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Jesus prays for himself
1 When Jesus finished speaking, he raised his eyes to heaven and said:
“Father, the time has come. Glorify Your Son so that the Son may glorify You.2 You gave Him authority over all so that He could give eternal life to all those You gave Him.3 For eternal life consists in knowing You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You sent.4 I have glorified You on earth by doing the work You gave Me.5 And now, Father, glorify Me in Your own presence with the glory that I had with You before the world began.
Jesus prays for the disciples
6 – I discovered Your name# 17:6 In ancient times, the Jews, saying: "the name of such and such", often had in mind the very person who bears this name. Jesus revealed to us the character of God on a higher level, showing us that God cares for us and loves us as a father would his children.those whom You took from the world and gave to Me. They were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they kept Your word.7 Now they understand that everything You have given Me comes from You,8 because the words that You gave Me, I gave them. They accepted them and really understood that I came from You and believed that You sent Me.9 I pray for them. I do not pray for the whole world, but for those whom You have given Me, because they belong to You,10 for all that I have belongs to You, and all that is Yours belongs to Me. In them I was glorified.11 I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name - the name You gave Me - so that they may be one, just as We are.with you one.12 While I was with them, I myself kept them in Your name, which You gave Me. I guarded them, and none of them perished, except for the one condemned to perish# 17:12 That is Judas Iscariot.to fulfill the Scripture.13 Now I am returning to You, but while I am still in the world, I say this so that they may know My joy in full.
14 I gave them Your word, and the world hates them, because they are not of the world, just as I am not of this world.15 I pray not that You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from evil.# 17:15 Or: "from the devil.". 16 For they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to it.17 Sanctify them with Thy truth: Thy word is truth.18 As You sent Me into the world, so I send them into the world.19 I consecrate myself to you for their sake, so that they too may be sanctified by the truth.
Jesus Prays for All His Followers
20 “I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in Me at their word,21 so that they are all one. As You, Father, are in Me and I in You, may they also be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.22 I have endowed them with the glory that You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.with you one:23 I am in them, and You are in Me. May they be in perfect unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me and that You loved them as You loved Me.
24 Father, I want those whom You have given Me to be with Me where I am.I will. I want them to see My glory that You gave Me because You loved Me before the foundation of the world.25 Righteous Father, although the world does not know You, I know You and My followers# 17:25 Lit.: "they."know that you sent me.26 I have revealed Your name to them, and I will reveal it again, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and that I may be in them.
. After these words, Jesus lifted up His eyes to heaven and said: Father! the hour has come, glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee,
Having told the disciples that they will have sorrows, and having convinced them not to lose heart, the Lord encourages them with prayer, teaching us, in temptations, to leave everything and resort to God.
Otherwise. Real words are not prayer, but conversation with the Father. If in other cases () He prays and kneels, then do not be surprised at this. For Christ came not only to reveal Himself to the world, but also to teach every virtue. And the teacher should teach not only with words, but also with deeds.
Wanting to show that he goes to suffering not against his will, but of his own free will, he says: “Father! the time has come". Behold, He desires this as something pleasant, and calls the work ahead glory, and glory not only of His own, but also of the Father. And so it was. For not only was the Son glorified, but also the Father. For even the Jews did not know His Cross before, as it is written: "Israel does not know me"(); and after the Cross the whole universe flowed to Him.
. Because You have given Him authority over all flesh,
He also shows what the glory of Him and the Father consists of; the glory of God is that all flesh should believe and be blessed. For grace will not be limited to the Jews alone, but will extend to the whole world. He said this because he intended to send them to the Gentiles. Lest they regard this as an innovation displeasing to the Father, He declares that authority over all flesh has been given to Him from the Father.
Before that, He said to them: "Don't go on the path to the Gentiles"(). What does it mean "over all flesh"? After all, didn’t they all believe? But Christ, on His part, tried to bring everyone to faith; if they did not heed him, then this is not the fault of the Teacher, but of those who do not receive him.
When you hear "Thou hast given, priyah"(), and the like, then understand that this is said in condescension, as we have said many times. For, always being careful not to say anything great about Himself, He condescends to the weakness of His hearers. And as they were offended by hearing great things about Him, He proclaims what is available to them, just as we, when talking with children, call bread, water and everything else in general, just like they do.
When the evangelist speaks of the Lord (on his own behalf), listen to what he says: “All things came into being through Him” () and "to those who received him he gave power to become children of God"(). If He gives such power to others, did He really not have it Himself, but received it from the Father? Then, even in these very words, apparently humiliated, something lofty is inserted.
that all that You have given Him, He will give eternal life.
"Yes to all that You have given Him" is condescension "He will give eternal life" is the power of the Only Begotten and the Godhead. For to give life, and, moreover, eternal, only God can.
. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
Called the Father "the one true God" to distinguish from the false names of the pagan gods, and not separating Himself from the Father (away from such a thought!). For He, being the true Son, cannot be a false god, but is the true God, as this same evangelist in his conciliar epistle says of the Lord: "Jesus Christ is the true God and eternal"(). If heretics insist that the Son is a false god, since the Father is called the one true God, then let them know that this same evangelist says about the Son: "There Was a True Light"(). Is it possible, according to their conception, that the Father is a false Light? But no, away from such a thought! Therefore, when he calls the Father the true God, he calls Him so, in contrast to the false gods of the pagans, similarly as in the words "You do not seek the glory that is from the One God"(), according to the concept of heretics, it will come out: since the Father is the only God, the Son is not God at all. But such a conclusion is truly insane.
. I glorified You on earth, I completed the work that You instructed Me to do.
From here learn how the Father glorifies the Son. Without a doubt, the Son of the Father also glorifies. "I," he says, glorify you on earth". Fairly adds "on the ground". For in heaven he was glorified, being worshiped by angels, but the earth did not know him. And since the Son has proclaimed Him to all, He also says: I glorified you by sowing the knowledge of God throughout the earth and having done the work that you have given me". For the work of the Incarnation of the Only Begotten was to sanctify our nature, to overthrow the ruler of the world, whom they formerly idolized, to plant the knowledge of God among the creature.
How did he do it when he hadn't even started yet? “Everything,” he says, “that I had to do, I did.” Yes, He did what is most important: He planted in us the root of goodness, defeating the devil, and gave Himself over to the all-devouring beast - death, and from this root, of necessity, the fruits of the knowledge of God will also come. “So,” he says, “I have done the work, because I have sown, planted the root, and the fruits will grow.”
. And now, Father, glorify me in Your own presence with the glory that I had with You before the world was.
The nature of the flesh was not yet glorified, since it was not yet worthy of incorruption and did not partake of the royal throne. That is why it says “Glorify Me,” that is, My human nature, which is now not in honor, which will be crucified, and elevate it to the glory that I, the Word and Your Son, had with You before the existence of the world. For He placed human nature with Himself on the royal throne, and now every creature worships Him.
. I have revealed Your name to the people You have given Me from the world;
"I have revealed Your name to men". Now explains what the words mean "I have glorified you on earth" that is, I have proclaimed your name.
How did the Son announce? For Isaiah also said: “Swear ... by the true God” (). But we have said many times that if then the name of God was known, then only to the Jews, and not to all, and now it is said about the Gentiles that they the name of God will be known, since Christ has already given the seeds of the knowledge of God, having overthrown the devil, who introduced idolatry.
And otherwise. If they knew God, they knew not as the Father, but only as the Creator; but the Son proclaimed Him as the Father, and by words and deeds made known of Himself; and whoever has proved about himself that he is the Son of God, he, obviously, together with himself made it known about the Father.
they were yours and you gave them to me,
The Lord wants to affirm two thoughts: one, that He is not opposed to the Father, and the other, that the Father wants them to believe in the Son. Therefore says: "They were Yours and You gave them to Me". The words "You gave Me" show both. I did not snatch them away, but You deigned that they should come to Me. Therefore, you have no enmity, but like-mindedness and love, Father, for Me.
and they have kept thy word.
"They have kept your word" because they believed me and did not listen to the Jews. For whoever believes in Christ keeps the word of God, that is, Scripture, the Law. For Scripture speaks of Christ.
Still differently. Everything that the Lord said to the disciples belonged to the Father. “For I am,” he says, “ I'm not speaking for myself»(). And He said to them in passing: "Abide in Me" ().
. Now they understand that everything that You have given Me is from You,
Here is what they did: “Now they understand that everything that you have given me is from you”. Some Greek "understand" is read as "today I have known"; but such a reading is unfounded. “Now,” he says, “My disciples have learned that I have nothing special, and that I am not a stranger to You, but that everything that You gave Me (gave not as a gift, as to some creature, for it was not acquired by Me ), is from Thee, that is, belongs to Me as to the Son and to the Person having authority over that which belongs to the Father.
How did My disciples know this?
. For the words that You gave Me I delivered to them, and they received and truly understood that I came from You, and believed that You sent Me.
"For the words that You gave Me, I delivered to them", that is, from My words, from My teaching, for I always taught them what is from the Father, and not only taught this, but also taught that that I came from You, and that You sent Me. For in the whole gospel He wanted to establish the truth that He is not opposed to God, but does the will of the Father.
. I pray for them: I do not pray for the whole world, but for those whom You have given Me, because they are Yours.
Showing that He says this to the Father not for anything else, but only for their sake, so that they may know that He loves them and cares for them, he says: “I pray and ask for them, not for the world”. For by this I, without a doubt, prove that I love them, when not only what I have Myself I give, but also I ask You to keep them. So, not for people who are vicious and wise in the worldly, I pray to you, "but those whom You have given Me, because they are Yours".
. And all mine is yours, and yours is mine;
Lest you, hearing Him continually say, "You have given Me," think that this dominion and authority were given to Him recently, and while the Father had them, He (the Son) did not, or again now that He has , the Father has lost power over them, for this he says: "And all mine is yours, and yours is mine". I have not now accepted this authority, but when they were Yours, they were also Mine. For all yours is mine. And now that I myself have them, you also have them, and have not lost them, for all mine is yours.
and I am glorified in them.
"And I am glorified in them" that is, having power over them, I am glorified in them as the Lord, just like the son of a king, having equal honor and kingdom with his father, is glorified by having as much as his father.
So, if the Son were less than the Father, He would not dare to say "all yours is mine", for the master has everything that belongs to the slave, but the slave does not have everything that belongs to the master. Here He mutually assimilates: the Father to the Son, and the Son to the Father. So the Son is glorified in those who belong to the Father; for He has as much authority over all as the Father.
. I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am going to You.
Why does he keep saying this: "I'm no longer in the world" and "when I was with them in peace"? Whoever understands these words simply, they will seem contradictory. For elsewhere He promised them: "I will be in you" () and "you will see me"(), and now, apparently, says otherwise. So, it can be true to say that He says this, adjusting to their concepts.
Holy Father! keep them in your name, those which you gave me,
It was natural for them to be sad as soon as they were left without a helper. He announces to them that He hands them over to the Father and gives Him to them as a guardian, and then says to the Father: “Since You call Me to Yourself, then keep them Yourself“ in Your name ”, that is, with Your help and the strength that You gave To me".
so that they may be one as we are.
What to store? "So that they may be one". For if they have love for one another, and there is no division between them, then they will be invincible, and nothing will overcome them. And not just to be one, but because I and You had one mindset and one desire. For unanimity is their protection.
So, to comfort them, He begs the Father to keep them. For if He had said, "I will keep you," they would not have believed so deeply. And now, when He pleads with the Father for them, He gives them a firm hope.
. When I was with them in peace, I kept them in Your name;
"I kept them in Your name"- He says this not because He could not keep them otherwise than in the name of the Father, but, as we have said many times, because His listeners were weak and did not yet imagine anything great about Him. That is why he says: “I kept them with your help.”
At the same time, He strengthens them in the hope that, just as in My time with you, you were kept by the name and help of My Father, so believe, and you will again be kept by Him; for to keep you is a matter of course for Him.
those whom you gave me, I have kept, and none of them perished,
There is much humiliation in these words, if one does not take them as one should. For look what is presented here. "The ones you gave me, I have kept". Apparently, He commands the Father that the Father also preserve, just as someone, transferring property for preservation to another, would say: “Look, I have not lost anything, do not lose it either.” But he says all this for the comfort of the disciples.
except the son of perdition,
How then, Lord, did You not destroy anyone when Judas perished, and many others went back ()? “For My part,” he says, “I have not killed anyone. What only depended on Me, I did not leave anything unfulfilled, but I observed them, that is, I tried in every possible way to preserve them. But if they fall away of their own accord, this has nothing to do with My fault.”
let the Scripture come true.
"Let the Scripture come true", that is, every scripture that predicts about the son of perdition. For it is said about him in various psalms (;) and in other prophetic books.
About the “yes” particle, we have said many times that Scripture is in the habit of calling the cause what comes true afterwards.
. Now I am going to You, and I say this in the world, so that they may have My joy complete in themselves.
“This,” he says, “I say in the world for the peace, consolation and joy of the disciples, so that they will be animated and not worried, since You accept them whole and will keep them, just as I have kept them and have not destroyed anyone.”
. I gave them your word; and the world hated them, because they are not of the world,
Begging the Father for help to the apostles, he also expresses the reason why they are worthy of great care from the Father. Because of your word, which I delivered to them, they hated them. Therefore, they are worthy to receive help from You, because those who are wise in the world have hated them because of You. Vicious people hate them because they are “not of the world,” that is, they are not attached to the world with their mind and do not exhaust their activity for it.
How does He in another place () say: “Those whom you gave me out of the world were your"? There He spoke about their nature, that they are people and part of the world, but here He speaks of thoughts and will and notes that they are not of the world.
just as I am not of the world.
Don't be embarrassed by these words. The apostles were not so holy and alien to worldly passions as the Lord: "He did no sin, and there was no deceit in His mouth"(), but they did not escape the weakness of human nature. So after hearing the words "just as I am not of the world", do not take them for the perfect resemblance of the apostles to the Lord; but when this “how” is about the Father and about Him, then only understand equality.
. I do not pray that You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from evil.
"I do not pray that You take them out of the world". He said this, wanting to prove his love for them, and that He cares a lot about them when He brings prayer for them with such zeal. For He does not teach the Father what is needed (for this would be inconsistent with anything), but, as I said, He says this to the Father in order to show that He loves the disciples very much and cares for them. I do not pray that you take them out of the world, but that while they are in the world you will keep them from evil.
. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
Again he repeats "they are not of the world." “They,” he says, “need strong support, for they, who have become citizens of heaven, have nothing to do with the earth. And as the whole world will treat them as if they were strangers, then You, Heavenly, already help them, as citizens of heaven. He says this very often aloud to his disciples, so that when they hear this, they will hate the world and not shame such praise to them.
Observe them "out of dislike"; speaks not only of their deliverance from dangers, but also of staying and affirming in the faith. Therefore, he adds:
. Sanctify them with Thy truth; your word is truth.
Make them holy through the teaching of the Spirit, keep them in the rightness of word and dogma, and instruct them and teach the truth. For holiness consists in keeping right dogmas.
And what He says about dogmas, this is evident from the explanation: "Your word is truth", that is, there is no lie in it. Wherefore, if thou grant them to keep thy word, and to keep themselves from evil, they shall be sanctified by the truth.
The words "Sanctify them in Thy truth" mean something else, namely: set them apart for speech and preaching, and make them a sacrifice; let them serve this truth, let them devote their lives to it.
. How did you send me into the world: So and I sent them into the world.
. And for them I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.
Adds: "How You sent Me into the world... and for them I consecrate Myself", that is, I offer as a sacrifice; so you also sanctify them, that is, set them apart as a sacrifice for preaching and make them witnesses of the truth, just as you sent me as a witness of the truth and a sacrifice. For whatever is sacrificed is called holy. “So that they too,” like I, “be sanctified” and offered to You, God, not as sacrifices under the law, slaughtered in an image, but “in truth.”
For the Old Testament sacrifices, for example, the lamb, doves, turtledoves, and so on, were images, and everything holy in the type was consecrated to God, prefiguring something else, spiritual. The souls offered to God are, in truth, sanctified, set apart, and consecrated to God, just as Paul says: "Present your bodies a living, holy sacrifice" ().
Therefore, sanctify and consecrate the souls of the disciples, and make them true offerings, or strengthen them to endure and die for the truth.
. I do not only pray for them, but also for those who believe in me according to their word,
Said: "For them I consecrate myself". Lest anyone think that He died only for the apostles, he adds: “Not about them only, but also about all those who believe in me according to their word”. Here again He encouraged the souls of the apostles that they would have many disciples. And so that, hearing "I'm not just praying for them", the apostles were not offended, as if He did not give them any advantage over others, consoles them, declaring that for many they will be the authors of faith and salvation.
. May they all be one
And how He gave them enough to the Father, so that He would sanctify them by faith and make a holy sacrifice for them for the truth, he finally speaks again about like-mindedness, and from what he began, that is, with love, he ends his speech and says: "May they all be one", that is, let them have peace and like-mindedness, and in Us, that is, by faith in Us, let them maintain complete harmony. For nothing tempts students so much as if the teachers are divided and not of one mind.
as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You: So and let them be one in Us,
For who wants to obey those who are not of one mind? Therefore says: "And let them be one, in faith in us, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You.”. The particle "as" again does not mean perfect equality. For it is impossible for us to unite with one another, as the Father with the Son. The particle “how” should be understood in the same way as in the words "be merciful as your Father" ().
let the world believe that you sent me.
The unanimity of the disciples will prove that I, the Teacher, have come from God. But if there be dissension between them, no one will say that they are the disciples of the Conciliator; but if I am not the Reconciler, then they will not recognize me as sent from you. Do you see how He fully affirms His unanimity with the Father?
. And the glory that You gave Me, I have given them: that they may be one as We are one.
What glory did he give? The glory of miracles, the dogmas of teaching, and also the glory of unanimity, "Let them be one". For this glory is greater than the glory of miracles. “How we are amazed before God, because in His nature there is neither rebellion nor struggle, and this is the greatest glory, so,” he says, “let them be glorious for the same, that is, unanimity.”
. I in them and You in Me; let them be perfected in one,
"I am in them and you are in me". This shows that the apostles contained the Father in themselves. “For I,” he says, “in them; but I have you in myself, therefore you also in them.”
In another place, he says that the Father and He Himself will come and create an abode (). By this He stops the mouth of Sabellius and shows two Faces. This also overthrows the fury of Arius; for he says that the Father dwells in the disciples through him.
and let the world know that you sent me
"Let the world know that you sent me". Often speaks of this in order to show that the world can attract more than a miracle. For as enmity destroys, so harmony strengthens.
and loved them as he loved me.
Here again understand the “how” particle in the sense of how much a person can be loved.
. Father! whom you have given me, I want them to be with me where I am,
Therefore, having said that they will be safe, that they will be holy, that many will believe through them, that they will receive great glory, he now speaks of the rewards and crowns that are set before them after their departure from here. "I want," he says, so that where I am, and they were "; and lest you, when you hear this, think that they will receive the same dignity as He, he adds:
let them see my glory,
He did not say “let them receive my glory”, but “let them see”, for for a person the greatest pleasure is to contemplate the Son of God. And in this is glory to all who are worthy, just as Paul says: “But we are all with open face, beholding the glory of the Lord”(). By this he shows that then they will not contemplate Him as they see Him now, not in a humble form, but in the glory that He had before the foundation of the world.
which You gave Me because You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
“I had,” he says, “this glory because you loved me". For "he loved me" is placed in the middle. As above () said: "Glorify me with the glory that I had before the world was" He says even now that the glory of the Godhead was given to Him before the foundation of the world. For truly the Father gave Him the Godhead, as the Father gave the Son, according to nature. Since He gave birth to Him, then, as the Cause of being, He is necessarily called the Cause and Giver of glory.
. Righteous Father! and the world did not know you; but I have known you, and these have known that you have sent me.
After such a prayer for the believers and the promise of so many blessings to them, he finally expresses something merciful and worthy of His philanthropy. He says: “Father Righteous! I would like all people to receive such blessings as I asked the faithful, but they did not know You and therefore will not receive that glory and those rewards.
"But I have known you". Alludes here to the Jews, who said they know God, and shows that they do not know the Father. For "peace" in many places he calls the Jews.
. And I have revealed Your name to them, and will reveal it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.
Although the Jews say that You did not send Me; but I am to these my disciples "I have revealed Your name and will reveal it". How will I open it? Sending down on them the Spirit, who will guide them into all truth. And when they know who You are, then the love with which You loved Me will be in them, and I in them. For they will know that I am not alienated from You, but much loved, that I am Your true Son and united with You. Knowing this, they will keep faith in Me and love, and finally I will abide in them because they are such that they know You and honor Me as God. And they will keep their faith in Me unshakable.
Comments on Chapter 17
INTRODUCTION TO THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
THE GOSPEL FROM THE EYE OF EAGLE
Many Christians regard the Gospel of John as the most precious book in the New Testament. With this book they nourish their minds and hearts most of all, and it calms their souls. The authors of the Gospels are very often depicted symbolically in stained glass and other works in the form of four beasts, which the author of the Revelation saw around the throne. (Rev. 4:7). In different places a different symbol is attributed to each evangelist, but in most cases it is generally accepted that Human - it is the symbol of the evangelist brand, whose gospel is the simplest, the simplest, and the most human; a lion - evangelist symbol Matthew because he, like no one else, saw in Jesus the Messiah and the lion of the tribe of Judah; Taurus(ox) - the symbol of the evangelist bows, because this animal was used both for service and for sacrifice, and he saw in Jesus a great servant of people and a universal sacrifice for all mankind; eagle - evangelist symbol John for of all living beings, only the eagle can look, without being blinded, directly at the sun and penetrate into eternal mysteries, eternal truths, and into the very thoughts of God. John has the most penetrating vision of any New Testament writer. Many people find that they are closest to God and Jesus Christ when they read the Gospel of John, rather than any other book.A GOSPEL DIFFERENT FROM OTHERS
One has only to skim through the fourth gospel to see that it differs from the other three: it does not contain many of the events that are included in the other three. The fourth Gospel says nothing about the birth of Jesus, His baptism, His temptations, it says nothing about the Last Supper, the Garden of Gethsemane, and the Ascension. It does not talk about healing people who are possessed by demons and evil spirits, and, most amazing of all, it does not contain a single parable of Jesus, which are an invaluable part of the other three Gospels. Throughout the three gospels, Jesus constantly speaks in these wonderful parables, and in easy-to-remember, short, expressive sentences. And in the fourth gospel, the speeches of Jesus sometimes take up a whole chapter and are often complex, evidence-laden statements, quite different from those compressed, unforgettable sayings in the other three gospels. Even more surprisingly, the facts about the life and ministry of Jesus given in the fourth gospel differ from those given in the other gospels. 1. The gospel of John states differently Start ministry of Jesus. The other three gospels make it abundantly clear that Jesus began preaching only after John the Baptist was imprisoned. "Now after John had been betrayed, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God (Mark 1:14; Luke 3:18-20; Matt. 4:12). According to the Gospel of John, it turns out that there was a rather long period when the preaching of Jesus coincided with the activities of John the Baptist. (John 3:22-30; 4:1.2). 2. The Gospel of John presents differently region, in which Jesus preached. In the other three gospels, Galilee was the main preaching area, and Jesus did not visit Jerusalem until the last week of his life. According to the Gospel of John, Jesus mostly preached in Jerusalem and Judea, and only occasionally went into Galilee (John 2:1-13; 4:35-51; 6:1-7:14). According to John, Jesus was in Jerusalem at Passover, which coincided with the cleansing of the Temple (John 2:13); during an unnamed holiday (John 5:1); during the Feast of Tabernacles (John 7:2-10). He was there in the winter, during the Feast of Renewal. (John 10:22). According to the fourth gospel, after this feast Jesus never left Jerusalem at all; after chapter 10 He was always in Jerusalem. This means that Jesus remained there for many months, from the winter Feast of Renewal until the spring, until the Passover, during which he was crucified. It must be said that this fact was correctly reflected in the Gospel of John. Other gospels show how Jesus lamented the fate of Jerusalem when the last week arrived. "Jerusalem, Jerusalem that kills the prophets and stones those sent to you! How many times have I wanted to gather your children together, as a bird gathers her chicks under her wings, and you did not want to!" (Matt. 23:37; Luke 13:34). It is quite obvious that Jesus could not have said this if He had not visited Jerusalem several times and had not repeatedly addressed its inhabitants. From His first visit, He could not have said it. It was this difference that allowed the "father of the history of the Church" Eusebius (263-340), bishop of Caesarea of Palestine and author of the most ancient history of the Church from the birth of Christ to 324, to offer one of the first explanations for the difference between the fourth Gospel and the other three. Eusebius stated that in his time (about 300), many theologians held this view: Matthew was the first to preach to the Jews, but the time had come when he had to go and preach to other nations; before setting out, he wrote down everything he knew about the life of Christ in Hebrew and "thus eased the loss of those whom he had to leave behind." After Mark and Luke wrote their gospels, John was still preaching the story of Jesus' life orally. “At last he proceeded to describe it, and this is why. When the three Gospels mentioned were made available to everyone and reached him too, they say that he approved them and confirmed their truth, but he added that they did not contain a story about the deeds committed by Jesus at the very beginning of His ministry ... And therefore, they say, John described in his Gospel a period omitted by the early evangelists, i.e. acts committed by the Savior in the period before the imprisonment of John the Baptist ..., and the remaining three evangelists describe the events that took place after this time. The Gospel of John is the story of first deeds of Christ, while others tell of later His life" (Eusebius, "History of the Church" 5.24). Therefore, according to Eusebius, there is no contradiction at all between the fourth and the remaining three Gospels; the whole difference is explained by the fact that in the fourth Gospel, at least in the first chapters, tells of a ministry in Jerusalem that preceded the preaching in Galilee and took place while John the Baptist was still at large.It is possible that this explanation of Eusebius is, at least in part, correct. duration Jesus' ministry was different. From the other three Gospels it follows that it lasted only one year. There is only one Easter for the whole time of the service. In the Gospel of John three Easter: one coincides with the cleansing of the Temple (John 2:13); the other somewhere coincides with the saturation time of five thousand (John 6:4); and finally the last Passover, when Jesus was crucified. According to John, the ministry of Christ should last about three years, so that all these events can be arranged in time. And again, John is undoubtedly right: it turns out that this is also evident from a careful reading of the other three Gospels. When the disciples plucked the ears (Mark 2:23), it must have been spring. When the five thousand were fed, they sat down on green grass (Mark 6:39), therefore, it was spring again, and a year must have elapsed between these two events. This is followed by a journey through Tire and Sidon and the Transfiguration. On the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter wanted to build three tabernacles and stay there. it is quite natural to assume that this was during the Feast of Tabernacles, which is why Peter suggested doing this (Mark 9:5), that is, early October. This is followed by a period until the last Easter in April. Thus, from what is stated in the three Gospels, it can be deduced that the ministry of Jesus lasted the same three years, as it is presented in John. 4. But John also has significant differences from the other three gospels. Here are two notable examples. First, in John the cleansing of the Temple is attributed to beginning ministry of jesus (John 2:13-22), while other evangelists place it in end (Mark 11:15-17; Matt. 21:12-13; Luke 19:45-46). Secondly, John places the Crucifixion of Christ on the day preceding Pascha, while the other evangelists place it on the very day of Pascha. We must not close our eyes at all to the differences that exist between the Gospel of John, on the one hand, and the rest of the Gospels, on the other.SPECIAL KNOWLEDGE OF JOHN
It is clear that if the Gospel of John differs from other evangelists, it is not because of ignorance or lack of information. While he doesn't mention much of what the others bring up, he does give a lot of things that they don't have. Only John tells about the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee (2,1-11); about the visit of Jesus by Nicodemus (3,1-17); about the Samaritan woman (4); about the resurrection of Lazarus (11); how Jesus washed the feet of his disciples (13,1-17); about His beautiful teaching about the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, scattered in the chapters (14-17). Only in the story of John do many of Jesus' disciples really come to life before our eyes and we hear the speech of Thomas (11,16; 14,5; 20,24-29), and Andrew becomes a real person (1,40.41; 6,8.9; 12,22). Only in John do we learn something about the character of Philip (6,5-7; 14,8.9); we hear the angry protest of Judas at the chrismation of Jesus in Bethany (12,4.5). And it should be noted that, oddly enough, these small touches reveal to us amazingly much. The portraits of Thomas, Andrew, and Philip in the Gospel of John are like small cameos or vignettes, in which the character of each of them is memorably sketched. Further, in the Evangelist John, we again and again meet small additional details that read as eyewitness accounts: the boy brought Jesus not just bread, but barley loaves (6,9); when Jesus came to the disciples who were crossing the lake in a storm, they sailed about twenty-five or thirty stades (6,19); in Cana of Galilee there were six stone waterpots (2,6). Only John speaks of four soldiers casting lots for Jesus' seamless robe. (19,23); only he knows how much mixture of myrrh and aloe was used to anoint the body of Jesus (19,39); only he remembers how, during the anointing of Jesus in Bethany, the house was filled with fragrance (12,3). Much of this seems at first glance to be insignificant details and they would remain incomprehensible if they were not recollections of an eyewitness. No matter how different the Gospel of John is from the rest of the Gospels, this difference must be explained not by ignorance, but precisely by the fact that John had more knowledge, or he had better sources, or a better memory than the rest. Another proof that the author of the Fourth Gospel had special information is that he knew Palestine and Jerusalem very well. He knows how long it took to build the Jerusalem Temple (2,20); that Jews and Samaritans were constantly in conflict (4,9); that the Jews held a low opinion of a woman (4,9); how did the jews look at the sabbath (5,10; 7,21-23; 9,14). He knows Palestine well: he knows two Bethany, one of which was beyond the Jordan (1,28; 12,1); he knows that some of the disciples were from Bethsaida (1,44; 12,21); that Cana is in Galilee (2,1; 4,46; 21,2); that the city of Sychar is near Shechem (4,5). He, as they say, knew every street in Jerusalem. He knows the sheep gate and the pool beside it. (5,2); he knows the pool of Siloam (9,7); Solomon's porch (9,23); Kidron stream (18,1); Lifostroton, which in Hebrew is Gavvatha (9,13); Golgotha, similar to a skull (the Place of the Execution, 19,17). It must be remembered that in 70 AD Jerusalem was destroyed, and John began writing his Gospel not earlier than 100 AD, and yet he remembered everything in Jerusalem.THE CIRCUMSTANCES IN WHICH JOHN WRITTEN
We have already seen that there is a great difference between the fourth gospel and the other three gospels, and we have seen that the reason for this could not be John's ignorance, and therefore we must ask ourselves: "What purpose did he pursue when he wrote his gospel?" If we understand this for ourselves, we will find out why he chose these particular facts and why he presented them in this way. The fourth gospel was written in Ephesus around the year 100. By this time, two peculiarities emerged in the Christian Church. First of all, Christianity came to the pagan world. By that time, the Christian Church had ceased to be mainly Jewish in nature: most of the members who came to it did not come from the Jewish, but from the Hellenistic culture, and therefore The Church had to declare itself in a new way. This does not mean that Christian truths had to be changed; they just needed to be expressed in a new way. Let's take just one example. Suppose a Greek began to read the Gospel of Matthew, but as soon as he opened it, he came across a long genealogy. Genealogies were understandable to the Jews, but were completely incomprehensible to the Greeks. Reading, the Greek sees that Jesus was the son of David - a king whom the Greeks had never heard of, who, moreover, was a symbol of the racial and nationalistic aspirations of the Jews, which did not bother this Greek at all. This Greek is faced with such a concept as "Messiah", and again he has never heard this word before. But is it necessary for a Greek who has decided to become a Christian to completely restructure his way of thinking and get used to Jewish categories? Must he, before he can become a Christian, learn a good part of Jewish history and Jewish apocalyptic literature that tells of the coming of the Messiah. As the English theologian Goodspeed put it: "Couldn't he have come into direct contact with the treasures of Christian salvation without being forever mired in Judaism? Should he have parted with his intellectual heritage and begun to think exclusively in Jewish categories and Jewish concepts?" John approaches this issue honestly and directly: he came up with one of the greatest solutions anyone has ever thought of. Later, in the commentary, we will consider John's decision much more fully, but for now we will only briefly dwell on it. The Greeks had two great philosophical concepts. a) First, they had the concept Logos. It has two meanings in Greek: word(speech) and meaning(concept, reason). The Jews were well aware of the all-powerful word of God. "And God said: let there be light. And there was light" (Gen. 1:3). And the Greeks were well aware of the idea of cause. The Greeks looked at the world and saw in it an amazing and reliable order: night and day invariably change in a strict order; the seasons invariably follow each other, the stars and planets move in unchanging orbits - nature has its own unchanging laws. Where does this order come from, who created it? To this the Greeks responded confidently: logos, Divine intelligence created this majestic world order. "And what gives a person the ability to think, reason and know?" the Greeks asked themselves further. And again they confidently answered: logos, The divine mind dwelling in a person makes him thinking. The Gospel of John seems to say: “All your life your imagination has been struck by this great, directing and restraining Divine mind. The Divine mind came to earth in Christ, in human form. Look at Him and you will see what it is - the Divine mind and the Divine will ". The Gospel of John provided a new concept in which the Greeks could think of Jesus, in which Jesus was presented as God appearing in human form. b) The Greeks had a theory of two worlds. One world is the one in which we live. It was, in their minds, a beautiful world in a sense, but it was a world of shadows and spears, an unreal world. The other was the real world, in which eternally great realities reside, of which the earthly world is only a pale and poor copy. The invisible world was for the Greeks the real world, and the visible world was only a shadow and unreality. The Greek philosopher Plato systematized this idea in his doctrine of forms or ideas. He believed that in the invisible world there are perfect incorporeal prototypes of all things, and all things and objects of this world are only shadows and copies of these eternal prototypes. Simply put, Plato believed that somewhere there is a prototype, the idea of a table, and all the tables on earth are only imperfect copies of this prototype of the table. And the greatest reality, the highest idea, the prototype of all prototypes and the form of all forms is God. It remained, however, to solve the question of how to get into this real world, how to get away from our shadows to eternal truths. And John declares that this is precisely the opportunity that Jesus Christ gives us. He Himself is the reality that came to us on earth. In Greek to convey the concept real in this sense the word is used alefeinos, which is closely related to the word alephes, What means true, genuine and alepheia, What means true. Greek in the Bible alefeinos translated as true, but it would be correct to also translate it as real. Jesus - real light (1,9). Jesus - real bread (6,32); Jesus - real vine (15,1); Judgment of Christ real (8.16). Jesus alone is real in our world of shadows and imperfections. Some conclusions follow from this. Each act of Jesus was not only an action in time, but also represents a window through which we can see reality. This is what the evangelist John means when he speaks of the miracles performed by Jesus as signs (family). The miraculous accomplishments of Jesus are not only miraculous, they are windows into the reality that is God. This explains the fact that the Gospel of John tells the stories of the miracles performed by Jesus in a completely different way than the other three evangelists. a) The fourth gospel does not have that touch of compassion that is present in the miracle stories in all other gospels. In other gospels, Jesus had mercy on a leper (Mark 1:41); sympathizes with Jairus (Mark 5:22) and the father of an epileptic boy (Mark 9:19). Luke, when Jesus raised the son of a widow from the city of Nain, adds with infinite tenderness "and Jesus gave him to his mother" (Luke 7:15). And in the Gospel of John, the miracles of Jesus are not so much acts of compassion as they are demonstrations of the glory of Christ. Thus John comments after the miracle performed at Cana of Galilee: "Thus did Jesus begin the miracles at Cana of Galilee and revealed his glory" (2:11). The resurrection of Lazarus took place "to the glory of God" (11,4). The blindness of the man born blind existed "so that the works of God might appear on him" (9,3). John does not want to say that there was no love and compassion in the miracles of Jesus, but he first of all saw in every miracle of Christ the glory of Divine reality breaking into time and into human affairs. b) In the fourth gospel, the miracles of Jesus are often accompanied by lengthy discourses. Following the description of the feeding of the five thousand is a long discourse on the bread of life. (ch. 6); the healing of the blind man is preceded by the saying of Jesus that he is the light of the world (ch. 9); the resurrection of Lazarus is preceded by the phrase of Jesus that He is the resurrection and the life (ch. 11). In John's eyes, the miracles of Jesus are not just single acts in time, they are an opportunity to see what God always does, and an opportunity to see how Jesus always does: they are windows into Divine reality. Jesus didn't just feed five thousand once - that was an illustration of the fact that He is forever the real bread of life; Jesus didn't just open the eyes of a blind man once: He is the light of the world forever. Jesus not only once raised Lazarus from the dead - He is eternal and for all the resurrection and life. The miracle never seemed to John as an isolated act - it was always for him a window into the reality of who Jesus always was and is, what he always did and does. Based on this, the great scholar Clement of Alexandria (about 230) made one of the most famous conclusions about the origin of the fourth Gospel and the purpose of writing it. He believed that at first the gospels were written, in which genealogies are given, that is, the gospels of Luke and Matthew, after that Mark wrote his gospel at the request of many who heard Peter's sermons, and included in it those materials that Peter used in his sermons . And only after that "the very last, John, seeing that everything related to the material aspects of the sermons and teachings of Jesus, received a proper reflection, and prompted by his friends and inspired by the Holy Spirit, he wrote spiritual gospel(Eusebius, "History of the Church", 6.14). Clement of Alexandria wants to say by this that John was interested not so much in facts as in their meaning and meaning, that he was looking not for facts, but for truth. John saw the actions of Jesus as more than just events occurring in time; he saw them as windows to eternity, and emphasized the spiritual significance of the words and deeds of Jesus, which no other of the evangelists even tried to do. This conclusion about the fourth Gospel remains to this day one of the most correct. John wrote not a historical, but a spiritual gospel. Thus, in the Gospel of John, Jesus is presented as the embodied Divine mind descended to earth and as the only one possessing reality and capable of leading people out of the world of shadows into the real world, which Plato and the great Greeks dreamed of. Christianity, once dressed in Jewish categories, acquired the greatness of the Greek worldview.THE ORIGIN OF HERESIES
At the time when the fourth Gospel was being written, the Church faced one important problem - occurrence of heresy. It has been seventy years since Jesus Christ was crucified. During this time, the Church has become a well-ordered organization; theological theories and creeds of faith were developed and established, human thoughts inevitably wandered and strayed from the true path, and heresies arose. And heresy is rarely a complete lie. It usually arises from the special emphasis on one aspect of the truth. We see at least two heresies which the author of the fourth gospel sought to refute. a) There were some Christians, at least among the Jews, who held John the Baptist too highly. There was something about him that attracted the Jews very much. He was the last of the prophets and he spoke with the voice of a prophet, we know that in later times in Orthodox Judaism there officially existed a recognized sect of the followers of John the Baptist. AT Acts. 19.1-7 we meet a small group of twelve people, whose members belonged to the Christian Church, but were baptized only by John's baptism. The author of the fourth gospel again and again calmly but firmly puts John the Baptist in his proper place. John the Baptist himself repeatedly stated that he did not claim the highest place and had no right to it, but unconditionally ceded this place to Jesus. We have already seen that according to the other gospels, the ministry and preaching of Jesus began only after John the Baptist was put in prison, while the fourth gospel speaks of the time when the ministry of Jesus coincided with the preaching of John the Baptist. It is possible that the author of the fourth gospel quite deliberately used this argument to show that Jesus and John did meet, and that John used these meetings to recognize and encourage others to recognize the superiority of Jesus. The author of the Fourth Gospel emphasizes that John the Baptist "was not light" (18) and he himself most definitely denied having any claim to be the Messiah (1.20 ff.; Z.28; 4.1; 10.41) and what is impossible even admit that he bore more important evidence (5,36). There is no criticism of John the Baptist in the fourth gospel; in it is a reproach to those who give him the place that belongs to Jesus, and to Him alone.b) In addition, in the era of the writing of the fourth gospel, a heresy, collectively known as gnosticism. If we do not examine it in detail, we will miss a good deal of the greatness of the evangelist John and miss a certain aspect of his task. Gnosticism was based on the doctrine that matter is inherently vicious and pernicious, while the spirit is inherently good. The Gnostics therefore concluded that God Himself could not touch matter and therefore He did not create the world. He, in their opinion, emitted a series of emanations (radiations), each of which was farther and farther away from Him, until, finally, one of these radiations turned out to be so far from Him that it could come into contact with matter. It was this emanation (radiation) that was the creator of the world.
This idea, in itself quite vicious, was further corrupted by one addition: each of these emanations, according to the Gnostics, knew less and less about God, until one day a moment came when these emanations not only completely lost the knowledge of God, but also became completely hostile to Him. And so the Gnostics finally concluded that the creator god was not only completely different from the real God, but also completely alien to him and hostile to him. One of the leaders of the Gnostics, Tserinthius, said that "the world was not created by God, but by some force very far from Him and from the Force that rules the entire universe, and alien to God, Who stands above everything."
The Gnostics therefore believed that God had nothing to do with the creation of the world at all. That is why John begins his gospel with a resounding statement: "Through Him everything came into being, and without Him nothing came into being that came into being" (1,3). This is why John insists that "God so loved peace" (3.16). In the face of Gnosticism, which so alienated God and turned Him into a being who could have nothing to do with the world at all, John introduced the Christian concept of God, who created the world and whose presence fills the world that He created.
Gnostic theory also influenced their idea of Jesus.
a) Some Gnostics believed that Jesus was one of these emanations that God radiated. They believed that He had nothing to do with Divinity, that He was a kind of demigod removed from the true real God, that He was just one of the beings standing between God and the world.
b) Other Gnostics believed that Jesus did not have a real body: the body is flesh, and God cannot, in their opinion, touch matter, and therefore Jesus was a kind of ghost that did not have a real body and real blood. They believed, for example, that when Jesus walked the earth, He left no footprints because His body had no weight or substance. They could never say, "And the Word became flesh" (1:14). The prominent father of the Western Church, Aurelius Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hypon (North Africa), says that he read a lot of contemporary philosophers and found that many of them are very similar to what is written in the New Testament, but , he says: "I did not find such a phrase among them:" The Word became flesh and dwelt among us ". That's why John in his first epistle insisted that Jesus came itself, and declared that anyone who denies it is driven by the spirit of antichrist (1 John 4:3). This heresy is known as docetism. This word comes from the Greek docaine, What means seem, and the heresy is so called because its followers believed that people only thought that Jesus was a man.
c) Some Gnostics held a variant of this heresy: they held that Jesus was a man upon whom the Holy Spirit descended at his baptism. This Spirit dwelt in Him throughout His life to its end, but since the Spirit of God can neither suffer nor die, He left Jesus before He was crucified. The loud cry of Jesus on the cross they conveyed thus: "My Power, My Power! why did you leave Me?" And in their books, these heretics spoke of people talking on the Mount of Olives with an image very similar to Him, although the man Jesus was dying on the cross.
Thus, the heresies of the Gnostics resulted in two kinds of beliefs: some did not believe in the divinity of Jesus and considered Him to be one of the emanations that God radiated, while others did not believe in the human essence of Jesus and considered Him to be a human-like ghost. Gnostic beliefs destroyed both the true divinity and the true humanity of Jesus.
THE HUMAN NATURE OF JESUS
John responds to these theories of the Gnostics and this explains the strange paradox of the double emphasis he puts in his gospel. No other gospel emphasizes the true humanity of Jesus so clearly as does the gospel of John. Jesus was extremely indignant at what people were selling and buying in the Temple (2,15); Jesus was physically tired from the long journey as he sat by the well at Sychar in Samaria (4,6); the disciples offered him food in the same way they would offer it to any hungry person (4,3); Jesus sympathized with those who were hungry and those who felt fear (6,5.20); He felt sad and even wept, as any bereaved would do. (11,33.35 -38); when Jesus was dying on the cross, His parched lips whispered: "I thirst" (19,28). In the fourth gospel we see Jesus as a man, not a shadow or ghost; in Him we see a man who knew the weariness of an exhausted body and the wounds of a suffering soul and a suffering mind. In the fourth gospel we have before us a truly human Jesus.
THE DIVINITY OF JESUS
On the other hand, no other gospel shows the divinity of Jesus so vividly.
a) John emphasizes eternity Jesus. "Before Abraham was," said Jesus, "I am" (8,58). In John, Jesus speaks of the glory that He had with the Father before the world was. (17,5). He talks over and over about how he came down from heaven (6,33-38). John saw in Jesus the One who had always been, even before the existence of the world.
b) The Fourth Gospel emphasizes, as no other, omniscience Jesus. John believes that Jesus most definitely had supernatural knowledge about the Samaritan woman's past. (4,16.17); it is quite obvious that He knew how long ago the man who lay in the pool of Bethesda was ill, although no one tells Him about it. (5,6); before asking Philip a question, he already knew what answer he would receive (6,6); He knew that Judas would betray him (6,61-64); He knew about the death of Lazarus even before he was told about it (11,14). John saw Jesus as someone who had special supernatural knowledge, independent of what anyone else might tell Him, He didn't have to ask questions because He knew all the answers.
c) The fourth gospel also emphasizes the fact that Jesus always acted completely on his own, without any influence on him from anyone. He performed the miracle in Cana of Galilee on his own initiative, and not at the request of His Mother (2,4); His brethren's motives had nothing to do with His visit to Jerusalem during the Feast of Tabernacles (7,10); no man took His life, no man could do it. He gave His life completely willingly (10,18; 19,11). In the eyes of John, Jesus had divine independence from all human influence. He was completely independent in his actions.
In refuting the Gnostics and their strange beliefs, John irrefutably shows both the humanity of Jesus and His divinity.
AUTHOR OF THE FOURTH GOSPEL
We see that the author of the fourth Gospel set as his goal to show the Christian faith in such a way that it would become interesting for the Greeks, to whom Christianity has now come, and, at the same time, to speak out against the heresies and errors that arose within the Church. We keep asking ourselves: who was its author? Tradition unanimously says that the author was the apostle John. We shall see that there is no doubt that John's authority is indeed behind this gospel, although it is quite possible that it was not he who wrote it down and gave it its form. Let's collect everything we know about John.
He was the youngest of the sons of Zebedee, who owned a fishing boat on the Sea of Galilee and was rich enough to employ indentured laborers. (Mark 1:19-20). John's mother was called Salome and it is possible that she was the sister of Mary, Mother of Jesus (Matt. 27:56; Mark 16:1). John, along with his brother James, following the call of Jesus, followed Him (Mark 1:20).
It looks like James and John were fishing with Peter (Luke 5:7-10). And John belonged to the closest disciples of Jesus, because the list of disciples always begins with the names of Peter, James and John, and at some great events only these three were present. (Mark 3:17; 5:37; 9:2; 14:33).
By nature, John, quite obviously, was a restless and ambitious person. Jesus gave John and his brother a name voanerges, What means sons of Thunder. John and his brother James were impatient and opposed any self-will on the part of others (Mark 9:38; Luke 9:49). Their temperament was so unbridled that they were ready to wipe out the Samaritan village from the face of the earth, because they were not given hospitality there when they were on their way to Jerusalem. (Luke 9:54). Either they themselves or their mother Salome cherished ambitious plans. They asked Jesus that when He received His Kingdom, He would seat them on the right and left side in His glory. (Mark 10:35; Matt. 20:20). In the synoptic gospels, John is presented as the leader of all the disciples, a member of Jesus' intimate circle, and yet extremely ambitious and impatient.
In the book of the Acts of the Holy Apostles, John always speaks with Peter, but does not speak himself. His name is among the first three in the list of apostles (Acts 1:13). John was with Peter when they healed the lame man near the Red Gate of the Temple (Acts 3:1 ff.). Together with Peter, they brought him and placed him before the Sanhedrin and the leaders of the Jews; in court, both behaved amazingly boldly (Acts 4:1-13). John went with Peter to Samaria to check on what Philip had done there. (Acts 8:14).
In Paul's epistles, the name of John is mentioned only once. AT Gal. 2.9 he is called a pillar of the Church along with Peter and James, who approved of Paul's actions. John was a complex person: on the one hand, he was one of the leaders among the apostles, a member of the intimate circle of Jesus - His closest friends; on the other hand, he was a wayward, ambitious, impatient and at the same time courageous person.
We can look at what was said about John in the early church age. Eusebius relates that he was exiled to the island of Patmos during the reign of the Roman emperor Domitian (Eusebius, Church History, 3.23). In the same place, Eusebius tells a characteristic story about John, borrowed from Clement of Alexandria. He became a kind of bishop of Asia Minor and once visited one of the church communities near Ephesus. Among the parishioners, he noticed a slender and very handsome young man. John turned to the presbyter of the community and said: "I hand over this young man under your responsibility and care, and I call the parishioners to witness this."
The presbyter took the young man to his house, took care of him and instructed him, and the day came when the young man was baptized and received into the community. But soon after that, he made friends with bad friends and committed so many crimes that he eventually became the leader of a gang of murderers and thieves. When John visited the community again some time later, he addressed the elder: "Restore the trust that I and the Lord have placed in you and the church you lead." The presbyter did not at first understand what John was talking about. "I mean that you give an account of the soul of the young man whom I entrusted to you," said John. "Alas," replied the presbyter, "he perished." "Dead?" John asked. "For God's sake, he perished," replied the presbyter, "he fell from grace and was forced to flee the city for his crimes, and now he is a robber in the mountains." And John went straight to the mountains, deliberately allowed himself to be captured by the bandits, who led him to the young man, who was now the leader of the gang. Tormented by shame, the young man tried to run away from him, but John ran after him. "My son!" he shouted, "You are running from your father. I am weak and old, take pity on me, my son; do not be afraid, there is still hope for your salvation. I will defend you before the Lord Jesus Christ. If necessary, I I will gladly die for you, as He died for me. Stop, wait, believe! It was Christ who sent me to you." Such a call broke the heart of the young man, he stopped, threw away his weapon and sobbed. Together with John, he descended from the mountain and returned to the Church and the Christian path. Here we see the love and courage of John.
Eusebius (3,28) tells another story about John, which he found from Irenaeus (140-202), a student of Polycarp of Smyrna. As we have noted, Cerinthius was one of the leading Gnostics. "The Apostle John once came to the bathhouse, but when he learned that Tserinthius was there, he jumped up from his seat and rushed out, because he could not stay under the same roof with him, and advised his companions to do the same. "Let's leave so that the bathhouse does not collapse he said, “because there is Cerinthius inside, the enemy of truth.” Here is another touch to John's temperament: Boanerges has not yet died in him.
John Cassion (360-430), who made a significant contribution to the development of the doctrine of grace and to the development of Western European monasticism, gives another story about John. Once he was found playing with a tamed partridge. The stricter brother rebuked him for wasting his time, to which John replied: "If the bow is always kept taut, it will soon cease to shoot straight."
Jerome of Dalmatia (330-419) has an account of John's last words. When he was about to die, the disciples asked him what he would like to say to them in the end. "My children," he said, "love one another," and then he repeated it again. "And it's all?" asked him. "That's enough," said John, "for it's the covenant of the Lord."
FAVORITE STUDENT
If we have carefully followed what is said here about the apostle John, we should have noticed one thing: we have taken all our information from the first three Gospels. It is surprising that the name of the apostle John is never mentioned in the fourth Gospel. But two other people are mentioned.
First, it talks about the disciple whom Jesus loved. He is mentioned four times. He reclined at the chest of Jesus during the Last Supper (John 13:23-25); Jesus left his mother to him when he died on the cross (19,25-27); he and Peter were greeted by Mary Magdalene upon her return from the empty tomb on the first morning of Easter (20,2), and he was present at the last appearance of the resurrected Jesus to his disciples on the shores of the Sea of Tiberias (21,20).
Secondly, in the fourth gospel there is a character that we would call witness, eyewitness. When the fourth gospel tells how a soldier struck Jesus in the ribs with a spear, after which blood and water immediately flowed out, this is followed by the comment: "And he who saw testified, and his testimony is true; he knows that he speaks the truth, that you may believe" (19,35). At the end of the Gospel, it is again said that this beloved disciple bears witness to all this, "and we know that his testimony is true" (21,24).
Here we have a rather strange thing. In the fourth gospel, John is never mentioned, but the Beloved Disciple is mentioned, and, in addition, there is a special witness, an eyewitness to the whole story. Traditionally, there was never any doubt that the beloved disciple was John. Only a few tried to see Lazarus in him, for it is said that Jesus loved Lazarus (John 11:3.5), or a rich young man who is said to have seen Jesus love him (Mark 10:21). But although the Gospel never speaks of it in such detail, by tradition the beloved disciple has always been identified with John and there is no need to question this.
But one very real problem arises - if we assume that John really wrote the gospels himself, would he really talk about himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved? Would he have wanted to single himself out in this way and, as it were, declare: "I was His favorite, He loved me most of all?" It may seem unlikely that John would have given himself such a title. If it is given by others, it is a very pleasant title, but if a person appropriates it for himself, it borders on almost incredible vanity.
Maybe then this gospel was the testimony of John, but was written by someone else?
PRODUCTION OF THE CHURCH
In our search for truth, we began by noting the outstanding and exceptional moments of the fourth gospel. Most notable are the long speeches of Jesus, sometimes occupying whole chapters, and quite different from how Jesus is represented by his speeches in the other three Gospels. The Fourth Gospel was written about 100 AD, that is, approximately seventy years after the crucifixion of Christ. Can what was written seventy years later be considered a literal transmission of what Jesus said? Or is it a retelling of them with the addition of what has become clearer over time? Let's keep this in mind and consider the following.
Among the works of the young Church, a whole series of reports have come down to us, and some of them relate to the writing of the fourth Gospel. The oldest of them belongs to Irenaeus, who was a student of Polycarp of Smyrna, who, in turn, was a student of John. Thus, there was a direct connection between Irenaeus and John. Irenaeus writes: "John, the disciple of the Lord, who also leaned on His chest, himself published Gospel in Ephesus while he lived in Asia."
Suggests a word in this phrase of Irenaeus that John is not just wrote Gospel; he says that John published (Exedoke) him in Ephesus. The word that Irenaeus used suggests that it was not just a private publication, but the publication of some official document.
Another account belongs to Clement of Alexandria, who in 230 was the leader of the great Alexandrian school. He wrote: "The most recent John, seeing that everything connected with the material and bodily, was properly reflected in the Gospels, encouraged by his friends, wrote the spiritual gospel.
Here the expression is of great importance. being encouraged by your friends. It becomes clear that the fourth gospel is more than the personal work of one person, and that behind it is a group, a community, a church. In the same vein, we read of the fourth Gospel in a tenth-century list called the Codex Toletanus, in which each of the books of the New Testament is preceded by a short summary. Concerning the fourth gospel, it says the following:
"The Apostle John, whom the Lord Jesus loved most of all, was the last to write his Gospel at the request of the Bishops of Assia against Cerinthius and other heretics."
Here again is the thought that behind the fourth gospel is the authority of the group and the Church.
And now let's turn to a very important document, known as the Muratorian Canon - it is named after the scholar Muratori who discovered it. This is the first list of New Testament books ever published by the Church, compiled in Rome in the year 170. It not only lists the books of the New Testament, but gives brief accounts of the origin, nature, and content of each. Of great interest is the account of how the fourth gospel was written:
"At the request of his fellow disciples and his bishops, John, one of the disciples, said: "Fast with me three days from this, and whatever is revealed to each of us, whether in favor of my gospel or not, we will tell it to each other ". That same night it was revealed to Andrew that John should tell everything, and he should be helped by all the others, who then check everything written.
We cannot agree that the Apostle Andrew was in Ephesus in the year 100 (apparently it was another disciple), but it is quite clear here that although the authority, mind and memory of the Apostle John is behind the fourth Gospel, it is not by one person, but by a group.
And now we can try to imagine what happened. Around the year 100, there was a group of people around the apostle John in Ephesus. These people revered John as a saint and loved him like a father: he must have been about a hundred years old at the time. They wisely reasoned that it would be very good if the aged apostle wrote down his memories of the years when he was with Jesus.
But, in the end, they did a lot more. We can imagine them sitting and reliving the past. They must have said to each other, "Do you remember what Jesus said...?" And John must have answered, "Yes, and now we understand what Jesus meant to say..." In other words, these people were not only writing down what said Jesus - it would only be a victory of memory, they wrote down that Jesus meant by it. They were guided in this by the Holy Spirit Himself. John thought through every word Jesus ever said, and he did it under the guidance of the Holy Spirit so real in him.
There is one sermon entitled "What Jesus Becomes to the Man Who Knows Him Long." This title is an excellent definition of Jesus as we know Him from the fourth gospel. All this has been excellently expounded by the English theologian A. G. N. Green-Armitage in his book John Who Saw. The gospel of Mark, he says, with its clear presentation of the facts of the life of Jesus, is very convenient for missionary; The gospel of Matthew, with its systematic exposition of the teachings of Jesus, is very convenient for mentor; The Gospel of Luke, with its deep sympathy for the image of Jesus as the friend of all people, is very convenient for parish priest or preacher, and the gospel of john is the gospel for contemplative mind.
Green-Armitage goes on to talk about the obvious difference between the Gospels of Mark and John: "Both of these Gospels are in a sense the same. But where Mark sees things flatly, directly, literally, John sees them subtly, penetratingly, spiritually. One might say, that John illuminates the lines of the Gospel of Mark with a lamp."
This is an excellent characteristic of the fourth gospel. That is why the Gospel of John is the greatest of all the Gospels. His goal was not to convey the words of Jesus, as in a newspaper report, but to convey the meaning inherent in them. It speaks of the Risen Christ. Gospel of John - it is rather the gospel of the Holy Spirit. John of Ephesus didn't write it, the Holy Spirit wrote it through John.
WRITER OF THE GOSPEL
We need to answer one more question. We are sure that the mind and memory of the Apostle John are behind the fourth Gospel, but we saw that there is another witness behind it who wrote it, that is, literally put it on paper. Can we find out who it was? From what the early Christian writers have left us, we know that at that time there were two Johns in Ephesus: the apostle John and John, known as John the Presbyter, John the Elder.
Papias (70-145), Bishop of Hierapolis, who loved to collect everything related to the history of the New Testament and the biography of Jesus, left us very interesting information. He was a contemporary of John. Papias writes of himself that he was trying to find out "what Andrew said, or what Peter said, or what was said by Philip, or Thomas, or James, or John, or Matthew, or any of the Lord's disciples, or what Aristion and presbyter John - disciples of the Lord." In Ephesus there were apostle John and presbyter John; and presbyter(Elder) John was so beloved by all that he was actually known by the name elder elder, it is clear that he held a special place in the Church. Eusebius (263-340) and Dionysius the Great report that even in their time there were two famous graves in Ephesus: one - John the Apostle, the other - John the Presbyter.
And now let's turn to two short epistles - the Second and Third Epistles of the Apostle John. These epistles are written by the same hand as the Gospel, but how do they begin? The second epistle begins with the words: "The elder to the chosen lady and her children" (2 John 1). The third epistle begins with the words: "The elder to the beloved Gaius" (3 John 1). Here it is, our solution. In reality, the epistles were written by Presbyter John; they reflect the thoughts and memory of the aged Apostle John, whom John the Presbyter always characterizes with the words "the disciple whom Jesus loved."
GOSPEL DEAR TO US
The more we learn about the fourth gospel, the dearer it becomes to us. For seventy years John thought about Jesus. Day after day the Holy Spirit revealed to him the meaning of what Jesus had said. And so, when John already had a whole century behind him and his days were drawing to a close, he and his friends sat down and began to remember. Presbyter John held a pen in his hand to record the words of his mentor and leader, the apostle John. And the last of the apostles wrote down not only what he heard from Jesus, but also what he now understood Jesus meant. He remembered Jesus saying, "I have much more to say to you, but now you cannot bear it. When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth." (John 16:12-13).
There was much that John did not understand then, seventy years ago; much has been revealed to him during these seventy years by the Spirit of truth. And all this John wrote down, although the dawn of eternal glory was already breaking for him. When reading this Gospel, we must remember that it told us through the mind and memory of the Apostle John and through John the Presbyter the true thoughts of Jesus. Behind this gospel is the whole church of Ephesus, all the saints, the last of the apostles, the Holy Spirit and the Risen Christ Himself.
GLORY OF THE CROSS (John 17:1-5)
In the life of Jesus, the climax was the Cross. For Him, the Cross was the glory of His life and the glory for eternity. He said, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified" (John 12:23). What did Jesus mean when he spoke of the Cross as His glory? There are several answers to this question.
1. History has repeatedly confirmed the fact that in death many great people found their glory. Their deaths and the way they died helped people see who they were. They may have been misunderstood, underestimated, condemned as criminals in life, but their death showed their true place in history.
Abraham Lincoln had enemies while he was alive, but even those who criticized him saw his greatness after the assassin's bullet struck him and said, "Now he is immortal." Secretary of War Stanton always considered Lincoln simple and uncouth, and never concealed his contempt for him, but, looking at his dead body with tears in his eyes, said: "Here lies the greatest leader this world has ever seen."
Joan of Arc was burned at the stake as a witch and a heretic. There was one Englishman in the crowd who swore that he would add a handful of brushwood to the fire. "May my soul go," he said, "where the soul of this woman goes." When Montrose was executed, he was led through the streets of Edinburgh to the Mercatian Cross. His enemies encouraged the crowd to curse him and even provided them with ammunition to throw at him, but no voice was raised in cursing and no hand was raised against him. He was in his festive clothes with ties on his shoes and thin white gloves on his hands. An eyewitness, one James Fraser, said: "He walked solemnly down the street, and his face expressed so much beauty, majesty and importance that everyone was surprised to look at him, and many enemies recognized him as the bravest man in the world and saw in him courage, which embraced the whole crowd." Notary John Nichol saw in him more like a groom than a criminal. An English official in the crowd wrote to his superiors: "It is absolutely true that he defeated more enemies in Scotland by his death than if he had survived. I confess that I have never seen a more magnificent posture in men in all my life."
Again and again the greatness of the martyr was revealed in his death. So it was with Jesus, and therefore the centurion at His Cross exclaimed: "Truly He was the Son of God!" (Matt. 27:54). The cross was the glory of Christ, because He never looked more majestic than in His death. The Cross was His glory because its magnetism drew people to Him in a way that even His life could not draw them, and that power lives on today.
THE GLORY OF THE CROSS (John 17:1-5 (continued))
2. Further, the Cross was the glory of Jesus because it was the consummation of His ministry. "I have done the work that You gave Me to do," He says in this passage. If Jesus had not gone to the Cross, He would not have completed His work. Why is it so? Because Jesus came into the world to tell people about the love of God and show it to them. If He had not gone to the Cross, it would have turned out that God's love reaches a certain limit and no further. In the same way that He went to the Cross, Jesus showed that there is nothing that God would not be ready to do for the salvation of people, and that God's love has no boundaries.
One famous painting from the First World War era shows a signalman fixing a field telephone. He had just finished fixing the line so that an important message could be passed on when he was shot and killed. The picture depicts him at the moment of death, and at the bottom there is only one word: "I succeeded." He gave his life so that an important message could pass along the line to its destination. That's exactly what Christ did. He did His work, brought God's love to people. For Him it meant the Cross, but the Cross was His glory, because He finished the work that God had given Him to do. He convinced people of the love of God forever.
3. But there is another question: how did the Cross glorify God? God can only be glorified by obedience to Him. The child honors his parents by his obedience to them. A citizen of a country honors his country by obedience to its laws. The student salutes the teacher when he obeys his instruction. Jesus brought glory and honor to the Father by His total obedience to Him. The gospel narrative makes it very clear that Jesus could have avoided the Cross. Speaking humanly, He could turn back and not go to Jerusalem at all. But looking at Jesus in His last days, one wants to say: "Look how He loved God the Father! Look to what extent His obedience went!" He glorified God on the Cross by giving Him complete obedience and complete love.
4. But that's not all. Jesus prayed to God to glorify Himself and Him. The cross was not the end. Resurrection followed. And that was the restoration of Jesus, the proof that people can do the most terrible evil, but Jesus will still triumph. It turned out as if God pointed with one hand to the Cross and said: "This is the opinion of my Son, people," and the other to the Resurrection and said: "This is the opinion I hold." The most terrible thing that people could do to Jesus manifested itself on the Cross, but even this most terrible thing could not overcome Him. The glory of the Resurrection revealed the meaning of the Cross.
5. For Jesus, the Cross was the means of returning to the Father. "Glorify Me," He prayed, "with the glory that I had with You before the world was." He was like a knight who left the king's court to do a dangerous, terrible deed, and who, having done it, returned victoriously home to enjoy the glory of victory. Jesus came from God and returned to Him. The feat in between was the Cross. Therefore, for Him, the Cross was the gate to glory, and if He refused to pass through that gate, there would be no glory for Him to enter. For Jesus, the Cross was a return to God.
ETERNAL LIFE (John 17:1-5 (continued))
There is another important thought in this passage. It contains the definition of eternal life. Eternal life is the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ sent by Him. Let us remind ourselves what the word eternal means. In Greek this word is aionis and refers not so much to the duration of life, because endless life is undesirable for some, but to quality life. There is only one Person to whom this word applies, and that Person is God. Eternal life, therefore, is something other than the life of God. To acquire it, to enter into it, means already now to manifest something of its splendor, majesty and joy, peace and holiness, which characterize the life of God.
Knowing God is a characteristic thought of the Old Testament. "Wisdom is the tree of life for those who acquire it, and blessed are those who guard it" (Prov. 3:18). "The righteous are saved by clairvoyance" (Prov. 11:9). Habakkuk dreamed of the Golden Age and said: "The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters fill the sea" - (Hab. 2:14). Hosea hears the voice of God, which says to him: "My people will be destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hosp. 4.6). The rabbinic interpretation asks on what small piece of Scripture the whole essence of the law is based, and answers: "In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths" (Prov. 3:6). And in another rabbinical interpretation, it is said that Amos reduced the many commandments of the law to one: "Search for me and you will live" (Amos 5:4) because seeking God is necessary for true life. But what does it mean to know God?
1. Undoubtedly, there is an element of knowledge in this mind. It means knowing the character of God, and knowing this greatly changes a person's life. Let's give two examples. Pagans in underdeveloped countries believe in many gods. Each tree, stream, hill, mountain, river, stone contains for them a god with his spirit. All these spirits are hostile to man, and savages live in fear of these gods, always afraid of offending them with something. The missionaries say that it is almost impossible to comprehend the wave of relief that comes over these people when they learn that there is only one god. This new knowledge changes everything for them. And even more changes all the knowledge that this God is not strict and cruel, but that He is love.
Now we know it, but we would never have known it if Jesus had not come and told us about it. We enter into a new life and share in a certain way the life of God Himself through what Jesus did: we come to know God, that is, we know what kind of character He is.
2. But there is more. The Old Testament applies the word "know" to sexuality as well. "And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived..." (Gen. 4:1). A husband and wife's knowledge of each other is the most intimate of all knowledge. Husband and wife are not two, but one flesh. In itself, the sexual act is not as important as the intimacy of the mind, soul and heart, which in true love precedes sexual intercourse. Therefore, to know God means not only to comprehend Him with one's head, but it means to be in a personal, closest relationship with Him, similar to the closest and dearest union on earth. Here again, without Jesus, such an intimate relationship would not have been imaginable or possible. Only Jesus revealed to people that God is not a distant, inaccessible Being, but the Father, Whose name and Whose nature is love.
To know God means to know what He is like and to be in the closest, personal relationship with Him. But neither is possible without Jesus Christ.
THE CASE OF JESUS (John 17:6-8)
Jesus gives us the definition of the work He did. He says to the Father: "I have revealed Your name to men." There are two great ideas here that should be clear to us.
1. The first idea is typical and integral to the Old Testament. It's an idea name. In the Old Testament, the name is used in a special way. It reflects not only the name by which a person is called, but his whole character, as far as it is possible to know it. The psalmist says, "They who know your name will put their trust in you" (Ps. 9:11). This does not mean that all who know the name of the Lord, that is, what His name is, will certainly trust in Him, but it means that those who know what is god know His disposition and nature, will be glad to trust Him.
Elsewhere the psalmist says: "Some with chariots, others with horses, but we glory in the name of the Lord our God" (Ps. 19:8). It goes on to say, "I will proclaim Your name to my brethren; in the midst of the congregation I will praise You" (Ps. 21:23). The Jews said about this psalm that it prophesies about the Messiah and the work that He will do, and that this work will consist in the fact that the Messiah will reveal to people the name of God and the character of God. "Your people will know your name", says the prophet Isaiah about the new age (Isaiah 52:6). This means that in the Golden Age people will truly know what God is like.
So when Jesus says, "I have revealed Your name to men," He means, "I have made people able to see what the real nature of God is." In fact, this is the same as it is said elsewhere: "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). The highest significance of Jesus is that in Him people see the mind, character, and heart of God.
2. The second idea is as follows. In later times, when the Jews spoke of the name of God, they had in mind the sacred four-letter symbol, the so-called tetragrammaton, expressed approximately in the following letters - IHVH. This name was considered so sacred that it was never spoken. Only the high priest entering the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement could say it. These four letters symbolize the name of Yahweh. We usually use the word Jehovah, but this change in vowels comes from the fact that the vowels in the word Jehovah are the same as in the word Adonai, which means Lord. The Hebrew alphabet did not have vowels at all, and later they were added in the form of small signs above and below the consonants. Since the letters YHVH were sacred, the vowels from Adonai were placed below them so that when the reader approached them, he could read not Yahweh, but Adonai - the Lord. This means that during the life of Jesus on earth, the name of God was so sacred that the common people should not have known, let alone pronounce it. God was a distant, invisible King whose name was not supposed to be spoken by the common people, but Jesus said: "I have revealed to you the name of God, and the name that was so sacred that you did not dare to pronounce it, you can now pronounce, thanks to the fact that I I have brought the distant, invisible God so close that even the simplest person can speak to Him and pronounce His name aloud."
Jesus claims that He revealed to people the true nature and character of God, and brought Him so close that even the humblest Christian can pronounce His previously unpronounced name.
THE MEANING OF STUDENTSHIP (John 17:6-8 (continued))
This passage also sheds light on the meaning and importance of discipleship.
1. Discipleship is based on the knowledge that Jesus came from God. A disciple is one who has realized that Jesus Christ is the Messenger of God, and that His speech is the voice of God, and His works are the works of God. A disciple is one who sees God in Christ and understands that no one in the whole universe can be what Jesus is.
2. Discipleship is manifested in obedience. A disciple is one who fulfills the word of God by receiving it from the mouth of Jesus. This is one who has accepted the ministry of Jesus. As long as we are willing to do whatever we please, we cannot be disciples, because discipleship means submission.
3. Discipleship is given by appointment. The disciples of Jesus were given to Him by God. In God's plan they were meant to be disciples. This does not mean that God appoints some people to be disciples, and deprives others of this calling. This does not at all mean predestination to discipleship. A parent, for example, dreams of his son's greatness, but the son may abandon his father's plan and take a different path. Similarly, a teacher may choose for his student a huge task to glorify God, but a lazy and selfish student may refuse.
If we love someone, we dream of a great future for such a person, but such a dream may remain unfulfilled. The Pharisees believed in fate, but at the same time in free will. They insisted that everything was ordained by God, except for the fear of God. And God has a destiny For every person, and our most enormous responsibility is that we can accept fate from God or refuse it, but we are still not in the hands of fate, but in the hands of God. Someone noticed that fate is essentially a force that makes us act, and fate is an action that God intended for us. No one can escape what they are forced to do, but everyone can escape God's appointed work.
In this passage, as in the whole chapter, there is Jesus' assurance of the future. When he was with the disciples whom God had given him, he thanked God for them, having no doubt that they would do the work assigned to them. Let's just remember who the disciples of Jesus were. One interpreter once remarked of Jesus' disciples: "Eleven fishermen from Galilee after three years of labor. But that is enough for Jesus, for they are the guarantee of the continuation of God's work in the world." When Jesus left the world, it seemed that He had no reason to have much hope. It seemed that he achieved little and won over few followers to his side. Orthodox religious Jews hated Him. But Jesus had divine trust in people. He was not afraid of humble beginnings. He looked optimistically into the future and seemed to say: "I have only eleven simple men, and with them I will rebuild the world."
Jesus believed in God and trusted man. The knowledge that Jesus has confidence in us is a great spiritual support for us, for we easily lose heart. And we should not be afraid of human weakness and humble beginnings in work. We, too, should be strengthened by Christ's faith in God and trust in man. Only in this case we will not be discouraged, because this double faith opens up unlimited possibilities for us.
JESUS PRAYER FOR THE DISCIPLES (John 17:9-19)
This passage is filled with such great truths that we can comprehend only the smallest particles of them. This is about the disciples of Christ.
1. Disciples were given to Jesus by God. What does it mean? This means that the Holy Spirit causes a person to respond to the call of Jesus.
2. Jesus was glorified through the disciples. How? In the same way that a recovered patient glorifies his healer-doctor, and a successful student of his diligent teacher. A bad person who is made good by Jesus is the honor and glory of Jesus.
3. A disciple is a person authorized to serve. Just as God sent Jesus on a specific mission, so Jesus sends the disciples on a specific mission. Here the mystery of the meaning of the word world is explained. Jesus begins by saying that he is praying for them and not for the whole world, but we already know that he came into the world because he "so loved the world." From this Gospel, we learned that the world means that society of people that organizes its life without God. It is to this society that Jesus sends His disciples in order to return this society to God through them, to awaken its consciousness and memory of God. He prays for his disciples that they may be able to turn the world to Christ.
1. First, His perfect joy. Everything He said to them then should have brought them joy.
2. Secondly, He gives them a warning. He tells them that they are different from the world and that they have nothing to expect from the world but enmity and hatred. Their moral views and standards are not consistent with worldly ones, but they will find joy in conquering storms and in fighting waves. Facing the hatred of the world, we find true Christian joy.
Then, in this passage, Jesus makes one of His most powerful statements. In prayer to God He says: "All that is Mine is Yours and Yours is Mine." The first part of this phrase is natural and easy to understand, because everything belongs to God and Jesus has already repeated it many times. But the second part of this phrase is striking in its boldness: "And all yours is mine." Luther said of this phrase thus: "No creature can say this about God." Never before had Jesus expressed His oneness with God with such clarity. He is one with God and manifests His power and right.
JESUS PRAYER FOR THE DISCIPLES (John 17:9-19 (continued))
The most interesting thing about this passage is that it was Jesus who asked the Father for His disciples.
1. We must pay special attention to the fact that Jesus did not ask God to take them out of the world. He did not pray that they might find deliverance for themselves, but he prayed for their victory. The kind of Christianity that hides in monasteries would not be Christianity at all in the eyes of Jesus. That kind of Christianity, the essence of which some see in prayer, meditation, and isolation from the world, would seem to Him to be a severely curtailed version of the faith for which He came to die. He argued that it was in the very hustle and bustle of life that a person should manifest his Christianity.
Of course, we also need prayer and meditation and solitude with God, but these are not the goals of the Christian, but only a means to achieve this goal. The goal is to manifest Christianity in the everyday dullness of the everyday life of this world. Christianity was never supposed to tear a person away from life, but its purpose is to equip a person with the strength to fight and apply it to life in any conditions. It does not offer us deliverance from worldly problems, but it gives us the key to their resolution. It does not offer rest, but victory in struggle; not the kind of life in which all problems can be avoided and all troubles avoided, but one in which difficulties are faced and overcome. However, just as it is true that a Christian should be not of the world, it is just as true that he should live in the world in a Christian way, that is, "live in the world, but be not of the world." We should not have the desire to leave the world, but only the desire to win it for Christ.
2. Jesus prayed for the unity of the disciples. Where there is division, rivalry between churches, there the cause of Christ suffers, and the prayer of Jesus for unity also suffers damage. The gospel cannot be preached where there is no unity among the brethren. It is impossible to evangelize the world among divided, competing churches. Jesus prayed that the disciples would be as one as He is one with His Father. But there is no prayer that would be prevented from being fulfilled more than this one. Its fulfillment is hindered by individual believers and entire churches.
3. Jesus prayed that God would save His disciples from the attacks of the evil one. The Bible is not a speculative book and does not go into the origin of evil, but it speaks confidently about the existence of evil in the world, and about evil forces that are hostile to God. It is a great encouragement for us that God, like a sentry, stands over us and guards us from evil, encourages and pleases us. We often fall because we try to live on our own and forget about the help that the God who protects us offers us.
4. Jesus prayed that His disciples would be sanctified by the truth. Word sanctified - hageasein comes from adjective hagios, which translates as saint or separated, different. This word contains two thoughts.
a) It means to set apart for special service. When God called Jeremiah, He said to him: "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you came out of the womb, I sanctified you: I appointed you a prophet to the nations" (Jer. 1.5). Even before he was born, God placed Jeremiah in a special ministry. When God established the priesthood in Israel, He told Moses to anoint the sons of Aaron and ordain priests.
b) But the word hagiazein means not only setting apart for a special cause or service, but also equipping a person with those qualities of mind, heart and character that will be needed for this ministry. In order for a person to be able to serve God, he needs certain divine qualities, something from God's goodness and wisdom. Whoever thinks to serve a holy God must himself be holy. God not only selects a person for a special ministry and separates him from others, but also equips him with all the necessary qualities to fulfill the ministry entrusted to him.
We must always remember that God has chosen us and ordained us to a special ministry. It is that we love Him and be obedient to Him and bring others to Him. But God has not left us to ourselves and to our insignificant power in the matter of fulfilling His ministry, but in His goodness and mercy, He equips us for service if we surrender ourselves into His hands.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE (John 17:20-21)
Gradually, Jesus' prayer reached all the ends of the earth. First, He prayed for Himself, since the Cross stood before Him, then he went to the disciples, asking God for help and protection for them, and now His prayer embraces the distant future and He prays for those who in distant countries in future ages will also accept the Christian faith .
Two characteristic features of Jesus are clearly expressed here. First, we saw His complete faith and radiant confidence. Though His followers were few and the Cross awaited Him ahead, His confidence was unshakable and He prayed for those who would believe in Him in the future. This passage should be especially dear to us, for it is Jesus' prayer for us. Second, we saw His confidence in His disciples. He saw that they did not understand everything; He knew that they would all soon leave Him in His deepest need and distress, but it is to them that He speaks in full confidence to spread His name throughout the world. Jesus never for a moment lost His faith in God and His trust in people.
How did He pray for the future Church? He asked that all its members be as one with each other as He is one with His Father. What unity did he mean? This is not an administrative or organizational unity, or a unity based on agreement, but a unity of personal communication. We have already seen that the unity between Jesus and His Father was expressed in love and obedience. Jesus prayed for unity of love, for unity when people love each other because they love God, for unity based solely on the relationship of heart to heart.
Christians will never organize their churches in the same way, and will never worship God in the same manner, they will never even believe in exactly the same way, but Christian unity transcends all these differences and unites people together in love. Christian unity in our day, as in all history, has suffered and been hindered because people loved their church organizations, their own statutes, their own rituals more than each other. If we truly loved Jesus Christ and each other, no church would exclude Christ's disciples. Only love planted by God in the heart of a person can overcome the barriers erected by people between individuals and their churches.
Further, in praying for unity, Jesus asked that it be a unity that would convince the world of the truth and the position that Jesus Christ occupies. It is much more natural for people to be divided than united. People tend to scatter in different directions, and not merge together. True unity among Christians would be "a supernatural fact in need of a supernatural explanation." It is a sad fact that the Church has never shown true unity before the world.
Looking at the division of Christians, the world cannot see the high value of the Christian faith. It is the duty of each of us to show the unity of love with our brothers, which would be the answer to the prayer of Christ. Ordinary believers, members of churches can and must do what the "leaders" of the Church refuse to do officially.
THE GIFT AND PROMISE OF GLORY (John 17:22-26)
The famous commentator Bengel, reading this passage, exclaimed: "Oh, how great is the glory of the Christian!" And indeed it is.
First, Jesus says that He gave His disciples the glory that the Father gave Him. We need to fully understand what this means. What was the glory of Jesus? He Himself spoke of her in three ways.
a) The cross was His glory. Jesus did not say that he would be crucified, but that he would be glorified. So, first of all and most importantly, the glory of a Christian should be the cross that he is supposed to bear. Suffering for the sake of Christ is the honor of a Christian. We do not care to think of our cross as a punishment, but only as our glory. The more difficult the task given to the knight, the greater his glory seemed to him. The more difficult the task given to a student, or an artist, or a surgeon, the more honor they gain. And therefore, when it is difficult for us to be Christians, let us consider this a glory given to us from God.
b) Jesus' complete submission to the will of God was His glory. And we find our glory not in self-will, but in doing the will of God. When we do as we please, as many of us do, we find only sorrow and distress for ourselves and for others. The true glory of life can only be found in complete obedience to the will of God. The stronger and more complete the obedience, the brighter and greater the glory.
c) The glory of Jesus was that His life was an indication of His relationship with God. People recognized in His behavior signs of a special relationship with God. They understood that no one could live the way He lived unless God was with Him. And our glory, like the glory of Jesus, should be that people will see God in us, recognize by our behavior that we are in close relationship with Him.
Second, Jesus expresses his desire for the disciples to see His heavenly glory. Those who believe in Christ are confident that they will be partners in the glory of Christ in heaven. If the believer shares with Christ His Cross, he will share with Nin and His glory. “The word is true: if we die with Him, then we will live with Him; if we endure, then we will also reign with Him; if we deny, then He will also deny us.” (2 Tim. 2:11-12). "Now we see, as it were, through a dull glass, guessingly, then face to face" (1 Cor. 13:12). The joy that we feel here is only a foretaste of the future joy that still awaits us. Christ promised that if we share His glory and His suffering on earth, we will share His triumph with Him when earthly life comes to an end. Can anything surpass such a promise?
After this prayer, Jesus went to meet betrayal, judgment and the cross. He didn't have to talk to his students anymore. How good it is to see, and how dear to our memory to remember, that before the terrible hours that lay ahead of Him, Jesus' last words were not words of despair, but words of glory.
Commentaries (introduction) to the entire book "From John"
Comments on Chapter 17
The depth of this book is unparalleled in the world. A. T. Robertson
Introduction
I. SPECIAL STATEMENT IN THE CANON
According to John himself, his book was written especially for unbelievers - "so that you may believe" (20:31).
One day, the Church followed the call of the apostles: in the nineteenth century, millions of copies of the pocket gospels of John were distributed.
The Gospel of John is also one of the most beloved books of the Bible - if not most beloved - for many mature and zealous Christians.
John does not simply list some facts from the life of our Lord; in his book we find many reflections, reflections of the apostle, who was with Christ from the days of his youth in Galilee to his very advanced years in Asia. In his Gospel we find that famous verse which Martin Luther called "The Good News in Miniature" - John 3:16.
If the Gospel of John were the only book in the NT, there would be enough material for study and meditation for the rest of a person's life.
The question of the authorship of the Fourth Gospel has been discussed very widely and vigorously in the last 150 years. The reason for this increased interest lies, no doubt, in the confidence with which the evangelist testifies to the divinity of Jesus Christ. Attempts have been made to prove that this gospel did not come from the pen of an eyewitness, but is the work of an unknown but brilliant theologian who lived fifty or a hundred years after the events he describes. Therefore, it reflects the Church's later teaching about Christ, and not who Jesus really was, what He actually said, and what He actually did.
Clement of Alexandria wrote of how John's close friends, finding him in Ephesus, suggested that he write his own gospel in addition to the synoptic ones. And so, at the instigation of the Holy Spirit, the apostle created his spiritual Gospel. This does not mean that the rest of the Gospels unspiritual. It's just that the special emphasis that John puts on the words of Christ and on the deeper meaning of those miraculous signs that He showed, gives us the right to single out this gospel as "spiritual."
External evidence
The first written evidence that John was the author of the Gospel in question is found in the writings of Theophilus of Antioch (c. 170 AD). However, there are other, earlier, implicit mentions and references to the fourth Gospel in Ignatius, Justin Martyr, Tatian, in the Muratori canon, and in the heretics Basilius and Valentinus.
Irenaeus closes the chain of disciples, going from Jesus Christ Himself to John, from John to Polycarp and from Polycarp to Irenaeus. Thus covers the period from the time of the birth of Christianity to the end of the second century. Irenaeus often quotes from this gospel, considering it to be the work of John and perceiving it as recognized by the Church. Beginning with Irenaeus, this gospel received universal recognition, including Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian.
There is speculation that the very end of the twenty-first chapter was added by the elders of the Ephesian church at the end of the first century to encourage believers to accept the gospel of John. Verse 24 brings us back to the "disciple whom Jesus loved" mentioned in verse 20 and also in chapter 13. These instructions have always been taken as referring to the apostle John.
Liberals argued that the fourth gospel was written in end second century. But in 1920, a fragment of the eighteenth chapter of the Gospel of John (Papyrus 52, dated using objective methods) was discovered in Egypt. first half of the second century, approximately 125 AD. e.). The fact that it was found in a provincial town (and not in Alexandria, for example) confirms that the traditionally recognized date of writing - the end of the first century - is correct, since it took some time for the manuscripts from Ephesus to spread to the borders of southern Egypt. A similar fragment from the fifth chapter of the Gospel of John, Papyrus Egerton 2, which is also attributed to the beginning of the second century, further supports the assumption that this Gospel was written during the life of the apostle John.
Internal evidence
At the end of the nineteenth century, the famous Anglican theologian, Bishop Westcott, argued very convincingly for the authorship of John. The sequence of his reasoning is as follows: 1) the author is undoubtedly a Jew- the manner of writing, vocabulary, knowledge of Jewish customs and cultural characteristics, as well as the Old Testament overtones that appear in the Gospel - all this confirms this assumption; 2) it Jew living in Palestine(1.28; 2:1.11; 4.46; 11:18.54; 21.1-2). He knows Jerusalem and the temple well (5:2; 9:7; 18:1; 19:13,17,20,41; see also 2:14-16; 8:20; 10:22); 3) he is eyewitness what it is about: the text contains many small details about the place of action, persons, times and customs (4.46; 5.14; 6.59; 12.21; 13.1; 14:5.8; 18, 6; 19.31); 4) it one of the apostles he shows knowledge of the inner life in the circle of disciples and the life of the Lord Himself (6:19,60-61; 12,16; 13:22,28; 16,19); 5) since the author names other students, but never mentions himself, this gives us the right to assume that the nameless student from 13:23; 19.26; 20.2; 21:7,20 - apostle john. Three more important places confirming that the author of the Gospel is an eyewitness of the events described: 1.14; 19.35 and 21.24.
III. WRITING TIME
Irenaeus asserts with certainty that John wrote his gospel in Ephesus. If he is correct, then the earliest possible date is around 69 or 70 AD. e. - the time of John's arrival in Ephesus. Since John nowhere mentions the destruction of Jerusalem, it can be assumed that this has not happened yet. This fact allows us to conclude that the Gospel was written before this terrible event.
A number of very liberal-minded scholars, specialists in the Bible, tracing some connection with the scrolls found at the Dead Sea, put forward the version that the Gospel of John was written in 45-66 years.
This in itself is an extraordinary event, since it is usually the liberals who insist on later dating, while the conservatives defend versions of the earlier dates.
In this case, the tradition of the early Church is on the side of the later date of writing.
The case for the end of the first century is strong enough. Most scholars agree with the opinion of Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria and Jerome that the Gospel of John was written the last of the four and is partly based on synoptics.
The fact that this gospel says nothing about the destruction of Jerusalem may be due to the fact that the book was written fifteen or twenty years ago. later when the first shock has already passed. Irenaeus writes that John lived until the reign of Emperor Trajan, who ascended the throne in 98, so it is likely that the Gospel was written shortly before that. The references in the Gospels to "Jews" also more likely testify to a later date, when the opposition to Christianity on the part of the Jews grew into persecution.
So, it is not possible to establish the exact date of writing, but the most likely period is from 85 to 95 AD. e.
IV. PURPOSE OF WRITING AND THEME
The whole Gospel of John is built around seven miracles, or signs, performed by Jesus in front of people.
Each of these signs served as proof that Jesus is God. (1) The turning of water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana of Galilee (2:9). (2) Healing of the son of a courtier (4:46-54). (3) Healing of the sick near the pool of Bethesda (5:2-9). (4) Feeding the five thousand (6:1-14). (5) Jesus' walk on the Sea of Galilee to save the disciples from the storm (6:16-21). (6) Healing of the blind man (9:1-7). (7) Resurrection of Lazarus (11:1-44). In addition to these seven miracles performed in public, there is another, the eighth miracle that Christ performed in the presence of the disciples after His resurrection - catching fish (21:1-14).
Charles R. Erdman wrote that the fourth gospel "moved more people to follow Christ, inspired more believers to righteous service, and challenged researchers more than any other book."
It is according to the Gospel of John that the chronology Christ's ministry on earth. If you follow the other three gospels, it would seem that it only lasted a year. The mention of annual national holidays in John singles out a period of approximately three years. Pay attention to the following places: the first feast of the Jewish Passover (2:12-13); "Jewish holiday" (5.1) - it can be either Easter or Purim; the second (or third) feast of Easter (6.4); setting up tabernacles (7.2); the feast of Renewal (10:22) and the last feast of Pascha (12:1).
John is also very precise in his references to time. If the other three evangelists are quite satisfied with the approximate indications of the time, then John notes such details as the seventh hour (4.52); third day (2.1); two days (11.6); six days (12.1).
Style and vocabulary of this gospel are unique and comparable only to the style of the epistles of John.
The sentences are short and simple. The author clearly thinks in Hebrew, although he writes in Greek. Often, sentences are shorter, the more important the thought contained in them. The vocabulary is more limited than in the rest of the Gospels, but deeper in meaning. Notice the following important words and how often they appear in the text: Father (118), believe (100), peace (78), love (45), testify (47), life (37), light (24 ).
A distinctive feature of the Gospel of John is the author's frequent use of the number seven and multiples of seven. Throughout Holy Scripture, the idea of perfection and completeness is always associated with this number (see Gen. 2:1-3). In this Gospel, the Spirit of God made the revelation of God in the face of Jesus Christ perfect and complete, so examples and various images associated with the number seven are quite common here.
Seven "I am" from the Gospel of John are also known: (1) "bread of life" (6:35,41,48,51); "the light of the world" (8.12; 9.5); "door" (10:7,9); "the good shepherd" (10:11,14); "resurrection and life" (11.25); "the way and the truth and the life" (14:6) and "the Vine" (15:1.5). Less well-known are other "I am" or "this is I" that are not followed by a definition: 4.26; 6.20; 8:24,28,58; 13.19; 18:5.8; twice in the last verse.
In the sixth chapter, which deals with the bread of life, the Greek word for "bread" and "loaves" occurs twenty-one times, a multiple of seven. In the same chapter, the phrase "bread from heaven" occurs exactly seven times, the same number as the expression "descended from heaven."
Thus, we can conclude that John wrote this gospel so that all who read "believed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and believing, have life in his name" (20:31).
Plan
I. PROLOGUE: THE FIRST COMING OF THE SON OF GOD (1:1-18)
II. THE FIRST YEAR OF THE MINISTRY OF THE SON OF GOD (1:19 - 4:51)
III. THE SECOND YEAR OF THE MINISTRY OF THE SON OF GOD (Chapter 5)
IV. THE THIRD YEAR OF MINISTRY OF THE SON OF GOD: GALILEE (Chapter 6)
V. THE THIRD YEAR OF MINISTRY OF THE SON OF GOD: JERUSALEM (7:1 - 10:39)
VI. THE THIRD YEAR OF MINISTRY OF THE SON OF GOD: PEREA (10:40 - 11:57)
VII. THE SON OF GOD'S MINISTRY TO HIS CHOSEN (Ch. 12-17)
VIII. THE SUFFERING AND DEATH OF THE SON OF GOD (Ch. 18-19)
IX. THE TRIUMPH OF THE SON OF GOD (Ch. 20)
X. EPILOGUE: THE RESURRECTION SON OF GOD WITH HIS CHOSEN (Ch. 21)
C. Jesus prays for His ministry (17:1-5)
Now we will consider the chapter that is known as the prayer of the Lord Jesus to the Most High. In this prayer He interceded for Himself. This is an illustration of His current ministry in heaven where He prays for His people. Marcus Rainsford said well about her:
"The whole prayer is a marvelous illustration of the intercession of our blessed Lord, seated at the right hand of God. Not a word against His people; no mention of their failings or shortcomings... No, He speaks of them as being in the focus of the Father, as those who are an integral part of Himself, as those who are worthy to fully receive what He is to give them when He comes down from heaven.... All the special intercessions of the Lord for His elect concern spiritual things, all of which relate to heavenly blessings. riches, or honors, or worldly power, or successful promotion, but most sincerely asks to keep them from evil, keep away from worldly things, help them do their duty and come safely home to heaven.Spiritual success is the best success; indicator of true well-being.(Marcus Rainsford, Our Lord Prays for His Own, p. 173.)
17,1 The time has come. Not once have enemies been able to take Him, because His hour not has come. But now the time has come when the Lord must die. "Glorify Your Son" the Savior prayed. He foresaw His death on the cross. If He remains in the grave, the world will know that He was only one of the people. But if God glorifies Him by raising Him from the dead, that will be proof that He is the Son of God and the Savior of the world. God answered this request by resurrecting the Lord Jesus on the third day and then taking Him back to heaven and crowning Him with glory and honor.
"Yes, and Your Son will glorify You" the Lord continued. The meaning of these words is explained in the next two verses.
Jesus glorifies the Father by giving eternal life to those who believe in Him. God is glorified when Godless men and women are converted and manifest the life of the Lord Jesus on this earth.
17,2 As a result of the atoning sacrifice on the cross, God gave His Son dominion over all flesh. This power gave him the right give eternal life those whom the Father Gave him.
Here again we are reminded that before the creation of the world, God chose those who belong to Christ. However, remember that God offers salvation to anyone who accepts Jesus Christ. There is no one who cannot be saved if he trusts the Savior.
17,3 There is a simple explanation of how to get eternal life: know God and Jesus Christ. One true God- as opposed to idols, which are not true gods.
This verse does not imply that Jesus Christ is not the true God. The fact that His name is mentioned together with God the Father, as the only source of eternal life, means that They are equal.
Here the Lord is named Jesus Christ. "Christ" means "Messiah".
This verse refutes the charge that Jesus never claimed to be the Messiah.
17,4 When the Lord spoke these words, He spoke as if He had already died, been buried, and resurrected. He glorified His Father's sinless life, miracles, suffering, death, and His resurrection. He did the deed salvation, which the Father instructed Him.
Here is how Ryle writes about it:
"The crucifixion brought glory to the Father. It glorified His wisdom, faithfulness, holiness, and love. It showed His wisdom in carrying out a plan by which He could remain just and at the same time justify sinners. It showed His faithfulness in keeping His promise "that the seed of woman will bruise the serpent's head. It showed Him to the saints in demanding to fulfill His law through our great Redeemer. He showed His love by sending sinful man such a Mediator, such a Deliverer, and such a Friend as His eternal Son. The crucifixion brought glory To the Son. It glorified His compassion, patience, and power. It showed His deepest compassion, for He died for us, suffering on our earth; He accepted our sins and curses, redeeming us with His own Blood. It showed His greatest patience when He died death unusual for most people, voluntarily enduring such pains and torments that no one can imagine, while He was Just say one word and the Father's angels could release Him. He showed His greatest power, for He bore the burden of the sins of the whole world, defeated the devil and took away his prey.(Ryle, John, III:40, 41.)
17,5 Before His coming into the world, Christ dwelt in heaven with the Father. When the angels saw the Lord, they saw all of His Divine glory. To them, He was undeniably God. But when He walked among the people, the Divine glory was hidden. Although He was still God, this was not obvious to most people. They looked to Him as the Son of a carpenter. Here the Savior asks that the visible manifestation of His glory in heaven be restored. The words: "... glorify me, Father, with Your own glory"- means: "Glorify Me in Your presence in heaven.
Let the original glory that I shared with You before My incarnation be restored."
This clearly proves that Christ existed before the foundation of the world.
S. Jesus prays for His disciples (17:6-19)
17,6 Jesus opened students name Father. "Name" in Holy Scripture means the Person, its attributes and character. Christ fully revealed the true nature of the Father. The students were are given son from the world. They were separated from the unbelieving majority of mankind and kept apart to belong to Christ. "They were elected Father before the foundation of the world, were given to Christ as a gift of the Father and became His through the atoning blood,” wrote J. G. Bellett. "And they kept your word"- said the Lord. Despite all their failures and shortcomings, He honors them by saying that they believed in Him and kept His teachings. "Not a single bad word about His redeemed ones," writes Rainsford, "not a single hint of what they did or were about to do—leave Him."
17,7-8 The Savior perfectly revealed His Father. He explained to the disciples that he spoke and acted not by his authority, but only by the will of his Father. So that they understood that Father sent Son. Moreover, Christ was not initiator Your mission. He obeyed the will of the Father. He was a perfect Servant of Jehovah.
17,9 As High Priest, He prayed for the disciples; He did not pray for the whole world. This does not mean that Christ never prayed for peace. On the cross He asked: "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing."
But here He prayed as the One who presented the believers before the throne of God. Here His prayer is only for His own.
17,10 This verse shows the perfect union between the Father and the Son. No ordinary person could honestly say these words. We could say to God: "All Mine Is Yours" but we couldn't say: "All Yours is Mine." The Son is equal with the Father, so he could speak like that. In these verses (6-19) Jesus introduces His poor and timid flock and, dressing each lamb in colorful robes, declares: "And I am glorified in them."
17,11 The Lord Jesus was waiting for His return to heaven. He prayed as if he had already gone there. Pay attention to the name "Holy Father". "Holy" talking about who infinitely high. "Father" talking about who infinitely native.
Jesus Prayer: "...that they may be one", refers to the unity of Christians. Since the Father and the Son are one in moral likeness, believers must be united to be like the Lord Jesus.
17,12 When Savior was with students, he kept them in the name Father, that is, by His power and authority, he kept in fidelity to Him. "None of them died Jesus said, except the son of perdition, i.e. Judas. But this did not mean that Judas was one of those whom the Father gave to the Son, or that he was ever a true believer. The sentence means: "Those whom You gave me I have kept, and not one of them is lost, but the son of perdition is lost so that the Scriptures may be fulfilled." Name "son of perdition" means that Judas was condemned to eternal death, or damnation. Judas was not forced to betray Christ in order to fulfill the prophecy, but he himself decided to betray the Savior, and thus Sacred Scripture was fulfilled.
17,13 The Lord explained why He prayed in the presence of His disciples. He seemed to be saying to them, "These are the ones for whom I will never stop interceding in heaven before God. But now I am saying this in the world, and you are listening to better understand how I will pray for you and your well-being so that you can share with Me my joy perfect."
17,14 Lord handed over word God's disciples, and they received it. As a result world turned his back on them and hated them. They had much in common with the Lord Jesus, and therefore world despised them. They didn't fit the worldly system.
17,15 Lord did not pray father take believers go home to heaven immediately. They must stay here, grow in grace, and testify of Christ. But Christ prayed that God would keep them from evil. Didn't take it, but kept it.
17,16 Christians not from the world like Christ not from the world. We must remember this when we are tempted to take part in some worldly amusements or enter into worldly associations where the very name of Jesus is distasteful.
17,17 consecrate means to separate, separate. The word of God has a sanctifying effect on believers. By reading and observing it, they separate themselves, becoming the vessels that the Master uses. That is what the Lord Jesus prayed for here. He wanted people to separate themselves from the world and become fit for God's use. "Your word is truth" Jesus said. He did not say, as many say today, "In Your Word contained true" but: "Your Word IS Truth".
17,18 Father sent Lord Jesus to the world to show people the character of God. While praying, the Lord understood that he would soon return to heaven. But later generations will also need a witness to God. This work will be done by believers by the power of the Holy Spirit. Of course, Christians will never be able to represent God as perfectly as Christ did, since they will never be able to be equal with God. But believers will still represent God to the world. It is for this reason that Jesus sent them into the world.
17,19 Sanctify does not necessarily mean do saints. He is holy in His personal attributes. It says here that the Lord separates itself for the cause for which the Father sent him, that is, to sacrificial death. It may also be implied that He set himself apart by taking His place outside the world and taking on the glory. "His dedication is an example and an opportunity for us," says Vine. We must isolate ourselves from the world and find our lot in Him.
S. Jesus prays for all believers (17:20-26)
17,20 Here the High Priest prayed not only for the disciples. He prays for future generations. In fact, every believer reading this verse can say, "More than 1900 years ago Jesus asked for me."
17,21 In prayer He asked for unity among believers, but this time it was with the thought of saving sinners.
The unity for which Christ prayed did not involve an outward union of churches. Rather, it was a unity based on a common moral similarity. He asked the believers were all one, revealing the essence of God and Christ. This is what will make the world to believe that God sent His. This unity will force the world to say, "As the Father was seen in Christ, so I see Christ in Christians."
17,22 In the second verse, the Lord prayed for unity in fellowship. In verse 21 - about unity in the proclamation of the testimony. Here - about the unity in fame. He looked forward to the time when the saints would receive their glorified bodies.
"The Glory You Gave Me" is the glory of resurrection and ascension. We do not yet have this glory. She is given us to accomplish the purposes of God, but we will not receive it until the Savior returns to take us to heaven. It will be revealed to the world when Christ returns to establish His kingdom on earth. Then the world will understand the vital unity between the Father and the Son and the Son and His people, and recognize (too late) that Jesus was sent by God.
17,23 World will not only understand that Jesus is God the Son, but will also learn that God loves believers just as He loves Christ. It seems almost unbelievable that we are so loved, but we are!
17,24 The Son desires His chosen ones to be with Him in glory. Whenever a believer dies, it is, in a sense, an answer to Christ's prayer. If we understand this, we will be comforted in our grief. To die is to leave to be with Christ and behold His glory. This glory- not only the Divine glory that He had with God before the creation of the world. It is also the glory that He acquired as Savior and Deliverer.
This glory- proof that God I loved Christ before the foundation of the world.
17,25 World failed to see God revealed in Jesus. But a few students could and believed what Jesus sent God. On the eve of His crucifixion on the cross, there were only a few hearts devoted to Him all over the world - and even those were about to leave Him!
17,26 Lord Jesus opened the name Father to His disciples when He was with them. This meant that He showed them the Father. His words and deeds were the words and deeds of the Father. In Christ they saw the perfect expression of the Father. Jesus will continue open the name of the Father through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. After the day of Pentecost, the Spirit will teach believers about God the Father. We can also know who God is through the Word of God. When people accept the Father revealed by the Lord Jesus, they become special objects of the Father's love. The Lord Jesus dwells in all believers, therefore the Father can see them as His Son and treat them as His only Son. Reuss notes:
"The love of God, which before the foundation of the physical world was entirely directed to the Person of the Son (v. 24), extends after the creation of the new spiritual world to those who are one with the Son."
And Godet adds:
"By sending His Son to earth, God precisely wanted to create for Himself from mankind a family of children like Him."(F. L. Godet, Commentary on the Gospel of John, II:345.)
Precisely because the Lord Jesus dwells in the believer, God loves him as He loves Christ.
So infinitely dear to God,
What can not be more expensive;
With the love that He loves the Son,
He loves me too!
(Katsby Rajet)
The intercession of Christ for His redeemed ones, as Rainsford remarks, ...refer to spiritual things, to heavenly blessings. He asks not for wealth, or honor, or worldly power, but for deliverance from evil, for separation from the world, for devotional service, and safe entry into heaven."(Rainsford, Our Lord Prays, p. 173.)
1–26. High Priestly Prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The farewell conversation of Christ with the disciples is over. But before going towards the enemies who will lead Him to judgment and torment, Christ pronounces a solemn prayer to the Father for Himself, for His disciples and for His future Church, as the great High Priest of mankind. This prayer can be divided into three parts.
In the first part (verses 1-8) Christ prays for Himself. He asks for His own glorification or for the granting to Him, as the God-man, of divine majesty, since He is the cornerstone of the Church, and the Church can achieve its goal only when its Head, Christ, is glorified.
In the second part (verses 9-19) Christ asks for His disciples. He prays to the Father for their protection from the evil that reigns in the world, and for their sanctification by Divine truth, for they are the continuers of the work of Christ in the world. The world will receive the word of Christ in purity and in all heavenly power only when the apostles themselves are confirmed in this word and sanctified by its power.
In the third part (verses 20-26) Christ prays for those who believe in him. In order for believers in Christ to be able to fulfill their purpose, to compose the Church of Christ, they must maintain unity among themselves, and Christ implores the Father to maintain this unity between believers. But above all they must be in union with the Father and Christ.
John 17:1. After these words, Jesus lifted up His eyes to heaven and said: Father! the hour has come, glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee,
“Jesus lifted up His eyes to heaven” – see comments on Jn. 11:41.
“Father! the time has come." For Christ the hour of glorification has come, because the hour of death has come (cf. John 12:23). The victory over death, the devil, and the world has already been won, one might say, by Christ – the time has come for the Son to receive that heavenly glory in which He was before His incarnation (cf. verse 5).
"Yes, and Your Son will glorify You." Christ glorified His Father before (cf. Matt. 9:8), just as the Father glorified Christ before (cf. John 12:28). But the glorification of God the Father by Christ has not yet been brought to perfect fullness, while Christ is still on earth, in conditions of existence that limit the full manifestation of His glory. Only when He, already with His glorified flesh, sits again on the Divine Throne, will it be possible to fully reveal His and the Father's glory, which consists in drawing to Christ all the ends of the earth.
John 17:2. for You have given Him authority over all flesh, that to all that You have given Him He may give eternal life.
“Because You have given Him authority” is more correct, “according to what” (καθώσ). Christ here ascertains His right to such glorification. This right gives Him the greatness of the work of saving people entrusted to Him by the Father.
"Above all flesh." The entire human race, which is here called "flesh" because of its spiritual weakness, because of its impotence in the matter of arranging its own salvation (cf. Isaiah 40 et seq.), has been given into the power of the Son. But, of course, only from heaven, from the heavenly throne, Christ can exercise this power, make it valid for countless millions of people scattered throughout the earth (and this power, once it is given, cannot, must not remain with Christ unused for the benefit of mankind and to the glory of the name of God). Therefore, the Lord has every right and reason to ask the Father to glorify Him according to humanity with the highest, heavenly glory.
"Yes, to everything that You have given Him, He will give eternal life." Now Christ said that the power given to Him over all mankind must be realized. But He has not yet determined how, in what direction this power will be exercised. It may also be reflected in the fact that Christ will save many people, but, undoubtedly, by virtue of the same authority, Christ at the last judgment will condemn many for their unwillingness to accept salvation from His hands. Now He says definitely that salvation, or, in other words, “eternal life” (cf. John 3:15), He wants, in accordance with the will of the Father, not to give to everyone, but only to those whom He gave, whom the Father especially drew to Him as worthy of salvation (cf. John 6:37, 39, 44, 65).
John 17:3. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
"And this is eternal life..." Apparently, the true eternal life consists, therefore, only in the knowledge of God. But Christ could not express such a thought, because true knowledge of God does not protect a person from the impoverishment of love (1 Cor. 13:2). It would be more correct to say, therefore, that here “knowledge” means not only the theoretical assimilation of the truths of faith, but the attraction of the heart to God and Christ, true love.
"The One True God". This is how Christ speaks of God to point out the opposite of the knowledge of God which He has in mind, to that wrong knowledge which the pagans had of God, transferring the glory of the One to many gods (Rom. 1:23).
"And Jesus Christ whom You sent." Here, for the first time, Christ calls Himself so. “Jesus Christ” is here His name, which then in the mouths of the apostles becomes already His usual designation (Acts 2:38, 3:6, 4, etc.). Thus, in this last prayer of His, spoken aloud before the disciples, the Lord gives, so to speak, a well-known formula, which should subsequently be used in Christian society. It is very likely that this designation is proposed by Christ, in opposition to the Jewish view of Him, according to which He was simply "Jesus" (cf. John 9:11).
According to negative criticism (for example, Beishlag), Christ here clearly says that His Father is God, and He Himself is not God at all. But against such an objection, it must be said that Christ here opposes the Father as the One true God not to Himself, but to the false gods that the pagans honored. Then, Christ says that the knowledge of God the Father is attainable only through Him, Christ, and that the knowledge of Christ Himself is just as necessary for obtaining eternal life or salvation as is the knowledge of God the Father. Is it not clear that in this He testifies of Himself as One with God the Father in essence? As for what He says about knowing Him separately from the knowledge of God the Father, this, according to Znamensky, is explained by the fact that in order to achieve eternal life, faith is necessary not only in God, but also in the redemption of man before God, which was accomplished. The Son of God through the fact that He became the Messiah - the God-Man, sent from God the Father into the world.
John 17:4. I glorified You on earth, I completed the work that You instructed Me to do.
John 17:1. And now, Father, glorify me in Your own presence with the glory that I had with You before the world was.
A new motive for the fulfillment of Christ's request for glorification is that He, on His part, has already, so to speak, objectively fulfilled the task entrusted to Him (see verse 3) - he has imparted to people the saving knowledge of the Father and of Himself. By this He has already glorified the Father, although, of course, so far only on earth, in the state of His humiliation. Now let the Father, on His part, glorify Christ in Himself, i.e. He will lift Him up to heaven and give Him the majesty in which He has been from time immemorial (cf. John 1 et seq.; John 8:58). Christ also possessed divine glory on earth, but this glory was still hidden and only occasionally flared up (for example, in the transfiguration). Soon she will fall everyone by the majesty of Christ the God-man.
John 17:6. I have revealed Your name to the people You have given Me from the world; they were yours, and you gave them to me, and they kept your word.
John 17:7. Now they understand that everything that You have given Me is from You,
John 17:8. For the words that You gave Me I delivered to them, and they received and truly understood that I came from You, and believed that You sent Me.
Speaking about the fulfillment of the task entrusted to Him in a subjective sense, namely about those results that He achieved in the close circle of the chosen ones given to Him from the Father, achieved by His teaching and deeds (cf. John 14 et seq.), Christ indicates that He revealed to these people the “name” of the Father, i.e. gave to these chosen ones to know that God is truly the Father, that He loves all people, and therefore from time immemorial has predestined to redeem them from sin, damnation and death.
"They were yours." The apostles belonged to God even before they were converted to Christ. Such was, for example, Nathanael, a true Israelite (John 1:48).
"They have kept your word." Christ thus recognizes the gospel which he proclaimed not as his own, but as the word of the Father. The apostles also accepted him as such, who have preserved him in their souls until now. The Lord, saying that the apostles kept the word of the Father transmitted to them through Him, here probably means those statements that were made on their behalf by the apostle Peter (John 6:68) and all of them (John 16:29).
"Now they understand..." With the understanding that everything that Christ said to him was given to Him from God, is connected, of course, the entry on the path to eternal life (cf. verse 3).
"For the words that You gave Me...". The disciples came to this understanding because Christ, on His part, did not hide anything from them (understandably, except for what they could not understand, cf. John 16:12) and, on the other hand, because the apostles accepted with faith the words of Christ. Apparently, here the understanding of the divine dignity of Christ (“that I came from You”) precedes the belief in his Messianic dignity (“that You sent Me”). But in fact, both go on simultaneously, and faith in the divinity of Christ is put in the first place only because of its predominant significance.
John 17:9. I pray for them: I do not pray for the whole world, but for those whom You have given Me, because they are Yours.
Christ is the Advocate of the whole world (1 Tim. 2:5-6) and wants to save all people (John 10:16). But at the present moment, His thoughts are occupied with the fate of only those who are entrusted to Him and who must continue His work on earth. The world, however, is still hostile to Christ, and Christ has no reason yet to tell the Father about how He would like to organize the affairs of this world, so alien to Him. His concern for the time being is entirely directed to the apostles, as such, of whom he must give an account to the Father.
John 17:10. And all mine is yours, and yours is mine; and I am glorified in them.
Noting that not only the apostles, but also everything He has in common with the Father, Christ, as an incentive to special prayer for them, exposes the fact that He has already been glorified in them. Of course, He speaks of the future activities of the apostles, but in their confidence in them He depicts their activities as having already passed, as constituting the heritage of history (“I have become glorified in them”).
John 17:11. I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am going to You. Holy Father! keep them in Your name, those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.
Here appears a new motive for praying for the apostles. They are left alone in this hostile world: Christ leaves them.
"Holy Father". The holiness of God consists in the fact that God is infinitely exalted above the world, estranged from it, as the totality of all imperfection and sinfulness, but at the same time can always descend into the world for salvation or for judgment.
"Observe them." As completely innocent of sin and at the same time punishing sinners and saving the righteous, the Father can save the apostles from the influences of worldly vices and from the persecutions of the world.
“In Thy name”: it is more correct to read “in Thy name” (in the Greek text it reads ἐν τῷ ὀνόματί σου). The name of God is, as it were, the central point where the apostles find refuge from the influences of the world. Having found shelter here, they recognize each other as spiritual brothers, as people who are different from those who live in the world. In the name of God, or, in other words, in God Himself, the apostles will find support for maintaining such unity among themselves as exists between the Father and the Son. And they absolutely need this unity in order for all their activities to be successful. Only by united efforts will they be able to defeat the world.
John 17:12. When I was with them in peace, I kept them in Your name; those whom You gave Me I have kept, and none of them perished except the son of perdition, may the Scripture be fulfilled.
Hitherto Christ Himself did the work which He now asks the Father to take upon Himself. And Christ did this work successfully: eleven apostles were saved, they stand here, near Christ. If one of those entrusted to Him perished, then Christ is not to blame for his death. The Holy Scripture itself foreshadowed this fact (Ps. 109:17). The Lord obviously wants to say by this reference to the words of the Psalmist the same thing that he said in the 13th chapter (John 13:18).
John 17:13. Now I am going to You, and I say this in the world, so that they may have My joy complete in themselves.
Since Christ must now withdraw from the disciples, He deliberately speaks His prayer for them aloud while still remaining "in peace" with them. Let them hear, let them know to whom He entrusts them. This knowledge that the Father Himself has become their patron will keep them from discouragement during the impending trials.
John 17:14. I gave them your word; and the world hated them, because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
Here the need of the apostles for the protection of the Father is even more clearly defined (cf. verse 11). On the one hand, the disciples, through the word of the Father communicated to them (verse 8), are separated from communion with the world, on the other hand, for the same reason as Christ (cf. John 8:23), they became an object of hatred for the world 15:18-19).
John 17:15. I do not pray that You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from evil.
Of course, in order to protect students from the hatred of the world, they could be taken from the world. But the world cannot do without them; it must receive through them the message of Christ's redemption. Therefore, the Lord asks that in the forthcoming activity of the apostles, evil does not overcome them.
John 17:16. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
The Lord repeats the thought expressed in verse 14 in order to substantiate the following request.
John 17:17. Sanctify them with Thy truth; your word is truth.
"Sanctify them" (ἀγίασον αὐτούς). Here the Lord speaks not only about the preservation of the apostles from vicious worldly influences: He asked the Father about this already earlier, but also about supplying them with holiness in the positive sense of the word, which is necessary for them to perform their future ministry.
“Thy truth”: more correctly, “in truth” (ἐν τῇ ἀληθείᾳ). Christ Himself now explains that this truth is "the word of the Father" which Christ gave to the apostles (verses 8, 14). Once the apostles, with the help of the grace of the Father, who will impart this grace to them in the Holy Spirit, assimilate this "word", then they will be fully prepared (sanctified) to spread this word in the world.
John 17:18. Just as You sent Me into the world, so I sent them into the world.
The apostles need sanctification because of their high calling: they are sent by Christ with great powers, just as Christ Himself was sent into the world by the Father.
John 17:19. And for them I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.
Previously, Christ asked the Father to sanctify the disciples for their high service. Now Christ adds that He also consecrates Himself to God as a sacrifice, so that the disciples might be completely sanctified.
"For them", i.e. for their benefit (ὑπὲρ αὐτῶν).
"I consecrate myself." According to the interpretation of the Holy Fathers, here we are talking about the sacrifice of Christ Himself (see, for example, St. John Chrysostom). Some of the new interpreters object to this explanation, pointing out that Christ sacrificed himself for all people, while here only the apostles are referred to. In view of this, the “consecration” that Christ speaks of here is understood, for example, by Zan not as the offering of an expiatory sacrifice, but as the offering of the so-called sacrifice of consecration, which was once offered by Aaron for himself and his sons (Numbers 8:11). But even if such an explanation can be accepted, the essence of the matter that Christ is talking about here will not change, but what is important is that He offers a sacrifice, even if it is a consecration, when He enters into the service of the high priest (“Himself”, ἐμαυτόν). Christ points to this self-sacrifice in order to highlight the special importance of calling disciples.
"So that they too may be sanctified." Here already “sanctification” (the same verb ἀγιάζειν is used as in the main sentence) is undoubtedly understood as the consecration of the disciples into the property of God, their consecration to the service of God without a direct allusion to the apostles sacrificing their own lives to God.
"In truth": more precisely, "in truth" (ἐν ἀληθείᾳ), as opposed to the symbolic figurative initiation that took place in the Old Testament.
John 17:20. I do not only pray for them, but also for those who believe in me according to their word,
The circle of persons for whom Christ considers it necessary to offer up His prayer to the Father is now expanding. If earlier He considered it necessary to ask the Father only for the apostles, now He sends up prayer for His entire future Church, which will be formed from those who will believe the preaching or the word of the apostles.
John 17:21. May they all be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, so that they too may be one in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.
Three objects or three goals are indicated here, on which the attention of the praying Christ is directed (the particle ἵνα is used three times - to). The first goal is the request: "that they may all be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You." The unity of believers is understood here, obviously, as agreement in the motives and goals of their spiritual aspirations. Of course, there can be no such exact unity as exists between the Father and Christ between people. But, in any case, this supreme unity between the persons of the Divine must always be presented to the believing consciousness as an ideal.
The second purpose is defined by the words "and they shall be one in Us." Believers will only be able to maintain mutual unity when they abide in the Father and the Son: the unity that exists between the Father and the Son will also contribute to strengthening the unity between believers.
The third goal is special: "Let the world believe that You have sent Me." The world, tormented by selfish aspirations, could never dream of achieving true unity in thoughts and feelings. Therefore, the unanimity that he sees in Christian society will amaze him with surprise, and the transition to faith in Christ as the Savior sent to people by God Himself will not be far from such surprise. The history of the Church really shows that such cases have happened. Thus, the unity of all believers, in turn, must itself serve the cause of divine dispensation. Unbelievers, seeing the close unity of believers among themselves and with the Father and the Son, will come to faith in Christ, who has established such a wonderful unity (cf. Rom. 11:14).
John 17:22. And the glory that You gave Me, I have given them: that they may be one as We are one.
John 17:23. I in them and You in Me; let them be perfected in one, and let the world know that you sent me and loved them as you loved me.
In order to strengthen the unity of believers, Christ already made His first disciples partakers of His glory, which He also had on earth as the Only Begotten Son of the Father (John 1:14). Here one can see a hint of the power given to the apostles when they first sent to preach the power to work miracles - a power that was not taken back by Christ (cf. Matt. 10:1; Luke 9:54). And now He does not leave them: being in communion with Christ, they are through this in communion with the Father, and in this way they achieve perfect communion with one another. As a result, the whole world again receives spiritual benefit.
John 17:24. Father! whom You have given Me, I want them to be with Me where I am, that they may see My glory, which You have given Me, because You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
John 17:25. Righteous Father! and the world did not know you; but I have known you, and these have known that you have sent me.
John 17:26. And I have revealed Your name to them, and will reveal it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.
Here is the conclusion of the prayer. As the one whom the Father loved before the creation of the world, the Son now expresses not a request, but a desire ("I want") that believers - not only the apostles - be with Him and contemplate His glory. It is very likely that Christ is talking here about His second coming to earth, coming in glory (Matt. 24:30). Christ is quite sure of the fulfillment of His desire: "righteous," i.e. just, the Father cannot fail to fulfill His desires. The world that does not know the Father can still be denied glorification with Christ, but the believers whom Christ has already taught to know the Father and will continue to teach this (through the Comforting Spirit) cannot be refused. From Christ, the Father will transfer His love to believers (John 16:27). And since the eternal and closest object of the Father's love is Christ Himself, in Whom the Father's love has rested wholly, it means that together with the Father's love Christ Himself descends into the souls of believers.
J. Jesus' Intercessory Prayer (chapter 17)
1. JESUS' PRAYER FOR HIMSELF (17:1-5)
After washing the disciples' feet (13:1-30) and admonishing them in private (chapters 14-16), Jesus prayed (chapter 17). It is called the "priestly prayer" or the "Lord's Prayer."
Jesus ends his instruction to his disciples with a triumphant cry: I have conquered the world (16:33). In essence, this was a foreshadowing of His victory on the cross. Throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus did the will of the Father (Luke 4:42; 6:12; 11:1; Matt. 20-26). Now, before returning to the Father, He first prayed for Himself (17:1-5), then for the apostles (verses 6-19), and finally for the Christians of later times (verses 20-26).
John. 17:1. Jesus had special access to God in prayer as His Son. Appeal Father! repeated by Him four times in this prayer (John 17:1,5,21,24); moreover, in verse 11 Christ calls God "Holy Father", and in verse 25 - "Righteous Father".
The time has come. The time for the fulfillment of God's plan of redemption was appointed by the Father Himself. Repeatedly before that, Jesus had said that "the time had not yet come" (2:4; 7:6,8,30; 8:20). But now it has arrived (compare 12:23; 13:1).
Praise Thy Son, Jesus prayed. This request for "glorification" meant both helping in suffering and accepting the sacrifice of Jesus, and resurrecting Him, and restoring Him to His original glory. The ultimate goal was to glorify the Father in the Son, that is, Jesus' prayer was that in Him God's wisdom, power and love would be revealed. The appointment of believers is also in the glorification of God (verse 10); in essence, this is the main purpose of man (Rom. 11:36; 16:27; 1 Cor. 10:31; Eph. 1:6,12,14).
John. 17:2. From the words Because You have given Him authority over all flesh (here meaning "the whole human race"), it follows that what Jesus asked in prayer was in accordance with the plan of the Father. For the Father established the dominion of the Son over the earth (Ps. 2). Hence the right of the Son to execute judgment (John 5:27) on those who reject Him, and to give eternal life to those whom the Father has given Him. Five times in this prayer (17:2,6 - twice, 9, 24) Jesus mentions those whom the Heavenly Father has given Him.
John. 17:3. According to the definition of Jesus Christ, eternal life corresponds to the constant knowledge of the one true God through His Son (Matt. 11:27), which occurs (is implied) in the process of constant and dynamic intimate fellowship with Him. The Greek, gynoskosin ("let them know") implies precisely a deeply intimate knowledge, which follows from the use of this word both in the Septuagint and in the Greek text of the New Testament.
So, eternal life is not identical with infinite existence. For everyone will exist in one way or another indefinitely (Matt. 25:46), the point, however, is where and how exactly.
John. 17:4-5. Jesus prays for Himself on the basis of the work He has done (4:34) - the one the Father has given Him to do. By doing it, He glorified the Father on earth (compare 17:1). Despite the fact that the sufferings on the cross were just ahead of Jesus, He speaks of them as having already taken place. And proceeding from this, he repeats the request for "glorification" by His Father, that is, for the restoration of Him in the glory that He originally had with the Father.
2. JESUS' PRAYER FOR THE APOSTLES (17:6-9)
Jesus prayed for His disciples before choosing them (Luke 6:12), He prayed for them during His earthly ministry (John 6:15) and at the end of it (Luke 22:32; John 17:6- nineteen); He prays for His followers even now in heaven (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:25). He prays an intercessory prayer of love, which he has for "His own".
John. 17:6-8. I have revealed Your name to men, i.e., "revealed" You to them as a loving Father. Jesus is talking here about a small group of disciples that was given to Him by the Heavenly Father (verse 2, 9, 24). For this purpose they were separated from the world by the Father.
And they kept your word - in this phrase, Jesus pays tribute to the disciples for the fact that from Him and in Him they received (despite all their imperfections) the Gospel of God. Their faith in Jesus was faith in His oneness with the Father and that He came from Him, having been sent by Him.
John. 17:9-10. This prayer of His (verses 6-10) Christ in the "narrow sense" offered up for the eleven apostles, although it can also be considered as a prayer for all believers (verse 20). In any case, here Jesus did not pray for the whole world, mired in unbelief and hostility towards God. His prayer is for two things: a) that the Father would keep ("keep" verse 11) His disciples and b) sanctify them (verse 17). The Son prayed for His disciples as God's "property" from the creation of the world and according to the choice of the Father (they are Yours). The words of the Lord: And all that is Mine is Yours, and Yours is Mine - testify to His unity, closeness and equality with the Father.
From ancient times, God dwelt among people and more than once showed them His glory, but in a very special way He revealed it in His Son - Jesus Christ (1:14).
Jesus speaks of His future glorification in His disciples as a fact that has already taken place: I have also been glorified in them. This glorification of the Son through believers continually occurs in the Church Age through the work of the Holy Spirit (16:14; compare Eph. 1:12).
John. 17:11. Jesus was soon to go to the Father, while the disciples remained in the world, where, in accordance with God's plan, they were to preach the Good News of redemption and "plant" the Church of Christ. With the formation of the Church, the world, as it were, was divided into two "kingdoms": divine and human. Because the apostles remained in an environment hostile to God and to them, Jesus prayed that the Father would protect them.
In his address to God the Holy Father, Jesus expresses the idea of God's "separation" from the sinful creatures of this world; this holiness is also the basis for believers to be "separated" from the world. The world, however, is under the complete control of God, and He is able to protect believers from his sinful influence and hostile actions and "keep" them in His name (i.e., "by the power of His name"; Prov. 18:10) . (In ancient biblical times, the name symbolized the person who bore it.)
The idea of Jesus is that in God - as in His refuge - Christians should find unity (the guarantee of their survival and successful work for the glory of the Son), similar to the unity of the Father and the Son: so that they may be one, like We are (compare with verses 21- 22).
John. 17:12. As the Good Shepherd, Jesus cared for the "flock" entrusted to Him by the Father. "Lost" was only Judas Iscariot. The Lord calls him the son of perdition. But in essence, Judas was never the "sheep" of Christ, and his true nature only revealed itself in his act of betrayal. He was a "dead branch" (commentary on John 15:2,6). Judas seemed to act as he wanted, however, without realizing it, he was an instrument in the hands of Satan (13:2,27). It is important to note that seemingly arbitrary actions of people in one way or another "correspond" to what God provided in His plans (Acts 2:23; 4:28). Thus, the betrayal of Judas took place in fulfillment of the prophecy recorded in Ps. 40:10 (may the Scripture be fulfilled); in it King David, betrayed by his friend, is a type of Jesus Christ.
John. 17:13. This is what Jesus says and is a consolation to his disciples. After His suffering, they will remember His words, and their joy will be perfect - from the knowledge that Jesus defeated evil and gave them eternal life.
John. 17:14. By continuing to intercede for the disciples, Jesus, as it were, reminds the Father of their "value" and of the danger that threatens them. Their value in the eyes of God was due to their acceptance of His word: I gave them Your word. The danger came for them from the worldly satanic system, to which they became alien, which is why the world hated them. For those who believe in Jesus Christ, everything in the world - "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life" (1 John 2:16) - loses its former attractiveness. Those who still share these "values" repay them with dislike.
John. 17:15. God's plan does not provide for the deliverance of believers from troubles and sorrows by "taking" them out of the world. His goal is to keep them from evil in its very abyss, so that in the midst of darkness they testify to the light.
John. 17:16-17. Just as Jesus did not belong to the satanic worldly system (I am not of the world), neither do believers. They are citizens of the kingdom of heaven (Col. 1:13) - by their new birth (John 3:3). As such, Jesus asks the Father to preserve them through sanctification (or literally, "by separating them for a special purpose").
The means of the Christian's constant sanctification is God's truth, which is "hidden" in God's word. As a person hears, accepts, and believes the truth about Jesus Christ, his heart and mind will obey it. And as a result of the change in his "mindset", his way of life also changes. At one time, God's truth sanctified the apostles, separating them from the world (15:3) to do the will of the Father, not Satan. It also applies to believers of all ages, whose purpose is to glorify God.
John. 17:18. Jesus is the model for all who believe in Him. He was in the world, but He was not of the world (14b, 16b). He was sent into the world by His Father. Christians are sent into the world by the Son - with a mission similar to the one that He fulfilled - to proclaim to mankind about the Father (20:21). And since the prayer of Jesus was offered by Him not only for a narrow circle of the apostles (17:20), then in a sense these verses (18-20 and further) echo the Great Commission of Christ recorded in Matthew (Matt. 28:18-20 ). Every Christian should consider himself as a missionary called to bring God's truth to people.
John. 17:19. In the Greek text, there is the same verb here, which in one case is translated into Russian as "I consecrate", and in another - as "sanctified." Literally in the original it says: "sanctified in the truth." This should probably be understood in the sense that God's truth is the means of sanctification (commentary on verse 17). Jesus "consecrates Himself" to the work of the Heavenly Father to the end, without stopping before suffering on the Cross, with the aim that the disciples might also be sanctified by the truth (or "in truth"), in other words, that henceforth believers would be separated from the world (sanctified) for implementation of God's plan on earth.
3. PRAYER OF JESUS FOR ALL BELIEVERS (17:20-26)
John. 17:20. The final part of the Jesus Prayer (verses 20-26) was dedicated to future generations of believers who would turn to Him according to the word of the apostles. All who throughout the history of the Church have become Christians have become so (directly or indirectly) through the testimony left by the early followers of Christ. Jesus knew that His mission would be successful. He was to die and rise again and then send the Spirit to the earth, and the apostles were to go around the world with a sermon, thanks to which people would turn to the Lord, and the Church, once having arisen, would grow and strengthen.
Just as the high priest of Israel "carried" the names of all 12 tribes of Israel when he came into the presence of God (whether in the tabernacle or in the temple; Ex. 28:9-12,21-29), now Jesus, as the Great High Priest He brought into the holy presence of His Father in Heaven the "names" of all those who were to believe in the future (Heb. 4:14 - 5:12; 7:24 - 8:2).
John. 17:21. Jesus prays for the unity of believers in the coming ages (compare with verses 11, 22). This verse is most often referred to by members of the modern ecumenical movement. It cannot be denied, of course, that a divided Church is a sad phenomenon in many respects. However, formal unification or unity cannot help the cause.
And Christ prayed here not for some worldwide ecumenical Church, in which the doctrinal heresy would be "combined" with the traditional vision of God's truth, as it was preached by the apostles from the very beginning, but for unity in love, for unity in obedience to God and His word, and in this sense - about the "single" desire of Christians to fulfill His will. There is a difference between uniformity, unification and unity in the above meaning.
All believers belong to the same "body" of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13), and their spiritual unity must be manifested in their way of life. The ideal of this unity, to which they should strive, is the unity between the Son and the Father: ... as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, so they also be one in Us (compare with John 10:38; 17: 11.23). The Father creates through the Son, and the Son always does what pleases the Father (5:30; 8:29).
This spiritual unity must be reflected in the Church. Without unity with Jesus and with the Father (and so they...in Us) Christians cannot do anything (compare 15:5). On the other hand, this unity of the disciples of all generations with Jesus in His body convincingly testifies to the world that He was indeed sent to earth by the Heavenly Father (17:23).
John. 17:22-23. By the glory that Christ gave them (apparently the Church), He may have meant the glory of the cross (verses 1-5). As the Church comprehended the full significance of the redemptive feat of Jesus Christ, the unity of believers had to be strengthened and perfected (to be perfected) - for the sake of realizing God's purposes on earth and His plan of redemption. And again the unity of Christians (let them be one is likened to the unity of the Father and the Son as We are one; compare verses 11:21).
The key to this unity of believers is the presence of Jesus Christ in them (I am in them; verse 23). And its purpose is twofold: a) for the world to believe in the Divine mission of the Son (may the world know that You sent Me) and b) for the world to realize that God's love for believers is as strong and eternal as His love for His only begotten Son (verse 26).
John. 17:24. The intimacy and fellowship of the disciples with Jesus in this life will grow immeasurably in eternity. The believer's salvation provides for his future glorification, which includes his eternal dwelling with Jesus (compare 14:3; Col. 3:4; 1 Thess. 4:17). Here, the words of Christ addressed to the Father no longer sound like a request, but as an expression of His desire, will: I want them to be with Me, so that they can see My glory. Jesus speaks of the glory which He had with the Father and which He will have again (17:5). His will here will be, like a seal, sealed by His death and resurrection. And since the desire He expressed was identical to the desire and will of the Father (4:34; 5:30; 6:38), there is no doubt about its fulfillment.
John. 17:25-26. Jesus' prayer for believers ends with His appeal to God with the words: Righteous Father! The Heavenly Father is righteous, just, and the world, unlike the disciples of Christ, who did not know Him, is unrighteous. A just God will not refuse His Son's request regarding those people to whom He, who knew the Father, revealed Him, so that they also now know that Jesus was sent by God.
God is love (1 John 4:8). Christ revealed this to people in its entirety, accepting martyrdom for them on the cross (it seems that His words should be understood in this meaning I have revealed Your name to them and will reveal it). The Son is the unchanging (and above all else) object of the Father's love, Who raised Him from the dead and glorified Him. And He will transfer His love for Him to those who believe in the Son, and with it in their souls the Son - the incarnate love of the Father - will abide Himself: that the love with which You loved Me will be in them, and I in them.
So, four things Jesus asked the Father for Christians: that they be preserved by Him (John 17:11) and sanctified (verse 17); that they may be one (verse 11, 21-22) and share in his glory (verse 24). His prayer, of course, did not go unanswered (compare 11:42; 1 John 5:14).
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