Fathers

John 17

Tap a verse to read the Fathers. Press and hold, then drag, to make a card.

These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.

About · Privacy · Credits · Support VRSZ

What the Fathers say

John 17:12

Eastern Fathers

John Chrysostom

"Those that Thou gavest Me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled." And in another place He saith, "Of all that Thou gavest Me, I will surely lose nothing." (c. vi. 39.) Yet not only was he lost, but also many afterwards; how then saith He, "I will in nowise lose"? "For My part, I will not lose." So in another place, declaring the matter was more clearly, He said, "I will in nowise cast out." (c. vi. …

Homily on the Gospel of John 81 ↗

Cyril of Alexandria

Our Saviour's speech soon proceeds to illustrate His meaning more plainly; and while at the first dark hints were given, it is now proclaimed and revealed like a storm breaking into sunshine. For the disciples thought that our Saviour's abandonment of them,----I mean in the flesh,----would inflict on them great loss; for nothing could prevent His being with them as God. …

Commentary on the Gospel of John - Book 11 ↗

Theophylact of Ohrid

"I kept them in Your name" – He says this not because He could not keep them otherwise than by the name of the Father, but, as we have said many times, because His listeners were weak and did not yet conceive anything great about Him. For this reason He says: "By Your help I kept them." Together with this He also strengthens them in hope, that just as during My time with you, you were kept by the name and help of My Father, so too, believe, you will again be preserved by Him; for keeping you is a customary matter for Him. …

Commentary on John ↗

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

The Son as man kept His disciples in the Father's name, being placed among them in human form: the Father again kept them in the Son's name, in that He heard those who asked in the Son's name. But we must not take this carnally, as if the Father and Son kept us in turns, for the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost guard us at the same time: but Scripture does not raise us, except it stoop to us. …

Catena Aurea by Aquinas ↗

Thomas Aquinas

Then he mentions why they need this protection (v 12). They need it for two reasons: because he is leaving them; and because the world hates them (v 14). He does three things about the first: he recalls the eagerness with which he protected them while he was with them; secondly, he states he is leaving (v 13a); thirdly, he mentions why he is saying these things (v 13b). …

Commentary on John ↗

Bonaventure

When I was with them, etc. After he sought preservation in the good, here he seeks deliverance or rescue from evil; and here the petition or prayer itself is set forth in this manner. For first, the necessity of petitioning is noted; second, the form of the petition; third, the reason for granting it. The necessity therefore of seeking preservation comes from a twofold cause: both from the absence of the preserver, and from the immersion in tribulation. …

Commentary on John, Chapter 17 ↗