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

The unity of the Father and the Son should serve as a model for the believers in whom they dwell. Israel recognized that their God was "one" and proved their understanding of this truth by their cohesion among other nations, surrounded by a hostile world. This idea is reflected in this passage as well, with the difference that "unity" is understood here rather as God's personal indwelling in each believer (see comment on 14:23,24). For an example of the transfer of glory to the people in whom the Lord will be glorified, see: in Isa. 46:13; moreover, God sanctified His dwelling places with the glory of His presence (Exodus 29:43).

The unity proclaimed here spoke volumes to John's readers, who were under attack from the synagogue and perhaps from apostates who had deserted their ranks (see the introduction to the commentary on 1 John); it is also possible that this refers to the ethnic or cultural unity (10:16; 11:52; 12:20-23) of the people who made up John's audience in Galilee and Asia Minor (see introduction). John speaks with all certainty about the reconciliation of different nations in Christ in chapter 4 (Samaritans). In any case, Jesus' followers were a minority in the hostile world around them and, like any minority, needed to be united. On subsequent generations, cf. e.g. Ps. 77:3—7.

18:1-11 The appearance of the traitor

18:1,2. "The Kidron Stream" is literally, "Kidron being filled with winter"; This flow became full-flowing only in the rainy season - in winter, so it was not difficult to cross it in April. This place is known to this day. Jesus and His disciples met there more than once; cf. Luke. 22:39.

18:3. Many scholars have pointed out that the "band of soldiers" is described as if it were a Roman cohort. However, the same language could have been used in relation to local military units, and this detachment was undoubtedly Jewish, namely the Temple Guard. (Roman soldiers were not routinely used for police actions such as this one, and the Romans would not have taken Jesus to the house of Annas, whom they had removed from office; see 18:13.)

A fully staffed Roman cohort could have numbered up to 800 soldiers, but John makes it clear that the force was small. At night, both the temple guards and the Romans lit their way with torches or "lanterns" (two types of lamps are mentioned in the original), although few were required, especially at Easter, almost at full moon.

18:4-6. The words "this is I" may mean "I am the one you seek," but in literal translation they may contain an allusion to Exod. 3:14. A Jewish tradition, presumably from pre-Christian times (attributed to the Jewish writer of the early Diaspora Artapan), says that when Moses pronounced the name of his God, Pharaoh fell backwards. (If Jesus' listeners thought that he was speaking a divine name, they might have fallen backwards in fear, since magicians were believed to bewitch by that name.)