In this prayer, Jesus proclaims his oneness with the Father and his participation in his glory in the form of eternal wisdom (cf. 1:1-18). From 12:23-33 it is clear that His return to the fullness of this glory is possible only through the cross.

17:1. It was customary to turn one's gaze to heaven during prayer (cf. Ps. 120:1; 122:1). "Glorification" has a double meaning here, providing another example of the use of wordplay in this Gospel; see comment. K 1:14 and 12:23-27. If Moses only reflected God's glory (Exodus 33:34), then Jesus will be glorified by the glory that He had with the Father before the world was (17:5).

17:2. In the Old Testament, the term "flesh" is also used as a synonym for man, for humanity. God promised to give power to His chosen ruler (Isa. 9:6,7; Dan. 7:13,14) only at the end of time; against this background, the death and resurrection of Jesus do not represent the events of human history, but the culminating moment in the history of the universe, which marks the beginning of a new world.

17:3. On the knowledge of God, see comment. to 10:4,5. In other Hebrew texts written in Greek, the knowledge of God is also identified with eternal life (e.g., Wis. 15:3); here the condition of eternal life is the knowledge of God through Jesus Christ.

17:4,5. On "the accomplishment of the work," see 4:34 and 19:30. In the Old Testament, God says that He will not give His glory to anyone (Isa. 42:8; 48:11), so Jesus' plea for His glorification by the glory of the Father testifies to His claim to divinity. In Judaism, there was only one category in the light of which this claim of Jesus could be interpreted: God's eternal wisdom was a partaker of, and in a sense identified with, God's glory.—Wis. 7:25-29. Judeo-Christian readers of John may have interpreted the nature of Jesus in similar terms (despite Jesus' superiority over one of the divine attributes) (see comment on 1:1-18).

17:6-19 Jesus' prayer for His disciples

This section deals with the inevitable conflict between the followers of Jesus and the world. The followers of Jesus appear here in a role that, judging by the Jewish descriptions of the end of the world that have come down to us, was intended for Israel or, according to the Dead Sea Scrolls, its faithful remnant (the sons of light); they constituted the full number of the righteous, and as such were a persecuted minority in society.

17:6. God commissioned Moses to reveal his name to the people (Exodus 3:13,15); by revealing His name, God thereby revealed His nature (Exodus 33:19; 34:5,14; for the future, see Isa. 52:6).

To "glorify" or "sanctify" God's name meant to demonstrate its holiness. According to the teaching of Judaism of that time, the name of God is glorified by righteous deeds, and sinful actions defame it; most Jews prayed for the speedy coming of the time when God would glorify His name in all the earth (see comment on Matt. 6:9).

17:7—11. Moses accepted God's words and passed them on to Israel, the only nation to receive His law: the idea of glorifying Jesus among the disciples and "keeping" them in the name of God (17:11) probably reflects a broad interpretation of the Jewish traditions associated with Moses in the Book of Exodus. On unity, see comment. to 17:20-26.

17:12. Perhaps Jesus is referring here to Ps. 40:10, which He quotes in Jn. 13:18. According to Jewish teaching, God treats apostates more harshly than Gentile natives, because apostates knew the truth but rejected it.

17:13—19. The Old Testament and Jewish traditions emphasized that Israel was separated from the world and hated by the world. God "chose" or "sanctified" Israel for Himself primarily by giving them His commandments (e.g., Lev. 11:44,45). (To this day, the Jewish people celebrate their sanctification through the commandments, pronouncing a blessing over candles lit in honor of the Sabbath.)

If God sanctified or separated His people from other nations by giving them the law, then the coming of Jesus in the form of the incarnate law (see comment on 1:1-18) separated His followers from the world even more sharply; Jesus speaks of His disciples as the true remnant of Israel, that is, the covenant-faithful minority of Israel who will be saved. (For most of the Old Testament era, only a fraction of Israel in each generation was faithful to God; in some historical eras, such as the time of Joshua and David, this remnant was larger, whereas in the time of Moses or Elijah it was small.) Other Jewish sects, such as the Essenes, who are credited with the creation of the Dead Sea Scrolls, also believed that the majority had departed from the truth, and that they were the faithful remnant of Israel; this theme is also found in the Old Testament prophets (cf. Isaiah 10:20-22; Joel 2:32; Amos 9:8-12).

17:20-26 Jesus' Prayer for Future Disciples