gavest me out of the world. By whom we may understand his apostles and disciples. They were thine, and also mine, as I am God. See verse 10.—And to me thou gavest them, inasmuch as I am become man, their Saviour, their Redeemer, and so forth Witham.—Had then the Father any thing which the Son had not? By no means. But Christ, as Son of God, had from eternity what he had not as Son of man; because he had not yet taken flesh of his virgin mother. All that he had as God, he attributes to his Father. Saint Augustine tract. 106. in Joan.
Now they have known that all things whatever you have given me are from you,
Verse 7–8. Now they have known that all things which thou gavest me, are from thee. That is, says Saint Augustine [3] they now know, and will know more perfectly hereafter, that I myself am from thee, or proceed from thee, and am sent by thee to redeem the world. Witham.
for the words which you have given me I have given to them; and they received them, and knew for sure that I came from you. They have believed that you sent me.
Verse 7–8. Now they have known that all things which thou gavest me, are from thee. That is, says Saint Augustine [3] they now know, and will know more perfectly hereafter, that I myself am from thee, or proceed from thee, and am sent by thee to redeem the world. Witham.