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What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
John Chrysostom
"That the saying might be fulfilled which He spake, Of those which Thou gavest Me have I lost none." By "loss" He doth not here mean that which is of death, but that which is eternal; though the Evangelist in the present case includes the former also.
Cyril of Alexandria
The wise Evangelist turns to a clear proof of the general and universal mercy, which will be shown to all who come to Him through faith, this partial and special care here manifested to those who were with Him. For, he says, He procured that His disciples should be suffered to go their way, that the word might be fulfilled which He spake, Of those whom Thou gavest Me I lost not one. For how can there be any question that He will show mercy on them that come after the disciples? …
Theophylact of Ohrid
That the saying might be fulfilled which He spoke: "Of those whom You gave Me, I have lost none" (John 17:12). The Lord speaks of the perdition of the soul, which none of His disciples underwent, but the Evangelist understood this also of bodily perdition. It is wondrous how the soldiers did not seize the apostles together with Him and did not kill them even when Peter provoked them. …
Western Saints
Augustine of Hippo
But were they not afterwards to die? How then, if they died now, should He lose them, were it not that as yet they did not believe in Him, as all believe who perish not?
Thomas Aquinas
2284 The Evangelist shows that the officers allowed the apostles to leave not because Christ persuaded them to do so, but because of his power, when he says, This was to fulfill the word which he had spoken. The officers let the apostles go because they were not able to hold them, since Christ had said that of those whom you gave me I lost not one. 2285 On the contrary. When our Lord said that none was lost, he was referring to the soul. How can the Evangelist adapt this to refer to the loss of the body? …
Bonaventure
"That the word might be fulfilled which he said," above in the seventeenth chapter: "Because those whom you gave me, O Father, I have not lost any of them": because he willed to suffer alone; Isaiah sixty-three: "I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the nations there is no man with me." But what does it mean that he says: "I have not lost any of them?" Is it not said in Matthew sixteen: "He who loses his life for my sake shall find it?" Therefore Augustine explains this of eternal perdition, "because they did not yet believe in …
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