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 17:16

Eastern Fathers

John Chrysostom

"They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." How then saith He in another place, "Which Thou gavest Me out of the world; Thine they were"? There He speaketh of their nature; here of wicked actions. And He putteth together a long encomium of them; first, that "they were not of the world"; then, that "the Father Himself had given them"; and that "they had kept His word;" and that on this account "they were hated." And if He saith, "As I am not of the world," be not troubled; for the "as" is not here expressive of …

Homily on the Gospel of John 82 ↗

Theophylact of Ohrid

Again He repeats "they are not of the world." "They," He says, "are in need of strong support, for they, having become citizens of heaven, have nothing in common with the earth. And since the whole world will treat them as strangers, do Thou, the Heavenly One, help them as citizens of heaven." He says this very often aloud to the disciples, so that they, hearing this, would hate the world and not bring shame upon such praise of them. …

Commentary on John ↗

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

Then He repeats the same statement: "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth." For thus are they kept from the evil, as He had previously prayed that they might be. But it may be inquired how they were no more of the world, if they were not yet sanctified in the truth; or, if they already were, why He requests that they should be so. …

Tractates on John 108 ↗

Thomas Aquinas

He gives the reason for this request when he says, they are not of the world. This seems to be a useless repetition since he had just said the same thing. But, indeed, it is not useless, because they are spoken in different contexts. They were spoken before to show why the disciples were hated by the world; here they are spoken to show why they should be protected by God. …

Commentary on John ↗

Bonaventure

They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world, namely in conduct; therefore he was asking that they be saved and preserved, lest they be turned back to the world through love; concerning which preservation, Apocalypse 3: "Because you have kept the word of my patience, I also will keep you from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon the whole world, to try those who dwell upon the earth." Thus he asks that they be preserved from the evil of transgression; he also asks that they be preserved from the evil of error.

Commentary on John, Chapter 17 ↗