Bible Verses and Early Church Commentary | Historical Christian Faith

¹ 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: ² As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. ³ And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. ⁴ I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. ⁵ And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. ⁶ 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. ⁷ Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. ⁸ 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. ⁹ I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. ¹⁰ And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. ¹¹ 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. ¹² 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. ¹³ And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. ¹⁴ 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. ¹⁵ I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. ¹⁶ They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. ¹⁷ Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. ¹⁸ As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. ¹⁹ And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. ²⁰ Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; ²¹ 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. ²² And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: ²³ 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. ²⁴ 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. ²⁵ O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. ²⁶ 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.

[AD 220] Tertullian on John 17:1

Source: Against Praxeas

[AD 367] Hilary of Poitiers on John 17:1

He does not say that the day or the time but that the hour has come. An hour contains a portion of a day. What was this hour?… He was now to be spit on, scourged, crucified. But the Father glorifies the Son. The sun, instead of setting, fled, and all the other elements felt that same shock of the death of Christ. The stars in their courses, to avoid complicity in the crime, escaped by self-extinction from beholding the scene. The earth trembled under the weight of our Lord hanging on the cross and testified that it did not have the power to hold within it him who was dying.… The centurion proclaimed, “Truly this was the Son of God.” Creation is set free by the mediation of this sin offering. The very rocks lose their solidity and strength. Those who had nailed him to the cross confess that truly this is the Son of God. The outcome justifies the assertion. Our Lord had said, “Glorify your Son,” testifying that he was not the Son in name only but properly the Son. “Your Son,” he said. Many of us are sons [children] of God. But he is Son in another sense. He is the proper, true Son by nature, not by adoption; in truth, not in name; by birth, not by creation. After he was glorified, that centurion’s confession touched on the truth. And so, when the centurion confesses him to be the true Son of God, none of his believers might doubt what one of his persecutors could not deny.

Source: ON THE TRINITY 3.10-11

[AD 367] Hilary of Poitiers on John 17:1

But perhaps this proves weakness in the Son. He waited to be glorified by one superior to himself. And who does not confess that the Father is superior, seeing that he himself said, “The Father is greater than I”? But beware that you do not let the honor of the Father impair the glory of the Son.… But the prayer, “Father glorify your Son,” is completed by “that your Son also may glorify you.” So then the Son is not weak, inasmuch as he gives back in his turn glory for the glory that he receives.… This petition for glory to be given and paid back is neither a robbery of the Father nor a depreciation of the Son. Rather, it shows the same power of divinity to be in both.

Source: ON THE TRINITY 3.12

[AD 367] Hilary of Poitiers on John 17:1-5

(iii. Tr. c. 10) He doth not say that the day, or the time, but that the hour is come. An hour contains a portion of a day. What was this hour? He was now to be spit upon, scourged, crucified. But the Father glorifies the Son. The sun failed in his course, and with him all the other elements felt that death. The earth trembled under the weight of our Lord hanging on the Cross, and testified that it had not power to hold within it Him who was dying. The Centurion proclaimed, Truly this was the Son of God. (Matt. 27:54) The event answered the prediction. Our Lord had said, Glorify Thy Son, testifying that He was not the Son in name only, but properly the Son. Thy Son, He saith. Many of us are sons of God; but not such is the Son. For He is the proper, true Son by nature, not by adoption, in truth, not in name, by birth, not by creation. Therefore after His glorifying, to the manifestation of the truth there succeeded confession. The Centurion confesses Him to be the true Son of God, that so none of His believers might doubt what one of His persecutors could not deny.

(iii. de. Trin) But perhaps this proves weakness in the Son; His waiting to be glorified by one superior to Himself. And who does not confess that the Father is superior, seeing that He Himself saith, The Father is greater than I? But beware lest the honour of the Father impair the glory of the Son. It follows: That Thy Son also may glorify Thee. So then the Son is not weak, inasmuch as He gives back in His turn glory for the glory which He receives. This petition for glory to be given and repaid, shows the same divinity to be in both.

(iii. de Trin) For being made flesh Himself, He was about to restore eternal life to frail, corporeal, and mortal man.

(ix. de Trin. 31) If Christ be God, not begotten, but unbegotten, then let this receiving be thought weakness. But not if His receiving of power signifies His begetting, in which He received what He is. This gift cannot be counted for weakness. For the Father is such in that He gives; the Son remains God in that He hath received the power of giving eternal life.

(iii. de Tr. c. 14) And in what eternal life is, He then shews: And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God. To know the only true God is life, but this alone does not constitute life. What else then is added? And Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.

(iv. de Tr. c. 9) The Arians hold, that as the Father is the only true, only just, only wise God, the Son hath no communion of these attributes; for that which is proper to one, cannot be partaken of by another. And as these are as they think in the Father alone, and not in the Son, they necessarily consider the Son a false and vain God.

(v. de Tr. 3) But it must be clear to every one that the reality of any thing is evidenced by its power. For that is true wheat, which when rising with grain and fenced with ears, and shaken out by the winnowing machine, and ground into corn, and baked into bread, and taken for food, fulfils the nature and function of bread. I ask then wherein the truth of Divinity is wanting to the Son, Who hath the nature and virtue of Divinity. For He so made use of the virtue of His nature, as to cause to be things which were not, and to do every thing which seemed good to Him.

(ix. de Trin) Because He says, Thee the only, does He separate Himself from communion and unity with God? He doth separate Himself, but that He adds immediately, And Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent. For the Catholic faith confesses Christ to be true God, in that it confesses the Father to be the only true God; for natural birth did not introduce any change of nature into the Only-Begotten God.

(iii. de Trin) This new glory with which our Lord had glorified the Father, does not imply any advancement2 in Godhead, but refers to the honour received from those who are converted from ignorance to knowledge.

(ix. de Trin) After which, that we may understand the reward of His obedience, and the mystery of the whole dispensation, He adds, And now glorify Me with the glory with Thine own Self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.

(iii. de Trin) Or He prayed that that which was mortal, might receive the glory immortal, that the corruption of the flesh might be transformed and absorbed into the incorruption of the Spirit.

Source: Catena Aurea by Aquinas

[AD 398] Didymus the Blind on John 17:1

The Father glorified his own Son, having put everything under the sun under his rule. The Father in turn was glorified through the Son. The Son was glorified by the Father, for he was entrusted with all things, because he is the Son and offspring of the one who can do everything. The Father in turn was glorified, just as a father is glorified by his own son [child]. When the Son was known to have accomplished willingly every mighty deed, the favor of his reputation passes on to the one who begat him.… This glory, then, passes on to us. That which is altogether subordinate, which has been put under the hand of the Word of God (who is mightier than all things) and which has been saved once and for all must remain for the good, since it is no longer ruled by death or governed by corruption or made subject to sins and ancient evils.

Source: FRAGMENTS ON JOHN 18

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:1

1. He that has done and taught, it says, the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of heaven. And with much reason; for to show true wisdom in words, is easy, but the proof which is by works is the part of some noble and great one. Wherefore also Christ, speaking of the endurance of evil, puts Himself forth, bidding us take example from Him. On this account too, after this admonition, He betakes Himself to prayer, teaching us in our temptations to leave all things, and flee to God. For because He had said, In the world you shall have tribulation, and had shaken their souls, by the prayer He raises them again. As yet they gave heed unto Him as to a man; and for their sake He acts thus, just as He did in the case of Lazarus, and there tells the reason; Because of the people that stand by I said it, that they might believe that You have sent Me. John 11:42 Yea, says some one, this took place with good cause in the case of the Jews; but wherefore in that of the disciples? With good cause in the case of the disciples also. For they who, after all that had been said and done, said, Now we know that You know John 16:30, most of all needed to be established. Besides, the Evangelist does not even call the action prayer; but what says he? He lifted up His eyes to heaven, and says rather that it was a discoursing with the Father. And if elsewhere he speaks of prayer, and at one time shows Him kneeling on His knees, at another lifting His eyes to heaven, be not thou troubled; for by these means we are taught the earnestness which should be in our petitions, that standing we should look up, not with the eyes of the flesh only, but of the mind, and that we should bend our knees, bruising our own hearts. For Christ came not merely to manifest Himself, but also about to teach virtue ineffable. But it behooves the teacher to teach, not by words only, but also by actions. Let us hear then what He says in this place.

Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You.

Again He shows us, that not unwilling He comes to the Cross. For how could He be unwilling, who prayed that this might come to pass, and called the action glory, not only for Himself the Crucified, but also for the Father? Since this was the case, for not the Son only, but the Father also was glorified. For before the Crucifixion, not even the Jews knew Him; Israel, it says, has not known Me Isaiah 1:3; but after the Crucifixion, all the world ran to Him. Then He speaks also of the manner of the glory, and how He will glorify Him.

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:1

Christ not only speaks about the endurance of evil but puts himself forward as an example. After his admonition that “in the world you will have tribulation,” he himself turns to prayer in order to teach us that in our testing we are to leave everything behind and flee to God. He had shaken their souls in his admonition but raised them up again by this prayer.

Source: HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 80.1

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:1

Again he shows us that he willingly comes to the cross. For how could someone who prayed that this might happen be unwilling, calling what would happen “glory” not only for himself the crucified but also for the Father? This was indeed the case, since not only the Son but also the Father too was glorified. For before the crucifixion, not even the Jews knew him. “Israel,” it says, “has not known me.” But after the crucifixion, the whole world flocked to him. Then he also speaks of how the glory would take place and how [the Father] will glorify him.

Source: HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 80.1

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:1-5

(Hom. lxxx) After having said, In the world ye shall have tribulation, our Lord turns from admonition to prayer; thus teaching us in our tribulations to abandon all other things, and flee to God.

(Hom. lxxx. 1) He lifted up His eyes to heaven to teach us intentness in our prayers: that we should stand with uplifted eyes, not of the body only, but of the mind.

(Hom. lxxx) He saith, Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, to show that His preaching extended not to the Jews only, but to the whole world. But what is all flesh? For all did not believe? So far as lay with Him, all did. If they did not attend to His words, it was not His fault who spoke, but theirs who did not receive.

He says, on the earth; for He had been glorified in heaven, both in respect of the glory of His own nature, and of the adoration of the Angels. The glory therefore here spoken of is not that which belongeth to His substance, but that which pertaineth to the worship of man: wherefore it follows, I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.

(Hom. lxxx) Or, I have finished, i. e. He had done all His own part, or had done the chief of it, that standing for the whole; (for the root of good was planted:) or He connects Himself with the future, as if it were already present.

Source: Catena Aurea by Aquinas

[AD 428] Theodore of Mopsuestia on John 17:1

Jesus says, in effect, You gave the Son the kind of honor that accorded him universal dominion—although he would have received such honor later. And what a great honor it was already being the one chosen by God! Nonetheless, he says, you gave me this [honor], so glorify me, that is, in a way fitting to the honor of which you made me worthy. Reveal me before everyone at the time of my passion so that through the events that will happen on the cross everyone may know the greatness of my honor. They will recognize that I did not deserve to suffer, nor did I do so unwillingly, but I did it for the greater benefit of all people. So the words “glorify me” do not mean “give me glory.” Rather, they mean “reveal my glory” that was given to me by you. With the same meaning he added, “So that the Son may glorify you,” that is, from those things that were done to me [i.e., the Son], you also will be seen to be great and glorious through me. The more my works appear to be admirable, the more your dignity becomes known.

Source: COMMENTARY ON JOHN 6.17.1

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:1

1. Before these words, which we are now, with the Lord's help, to make the subject of discourse, Jesus had said, These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace; which we are to consider as referring, not to the later words uttered by Him immediately before, but to all that He had addressed to them, whether from the time that He began to account them disciples, or at least from the time after supper when He commenced this admirable and lengthened discourse. He gave them, indeed, such a reason for speaking to them, that either all He ever spoke to them may with the utmost propriety be referred to that end, or those especially, as His last words, which He now spoke when on the eve of dying for them, after that he who was to betray Him had quitted their company. For He gave this as the cause of His discourse, that in Him they might have peace, just as it is wholly on this account that we are Christians. For this peace will have no temporal end, but will itself be the end of every pious intention and action that are ours at present. For its sake we are endowed with His sacraments, for its sake we are instructed by His works and sayings, for its sake we have received the earnest of the Spirit, for its sake we believe and hope in Him, and according to His gracious giving are enkindled with His love: by this peace we are comforted in all our distresses, by it we are delivered from them all: for its sake we endure with fortitude every tribulation, that in it we may reign in happiness without any tribulation. Fitly therewith did He bring His words to a close, which were proverbs to the disciples, who as yet had little understanding, but would afterwards understand them, when He had given them the Holy Spirit of promise, of whom He had said before: These things have I spoken unto you being yet present with you. But the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Such, doubtless, was to be the hour, wherein He promised that He would no more speak unto them in proverbs, but show them openly of the Father. For these same words of His, when revealed by the Holy Spirit, were no more to be proverbs to those who had understanding. For when the Holy Spirit was speaking in their hearts, there was not to be silence on the part of the only-begotten Son, who had said that in that hour He would show them plainly of the Father, which, of course, would no longer be a proverb to them when now endowed with understanding. But even this also, how it is that both the Son of God and the Holy Spirit speak at once in the hearts of their spiritual ones, yea the Trinity itself, which is ever inseparably at work, is a word to those who have, but a proverb to those who are without, understanding.

2. When, therefore, He had told them on what account He had spoken all things, namely, that in Him they might have peace while having distress in the world, and had exhorted them to be of good cheer, because He had overcome the world; having thus finished His discourse to them, He then directed His words to the Father, and began to pray. For so the evangelist proceeds to say: These things spoke Jesus, and lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son. The Lord, the Only-begotten and coeternal with the Father, could in the form of a servant and out of the form of a servant, if such were needful, pray in silence; but in this other way He wished to show Himself as one who prayed to the Father, that He might remember that He was still our Teacher. Accordingly, the prayer which He offered for us, He made also known to us; seeing that it is not only the delivering of discourses to them by so great a Master, but also the praying for them to the Father, that is a means of edification to disciples. And if so to those who were present to hear what was said, it is certainly so also to us who were to have the reading of it when written. Wherefore in saying this, Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, He showed that all time, and every occasion when He did anything or suffered anything to be done, were arranged by Him who was subject to no time: since those things, which were individually future in point of time, have their efficient causes in the wisdom of God, wherein there are no distinctions of time. Let it not, then, be supposed that this hour came through any urgency of fate, but rather by the divine appointment. It was no necessary law of the heavenly bodies that tied to its time the passion of Christ; for we may well shrink from the thought that the stars should compel their own Maker to die. It was not the time, therefore, that drove Christ to His death, but Christ who selected the time to die: who also fixed the time, when He was born of the Virgin, with the Father, of whom He was born independently of time. And in accordance with this true and salutary doctrine, the Apostle Paul also says, But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son; Galatians 4:4 and God declares by the prophet, In an acceptable time have I heard You, and in a day of salvation have I helped you; Isaiah 49:8 and yet again the apostle, Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 2 Corinthians 6:2 He then may say, Father, the hour has come, who has arranged every hour with the Father: saying, as it were, Father, the hour, which we fixed together for the sake of men and of my glorification among them, has come, glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You.

3. The glorification of the Son by the Father is understood by some to consist in this, that He spared Him not, but delivered Him up for us all. Romans 8:32 But if we say that He was glorified by His passion, how much more was He so by His resurrection! For in His passion our attention is directed more to His humility than to His glory, in accordance with the testimony of the apostle, who says, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross: and then he goes on to say of His glorification, Wherefore God also has highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father. This is the glorification of our Lord Jesus Christ, that took its commencement from His resurrection. His humility accordingly begins in the apostle's discourse with the passage where he says, He emptied Himself, and took upon Him the form of a servant; and reaches even to the death of the cross. But His glory begins with the clause where he says, Wherefore God also has exalted Him; and reaches on to the words, is in the glory of God the Father. For even the noun itself, if the language of the Greek codices be examined, from which the apostolic epistles have been translated into Latin, which in the latter is read, glory, is in the former read, δόξα: whence we have the verb derived in Greek for the purpose of saying here, δόξασον (glorify), which the Latin translator renders by clarifica (make illustrious), although he might as well have said glorifica (glorify), which is the same in meaning. And for the same reason, in the apostle's epistle where we find gloria, claritas might have been used; for by so doing, the meaning would have been equally preserved. But not to depart from the sound of the words, just as clarificatio (the making lustrous) is derived from claritas (lustre), so is glorificatio (the making glorious) from gloria (glory). In order, then, that the Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, might be made lustrous or glorious by His resurrection, He was first humbled by suffering; for had He not died, He would not have risen from the dead. Humility is the earning of glory; glory, the reward of humility. This, however, was done in the form of a servant; but He was always in the form of God, and always shall His glory continue: yea, it was not in the past as if it were no more so in the present, nor shall it be, as if it did not yet exist; but without beginning and without end, His glory is everlasting. Accordingly, when He says, Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, it is to be understood as if He said, The hour has come for sowing the seed-grain of humility, delay not the fruit of my glory. But what is the meaning of the words that follow: That Your Son may glorify You? Was it that God the Father likewise endured the humiliation of the body or of suffering, out of which He must needs be raised to glory? If not, how then was the Son to glorify Him, whose eternal glory could neither appear diminished through human form, nor be enlarged in the divine? But I will not confine such a question within the present discourse, or draw the latter out to greater length by such a discussion.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:1

Our Lord, the only begotten who is co-eternal with the Father but who also took the form of a servant, could have prayed in silence if need be. But by praying out loud he wanted to show himself as one who prayed to the Father; he remembered that he not only had to pray but to teach. And so, the prayer that he offered for us, he also made known to us. For it was not only his discourse but also his prayers that were a source of edification for his disciples—and for us who read it today.

Source: TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 104.2

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:1

In saying, “Father, the hour is come; glorify your Son,” he showed that all time, and every occasion when he did anything or suffered anything to be done, was arranged by him who was subject to no time … Let no one think that this hour came through any urgency of fate but rather by divine appointment. It was no necessary law of the heavenly bodies that tied the passion of Christ to its timetable. How could anyone think that the stars compelled their own maker to die? It was not the time, therefore, that drove Christ to his death, but Christ who selected the time to die. He also fixed the time when he was born of the Virgin, with the Father, of whom he was born independently of time.… He then may say, “Father, the hour is come,” who has arranged every hour with the Father saying, as it were, “Father, the hour,” which we fixed together for the sake of humanity and of my glorification among them, “is come; glorify your Son, that your Son also may glorify you.”

Source: TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 104.2

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:1

But if he was glorified by his passion, how much more was he glorified by his resurrection? For his passion showed his humility more than his glory.… Humility is the earning of glory. Glory is the reward of humility. … So we must understand “Father, the hour is come, glorify your Son” to mean, the hour is come for sowing the seed—humility. Do not defer the fruit—glory.

Source: TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 104.3

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:1

It is worthy of inquiry how the Son can glorify the Father when the eternal glory of the Father neither suffered diminution in any human form nor could be increased in respect of its own divine perfection. In itself, indeed, the glory of the Father could neither be diminished nor enlarged. But without any doubt it was less among people when God was known only in Judea. … Therefore the Son glorified the Father when the gospel of Christ spread the knowledge of the Father among the Gentiles. Had the Son, however, only died, and not risen again, he would without doubt have neither been glorified by the Father nor have glorified the Father. But now, having been glorified through his resurrection by the Father, he glorifies the Father by the preaching of his resurrection. “Glorify your Son so that your Son also may glorify you.” In other words, raise me from the dead, that by me you may be known to the whole world.

Source: TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 105.1

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:1-5

(Tr. civ) Our Lord, in the form of a servant, could have prayed in silence had He pleased; but He remembered that He had not only to pray, but to teach. For not only His discourse, but His prayer also, was for His disciples' edification, yea and for ours who read the same. Father, the hour is come, shows that all time, and every thing that He did or suffered to be done, was at His disposing, Who is not subject to time. Not that we must suppose that this hour came by any fatal necessity, but rather by God's ordering. Away with the notion, that the stars could doom to death the Creator of the stars.

(Tr. civ) But if He was glorified by His Passion, how much more by His Resurrection? For His Passion rather showed His humility than His glory. So we must understand, Father, the hour is come, glorify Thy Son, to mean, the hour is come for sowing the seed, humility; defer not the fruit, glory.

(Tr. cv) But it is justly asked, how the Son can glorify the Father, when the eternal glory of the Father never experienced abasement in the form of man, and in respect of its own Divine perfection, does not admit of being added to. But among men this glory was less when God was only known in Judæa; and therefore the Son glorified the Father, when the Gospel of Christ spread the knowledge of the Father among the Gentiles. Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee; i. e. Raise Me from the dead, that by Me Thou mayest be known to the whole world. Then He unfolds further the manner in which the Son glorifies the Father; As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him. All flesh signifies all mankind, the part being put for the whole. And this power which is given to Christ by the Father over all flesh, must be understood with reference to His human nature.

(Tr. cv. 2) He saith, As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, so the Son may glorify Thee, i. e. make Thee known to all flesh which Thou hast given Him; for Thou hast so given it to Him, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him.

(vi. de Tr. c. 9) Dismissing then the Arians, let us see if we are forced to confess, that by the words, That they may know Thee to be the only true God, He means us to understand that the Father only is the true God, in such sense as that only the Three together, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, are to be called God? Does our Lord's testimony authorize us to say that the Father is the only true God, the Son the only true God, and the Holy Ghost the only true God, and at the same time, that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost together, i. e. the Trinity, are not three Gods, but onea true God?

(Tr. c. 5) Or is not the order of the words, That they may know Thee and Jesus Christ, Whom Thou hast sent, to be the only true God? the Holy Spirit being necessarily understood, because the Spirit is only the love of the Father and the Son, consubstantial with both. If then the Son so glorifies Thee as Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, and Thou hast given Him the power, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him, and, This is life eternal, to know Thee, it follows that He glorifies Thee by making Thee known to all whom Thou hast given Him. Moreover, if the knowledge of God is life eternal, the more advance we make in this knowledge, the more we make in life eternal. But in life eternal we shall never die. Where then there is no death, there will then be perfect knowledge of God; there will God be most glorified1, because His glory will be greatest. Glory was defined among the ancients to be fame accompanied with praise. But if man is praised in dependence on what is said of him, how will God be praised when He shall be seen? as in the Psalm, Blessed are they who dwell in Thy house: they will be alway praising Thee. (Ps. 83:4) There will be praise of God without end, where will be full knowledge of God. There then shall be heard the everlasting praise of God, for there will there be full knowledge of God, and therefore full glorifying of Him.

(i. de Trin. c. viii) What He said to His servant Moses, I am that I am; (Exod. 3) this we shall contemplate in the life eternal.

(iv. de Trin. c. xviii) For when sight has made our faith truth, then eternity shall take possession of and displace our mortality.

(Tr. cv) But God is first glorified here, when He is proclaimed, made known to, and believed in, by men: I have glorified Thee on the earth.

(Tr. cv) Not Thou commandest Me, but, Thou gavest Me, implying evidently grace. For what hath human nature, even in the Only-Begotten, what it hath not received? But how had He finished the work which had been given Him to do, when there yet remained His passion to undergo? He says He has finished it, i. e. He knows for certain that He will.

(Tr. cv. 5) He had said above, Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee: the order of which words shows that the Son was first to be glorified by the Father, that the Father might be glorified by the Son. But now He says, I have glorified Thee; and now glorify Me; as if He had first glorified the Father, and then asked to be glorified by Him. We must understand that the first is the order in which one was to succeed the other, but that He afterwards uses a past tense, to express a thing future; the meaning being, I will glorify Thee on the earth, by finishing the work Thou hast given Me to do: and now, Father, glorify Me, which is quite the same sentence with the first one, except that He adds here the mode in which He is to be glorified; with the glory which I had before the world was, with Thee. The order of the words is, The glory which I had with Thee before the world was. This has been taken by some to mean, that the human nature which was assumed by the Word, would be changed into the Word, that man would be changed into God, or, to speak more correctly, be lost in God. For no one would say that the Word of God would by that change be doubled, or even made at all greater. But we avoid this error, if we take the glory which He had with the Father before the world was, to be the glory which He predestined for Him on earth: (for if we believe Him to be the Son of man, we need not be afraid to say that He was predestinated.) This predestined time of His being glorified, He now saw was arrived, that He might now receive what had been aforetime predestined, He prayed accordingly: And now, Father, glorify Me, &c. i. e. that glory which I had with Thee by Thy predestination, it is now time that I should have at Thy right hand.

Source: Catena Aurea by Aquinas

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on John 17:1

CHAPTER III. That no man should consider that the Son has any lack of God-befitting glory, though He be found to say, Father, glorify Thy Son.

Having given His disciples a sufficiency of things necessary for salvation, and incited them by fitting words and arguments to a more accurate apprehension of His doctrines, and made them best able to battle against temptation, and confirmed the courage of each one, he straightway changes the form of His speech for our profit, and turns it into a kind of prayer, allowing no interval to elapse between His discourse to them and His prayer to God the Father; herein also by His own conduct suggesting to us a type of admirable life. For the man who aims at serving God ought, I think, to bear in mind that he ought at all events either to be fond of discoursing to his brethren of things profitable or necessary for their salvation, or, if he be not so engaged, to hasten to employ the service of the tongue in supplications to God, so as to render it impossible for any random words to slip in between; for in this way the governance of the tongue may be well and suitably ordered. For is it not quite obvious that, in vain conversations, things blameworthy may very readily escape a man? Moreover, a wise man has said: In the multitude of words thou shalt not escape sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise.

You may find besides another thing to admire, which is in no small degree profitable for us. The beginning of His prayer has reference to His own glory and that of God the Father, and afterwards, in intimate connection with this, He introduces His prayer for us. And why is this? The reason is one which convinces the pious man that loves God, and actually disposes the worker of good deeds to prayer. For just as we ought to perform good actions, and do all things, not turning to our own glory our zeal herein, but to the glory of the Father of the Universe, I mean God, for He says: Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father Which is in heaven; so also it best befits us, when occasion calls us to prayer, to pray for what redounds to God's glory before what concerns ourselves, as indeed Christ also Himself enjoins us when He says: After this manner pray ye: Our Father Which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done as in Heaven so on earth. Give us this day our daily bread. What Christ here does, then, ought to be to us the pattern of prayer. For it was necessary that not an elder or messenger, but Christ Himself, should manifest Himself to be our Leader and Guide in all good, and in the way which leadeth to God. For we are called, and are in very truth, as the prophet says, taught of God.

And what He says to His Father it is right that we should consider with the greatest care. For I think we ought in a spirit of the most earnest attention to handle the investigation of His words, and most carefully search after the true intent of His teaching. Father, then, He says, The hour is come; glorify Thy Son that Thy Son may also glorify Thee. So far as the mere form of His language is concerned, one could think that the speaker had some lack of glory; but any one who considers the majesty of the Only-begotten would, I think, quickly shrink from so grievous a conclusion. For it were great folly to think that the Son has any lack of glory, or falls short of the honour which is His due, though He is the Lord of glory, for so the inspired writings call Him. Especially when in another place we observe Him saying to His Father: O Father, glorify Me with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was. Then who can any longer doubt, or who is so demented and so far the enemy of all truth as not to know and confess that the Only-begotten is not bereft of Divine glory so far as His own Nature is concerned; but that since being in the form of God, and in perfect equality with Him, He counted it not a prize to be on an equality with God, but nevertheless descended to the humiliation of human nature, and emptied Himself of His glory, wearing this mean body; and from love towards us putting on the likeness of human littleness, now that the fitting time had actually arrived, at which He was destined, after fulfilling the mystery of our redemption, to gird Himself about with His pristine and essential glory; having wrought out the salvation of the whole world, and secured life and the knowledge of God to those that are therein; herein I say He shows that He has God's Will and favour, and makes this speech to Him, saying that He ought to recover the majesty due unto His Nature.

And how does He ascend into heaven? Surely He That even in the flesh showed Himself able to accomplish the deeds of a God was not in this subject to another's power, but ascended of Himself, being the Wisdom and Might of God the Father. For we must think that thus in no other way He accomplishes the words of a God with power. For all things are from the Father, but not without the Son. For how could God the Father perform any of His proper functions, if His Wisdom and Might, I mean the Son, were not with Him, and accomplishing with Him those things in which His power is seen in active operation? Therefore also the wise Evangelist who wrote this book at the beginning of His work says: All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made. Since then the doctrine of His Consubstantiality compels us by consequence to think that all things proceed from the Father, but wholly through the Son in the Spirit, and that He, having slain death and corruption and taken away from the devil his kingdom, was about to illumine the whole world with the light of the Spirit, and to show Himself thereby henceforth in very deed the true God by Nature, He is impelled to say, Father, glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son may also glorify Thee. And no man of sense would maintain that the Son asks glory from the Father as a man from man, but rather that He also promises to give Him glory, as it were, in return. For it would be very unbecoming, nay rather wholly foolish, to have such an idea about God. The Saviour indeed spake these words to show how very necessary His own glory was to the Father, that He might be known to be Consubstantial with Him. For just as it would entail dishonour on God the Father, that the Son That was begotten of Him should not be such as He That is God by Nature and of God ought to be, so I think, to have His own Son invested with those attributes, which He is conceived of as having, and which are predicated of Him, will confer honour and glory upon Him. The Father therefore is glorified in the glory of His Offspring, as I said just now; giving glory to the Son, by considering throughout His earthly career, both from how great, and of what, a Father the Only-begotten sprang; and in turn receiving glory from the Son by the consideration of how great indeed is the Son, of Whom He is the Father. The honour and glory then, which is Theirs essentially and by Nature, will be reflected from the Son on the Father, and in turn from the Father on the Son.

If any man concede that, owing to the degradation of His Incarnation, our Lord here speaks more humbly than His true Nature warrants, for this was His custom, he will not altogether miss arriving at a proper conclusion, but will not quite attain to the truth in the inquiry. For, if He were seeking only honour from the Father, there would be nothing unlikely in setting down the request to the inferiority of human nature; but, since He promises to glorify the Father in turn, does it not follow of necessity, that we should readily embrace the view we have just given?

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on John 17:1

When an occasion calls us to prayer, it is fitting for us to pray for that which increases God’s glory before we pray for that which concerns ourselves.… The Savior indeed spoke these words to show how very necessary his own glory was to the Father so that he might be known to be consubstantial with him … for the Father is glorified in the glory of his offspring.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 11.3

[AD 735] Bede on John 17:1-5

These things spake Jesus, those things that He had said at the supper, partly sitting as far as the words, Arise, let us go hence; (c. 14:31.) and thence standing, up to the end of the hymn which now commences, And lifted up His eyes and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son.

Source: Catena Aurea by Aquinas

[AD 1107] Theophylact of Ohrid on John 17:1

Having encouraged the disciples to face bravely the coming tribulations, Christ raised their spirits again, this time by prayer. By praying, He teaches us that when temptations assail us we should put everything else aside and flee to God. However, one could say that Jesus was not actually praying, but rather conversing with the Father. Do not be surprised that it is said elsewhere that Jesus did pray, kneeling on the ground (see Mt. 26:39). For the Lord came, not only to reveal Himself to us, but to teach us every virtue by His own example, as a good instructor. Showing us that He goes willingly to His crucifixion, He says, Father, the hour is come. See how He longs for the Passion, and embraces it. He calls it His glory, and His Father’s glory, for indeed, by the Passion both were glorified. Before the crucifixion, He was practically unknown, even to the Jews: Israel does not know Me (Is. 1:3), He said. Afterwards, the whole world flocked to Him.

What exactly is the “glory” that belongs to Him and the Father? It is the benefitting of all flesh by God’s gifts. This is the glory of God. The Lord had previously commanded His disciples not to go into the way of the Gentiles (Mt. 10:5). Now, grace is no longer limited to the Jews. It is offered to the whole world. To this end, the Lord was planning to send the apostles to the Gentiles. But lest the disciples imagine this plan was His own notion, contrary to the will of the Father, Jesus reminds them that it is the Father Who has given Him power over all flesh. In what sense does Christ have power over all flesh, when, as we know, not everyone believes? Christ strives to bring everyone to faith. If some refuse to heed Him, it is not His fault, but the fault of those who reject His teaching. When it is said that the Father “gives” something to the Son, or that the Son “receives” something from the Father, understand that such expressions are a condescension to the limitations of His listeners’ understanding, as we have pointed out before. Christ was always careful to avoid speaking openly about His divinity. The Jews would have been outraged to hear Him claim to be divine, so He said only as much as they could bear at the time. We employ similar condescension when speaking to infants: without naming the object, we point to bread or water, and ask, “Do you want this?” Remember how, at the beginning of the Gospel, the Evangelist stated boldly about Christ: All things were made by Him (Jn. 1:3), and, As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, (Jn. 1:12). How then can He, Who gives others the power to become sons of God, lack divinity in Himself and require it as a gift from the Father? And so, understand that an exalted reality underlies the humble statement. To as many as Thou hast given Him—here is the modest expression; that He should give them eternal life—here, the revelation of the power and authority of the Only-begotten Godhead.

If God alone gives physical life, how much more so eternal life? Christ calls the Father the only true God, in contrast to the false gods of the Gentiles, but by no means does He exclude Himself from the divinity of the Father. Because He is the true Son, He must also be true God, as the Evangelist insists in his general epistle: Jesus Christ … is the true God, and eternal life (I Jn. 5:20). On the basis of the present text from the Gospel, the heretics would make a false god of the Son, and have the Father as their sole divinity. They should be careful not to forget everything else written by Saint John, who also tells us that the Son is the true light (Jn. 1:9). According to their reasoning, this must mean that the Father is a false light! And so, if the Evangelist calls the Father the only true God, it is to distinguish Him from the false gods of the Greeks, not from the Son. Incidentally, the heretics tie the passage, Ye … seek not the honour that cometh from God only (παρὰ τοῦ μόνου θεοῦ, Jn. 5:44), to the one we have been discussing. They imagine that this reinforces their argument that if the Father is the only God (ὁ μόνος Θεός), the Son cannot be God. What an absurd conclusion!

[AD 367] Hilary of Poitiers on John 17:2

The glory [that the Son would give to the Father] was that the Son, being made flesh, received power over all flesh from the Father, along with the charge of restoring eternal life to ephemeral beings like us who are burdened with the body.

Source: ON THE TRINITY 3.13

[AD 367] Hilary of Poitiers on John 17:2

Perhaps the Son is weak in that he receives power over all flesh. And indeed the receiving of power might be a sign of weakness if he were not able to give eternal life to those whom he receives. Yet the very fact of receiving is used to prove inferiority of nature. It might prove such is the case if Christ were not true God by birth as truly as is the Unbegotten. But if the receiving of power signifies neither more nor less than the birth by which he received all that he has, that gift does not degrade the Begotten, because it makes him perfectly and entirely what God is. God Unbegotten brought God only-begotten to a perfect birth of divine blessedness. It is, then, the mystery of the Father to be the author of the birth, but it is no degradation to the Son to be made the perfect image of his author by a real birth. The giving of power over all flesh—and this giving is done in order that eternal life might be given to all flesh—postulates the fatherhood of the giver and the divinity of the receiver. For giving signifies that the One is the Father and, in receiving the power to give eternal life, the other remains God the Son. All power is therefore natural and congenital to the Son of God. And though it is given, that does not separate him from his author. For that which is given is the property of his author, that is, power to bestow eternal life and to change the corruptible into the incorruptible. The Father gave all; the Son received all.

Source: ON THE TRINITY 9.31

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:2

For to be always doing good, is glory to God. But what is, As You have given Him power over all flesh? He now shows, that what belongs to the preaching is not confined to the Jews alone, but is extended to all the world, and lays down beforehand the first invitations to the Gentiles. And since He had said, Go not into the way of the Gentiles Matthew 10:5, and after this time is about to say, Go, and make disciples of all nations Matthew 28:19, He shows that the Father also wills this. For this greatly offended the Jews, and the disciples too; nor indeed after this did they easily endure to lay hold on the Gentiles, until they received the teaching of the Spirit; because hence arose no small stumblingblock for the Jews. Therefore, when Peter after such a manifestation of the Spirit came to Jerusalem, he could scarcely, by relating the vision of the sheet, escape the charges brought against him. But what is, You have given Him power over all flesh? I will ask the heretics, When did He receive this power? Was it before He formed them, or after? He himself says, that it was after that He had been crucified, and had risen again; at least then He said, All power is given unto Me Matthew 28:18, and, Go ye and make disciples of all nations. What then, had He not authority over His own works? Did He make them, and had He not authority over them after having made them? Yet He is seen doing all in times of old, punishing some as sinners, (for, Surely I will not hide, it says, from My servant Abraham, that which I am about to do Genesis 18:17, Septuagint) and honoring others as righteous. Had He then the power at that time, and now had He lost it, and did He again receive it? What devil could assert this? But if His power was the same both then and now, (for, says He, as the Father raises up the dead and quickens them, even so the Son quickens whom He will John 5:21) what is the meaning of the words? He was about to send them to the Gentiles; in order therefore that they might not think that this was an innovation, because He had said, I am not sent, save unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel Matthew 15:24, He shows that this seems good to the Father also. And if He says this with great meanness of circumstance, it is not wonderful. For so He edified both those at that time, and those who came afterwards; and as I have before said, He always by the excess of meanness firmly persuaded them that the words were those of condescension.

2. But what is, Of all flesh? For certainly not all believed. Yet, for His part, all believed; and if men gave no heed to His words, the fault was not in the teacher, but in those who received them not.

That He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him.

If here also He speaks in a more human manner, wonder not. For He does so both on account of the reasons I have given, and to avoid the saying anything great concerning Himself; since this was a stumblingblock to the hearers because as yet they imagined nothing great concerning Him. John, for example, when He speaks in his own person, does not so, but leads up his language to greater sublimity, saying, All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made c. i. 3, 4, 9, 11; and that He was Life; and that He was Light; and that He came to His own: he says not, that He would not have had power, had He not received it, but that He gave to others also power to become sons of God. And Paul in like manner calls Him equal with God. But He Himself asks in a more human way, saying thus, That He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. Philippians 2:6

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:2

But what is the meaning of “you have given him power over all flesh”? I will ask the heretics, “When did he receive this power? Was it before he formed them, or after?” He himself says that it was after he had been crucified and had risen again. At least it was then that he said, “All power is given unto me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations.” What then? Didn’t he have authority over his own works? Did he make them and yet not have authority over them after having made them? Yet he is seen doing everything in times of old, punishing some as sinners20 … and honoring others as righteous. Is it that he had the power at that time but now had lost it, but was going to receive it again? What devil could assert this? But if his power was the same both then and now—for he says, “as the Father raises up the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he will”—what is the meaning of the words? The answer lies in the fact that he was about to send them to the Gentiles. In order therefore that they might not think that this was an innovation, because he had said, “I am not sent, except unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” he shows that this seemed good to the Father also.…But what does he mean by “of all flesh”? For certainly not all believed. Yet, as far as his mission was concerned, all could have believed. And if some did not listen to his words, the fault was not in the teacher but in those who did not receive his words.

Source: HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 80.1-2

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:2

The fact that power over all flesh was given to Christ by the Father is to be understood in respect of his humanity. For in respect of his Godhead all things were made by himself, and in him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible.

Source: TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 105.2

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on John 17:2

CHAPTER IV. That it will in no way damage the glory of the Son, when He is said to have received aught from God the Father, since for this we can assign a pious reason.

In these words Christ expounds once more to us the kind of glory whereby God will exalt and glorify His own Son; and He will also Himself be glorified in turn by His own Offspring. And He expands the saying, and makes the point clear to our edification and profit. For what need had God the Father, Who knoweth all things, of learning the kind of request? He invites then the Father's goodness towards us. For since He is the High Priest of our souls, insomuch as He appeared as Man, though being by Nature God together with the Father, He most fittingly makes His prayer on our behalf; trying to persuade us to believe that He is, even now, the propitiation for our sins, and a righteous Advocate; as John saith. Therefore also Paul, wishing us to be of this mind, thus exhorts us: For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but One that hath been in all points tempted like as we are; yet without sin. Then, since He is an High Priest, insomuch as He is Man, and, at the same time, brought Himself a blameless sacrifice to God the Father, as a ransom for the life of all men, being as it were the firstfruits of mortality, that in all things He might have the pre-eminence, as Paul says; and He reconciles to Him the reprobate race of man upon the earth, purifying them by His own Blood, and shaping them to newness of life through the Holy Spirit; and since, as we have often said, all things are accomplished by the Father through the Son in the Spirit; He moulds the prayer for blessings towards us, as Mediator and High Priest, though He unites with His Father in giving and providing Divine and spiritual graces. For Christ divideth the Spirit, according to His own Will and pleasure, to every man severally, as He will.

So far with reference to this. Now let us examine and declare what is meant by the form of prayer used. Father, then, He saith, glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son may also glorify Thee. How then, or in what manner, will what I have said be brought to pass? I will, He says, that as Thou hast given Me power over all flesh, that so also, all that Thou hast given Me may have life eternal. For the Father glorified His own Son, putting the whole world under His rule: and He was glorified Himself also in turn by Him. For the Son was glorified of the Father, being believed of all to be the Offspring and Fruit of Him That is all-powerful, and at His pleasure puts all things under the yoke of His Son's kingly power; and the Father was glorified in turn, so to speak, by His own Son. For since the Son was known to be able to accomplish all things at His pleasure, the splendour of His reputation has reached to Him That begat Him. As therefore, He says, Thou didst glorify and wast glorified, giving to the Son power and sovereignty over all, after the manner just now stated, so I will that nothing that Thou hast given Me be lost; for this honour will pass from the Father to the Son, and from the Son to the Father. For it was meet that all those who were wholly subject to, and under, the rule of the Word, the all-powerful God, now having been saved once for all, should also abide in blessings without end; so as to be freed from the power of death, and the dominion of corruption and sin, and should no longer lie in subjection to their ancient enemies.

And, as the words, Thou gavest Him authority over all flesh, may possibly perplex some simple-minded hearers, let us make a few reflections thereon which may be useful; without scruple, as it is necessary, even though language may be wholly inadequate to such an exposition. For the Lord will say this most suitably in the character He had assumed; I mean His humiliation and His lowly humanity. For listen to the argument: If indeed we feel ashamed, when we hear that He became a slave for our sakes, though Lord of all with the Father; and that He was set up as King upon His holy hill of Zion, though He had the power to reign over the universe by right of His own Nature, and borrowed it not from others; we must needs also feel ashamed, if He says that He receives anything as Man. And, if we marvel at His voluntary subjection, when we bear in mind the dignity that is His by birthright, why are we not also astonied when we hear this saying? For, possessing all things as God, He says that He receives as Man, to whom kingly power comes, not by natural right, but by gift. For What hast thou that thou didst not receive? will suit the limitations of created beings; and Christ is also a creature in so far as He is Man; though by Nature uncreate, in so far as He came from God. For all things are conceived of, as naturally and individually being in God's hand, and are so in truth; but all good things in us are borrowed and brought down to us by Divine grace. When then, as Man, being appointed to rule over us, He says that the Father has given Him power over all flesh, we must not be offended at it; for we must bear in mind the scheme of our redemption. But, if you choose to listen to His words as having more reference to His Divinity, think on what the Lord said to the Jews: Verily, verily, I say unto you, no man can come to Me except the Father which sent Me draw Him. For whom the Father will quicken, them, as by His own life-giving power, He brings to His Son, and through Him gives them power and wisdom; nay. if He will to bring any into subjection to His own rule, He calls them in no other way, save by the living and all-sufficient Might, whereby He rules over the universe----I mean His Son. For men, who have of themselves no power to accomplish anything that is above and beyond themselves, borrow from God the power, which can bring all things superhuman into subjection; for through Him, kings have their dominion, according to the Scripture, and monarchs through Him rule over the earth. And the God of the universe, having this power in Himself alone, subjects to Himself the race of man, who are reprobates from His love, and have shaken off the yoke of His kingdom, together with all beside; receiving, as it were, from His own might, the gift of dominion over them, and subjugating thereby whatsoever He will. For God the Father subjects them to His Son, as to His own power; and through Him wholly, and in no other way, all things that exist become His willing subjects, through obedience to His yoke. For as He endows with wisdom, and quickens with life, all things through Him, so also He rules over the universe through Him.

We must observe, however, that it was not to Israel alone any longer, that the favour of the Divine love of mankind was confined, but it was extended to all flesh. For that which is wholly subject to the power of the Saviour, will wholly partake in life and grace from Him.

[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on John 17:2

Thence come to us the brilliant splendours of the treasures of divine knowledge. "For this is life eternal, that we may know the true God, and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent."

[AD 202] Irenaeus on John 17:3

Now to whom is it not clear, that if the Lord had known many fathers and gods, He would not have taught His disciples to know.

Source: Against Heresies Book IV

[AD 215] Clement of Alexandria on John 17:3

One who does not have the knowledge of good is wicked: for there is one good, the Father. And to be ignorant of the Father is death, just as to know him is eternal life, through participation in the power of the incorrupt One. And to be incorruptible is to participate in divinity. But revolt from the knowledge of God brings corruption.

Source: STROMATEIS 5.10

[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on John 17:3

God, accompanied by the article [in Greek], is very God. Therefore also the Savior says in his prayer to the Father, “That they may know you the only true God.” But everything made divine because of the very God by partaking of his divinity would be most properly called not God38 but god.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2.17

[AD 258] Novatian on John 17:3

If Christ is only a man, why did he lay down for us such a rule of faith as to say, “But this is life eternal, that they may know you the one and true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent”? If he had not wanted himself to be understood also as God, why did he add, “And Jesus Christ whom you have sent” unless it is because he wanted to be accepted as also God? Because, if he had not wanted himself to be understood as God, he would have added “and the man Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” But as it is, neither Christ added this nor did he hand down to us that he is only man. Rather, he joined [himself] to God so that he might also by this union be understood as God, as indeed he is.

Source: ON THE TRINITY 16.4

[AD 258] Cyprian on John 17:3

For whereas in the Gospels, and in the epistles of the apostles, the name of Christ is alleged for the remission of sins; it is not in such a way as that the Son alone, without the Father, or against the Father, can be of advantage to anybody; but that it might be shown to the Jews, who boasted as to their having the Father, that the Father would profit them nothing, unless they believed on the Son whom He had sent. For they who know God the Father the Creator, ought also to know Christ the Son, lest they should flatter and applaud themselves about the Father alone, without the acknowledgment of His Son, who also said, "No man cometh to the Father but by me." But He, the same, sets forth, that it is the knowledge of the two which saves, when He says, "And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." Since, therefore, from the preaching and testimony of Christ Himself, the Father who sent must be first known, then afterwards Christ, who was sent, and there cannot be a hope of salvation except by knowing the two together; how, when God the Father is not known, nay, is even blasphemed, can they who among the heretics are said to be baptized in the name of Christ, be judged to have obtained the remission of sins? For the case of the Jews under the apostles was one, but the condition of the Gentiles is another. The former, because they had already gained the most ancient baptism of the law and Moses, were to be baptized also in the name of Jesus Christ, in conformity with what Peter tells them in the Acts of the Apostles, saying, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For this promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." Peter makes mention of Jesus Christ, not as though the Father should be omitted, but that the Son also might be joined to the Father.

Source: Epistle LXXII

[AD 258] Cyprian on John 17:3

What wonder is it, beloved brethren, if such is the prayer which God taught, seeing that He condensed in His teaching all our prayer in one saving sentence? This had already been before foretold by Isaiah the prophet, when, being filled with the Holy Spirit, he spoke of the majesty and loving-kindness of God, "consummating and shortening His word," He says, "in righteousness, because a shortened word will the Lord make in the whole earth." For when the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, came unto all, and gathering alike the learned and unlearned, published to every sex and every age the precepts of salvation He made a large compendium of His precepts, that the memory of the scholars might not be burdened in the celestial learning, but might quickly learn what was necessary to a simple faith. Thus, when He taught what is life eternal, He embraced the sacrament of life in a large and divine brevity, saying, "And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only and true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." Also, when He would gather from the law and the prophets the first and greatest commandments, He said, "Hear, O Israel; the Lord thy God is one God: and thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." And again: "Whatsoever good things ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them. For this is the law and the prophets."

Source: Treatise IV. On the Lord's Prayer.

[AD 258] Cyprian on John 17:3

Look, therefore, while there is time, to the true and eternal salvation; and since now the end of the world is at hand, turn your minds to God, in the fear of God; nor let that powerless and vain dominion in the world over the just and meek delight you, since in the field, even among the cultivated and fruitful corn, the tares and the darnel have dominion. Nor say ye that ill fortunes happen because your gods are not worshipped by us; but know that this is the judgment of God's anger, that He who is not acknowledged on account of His benefits may at least be acknowledged through His judgments. Seek the Lord even late; for long ago, God, forewarning by His prophet, exhorts and says, "Seek ye the Lord, and your soul shall live." Know God even late; for Christ at His coming admonishes and teaches this, saying, "This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." Believe Him who deceives not at all. Believe Him who foretold that all these things should come to pass. Believe Him who willgive to all that believe the reward of eternal life. Believe Him who will call down on them that believe not, eternal punishments in the fires of Gehenna.

Source: Treatise V. An Address to Demetrianus.

[AD 258] Cyprian on John 17:3

That God alone must be worshipped. "As it is written, Thou shall worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." Also in Exodus: "Thou shalt have none other gods beside me." Also in Deuteronomy: "See ye, see ye that I am He, and that there is no God beside me. I will kill, and will make alive; I will smite, and I will heal; and there is none who can deliver out of mine hands." In the Apocalypse, moreover: "And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach over the earth, and over all nations, and tribes, and tongues, and peoples, saying with a loud voice, Fear God rather, and give glory to Him: for the hour of His judgment is come; and worship Him that made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all that therein is." So also the Lord, in His Gospel, makes mention of the first and second commandment, saying, "Hear, O Israel, The Lord thy God is one God; " and, "Thou shalt love thy Lord with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength. This is the first; and the second is like unto it, Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." And once more: "And this is life eternal, that they may know Thee, the only and true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent."

Source: Treatise XI. Exhortation to Martyrdom, Addressed to Fortunatus.

[AD 258] Cyprian on John 17:3

That Christ is the First-born, and that He is the Wisdom of God, by whom all things were made. In Solomon in the Proverbs: "The Lord established me in the beginning of His ways, into His works: before the world He rounded me. In the beginning, before He made the earth, and before He appointed the abysses, before the fountains of waters gushed forth, before the mountains were settled, before all the hills, the Lord begot me. He made the countries, and the uninhabitable places, and the uninhabitable bounds under heaven. When He prepared the heaven, I was present with Him; and when He set apart His seat. When He made the strong clouds above the winds, and when He placed the strengthened fountains under heaven, when He made the mighty foundations of the earth, I was by His side, ordering them: I was He in whom He delighted: moreover, I daily rejoiced before His face in all time, when He rejoiced in the perfected earth." Also in the same in Ecclesiasticus: "I went forth out of the mouth of the Most High, first-born before every creature: I made the unwearying light to rise in the heavens, and I covered the whole earth with a cloud: I dwelt in the high places, and my throne in the pillar of the cloud: I compassed the circle of heaven, and I penetrated into the depth of the abyss, and I walked on the waves of the sea, and I stood in all the earth; and in every people and in every nation I had the pre-eminence, and by my own strength I have trodden the hearts of all the excellent and the humble: in me is all hope of life and virtue: pass over to me, all ye who desire me." Also in the eighty-eighth Psalm: "And I will establish Him as my first-born, the highest among the kings of the earth. I will keep my mercy for Him for ever, and my faithful covenant for Him; and I will establish his seed for ever and ever. If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; if they profane my judgments, and do not observe my precepts, I will visit their wickednesses with a rod, and their sins with scourges; but my mercy will I not scatter away from them." Also in the Gospel according to John, the Lord says: "And this is life eternal, that they should know Thee, the only and 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, do Thou glorify me with Thyself, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was made." Also Paul to the Colossians: "Who is the image of the invisible God, and the first-born of every creature." Also in the same place: "The first-born from the dead, that He might in all things become the holder of the pre-eminence." In the Apocalypse too: "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto Him that is thirsting from the fountain of the water of life freely." That He also is both the wisdom and the power of God, Paul proves in his first Epistle to the Corinthians. "Because the Jews require a sign, and the Creeks seek after wisdom: but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews indeed a stumbling-block, and to the Gentiles foolishness; but to them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God."

Source: Treatise XII. Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews.

[AD 325] Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius on John 17:3

And since these things are so, as we have shown, it is plain that no other hope of life is set before man, except that, laying aside vanities and wretched error, he should know God.
these except God, who has proposed to us virtue itself? Therefore the sum and substance of everything is contained in the acknowledging and worship of God; all the hope and safety of man centres in this; this is the first step of wisdom, to know who is our true Father, and to worship Him alone with the piety which is due to Him, to obey Him, to yield ourselves to His service with the utmost devotedness: let our entire acting, and care, and attention, be laid out in gaining His favour.
But the second step is to perceive with the mind that there is but one Supreme God, whose power and providence made the world from the beginning, and afterwards continues to govern it. The third step is to know His Servant and Messenger,

[AD 330] Arnobius of Sicca on John 17:3

Jaws of death; that they can, nevertheless, have their lives prolonged by the favour and kindness of the Supreme Ruler if only they try and study to know Him,-for the knowledge of Him is a kind of vital leaven

[AD 367] Hilary of Poitiers on John 17:3

But it must be clear to everyone that the truth or genuineness of something is evidenced in its nature and powers. For instance, true wheat is what grows to maturity with the beard bristling around it which is then purged from the chaff and ground into flour, baked into a loaf and taken for food. [Wheat] demonstrates the nature and uses that bread is known for.… What element of the Godhead, then, is lacking in the Son who possesses both the nature and power of God? For he had at his disposal the powers of the divine nature to bring into being the nonexistent and to create whenever he wanted.

Source: ON THE TRINITY 5.3-4

[AD 367] Hilary of Poitiers on John 17:3

But in what does eternal life consist? His own words tell us: “That they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Is there any doubt or difficulty here, or any inconsistency? It is life to know the true God. But the bare knowledge of him does not give life. What, then, does he add? “And Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” In you, the only true God, the Son pays the honor due to his Father. By the addition “and Jesus Christ whom you have sent,” he associates himself with the true Godhead. The believer in his confession draws no line between the two, for his hope of life rests in both. And indeed, the true God is inseparable from him whose name follows in the creed. Therefore when we read, “That they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent,” these terms of sender and of sent are not intended, under any semblance of distinction either in name or interval [of time], to convey a difference between the true Godhead of Father and of Son. Rather, they are meant to be a guide to the devout confession of them as begetter and begotten.

Source: ON THE TRINITY 3.14

[AD 367] Hilary of Poitiers on John 17:3

But perhaps by saying “you the only,” Christ severs himself from communion and unity with God. Yes, but after the words “you the only true God,” does he not immediately continue, “and Jesus Christ whom you have sent”? I appeal to the sense of the reader: what must we believe Christ to be when we are commanded to believe in him also, as well as the Father the only true God? Or, perhaps, if the Father is the only true God, there is no room for Christ to be God. It might be so, if, because there is one God the Father, Christ were not the one Lord. The fact that God the Father is one leaves Christ nonetheless the one Lord. And similarly the Father’s one true Godhead makes Christ nonetheless true God. For we can obtain eternal life only if we believe in Christ, as well as in the only true God.… But the faith of the church, while confessing the only true God the Father, confesses Christ also. It does not confess Christ true God without the Father the only true God. Nor does it confess the Father as the only true God without Christ. It confesses Christ true God, because it confesses the Father the only true God. Thus the fact that God the Father is the only true God constitutes Christ also as true God. The only-begotten God suffered no change of nature by his natural birth. And he who, according to the nature of his divine origin was born God from the living God, is, by the truth of that nature, inalienable from the only true God.

Source: ON THE TRINITY 9.34, 36

[AD 373] Athanasius of Alexandria on John 17:3

The one who believes in the Son believes also in the Father, for he believes in what is proper to the Father’s essence. And thus the faith is one in one God. And the one who worships and honors the Son, in the Son worships and honors the Father. For the Godhead is one. And therefore the honor is one and the worship is one that is paid to the Father in and through the Son. And the one who worships in this way worships one God. For there is one God and none other.… Therefore, these passages45 are not written in order to deny the Son or with reference to him at all, but to overthrow falsehood. Notice how God did not speak these kinds of words to Adam at the beginning, although his Word was with him by whom all things came to be. For there was no need before idols came in. But when human beings made insurrection against the truth and named for themselves gods such as they did, then the need arose for such words in order to deny the gods that were not. … If then the Father is called the only true God, this is said not to the denial of him who said, “I am the Truth” but of those … who by nature are not true, as the Father and his Word are. And so the Lord himself added at once, “And Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Now had he been a creature, he would not have added this and ranked himself with his creator. For what fellowship is there between the True and the not true? But as it is, by including himself with the Father, he has shown that he is of the Father’s nature. And he has given us to know that of the true Father he is true offspring.

Source: Discourses Against the Arians 3.23.6-24.8-9

[AD 380] Apostolic Constitutions on John 17:3

For you are translated from your former vain and tedious mode of life and have contemned the lifeless idols, and despised the demons, which are in darkness, and have run to the "true light," [John 1:9] and by it have "known the one and only true God and Father," [John 17:3] and so are owned to be heirs of His kingdom. For since you have "been baptized into the Lord's death," [Romans 6:3] and into His resurrection, as "new-born babes," [1 Peter 2:2] you ought to be wholly free from all sinful actions; "for you are not your own, but His that bought you" [1 Corinthians 6:19-20] with His own blood.

Source: Apostolic Constitutions (Book V), Section 3, XVI

[AD 400] Ignatius of Antioch on John 17:3

The Evangelists, too, when they declared that the one Father was "the only true God," did not omit what concerned our Lord, but wrote: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made." And concerning the incarnation: "The Word," says [the Scripture], "became flesh, and dwelt among us." And again: "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham." And those very apostles, who said "that there is one God," said also that "there is one Mediator between God and men." Nor were they ashamed of the incarnation and the passion. For what says [one]? "The man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself" for the life and salvation of the world.

Source: Epistle of Pseudo-Ignatius to the Antiochians

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:3

The only true God, He says, by way of distinction from those which are not gods; for He was about to send them to the Gentiles. But if they will not allow this, but on account of this word only reject the Son from being true God, in this way as they proceed they reject Him from being God at all. For He also says, You seek not the glory which is from the only God. John 5:44 Well then; shall not the Son be God? But if the Son be God, and the Son of the Father who is called the Only God, it is clear that He also is true, and the Son of Him who is called the Only true God. Why, when Paul says, Or I only and Barnabas 1 Corinthians 9:6, does he exclude Barnabas? Not at all; for the only is put by way of distinction from others. And, if He be not true God, how is He Truth? For truth far surpasses what is true. What shall we call the not being a true man, tell me? Shall we not call it the not being a man at all? So if the Son is not true God, how is He God? And how makes He us gods and sons, if He is not true? But on these matters we have spoken more particularly in another place; wherefore let us apply ourselves to what follows.

[AD 428] Theodore of Mopsuestia on John 17:3

The cause of eternal life is steadfast faith, and to believe in one God, and to not attribute to others the title of God but to believe not only in the Father but also in the Son who was incarnated for us and was sent for the salvation of humankind. This doctrine expels the lie of the polytheistic error. It admits only one God while also surpassing the Jewish belief—inasmuch as the Jews worship only the Father. They surely do not understand that from the Father, by means of an unspoken word, his Son was born. It also teaches Christians to worship both the God begotten from the Father and the Spirit that is provided from the Father through the Son and is in its own existence consubstantial with the Father and the Son—the very one who is perfect life and the cause of eternal life.

Source: COMMENTARY ON JOHN, FRAGMENT 132.17.3

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:3

We are distanced from eternity to the extent that we are changeable. But eternal life is promised to us through the truth. Our faith, however, stands as far apart from the clear knowledge of the truth as mortality does from eternity. At the present we put faith in things done in time on our account, and by that faith itself we are cleansed. In this way, when we have come to sight, as truth follows faith, so eternity may follow on mortality. Our faith will become truth, then, when we have attained to that which is promised to us who believe. And that which is promised to us is eternal life. And the Truth—not that which shall come to be according to how our faith shall be, but that truth that always exists because eternity is in it—the Truth then has said, “And this is life eternal, that they might know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” When our faith sees and comes to be truth, then eternity shall possess our now changed mortality.

Source: ON THE TRINITY 4.18.24

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:3

Passing by [the Arians], however, we must see whether, when it is said to the Father, “that they may know you the one true God,” we are forced to understand it as if he wished to intimate that the Father alone is the true God—in case we should not understand any to be God except the three together, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Are we therefore, from the testimony of the Lord, both to call the Father the one true God, and the Son the one true God, and the Holy Spirit the one true God, and the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit together, that is, the Trinity itself together, not three true Gods but one true God? Or because he added, “And Jesus Christ whom you have sent,” are we to supply “the one true God,” so that the order of the words is this, “That they may know you, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent, the one true God”? Why then did he omit to mention the Holy Spirit? Is it because it follows that whenever we name One who cleaves to One by a harmony so great that through this harmony both are one, this harmony itself must be understood, although it is not mentioned?

Source: ON THE TRINITY 6.9.10

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on John 17:3

CHAPTER V. That the Son will not be excluded from being true God, even though He named God the Father the only true God.

He defines faith as the mother of eternal life, and says that the power of the true knowledge of God will be such as to cause us to remain for ever in a state of incorruption, and blessedness, and sanctification. And we say that that is true knowledge of God, which cannot incur the reproach of turning aside to aught else, or running after things unseemly. For some have worshipped the creature rather than the Creator, and have dared to say to a block of wood: Thou art my Father; and to a stone, Thou hast begotten me. For to such abysmal ignorance did miserable men relapse, that they even gave, in all its fulness, the great Name of God, to senseless blocks of wood; and invested them with the ineffable glory of that Nature, which is over all. He calls God the Father, then, the only true God, by contrast to spurious gods, and with the intention to distinguish the true God, from those who are so named in error; for this is the object of His words. Very appropriately, then, He first speaks of God as being One and One only, and then makes mention of His own glory in the words: And Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent. For a man can in nowise attain to complete knowledge of the Father, unless side by side, and in most intimate connection with it, he lay hold on the knowledge of His Offspring; that is, the Son. For, if a man know what the Father is, he cannot but know also the Son. When, then, He said that the Father was the true God, He did not exclude Himself. For being in Him, and of Him, by Nature, He will be also Himself the true God and the only God, as He is the only God: for beside Him, there is none other god who is the only true God. For the gods of the heathen are devils. For the creation is enslaved, and I know not how any worship them, or sink into such a slough of unreasoning and sensuous folly. With the many gods, then, in this world, who are erroneously so conceived, and have won this spurious title, the only true God is brought into contrast; and the Son also, Who is by Nature in Him, and of Him, at once in diversity and in identity of Nature, according to a natural Unity. I say in diversity of Nature, because He has in fact an individual Existence; for the Son is the Son, and not the Father. In identity of Nature also, because the Son, Who came forth from Him, is inseparably joined by Nature, with the existence of His Father. For the Father is one with the Son, even though He is the Father; and is so spoken of, because He did in fact beget Him.

This, then, He says, is eternal life, that they should know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent. Then one of those who are never weary of hearkening to the Scripture, and seriously pursue the study of Divine doctrines, will ask: Do we say that knowledge is eternal life; and that to know the one true and living God will suffice to give us complete security of expectation, and nothing else be lacking? Then how is faith apart from works dead? And when we speak of faith, we mean the true knowledge of God, and nothing else; for by faith comes knowledge: and the prophet Isaiah bears us witness, who said to some: If ye do not believe neither shall ye understand. And that the writings of the holy men are referring to the knowledge which consists in barren speculations, a thing wholly profitless, I think you will perceive from what follows. For one of the holy disciples said: Thou believest that God is one; thou doest well: the devils also believe and shudder. What then shall we say to this? How does Christ speak truth, when He says that eternal life is the knowledge of God the Father, the One true God, and (with Him) of the Son? I think, indeed, we must answer that the saying of the Saviour is wholly true. For this knowledge is life, travailing as it were in birth of the whole meaning of the mystery, and vouchsafing unto us participation in the mystery of the Eucharist, whereby we are joined unto the living and life-giving Word. And for this reason, I think, Paul says that the Gentiles are made fellow-members of the body and fellow-partakers of Christ; inasmuch as they partake in His blessed Body and Blood; and our members may in this sense be conceived of, as being members of Christ. This knowledge, then, which also brings to us the Eucharist by the Spirit, is life. For it dwells in our hearts, shaping anew those who receive it into sonship with Him, and moulding them into incorruption and piety towards God, through life according to the Gospel. Our Lord Jesus Christ, then, knowing that the knowledge of the One true God brings unto us, and, so to speak, promotes our union with, the blessings of which we have spoken, says that it is eternal life; insomuch as it is the mother and nurso of eternal life, being in its own power and nature pregnant with those things which cause life, and lead unto it.

And I think we ought attentively to observe in what way Christ says that the knowledge of the One true God is perfected in us in all its fulness. For see how it cannot exist apart from the contemplation of the Son, and it is clear that it cannot exist apart from the Holy Spirit; for such is the nature of the belief in each Person of the Trinity, according to the Scripture. The Jews indeed, following in the steps of Moses' commandments, rejected the many false gods, and betook themselves to the worship of the One true God, under his guidance. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, saith the Law, and Him only shalt thou serve. But those who still cling to the worship of the One true God, as not yet having complete knowledge of Him they worship, are called thereto to know not that the Creator of all things is one only, the One true God, but that He is a Father and has begotten a Son; and moreover, and yet more than all this, to gaze attentively on Him in His unchangeable Likeness, that is, the Son. For through the lineaments of that which is modelled, we can readily attain to perfect knowledge of the model. Very necessary then was it, for our Lord Jesus Christ to tell us, that those who have been called through faith to sonship and eternal life, not only ought to learn that the true God is One only, but that He is also a Father; and is the Father of One Who became flesh for our sakes, and Who was sent to restore the corrupted nature of rational beings, that is, of mankind.

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on John 17:3

Are we saying that knowledge is eternal life? Are we saying that to know the one true and living God will suffice to give us complete security for the future without need of anything else? Then how is “faith apart from works dead”? When we speak of faith, we mean the true knowledge of God and nothing else, since knowledge comes by faith. The prophet Isaiah tells us this: “If you do not believe, neither shall you understand.” But he is not talking about a knowledge that consists in barren speculations, which is entirely worthless. For one of the holy disciples said, “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder.” What then shall we say to this? How is it that Christ speaks the truth when he says that eternal life is the knowledge of God the Father, the one true God, and with him of the Son? I think, indeed, we must answer that the saying of the Savior is completely true. For this knowledge is life, laboring as it were in birth of the whole meaning of the mystery and granting to us participation in the mystery of the Eucharist, whereby we are joined to the living and life-giving Word. And for this reason, I think, Paul says that the Gentiles are made fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of Christ, inasmuch as they partake in his blessed body and blood. And our members may in this sense be conceived of as being members of Christ. This knowledge, then, which also brings to us the Eucharist by the Spirit, is life. For it dwells in our hearts, reshaping those who receive it into sonship with him and molding them into incorruption and piety toward God through life, according to the Gospel. Our Lord Jesus Christ, then, knowing that the knowledge of the one true God brings to us and promotes our union with the blessings of which we have spoken, says that it is eternal life. It is the mother and nurse of eternal life, being in its power and nature pregnant with those things that cause life and lead to life.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 11.5

[AD 108] Ignatius of Antioch on John 17:4

And He says of Himself to the Father, "I have "says He, "glorified Thee upon the earth ; I have finished the work which, Thou gavest Me; I have manifested Thy name to men."

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:4

I have finished the work which You gave Me that I should do it.

And yet the action was still but beginning, or rather was not yet beginning. How then said He, I have finished? Either He means, that I have done all My part; or He speaks of the future, as having already come to pass; or, which one may say most of all, that all was already effected, because the root of blessings had been laid, which fruits would certainly and necessarily follow, and from His being present at and assisting in those things which should take place after these. On this account He says again in a condescending way, Which You gave Me. For had He indeed waited to hear and learn, this would have fallen far short of His glory. For that He came to this of His own will, is clear from many passages. As when Paul says, that He so loved us, as to give Himself for us Ephesians 5:2; and, He emptied Himself, and took upon Him the form of a servant Philippians 2:7; and, As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. John 15:9

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:4

He says “on the earth,” because in heaven he had been already glorified in respect to his own natural glory and to his being worshiped by the angels. Christ then speaks not of that glory that is bound up with his essence—for he always possesses that glory in its fullness even if no one glorified him—but of that which comes from the worship given him by humankind. And so, “Glorify me” also has this meaning. And listen to what follows so that you may understand that he speaks of this kind of glory: “I have finished the work that you gave me to do.”

Source: HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 80.2

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:4

If knowledge of God is eternal life, the more we grow in this knowledge, the greater the advances we make toward life. And we shall not die in the eternal life that is to come. For then, when there shall be no death, the knowledge of God shall be perfected. Then God will be most fully glorified because then it will be the completed glory, as expressed in Greek by doxa.… But glory was defined among the ancients as fame accompanied with praise. But if one’s praise depends on what is said of him, how will God be praised when he himself shall be seen? And so it is said in Scripture, “Blessed are they who dwell in your house. They will be praising you forever and ever.” There, where there shall be full knowledge of God, his praise will continue without end. And because it is full knowledge, the glorification will also be full and complete.

Source: TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 105.3

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on John 17:4

CHAPTER VI. That the Son is not bare of God-befitting glory, even though He is found saying to the Father, And now glorify Me with the glory which I had...

Our Saviour's speech now intertwines the human element in His Nature with the Divine, and is of composite nature, looking both ways; not merging overmuch the Person of the Speaker in the perfect power and glory of His Divinity, nor allowing it altogether to rest on the lowly level of His Humanity; but mingling the twain into one, which is not foreign to either. For our Lord Jesus Christ thought that He ought to teach His believers, not merely that He is God the Only-begotten, but that He also became Man for us, that He might reconcile us all to God the Father, and mould us into newness of life; purchasing humanity with His own Blood, and venturing His life for the salvation of the world, while, though He was One, He was more precious than all mankind. He says, then, that He glorified the Father upon the earth, for He finished the work which He gave Him to do.

Come now, let us follow out, as it were, two roads, in our investigation of this passage, and say that it has reference both to His Divine and His Human Nature. If then, as Man, He says this, you may take it in this way: Christ is for us a type and origin and pattern of the. Divine life, and shows us plainly how, and in what |492 way, we ought to live our lives; for after this fashion the commentators on the Divine writings give a most subtle exposition of the passage. He instructs us, then, by what He here says, that each one of us, if he fulfils his allotted task, and follows out to the end what is commanded of God, then in truth he glorifies Him by his righteous acts; not indeed as though He had any lack of glory, for the Ineffable Nature of God is complete, but because he causes His praise to be sung by those who see his acts, and are profited thereby. Yea, the Saviour saith: Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father Which is in heaven. For when we are made truly manly, and willing to do good works for God's sake, we are not winning for our own selves the reputation thereof, but are carrying God's worship into our actions, to the honour and glory of Him That ruleth over all. For just as when, for leading a profligate life displeasing to God, we are rightly called to account, as doing despite unto His unspeakable glory, and make our own souls liable to punishment, as the prophet tells, if we hearken to his voice: My Name through you is continually blasphemed among the Gentiles, on the same grounds I think that when we display pre-eminent virtue, we are then preparing for Him a song of praise. When, therefore, we have accomplished the work that God has given us to do, then and most rightly may we attain to a freedom of speech in His own most seemly words; and claim, as it were, like glory in return from God Who has been glorified by us: For as I live, saith the Lord, them that honour Me will I honour, and he that lightly esteemeth Me shall be lightly esteemed. In order, then, that He might show us, that we might suitably ask for glory in return from the only true God, I mean glory in the world to come, when we have displayed towards Him perfect and blameless obedience, and have shown ourselves keepers of His commandments to the letter, Christ says that He glorified the Father, when He finished the work upon earth that He gave Him. He requests, however, for Himself in return, no foreign or borrowed glory, as we do, but rather that honour and renown which is His own. For we were bound to ask for it, and not He. Observe how in and through His own Person, He first renders possible to our nature this boldness of speech, on two accounts. For in Him first, and through Him, we have been enriched both with the ability to fulfil those things essential to our salvation, which are entrusted to us by God, and also the duty of boldly asking for the honour which is due to those who distinguish themselves in His service. For of old time, through the sin that reigned in us, and the fall that was in Adam, we both failed of ability to accomplish any of those things which make for virtue, and also were very far removed from freedom of speech with God. Yea, God, to that end, out of the abundance of His kindness, spake consolation by the voice of the prophet, saying: Fear not, because Thou hast been ashamed, neither be confounded because thou hast been put to shame. As, then, in all other things that are good our Lord Jesus Christ is the Beginning, and the Gate, and the Way, so also is He here.

But if the Saviour is seeking His own glory that He had before the world began, and we, suiting the meaning of the passage so as to make it apply to our case, maintain that we ourselves ought also with great zeal to do God's Will, and so boldly ask for glory from above, let no one think that we say this,----that it becomes a man imitating Christ, to ask for some ancient glory that was before the world began, as due also to himself; but let him rather remember that each ought to speak according to his deserts. For if Christ, like us, had only the human element in His Nature, let Him then speak only as befits the earth-born, and not exceed the limits of humanity. But if the Word, being God, became Flesh, when He says anything as God, it will be suitable to Himself alone, and not to those who are not as He is.

Considering, then, the passage as though He spoke it more as a Man, we shall take it in the sense above given; but if we reflect, on the other hand, on the Divine dignity of Christ, we rightly think it has a meaning above human nature. We say, then, that He glorified His own Father, God, when He fulfilled the work which He received from Him, not being His servant or in any ministerial capacity; and this as of necessity, that the Lord of all might not appear in the lowliness of our nature and that of the creation which is enslaved. For to perform the duties of a servant, and submissively obey the Divine commands, is the part of men and angels. Rather, we say that He, being the Power and Wisdom of His Father, well accomplished the task of our redemption, entrusted as it were to Him; as indeed also said the Divine Psalmist, expounding the meaning of the mystery: O God, command Thy Strength; strengthen, O God, that which Thou hast wrought for us. For in order that he may clearly prove that the Son is the Power of the Father, though not separate from Him so far I mean as His identity of Essence and Nature is concerned, he first says, Command Thy Strength, bringing in a duality of Persons----I mean Him that commands and Him to Whom the command is given----he suddenly unites them in their natural unity, attributing to the Ineffable Nature of God in its entirety the result achieved; for he says in his wisdom: "Strengthen, O God, that which Thou hast wrought for us." The Son, then, receives or has entrusted to Him from the Father, the work of saving the world. But in what manner, or how, God commands His own Strength, we ought to examine and explain, so far as it is possible humanly to interpret things which exceed man's understanding. Let us take for example, then, some man among us, and imagine him learned in the art of making bronzes. Then let us suppose that he sets himself to mould a statue, or perhaps to repair one that is decayed or mutilated. How, then, will he work, or how will he repair, as he has determined? Clearly he will entrust to the power of his hands and his skill in the art, the fulfilment of what he chooses to do. But if any one thinks his wisdom and power appear distinct in some sense from himself, so far as their conception is concerned, still are they not in fact distinct. For these also are included in the definition of his essence. You must think the case is something like this wise, but must not accept the illustration as exactly similar. For God is above all things, and must be thought superior to any power of illustration. The sun and the fire, taking this by way of illustration, may be thought to occupy a similar relative position. For, just as the sun commands the light which it sheds to illumine the whole world, and allots to the power of its rays as their function, so to say, to cast the power of their heat on all things that receive it, so likewise also the fire commands and enjoins in some sort the peculiar qualities of its nature to fulfil its peculiar duties; but we do not, on this account, say that the ray and the light are in the position of ministers and servants to the sun, or the power of burning to the fire. For each of the two works by means of its own inherent qualities. But if they appear to be in a sense not self-working, yet are they not distinct in nature from their own. Some such idea we must hold about the relation between God the Father and the Word Who is by Nature begotten of Him, whenever He is said to be entrusted with work to do to us-ward.

His Wisdom and Power, therefore, that is Christ, glorified God the Father upon the earth, having finished the work which He gave Him. And, as He brings His work to its fitting termination, He claims the glory which always attaches to Him; and now that occasion calls for the recovery of His ancient glory He seeks it. What work, then, has He fulfilled, whereby He says that He glorified the Father? For while He was the true God He became Man, by the approval and will of the Father, through His desire to save the whole world, and raise up anew the fallen race on the earth to endless life and the true knowledge of God. And this was in very truth accomplished by the Divine power and might of Christ, Who made death powerless, upset the dominion of the devil, destroyed sin, and showed incomparable love towards us, by remitting the charges against us all, and giving light to those astray, who now know the One true God. Christ, then, having accomplished this by His own power, the Father was glorified by all----I mean all those in the world who knew His wisdom, and power, and the mercy and love towards mankind, which is in Him. For He has shone forth and manifested Himself in the Son, Who is, as it were, the Likeness and Express Image of His Person; and by its fruit the tree is known, according to the Scripture. And when the works were fulfilled, and the wonderful scheme of our redemption brought to its fitting conclusion, He returns to His own glory, and assumes His ancient honour; save only, that being still endued with the human shape, He moulds accordingly the form of His prayer, and asks as though He possessed it not: for man hath all things from God. For though in the fullest sense, as He was God of God the Father, He was invested with Divine glory, still, since at the season of His Incarnation for us He in a sense diminished it, taking upon Him this mean body, He with reason seeks it as though He had it not, speaking the words as Man. The wise Paul also himself had some such idea, when he enjoins us concerning Him: Let this mind be in each of you which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, counted it not a prize to be on an equality with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the Cross. Wherefore also God highly exalted Him, and gave unto Him the Name which is above every name; that in the Name of Jesus Christ every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. For though the Son is high, inasmuch as He proceeded as God and Lord from the Father, none the less is the Father recorded to have exalted man in Him, for on man the degradation of his nature brings the need of exaltation. He prays, then, for the recovery of His own glory, even in the flesh. He is not wholly bereft of His own glory when He so speaks, even though He were to ask without receiving, for the Word, being the true God, was never robbed of His own majesty. He rather refers to the glory which belongs ever to Him, and its appropriate temple in the heavens, and His own return thither in the raiment of the flesh, on which the interval of His humiliation had been consequent. For that He may not appear to be claiming for Himself a strange and unusual glory to which He had not been accustomed in time past, He distinguishes it by the addition of the epithet "before the world was," and the words "with Thine own Self." For the Son has never been excluded from the honour of the Father, but ever reigneth with Him, and with Him is adored and worshipped by us and by the holy angels as God, and of God, and in God, and with God. And this is, I think, what the inspired Evangelist John means to teach us, when He says: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.

[AD 1107] Theophylact of Ohrid on John 17:4

We learn from this that the Father glorifies the Son in the same manner as the Son glorifies the Father. I have glorified Thee on the earth, Christ declares. Quite rightly did He add, on the earth, for the Father was already glorified in the heavens and worshipped by the angels, while the earth lay in ignorance. Having proclaimed the Father to all, the Son now declares, “I have glorified Thee everywhere on earth by imparting the knowledge of God, and I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me.” The work of the Only-begotten Son Incarnate is: to sanctify our nature; to overthrow the ruler of this world, who made himself out to be God; and to plant the knowledge of God in the creation. But how had He finished this work, when it was hardly begun? “I have finished what is My part to do,” He explains. Indeed, Christ has already accomplished the greater part by implanting in us the root of every good, by conquering the devil, and by flinging Himself into the maw of the all-devouring beast of death. From this “root” would follow by necessity all the fruits of the knowledge of God. It is in this sense that He has finished the work. “I have sown, I have planted the root: the fruits are sure to follow. O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was formed.” At that point the nature of flesh had not yet been glorified: it had not been made worthy of incorruption and of sharing the royal throne. This is why the Lord declares, Glorify Thou Me, meaning, “Receive My dishonored and crucified human nature, and raise it up to the glory which I—the Son and Word of God—had with Thee before the world was.” After His ascension, Christ in our human nature was seated on the royal throne, and now He is worshipped by all creation.

Then Jesus explains His words, I have glorified Thee on the earth, as meaning, I have manifested Thy name. How is it that the Son was first to manifest God’s name, when Isaiah said, They … shall swear by the true God (Is. 65:16)? As we have often pointed out, God’s name was already revealed, but only to the Jews, not the whole world. Now Christ announces that God’s name will also be revealed to the Gentiles, since He has destroyed the devil, the teacher of idolatry, and planted the seeds of divine knowledge. If at that point the pagans already had some knowledge of God, it was only as creator-demiurge, not as Father. The Son revealed that the creator was the Father. Moreover, by His own words and deeds, Christ revealed not only His Father, but Himself.

[AD 202] Irenaeus on John 17:5

For not alone antecedently to Adam, but also before all creation, the Word glorified His Father, remaining in Him; and was Himself glorified by the Father, as He did Himself declare, "Father, glorify Thou Me with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was."

Source: Against Heresies Book IV

[AD 235] Hippolytus of Rome on John 17:5

The word of prophecy passes again to Immanuel Himself. For, in my opinion, what is intended by it is just what has been already stated in the words, "giving increase of beauty in the case of the shoot." For he means that He increased and grew up into that which He had been from the beginning, and indicates the return to the glory which He had by nature.39 This, if we apprehend it correctly, is (we should say) just "restored" to Him. For40 as the only begotten Word of God, being God of God,41 emptied Himself, according to the Scriptures, humbling Himself of His own will to that which He was not before, and took unto Himself this vile flesh, and appeared42 in the "form of a servant," and "became obedient to God the Father, even unto death," so hereafter He is said to be "highly exalted; "and as if well-nigh He had it not by reason of His humanity, and as if it were in the way of grace, He "receives the name which is above every name,"43 according to the word of the blessed Paul. But the matter, in truth, was not a "giving," as for the first time, of what He had not by nature; far otherwise. But rather we must understand a return and restoration to that which existed in Him at the beginning, essentially and inseparably. And it is for this reason that, when He had assumed, by divine arrangement,44 the lowly estate of humanity, He said, "Father, glorify me with the glory which I had,"45 etc. For He who was co-existent with His Father before all time. and before the foundation of the world, always had the glory proper to Godhead. "He" too may very well be understood as the "youngest (son)." For He appeared in the last times, after the glorious and honourable company of the holy prophets, and simply once, after all those who, previous to the time of His sojourn, were reckoned in the number of sons by reason of excellence. That Immanuel, however, was an" object of envy,"46 is a somewhat doubtful phrase. Yet He is an "object of envy" or "emulation" to the saints, who aspire to follow His footsteps, and conform themselves to His divine beauty, and make Him the pattern of their conduct, and win thereby their highest glory. And again, He is an "object of envy" in another sense,-an "object of ill-will," namely, to those who are declared not to love Him. I refer to the leading parties among the Jews,-the scribes, in sooth, and the Pharisees,-who travailed with bitter envy against Him, and made the glory of which He could not be spoiled the ground of their slander, and assailed Him in many ways. For Christ indeed raised the dead to life again, when they already stank and were corrupt; and He displayed other signs of divinity. And these should have filled them with wonder, and have made them ready to believe, and to doubt no longer. Yet this was not the case with them; but they were consumed with ill-will, and nursed its bitter pangs in their mind.

Source: Exegetical Fragments

[AD 367] Hilary of Poitiers on John 17:5

And so, he had not abdicated his own position. And yet, he had taken ours. He prays, then, that the nature that he had assumed may be promoted to the glory that he had never renounced. … This Son, now incarnate, prayed that flesh might be to the Father what the Son had been. He prayed that flesh, born in time, might receive the splendor of the everlasting glory, that the corruption of the flesh might be swallowed up, transformed into the power of God and the incorruption of the Spirit.

Source: ON THE TRINITY 3.16

[AD 373] Ephrem the Syrian on John 17:5

The Lord also said, “Give me glory in your presence from that which you gave me before the world was made.” [This was] when the Father was fashioning creatures through his Son, according to the psalmist’s account, “He is clothed with glory and magnificence,” after which he drew them out of nothingness and established them as spotless creatures. “Lord God,” he said, “you are exceedingly great. You are clothed with glory and magnificence, and you have covered yourself with light as with a cloak.” … Following Adam’s fall, [however], creatures were clothed in [Adam’s] humiliation69 … and the Son of the Creator came to heal them so as to remove, at the moment of his coming, all uncleannesses through the baptism of his death, as he himself has said, “The hour has come and is at hand; glorify your Son that your Son may glorify you.” He asked this not as a beggar wishing to receive something, but wishing to restore and accomplish the first order of creation. [He asked] for the glory with which he was clothed at the time when creatures were clothed [with glory].For just as he formed the first essence [of creatures] through grace so that [they would be] without stain, in the glory and magnificence with which he himself was clothed, [so] too, by the mercy of God, there will be a new creation of all things, without any stain, in the glory with which he is clothed. What he said, “Give me,” is to be understood of the glory that he possessed before creatures, with the Father and in the Father’s presence. For the Greek text says clearly, “Glorify me with that glory that I possessed in your presence, before the world was made.” Even more, in saying, “Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you,” he did not reveal a need but a desire. The Father does not receive glory from the Son as though he had need of it, and the Son is not glorified by his Father as if he were lacking this [glory].

Source: COMMENTARY ON TATIAN’S DIATESSARON 19.17

[AD 398] Didymus the Blind on John 17:5

The splendid glory of the Son of God—what else would it be other than the divine Word himself, the “true Light” itself? He is not glorified by another glory through the agency of another person as if he were someone else other than the glory. No, he is himself the “Lord of glory” and King of glory, as I said previously. But since “he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant”—for he says, “the Word became flesh” and “we saw him” and “he did not have any comeliness or beauty”66—and many did not believe that this descent had taken place, since many did not believe that God became man to reveal his divinity to those who had not recognized him, he said, “Father, glorify your Son,” that is, “reveal me to those who have not recognized me, manifest my glory that I had with you as the divine Word.” Therefore, Paul says, “God considered it good to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles.”

Source: FRAGMENTS ON JOHN 20

[AD 400] Ignatius of Antioch on John 17:5

Nor is He a mere man, by whom and in whom all things were made; for "all things were made by Him." "When He made the heaven, I was present with Him; and I was there with Him, forming [the world along with Him], and He rejoiced in me daily." And how could a mere man be addressed in such words as these: "Sit Thou at My right hand? " And how, again, could such an one declare: "Before Abraham was, I am? " And, "Glorify Me with Thy glory which I had before the world was? " What man could ever say, "I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me? " And of what man could it be said, "He was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world: He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not? " How could such a one be a mere man, receiving the beginning of His existence from Mary, and not rather God the Word, and the only-begotten Son? For "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." And in another place, "The Lord created Me, the beginning of His ways, for His ways, for His works. Before the world did He found Me, and before all the hills did He beget Me."

Source: Epistle of Pseudo-Ignatius to the Tarsians

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:5

Where is that glory? For allowing that He was with reason unhonored among men, because of the covering which was put around Him; how seeks He to be glorified with the Father? What then says He here?  The saying refers to the Dispensation; since His fleshly nature had not yet been glorified, not having as yet enjoyed incorruption, nor shared the kingly throne. Therefore He said not on earth, but with You.

3. This glory we also shall enjoy according to our measure, if we be sober. Wherefore Paul says, If so be that we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. Romans 8:17 Ten thousand tears then do they merit, who through sluggishness and sleep plot against themselves when such glory is set before them; and, were there no hell, they would be more wretched than any, who, when it is in their power to reign and to be glorified with the Son of God, deprive themselves of so great blessings. Since if it were necessary to be cut in pieces, if to die ten thousand deaths, if to give up every day ten thousand lives and as many bodies, ought we not to submit to such things for such glory? But now we do not even despise money, which hereafter, though unwilling, we shall leave: we do not despise money, which brings about us ten thousand mischiefs, which remains here, which is not our own. For we are but stewards of that which is not our own, although we receive it from our fathers. But when there is hell besides, and the worm that dies not, and the fire that is not quenched, and the gnashing of teeth, how, tell me, shall we bear these things? How long will we refuse to see clearly, and spend our all on daily fightings, and contentions, and unprofitable talk, feeding, cultivating earth, fattening the body and neglecting the soul, making no account of necessary things, but much care about things superfluous and unprofitable? And we build splendid tombs, and buy costly houses, and draw about with us herds of all kinds of servants, and devise different stewards, appointing managers of lands, of houses, of money, and managers of those managers; but as to our desolate soul, we care nothing for that. And what will be the limit to this? Is it not one belly that we fill, is it not one body that we clothe? What is this great bustle of business? Why and wherefore do we cut up and tear to pieces the one soul, which we have had assigned to us, in attending to the service of such things, contriving for ourselves a grievous slavery? For he who needs many things is the slave of many things, although he seem to be their master. Since the lord is the slave even of his domestics, and brings in another and a heavier mode of service; and in another way also he is their slave, not daring without them to enter the agora, nor the bath, nor the field, but they frequently go about in all directions without him. He who seems to be master, dares not, if his slaves be not present, to go forth from home, and if while unattended he do but put his head out of his house, he thinks that he is laughed at. Perhaps some laugh at us when we say this, yet on this very account they would be deserving of ten thousand tears. For to show that this is slavery, I would gladly ask you, would you wish to need some one to put the morsel to your mouth, and to apply the cup to your lips? Would you not deem such a service worthy of tears? What if you required continually supporters to enable you to walk, would you not think yourself pitiable, and in this respect more wretched than any? So then you ought to be disposed now. For it matters nothing whether one is so treated by irrational things, or by men.

Why, tell me, do not the Angels differ from us in this respect, that they do not want so many things as we do? Therefore the less we need, the more we are on our way to them; the more we need, the more we sink down to this perishable life. And that you may learn that these things are so, ask those who have grown old which life they deem happiest, that when they were helplessly mastered, or now when they are masters of these things? We have mentioned these persons, because those who are intoxicated with youth, do not even know the excess of their slavery. For what of those in fever, do they call themselves happy when, thirsting much, they drink much and need more, or when, having recovered their health, they are free from the desire? Do you see that in every instance the needing much is pitiable, and far apart from true wisdom, and an aggravation of slavery and desire? Why then do we voluntarily increase to ourselves wretchedness? For, tell me, if it were possible to live uninjured without roof or walls, would you not prefer this; wherefore then do you increase the signs of your weakness? Do we not for this call Adam happy, that he needed nothing, no house, no clothes? Yes, says some one, but now we are in need of them. Why then do we make our need greater? If many persons curtail many of the things actually needed, (servants, I mean, and houses, and money,) what excuse can we have if we overstep the need? The more you put about you, the more slavish do you become; for by whatever proportion you require more, in that proportion you have trenched upon your freedom. For absolute freedom is, to want nothing at all; the next is, to want little; and this the Angels and their imitators especially possess. But for men to succeed in this while tarrying in a mortal body, think how great praise this has. This also Paul said, when writing to the Corinthians, But I spare you, and, lest such should have trouble in the flesh. 1 Corinthians 7:28 Riches are called usables, that we may use them rightly, and not keep and bury them; for this is not to possess them, but to be possessed by them. Since if we are going to make this our aim how to multiply them, not that we may employ them rightly, the order is reversed, and they possess us, not we them. Let us then free ourselves from this grievous bondage, and at last become free. Why do we devise ten thousand different chains for ourselves? Is not the bond of nature enough for you, and the necessity of life, and the crowd of ten thousand affairs, but do you twine also other nets for yourself, and put them about your feet? And when will you lay hold on heaven, and be able to stand on that height? For a great thing, a great thing is it, that even having cut asunder all these cords, you should be able to lay hold on the city which is above. So many other hindrances are there; all which that we may conquer, let us keep to the mean estate [and having put away superfluities, let us keep to what is necessary.] Thus shall we lay hold on eternal life, through the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:5

For he had said above, “Father, the hour is come; glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.” In this arrangement of the words, he had shown that the Father was first to be glorified by the Son, in order that the Son might glorify the Father. But now he says, “I have glorified you on the earth: I have finished the work which you gave me to do. And now glorify me.” This seems to be saying that the Son himself had been the first to glorify the Father by whom he then demands to be glorified. We are therefore to understand that he used both words above in accordance with what was future and in the order in which they were future: “Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.” But now, he uses the word in the past tense of what was still in the future when he said, “I have glorified you on the earth: I have finished the work that you gave me to do.” … For in saying that the Father was glorified by [the Son] on the earth but that he himself was glorified by the Father with the Father’s very self, the Son showed them how both glorifications took place. For the Son himself glorified the Father on earth by preaching him to the nations. But the Father glorified the Son with his own self in setting him at his own right hand. But for that very reason, when the Son says afterward in reference to the glorifying of the Father, “I have glorified you,” he preferred putting the verb in the past tense, in order to show that it was already done in the act of predestination, and what was with perfect certainty yet to take place was to be accounted as already done—namely, that the Son, having been glorified by the Father with the Father, would also glorify the Father on the earth.

Source: TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 105.5

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:5

The proper order of the words is “[the glory] that I had with you before the world was.” … Some have imagined that this should be understood of the human nature assumed by the Word in such a way that it would be converted into the Word and the man were changed into God, or as if the humanity were lost in the Godhead. For no one would say that the Word of God would by that change be doubled or increased.… But we [avoid this error] if we understand [he is speaking of] the predestination of the glory of his human nature, as previously being mortal, becoming immortal with the Father. And we also understand that this had already been done by predestination before the world was, as also in its own time it was done in the world.… Accordingly, when the Son saw that the time of this, his predestined glorification, had now arrived—in order that what had already been done in predestination might also now actually be accomplished—he prayed, “And now, O Father, glorify me with your own self with the glory that I had with you before the world was,” that is, it is time now for me to have that glory at your right hand that I had with you by your predestination.

Source: TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 105.6-8

[AD 220] Tertullian on John 17:6

The name “God the Father” had been published to no one. Even Moses, who had interrogated him on that very point, had heard a different name. To us it has been revealed in the Son, for the Son is now the Father’s new name.… That name, therefore, we pray “may be hallowed.”

Source: ON PRAYER 3

[AD 220] Tertullian on John 17:6

They more readily supposed that the Father acted in the Son's name, than that the Son acted in the Father's; although the Lord says Himself, "I am come in my Father's name; " and even to the Father He declares, "I have manifested Thy name unto these men; " whilst the Scripture likewise says, "Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord," that is to say, the Son in the Father's name.

Source: Against Praxeas

[AD 220] Tertullian on John 17:6

"I am come," saith He, "in the Father's name; " and again, "Father, glorify Thy name; " and more openly, "I have manifested Thy name to men." That name, therefore, we pray may "be hallowed.

Source: On Prayer

[AD 367] Hilary of Poitiers on John 17:6-8

(iii. de Trin) Or He prayed that that which was mortal, might receive the glory immortal, that the corruption of the flesh might be transformed and absorbed into the incorruption of the Spirit.

Source: Catena Aurea by Aquinas

[AD 380] Apostolic Constitutions on John 17:6

As Himself somewhere says, when He was giving thanks for the salvation of those that had believed, "I have manifested Thy name to men, I have finished the work Thou gavest me; ".
"He manifested His name to those that knew it not; "

Source: CONSTITUTIONS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:6

1. 'Messenger' of great counsel Isaiah 9:6, Septuagint, the Son of God is called, because of the other things which He taught, and principally because He announced the Father to men, as also now He says, I have manifested Your Name unto the men. For after having said, I have finished Your work, He next explains it in detail, telling what sort of work. Now the Name indeed was well known. For Esaias said, You shall swear by the true God. Isaiah 65:16. But what I have often told you I tell you now, that though it was known, yet it was so only to Jews, and not to all of these: but now He speaks concerning the Gentiles. Nor does He declare this merely, but also that they knew Him as the Father. For it is not the same thing to learn that He is Creator, and that He has a Son. But He manifested His Name both by words and actions.

Whom You gave Me out of the world. As He says above, No man comes unto Me except it be given him John 6:65; and, Except My Father draw him John 6:64; so here too, Whom you gave Me. John 14:6 Now He calls Himself the Way; whence it is clear that He establishes two things by what is said here, that He is not opposed to the Father, and that it is the Father's will to entrust them to the Son.

Yours they were, and You gave them Me. Here He desires to teach that He is greatly loved by the Father. For that He needed not to receive them, is clear from this, He made them, He cares for them continually. How then did He receive them? This, as I said before, shows His unanimity with the Father. Now if a man choose to enquire into the matter in a human manner, and as the words are spoken, they will no longer belong to the Father. For if when the Father had them, the Son had them not, it is evident that when He gave them to the Son, He withdrew from His dominion over them. And again, there is a yet more unseemly conclusion; for they will be found to have been imperfect while they yet were with the Father, but to have become perfect when they came to the Son. But it is mockery even to speak thus. What then does He declare by this? That it has seemed good to the Father also that they should believe in the Son.

And they have kept Your word.

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:6

His desire here is to teach that he is greatly loved by the Father since it is clear that he did not need to receive the [disciples] since he made them and cares for them continually. How then did he receive them? This, as I said before, shows his oneness with the Father. Now one could interpret this to mean, humanly speaking and according to its literal meaning, that the disciples will no longer belong to the Father. For if when the Father had them, the Son did not have them, it is evident that when he gave them to the Son, he relinquished his dominion over them. An even more unseemly conclusion would be that the disciples were found to have been imperfect while they were yet with the Father but then became perfect when they came to the Son. But it is ridiculous even to say such things. What then does he mean by this? He means that it seemed good to the Father also that they should believe on the Son.

Source: HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 81.1

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:6-8

(Hom. lxxxi) Having said, I have finished My work, He shows what kind of work it was, viz. that He should make known the name of God: I have manifested Thy name unto the men which Thou gavest Me out of the world.

(Hom. lxxxi) That He was the Son of the Father, Christ had already manifested to them by words and deeds.

(Hom. lxxxi) And whence have they learned? From My words, wherein I taught them that I came forth from Thee. For this was what He has been labouring to show throughout the whole of the Gospel: For I have given unto them the words which Thou gavest Me, and they have received them.

Source: Catena Aurea by Aquinas

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:6

If he speaks of the disciples only with whom he had eaten supper, this has nothing to do with that glorifying of which he spoke above and whereby the Son glorified the Father. For what glory is it to be known to twelve or eleven mortal creatures? But if by the men who were given to him out of the world, he means all those who should believe in him afterward and populate his great church, which was to be made up of all nations, this is without doubt the glory whereby the Son glorifies the Father.… “I have made known your name” … is similar to what he had said a little earlier, “I have glorified you on the earth,” where the past is used for the future both there and here.… But what follows shows that he is speaking here of those who were already his disciples, not of all who should afterward believe on him.… At the beginning of his prayer then … our Lord is speaking of all believers, all to whom he should make known the Father, and this is how he would glorify him. For after saying, “that your Son also may glorify you,” he immediately showed how that was to be done by adding, “As you have given him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him.”

Source: TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 106.1-3

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:6

But what are we to make of the words “whom you have given me out of the world,” for it was said that they were not of the world? But this they were by regeneration, not by generation [i.e., by nature]. And what is meant by “they were yours, and you gave them to me”? Was there a time when they belonged to the Father and not to his only-begotten Son? Did the Father ever have anything without the Son? God forbid. But there was a time when the Son of God possessed something which that same Son as man did not possess. For he has not yet become man when he possessed all things in common with the Father. And so, by saying “they were yours,” the Son of God does not separate himself from the Father but only attributes all his power to him from whom he is and has this power.… In saying, therefore, “and you gave them to me,” he intimated that he had received as man the power to have them, seeing that he who was always omnipotent, was not always man. And so, while he seems rather to have attributed his receiving of them to the Father, since [Christ] is whatever he is because his existence is from [the Father], yet Christ also gave them to himself, that is, Christ, God with the Father, [gave them] to Christ as man who is not with the Father.… Those whom God the Son chose along with the Father out of the world, the very same Son as man received out of the world from the Father. For the Father would not have given them to the Son if he had not chosen them.

Source: TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 106.5

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:6-8

(Tr. cvi) If He speaks of the disciples only with whom He supped, this has nothing to do with that glorifying of which He spoke above, wherewith the Son glorified the Father; for what glory is it to be known to twelve or eleven men? But if by the men which were given to Him out of the world, He means all those who should believe in Him afterwards, this is without doubt the glory wherewith the Son glorifies the Father; and, I have manifested Thy name, is the same as what He said before, I have glorified Thee; the past being put for the future both there and here. But what follows shows that He is speaking here of those who were already His disciples, not of all who should afterwards believe on Him. At the beginning of His prayer then our Lord is speaking of all believers, all to whom He should make known the Father, thereby glorifying Him: for after saying, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee, in showing how that was to be done, He says, As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh. Now let us hear what He says to the disciples: I have manifested Thy name to the men which Thou gavest Me out of the world. Had they not known the name of God then, when they were Jews? We read in the Psalms, In Jewry is God known; His name is great in Israel. (Ps. 76:1) I have manifested Thy name, then, must be understood not of the name of God, but of the Father's name, which name could not be manifested without the manifestation of the Son. For God's name, as the God of the whole creation, could not have been entirely unknown to any nation. As the Maker then of the world, He was known among all nations, even before the spread of the Gospel. In Jewry He was known as a God, Who was not to be worshipped with the false gods: but as the Father of that Christ, by whom He took away the sins of the world, His name was unknown; which name Christ now manifesteth to those whom the Father had given Him out of the world. But how did He manifest it, when the hour had not come of which He said above, The hour cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs. We must understand the past to be put for the future.

(Tr. cvi) Which Thou hast given Me out of the world: i. e. who were not of the world. But this they were by regeneration, not by nature. What is meant by, Thine they were, and Thou gavest them Me? Had ever the Father any thing without the Son? God forbid. But the Son of God had that sometimes, which He had not as Son of man; for He had the universe with His Father, while He was still in His mother's womb. Wherefore by saying, They were Thine, the Son of God does not separate Himself from the Father; but only attributes all His power to Him, from whom He is, and hath the same. And Thou gavest them Me, then, means that He had received as man the power to have them; nay, that He Himself had given them to Himself, i. e. Christ as God with the Father, to Christ as man not with the Father. His purpose here is to show His unanimity with the Father, and how that it was the Father's pleasure that they should believe in Him.

(Tr. cvi) The Father gave Him all things, when having all things He begat Him.

(Tr. cvi. c. 6) i. e. have understood and remembered them. For then is a word received, when the mind apprehends it; as it follows, And have known surely that I came out from Thee. And that none might imagine that that knowledge was one of sight, not of faith, He adds, And they hare believed (surely, is understood) that Thou didst send Me. What they believed surely, was what they knew surely; for, I came out from Thee, is the same with, Thou didst send Me. They believed surely, i. e. not as He said above they believed1, but surely, i. e. as they were about to believe firmly, steadily, unwaveringly: never any more to be scattered to their own, and leave Christ. The disciples as yet were not such as He describes them to be in the past tense, meaning such as they were to be when they had received the Holy Ghost. The question how the Father gave those words to the Son, is easier to solve, if we suppose Him to have received them from the Father as Son of man. But if we understand it to be as the Begotten of the Father, let there be no time supposed previous to His having them, as if He once existed without them: for whatever God the Father gave God the Son, He gave in begetting.

Source: Catena Aurea by Aquinas

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on John 17:6

CHAPTER VII. That the fact that something is said to have been given to the Son from the Father does not rob Him of God-befitting dignity; but He plainly appears to be Consubstantial, and of the Father, even if He is said to receive aught.

I have previously stated with reference to the passages I have just examined, not without care, if I may say so, that Christ made His prayer to the Father in the heavens both as Man and also as God. For He carefully moderates His language so as to avoid either extreme, neither keeping it altogether within the limits of humanity, nor yet allowing it to be wholly affected by His Divine glory; and none the less here also may we see the same characteristic observed. For, as being by Nature God, and the express Image of His unspeakable Nature, He says to His Father: I manifested Thy Name unto the men, using the word "Name'' instead of "glory;'' for this is the usual practice in speech amongst us. Moreover, the wise Solomon wrote: A good name is more to be desired than great riches; that is, "a good reputation and honour" is better than the splendour and eminence which wealth confers. And God Himself says, by the mouth of Isaiah, to those who have made |499 themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake, Let not the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree. For thus saith the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep My commandments, and choose the things that please Me, Even unto them will I give in Mine house and within My walls a place and a name better than of sons and daughters: I will give them an everlasting name. And no man ought to imagine, I think, if he be wise, that the honour with which God will requite them will be paid out in bare names and titles to those who, with noble and virtuous aspirations, have wrestled with worldly pleasure, and have mortified their members which are upon the earth, and regarded only those things which are not displeasing to the Divine law; rather He uses the word name instead of glory, for they who reign with Christ will be enviable and worthy all admiration.

The Saviour therefore plainly declares that He has manifested the Name of God the Father; that is, He has established His glory throughout the whole world. And how? Clearly by the manifestation of Himself, through His exceeding great works. For the Father is glorified in the Son, as in an Image and Type of His own form, for in the lineaments of that which is modelled, the beauty of the model is always clearly seen. The Only-begotten, then, has manifested Himself, being in His Essence Wisdom and Life, Architect and Creator of the universe, superior to death and corruption, holy, blameless, compassionate, sacred, pure. Hereby all men know that He That begat Him is even as He is; for He cannot be different in Nature from His Offspring. He showed Himself, therefore, as in an Image and Type of His own form, in the glory of the Son. Such was indeed the language concerning Him among the men of old time, but now has He manifested Himself to our very sight, and that which we see with our eyes is more convincing than any words.

I think, indeed, that what we have here stated is not irrelevant. We must now, however, tread another path, |500 that is, enter on another line of speculation. For the Son manifested the Father's Name clearly by bringing us to the knowledge and perfect apprehension, not of the fact that He is God alone (for this message was conveyed to us before His coming by the inspired Scripture), but that, besides being God in truth, He is also Father in no spurious sense; having in Himself, and proceeding from Himself, His own Offspring, Coequal and Coeternal with His own Nature. For He did not beget in time the Creator of the ages. And God's Name of "Father" is in some sort greater than the Name God itself; for the one is symbolical only of His Majesty, while the other is explanatory of the essential attribute of His Person. For, when a man speaks of God, he indicates the Sovereign of the universe; but, when he utters the Name of Father, he touches on the definition of His individuality, for he manifests the fact that He begat. And Christ Himself gives to God the Name of Father, as in some sense a more appropriate and truer appellation; saying on one occasion, not "I and God" but I and the Father are One; and on another occasion, with reference to Himself, For Him the Father, even God, hath sealed. And also when He bade His disciples baptise all nations, He did not bid them do this in the Name of God, but He expressly enjoined them to do this into the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. And the inspired Moses, when he was explaining the origin of the world, did not attribute its creation to a single person, for he wrote, And God said, Let us make man in our Image, after our Likeness: and by the words Let us make, and in our Likeness, the Holy Trinity is signified; for the Father created and called into being the universe, through the Son, in the Spirit. But the men of old found such expressions hard to understand, and the language obscure; for the Father was not individually named, nor was the Person of the Son expressly introduced. Our Lord Jesus Christ, however, without any concealment, and with perfect freedom of speech, called |501 God His Father; and by naming Himself Son, and showing that He was Himself in very truth the Offspring of the Sovereign Nature of the universe, He manifested the Father's Name, and brought us to perfect knowledge of Him. For the perfect knowledge of God and the Creator of the universe standeth not in believing merely that He is God, but in believing also that He is the Father; and the Father also of a Son, not unaccompanied of course by the Holy Spirit. For the bare belief, that God is God, suits us no better than those under the Law; for it does not exceed the limit of the knowledge the Jews attained. And just as the Law, when it brought in this axiom of instruction, which was insufficient to sustain a life of piety in God's service, perfected nothing, so also the knowledge which it instilled about God was imperfect; only able to restrain men from love of false gods, and persuade them to worship the One true God: For thou shalt have, it says, no other gods beside Me. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve. But our Lord Jesus Christ sets better things before those who are under the Law of Moses; and, giving them instruction clearer than the commandment of the Law, vouchsafed them better and clearer knowledge than that of old. For He has made it plain to us, not merely that the Originator and Sovereign of the world is God, but also that He is a Father; and facts prove this; for He has set Himself before us as His Likeness, saying, He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. I and the Father are One.

And this, as we suppose, as being God and of God by Nature, He saith openly, in His Divine character, to His Father; but He adds at once, speaking more as Man: Whom Thou hast given Me out of the world: Thine they were, and Thou hast given them to Me. We must think that our Lord says this, not as though some separate and particular portion had been allotted and belonged to the dominion of the Father, in which the Son Himself had no part, for He is King before the ages began, as the Psalmist says, and eternally shares the Father's rule. Moreover, the wise Evangelist John, teaching us that all things belong to Him and are put under His sway, wrote: He came unto His own, and they that were His own received Him not; calling those His own who knew Him not, and were rejecting the yoke of His kingdom. He spake this on this occasion, from the wish to make clear to His hearers, that there were some in this world, who did not even so much as receive into their minds the One true God, but served the creature, and devils, and the inventions of devils. Still, though they knew not the Creator of the world, and were astray from the truth, they were God's; insomuch as He is Lord of all, as their Creator. For all things belong to God, and there is nothing that exists over which the One God is not ruler, though the creature may not know his Maker. For no man can maintain that the fact, that some have gone astray from Him, can avail to deprive the Creator of the world of His universal dominion; but he must rather admit that all things are subjected to His rule, through His having made them and brought them into being. Since, then, this is the truth, even they who were fast bound by the snares of the devil, and entangled in the vanities of the world, belonged in fact to the living God. And how were they given to the Son? For God the Father consented that Emmanuel should reign over them; not as though He then first began His reign----for He was ever Lord and King as being God by Nature----but because, having become Man and ventured His life for the salvation of the world, He purchased all men for Himself, and through Himself brought them to God the Father. He then, That of old reigneth from the beginning with His Father, was appointed King as a Man, to Whom like all else the sceptre comes by gift, according to the |503 limitations of human nature. For not in the same sense as that in which man is a rational being, capable of thought and knowledge (these things being included in his natural advantages), is he also a king; for while the former attributes are comprehended in the definition of his essence, the latter is extraneous and additional, and not among those which attach inseparably to his nature; for kingly power is given and taken away from a man, without affecting in any degree at all the definition of his essence. The dignity of kingship, therefore, is thrust upon a man by God as a gift, and from without: For by Me, He says, kings rule, and princes reign over the earth. He then, That ruleth over all with the Father, insomuch as He was, and is, and will be, by Nature God, receives power over the world, according to the form and limits proper to a man.

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on John 17:6

When the Savior declares that he has made known the name of God the Father, it is the same as saying that he has shown the whole world his glory. How did he do this? By making himself known through his wonderful works. The Father is glorified in the Son as in an image and type of his own form, for the beauty of the archetype is seen in its image. The only Son then has made himself known, and he is in his essence wisdom and life, the artificer and creator of the universe. He is immortal and incorruptible, pure, blameless, merciful, holy, good. His Father is known to be like him, since he could not be different in nature from his offspring. The Father’s glory is seen, as in an image and type of his own form, in the glory of the Son.…The Son made known the name of God the Father to teach us and make us fully comprehend not that he is the only God—for inspired Scripture had proclaimed that even before the coming of the Son—but that besides being truly God he is also rightly called “Father.” This is so because in himself and proceeding from himself he has a Son possessed of the same eternal nature as his own: it was not in time that he became the Father of the Creator of the ages!
To call God “Father” is more exact than to call him “God.” The word God signifies his dignity, but the word Father points to the distinctive attribute of his person. If we say “God,” we declare him to be Lord of the universe. If we call him “Father,” we show the way in which he is distinct as a person, for we make known the fact that he has a Son. The Son himself gave God the name of Father, as being in some sense the more appropriate and truer appellation, when he said not “I and God” but “I and the Father are one,” and also, with reference to himself, “On him has God the Father set his seal.” And when he commanded his disciples to baptize all nations, he did not tell them to do this in the name of God but expressly ordained that they were to do it in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 11.7

[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on John 17:6

No one, however, was sufficient to know these until the Son being made flesh manifested them, saying: "Father, I have manifested Thy name to men; glorify Thou me also, that they may know me as Thy Son."

[AD 735] Bede on John 17:6-8

And they have kept Thy word. He calls Himself the Word of the Father, because the Father by Him created all things, and because He contains in Himself all words: as if to say, They have committed Me to memory so well, that they never will forget Me. Or, They have kept Thy word, i. e. in that they have believed in Me: as it follows, Now they have known that all things whatsoever Thou hast given Me, are of Thee. Some read, Now I have known, &c. But this cannot be correct. For how could the Son be ignorant of what was the Father's? It is the disciples He is speaking of; as if to say, They have learnt that there is nothing in Me alien from Thee, and that whatever I teach cometh from Thee.

Source: Catena Aurea by Aquinas

[AD 1107] Theophylact of Ohrid on John 17:6

By saying, The men which Thou gavest Me, the Lord makes two points: first, that He is not in opposition to the Father—“I did not snatch these men from You”; and second, that it is the Father’s will that the disciples believe in the Son—“You are well pleased that they have come to Me. Between us there is no rivalry, only love and oneness of mind. And they have kept Thy word by believing in Me and giving no heed to the Jews.” He who believes in Christ “keeps the word of God”—the Scripture and the law—for the Scripture proclaims Christ, and everything the Lord told the disciples was from the Father. As Jesus told the disciples earlier in this discourse, I speak not of Myself (Jn. 14:10). He also instructed them, Abide in Me (Jn. 15:4), and they did abide in Him and kept the word of the Father.

Now they have known that all things whatsoever Thou hast given Me are of Thee. This means: “Now have My disciples known that (in My divine nature) I have nothing of My own and I am not different from You. Nothing whatsoever of the things Thou hast given Me were given by grace, as are the divine gifts bestowed upon created beings. Rather, they are of Thee,” which means, “They are not something I have acquired, but belong to Me by nature; they belong to Me as the Son Who has full authority over His Father’s property.” One might ask, “How have the disciples known this?” The Lord provides the answer: I have given unto them the words which Thou gavest Me, which means, “They know this by My words and teachings.” Christ taught them continuously: “All that I have is of the Father; I came out from Thee; and, Thou didst send Me.” Throughout the Gospel the Lord affirms that He is not an adversary of God, for He does the Father’s will.

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:7

How did they keep Your word? By believing in Me, and giving no heed to the Jews. For he that believes in Him, it says, 'has set to his seal that God is true.' John 3:33 Some read, Now I know that all things whatsoever You have given Me are of You. But this would have no reason; for how would the Son be ignorant of the things of the Father? No the words are spoken of the disciples. From the time, He says, that I told them these things, they have learned that all that You have given Me is from You; nothing is alien, nothing peculiar to Me, with You. (For whatever is peculiar, puts most things in the condition of being alien. They therefore have known that all things, whatsoever I teach, are Your doctrines and teachings. And whence have they learned it? From My words; for so have I taught them. And not only this have I taught them, but also that I came out from You. For this He was anxious to prove through all the Gospel.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:7

Whatever God the Father gave to God the Son, he gave in the act of begetting. For the Father gave those things to the Son without which he could not be the Son, in the same way that he gave him being itself.

Source: TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 106.7

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on John 17:7

And therefore He saith: All things whatsoever Thou hast given Me are from Thee. For in a special and peculiar sense all things are God's, and are given to us His creatures. Universal possession and power are most appropriate to God, but to us it is most fitting to receive. He bore witness, however, before His devout believers, to what was fitting to the servant, and prompted to obedience. For, He saith, the words which Thou hast given Me I have given unto them, and they received them and knew of a truth that I came forth from Thee, and they believed that Thou didst send Me. He expressly here calls His own words the sayings of God the Father, because of Their identity of Substance, and because He is God the Word declaratory of His Father's Will; just as the word, which proceeds out of our own mouths, and by its utterance assailing the hearing of one who stands by, interprets the hidden mysteries of the heart. Therefore also the saying of the Prophet declared concerning Him: His Name is called Messenger of Great Counsel. For the truly great, wonderful, and mysterious counsel of the Father is conveyed to us by the Word That is in Him, and of Him, through the words He uttered as a |504 Man, when He came among us, and also by the knowledge and light of the Spirit after His ascent into heaven; for He revealeth to His Saints His mysteries, as Paul bears witness, saying: If ye seek a proof of Christ That speaketh in Me.

[AD 9999] Pseudo-Athanasius on John 17:7

He takes our infirmities without himself being infirm and hungers without hungering. He sends up what is ours that is may be abolished. As he does this, in the same way, the gifts that come from God instead of our infirmities he also receives so that we, being united to him, may be able to partake of them. This is how the Lord says, “All things whatever you have given me, I have given them,” and again, “I pray for them.” For he prayed for us, taking on himself what is ours and giving what he received. Since then, the Word was united to man himself and the Father purposed for us to be exalted and have power, therefore all things that we receive through him [i.e., the Son] are referred to the Word himself. For as he for our sake became man, so we for his sake are exalted. It is no absurdity then, if, as for our sake he humbled himself, so also for our sake he is said to be highly exalted. So “he gave to him” means, in essence, “[he gave] to us for his sake.” And “he highly exalted him” means essentially “[he exalted] us in him.” And the Word himself—when we are exalted and receive and are helped as if he himself were exalted and received and were helped—gives thanks to the Father, referring what is ours to himself and saying, “All things, whatever you have given me, I have given unto them.”

Source: FOURTH DISCOURSE AGAINST THE ARIANS 7

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:8

And from where have they learned? They have learned from my words, … for I taught them that I came forth from you. For this was what he has been anxious to prove throughout the whole of the Gospel.

Source: HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 81.1

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:8

He says, “They have received them,” that is, they have understood and remembered his words. For a word is received when the mind perceives it. Then he adds, “And they have known truly that I came out from you, and they have believed that you sent me.” … What they truly believed was what they truly knew, just as “I came out from you” is the same as “You sent me.” And, so that no one might imagine that that knowledge was one of sight and not of faith, he adds, “And they have [truly] believed that you did send me.” They truly believed, that is, not as he said they believed when he spoke earlier … when they were afraid of being scattered and would desert him, but truly, that is, how they would soon believe [in the future]—firmly, steadily, unwaveringly, never again to be scattered to their own people while leaving Christ behind. The disciples as yet were not the way he describes them to be here in the past tense, but it was how they would be when they had received the Holy Spirit, who would teach them all things.

Source: TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 106.6

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:8

The question of how the Father gave those words to the Son is easier to solve if we suppose him to have received them from the Father as Son of man.… But if we understand it to be as the Begotten of the Father that he received them, let there be no time supposed previous to his having them, as if he once existed without those words. For whatever God the Father gave God the Son, he gave in the act of begetting.

Source: TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 106.7

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on John 17:8

He testified then to those who love Him, that they received and kept the words given Him by the Father, and were besides satisfied that He came, and was sent, from God; while those who were diseased with the contrary opinion were otherwise minded. For they who neither received His words nor kept their minds open to conviction, were not disposed to believe that He came from God, and was sent by Him. Moreover, the Jews said on one occasion: If this Man were from God, He would not have broken the Sabbath; and on another, We are disciples of Moses: we know that God hath spoken unto Moses, but as for this Man we know not whence He is. You see how they denied His mission; so that they even cried in their shamelessness, they knew not whence He was. And that they did not admit His unspeakably high birth from everlasting, I mean His proceeding from God the Father, diseased as they were by the great perversity of their thoughts, and ready to stone Him with stones merely because of His Incarnation, you may easily satisfy yourself, if you will listen to the words of the Evangelist: For this cause therefore the Jews sought to kill Him, because He not only brake the Sabbath, but also called God His own Father, making Himself equal with God. And what the impious Jews said unto Him is also recorded: For a good work we stone Thee not, but for blasphemy; because that Thou, being a man, makest Thyself God. You will understand then very clearly, that those who truly keep His words have believed and confessed that He manifested Himself from the Father (for this is, I think, what I came forth means), and that He was sent to us to tell us the commandment of the Lord, as is said in the Psalms; while they who laughed to scorn the Word, Who was thus Divine and from the Father, rejected the faith, and plainly denied that He was God and from the Father, and that He came to us for our salvation, and dwelt among us, yet without sin. Justly, then, does He commend to God the Father, those who are good men, and are His own, and have submitted their souls to the hearing of His words, and will ever hold them in remembrance; that what He said may be made clear, beginning from the time of His sojourn amongst us. And what are His words? Everyone therefore who shall confess Me before men, him will I also confess before My Father Which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father Which is in heaven. This also God the Father Himself long ago declared that He would do, speaking by the mouth of Isaiah: Ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord, and the servant whom I have chosen. Our Saviour then speaks, at the same time, in His character as God, and in His character as Man. For He was at once God and Man, speaking in either character without reproach, suiting each occasion with appropriate words as it required.

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:9

What sayest Thou? Do You teach the Father, as though He were ignorant? Do You speak to Him as to a man who knows not? What then means this distinction? Do you see that the prayer is for nothing else than that they may understand the love which He has towards them? For He who not only gives what He has of His own, but also calls on Another to do the same, shows greater love. What then is, I pray for them? Not for all the world, He says, but for them whom You have given Me. He continually puts the hast given, that they might learn that this seems good to the Father. Then, because He had said continually, they are Yours, and, You gave them unto Me, to remove any evil suspicion, and lest any one should think that His authority was recent, and that He had but now received them, what says He?

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:9

He often repeats “you have given me” to impress on them that it was all according to the Father’s will. Then … to show them that this authority was not recent or that he had just now received them, he adds, “All things that are mine are yours, and yours are mine.” … Do you see the equality of honor? By speaking this way, he removes any suspicion that they are either separated from the Father’s power or that, before this, they had been separate from the power of the Son.

Source: HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 81.1

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:9-13

(Hom. lxxxi) As the disciples were still sad in spite of all our Lord's consolations, henceforth He addresses Himself to the Father to show the love which He had for them; I pray for them; He not only gives them what He has of His own, but entreats another for them, as a still further proof of His love.

(Hom. lxxxi. 1) He often repeats, Thou hast given Me, to impress on them that it was all according to the Father's will, and that He did not come to rob another, but to take unto Him His own. Then to show them that this power1 had not been lately received from the Father, He adds, And all Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine: as if to say, Let no one, hearing Me say, Them which Thou hast given Me, suppose that they are separated from the Father; for Mine are His: nor because I said, They are Thine, suppose that they are separate from Me: for whatever is His is Mine.

(Hom. lxxxi) Then He gives proof of this, I am glorified in them. If they glorify Me, believing in Me and Thee, it is certain that I have power over them: for no one is glorified by those amongst whom he has no power.

(Hom. lxxxi) And now I am no more in the world: i. e. though I no longer appear in the flesh, I am glorified by those who die for Me, as for the Father, and preach Me as the Father.

(Hom. lxxxi) Again He speaks as man: While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Thy name; i. e. by Thy help. He speaks in condescension to the minds of His disciples, who thought they were more safe in His presence.

(Hom. lxxxi) He was the only one indeed who perished then, but there were many after. None of them is lost, i. e. as far as I am concerned; as He says above more clearly; I will in no wise cast out. But when they cast themselves out, I will not draw them to Myself by dint of compulsion. It follows: And now I come to Thee. But some one might ask, Canst Thou not keep them? I can. Then why sayest Thou this? That they may have My joy fulfilled in them, i. e. that they may not be alarmed in their as yet imperfect state.

Source: Catena Aurea by Aquinas

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:9

When the Lord was speaking to the Father of those whom he already had as disciples, he said this also among other things: “I pray for them. I pray not for the world but for those whom you have given me.” By the world, he now wishes to be understood those who live according to the lust of the world and who do not stand in the gracious lot of those who were to be chosen by him out of the world. And so he says he prays not for the world but for those whom the Father has given him. For by the very fact of their having already been given to him by the Father, they have ceased belonging to that world for which he refrains from praying. And then he adds, “For they are yours.” The Father did not lose those whom he gave when he gave them to the Son. After all, the Son still goes on to say, “And all mine are yours, and yours are mine.”

Source: TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 107.1-2

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:9-13

(Tr. cvi) When He adds, I pray not for the world, by the world He means those who live according to the lust of the world, and have not the lot to be chosen by grace out of the world, as those had for whom He prayed: But for them which Thou hast given Me. It was because the Father had given Him them, that they did not belong to the world. Nor yet had the Father, in giving them to the Son, lost what He had given: For they are Thine.

(Tr. cvi. 6) It is sufficiently apparent from hence, that all things which the Father hath, the Only-Begotten Son hath; hath in that He is God, born from the Father, and equal with the Father; not in the sense in which the elder son is told, All that I have is thine. (Luke 15:31) For all there means all creatures below the holy rational creature, but here it means the very rational creature itself, which is only subjected to God. Since this is God the Father's, it could not at the same time be God the Son's, unless the Son were equal to the Father. For it is impossible that saints, of whom this is said, should be the property of any one, except Him who created and sanctified them. When He says above in speaking of the Holy Spirit, All things that the Father hath are Mine, (c. 16:15) He means all things which pertain to the divinity of the Father; for He adds, He (the Holy Ghost) shall receive of Mine; and the Holy Ghost would not receive from a creature which was subject to the Father and the Son.

(Tr. cvii. 3) He speaks of this as already done, meaning that it was predestined, and sure to be. But is this the glorifying of which He speaks above, And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own Self? If then with Thyself, what meaneth here, In them? Perhaps that this very thing, i. e. His glory with the Father, was made known to them, and through them to all that believe.

(Tr. cvii. 4) At the time at which He was speaking, both were still in the world. Yet we must not understand, I am no more in the world, metaphorically of the heart and life; for could there ever have been a time when He loved the things of the world? It remains then that He means that He was not in the world, as He had been before; i. e. that He was soon going away. Do we not say every day, when any one is going to leave us, or going to die, such an one is gone? This is shown to be the sense by what follows; for He adds, And now I come to Thee. And then He commends to His Father those whom He was about to leave: Holy Father, keep through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given Me. As man He prays God for His disciples, whom He received from God. But mark what follows: That they may be one, as We are: He does not say, That they may be one with Us, as We are one; but, that they may be one: that they may be one in their nature, as We are one in Ours. For, in that He was God and man in one person, as man He prayed, as God He was one with Him to Whom He prayed.

(iv. de Trin. c. ix) He does not say, That I and they maybe one, though He might have said so in the sense, that He was the head of the Church, and the Church His body; not one thing, but one person: the head and the body being one Christ. But showing something else, viz. that His divinity is consubstantial with the Father, He prays that His people may in like manner be one; but one in Christ, not only by the same nature, in which mortal man is made equal to the Angels, but also by the same will, agreeing most entirely in the same mind, and melted into one Spirit by the fire of love. This is the meaning of, That they may be one as We are: viz. that as the Father and the Son are one not only by equality of substance, but also in will, so they, between whom and God the Son is Mediator, may be one not only by the union of nature, but by the union of love.

(Tr. cvii. 6) 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. Let us understand then that when our Lord says this, He is distinguishing the persons, not dividing the nature, so that when the Son was keeping His disciples by His bodily presence, the Father was waiting to succeed Him on His departure; but both kept them by spiritual power, and when the Son withdrew His bodily presence, He still held with the Father the spiritual keeping. For when the Son as man received them into His keeping, He did not take them from the Father's keeping, and when the Father gave them into the Son's keeping, it was to the Son as man, who at the same time was God. Those that Thou gavest Me I have kept, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition; i. e. the betrayer of Christ, predestined to perdition; that the Scripture might be fulfilled, especially the prophecy in Psalm 108.

(Tr. cvii) Or thus: That they might have the joy spoken of above: That they may be one, as We are one. This His joy, i. e. bestowed by Him, He says, is to be fulfilled in them: on which account He spoke thus in the world. This joy is the peace and happiness of the life to come. He says He spoke in the world, though He had just now said, I am no more in the world. For, inasmuch as He had not yet departed, He was still here; and inasmuch as He was going to depart, He was in a certain sense not here.

Source: Catena Aurea by Aquinas

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on John 17:9

CHAPTER VIII. That nothing which is spoken of as belonging to the Father will be excluded from the kingdom of the Son, for Both alike rule over all.

He once more mediates as Man, the Reconciler and Mediator of God and men; and being our truly great and all-holy High Priest, by His own prayers He appeases the anger of His Father, sacrificing Himself for us. For He is the Sacrifice, and is Himself our Priest, Himself our Mediator, Himself a blameless Victim, the true Lamb Which taketh away the sin of the world. The Mosaic ceremonial was then, as it were, a type and transparent shadowing forth of the mediation of Christ, shown forth in the last times, and the high priest of the Law indicated in his own person that Priest Who is above the Law. For the things of the Law are shadows of the truth. For the inspired Moses, and with him the eminent Aaron, continually intervened between God and the assembly of the people; at one time deprecating God's anger for the transgressions of the people of Israel, and inviting mercy from above upon them when they were faint; at another, praying and blessing the people, and ordering sacrifices according to the Law and offerings of gifts besides in their appointed order, sometimes for sins, and sometimes thank-offerings for the benefits they felt that they had received from God. But Christ Who manifested Himself in the last times above the types and figures of the Law, at once our High Priest and Mediator, prays for us as Man; and at the same time is ever ready to cooperate with God the Father, Who distributes good gifts to those who are worthy. Paul showed us this most plainly in the words: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. He then prays for us as Man, and also unites in distributing good gifts to us as God. For He, being a holy High Priest, blameless and undefiled, offered Himself not for His own weakness, as was the custom of those to whom was allotted the duty of sacrificing according to the Law, but rather for the salvation of our souls, and that once for all, because of our sin, and is an Advocate for us: And He is the propitiation for our sins, as John saith; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.

But perhaps someone, wishing to controvert what we have said, will exclaim, "Is not what the disciple says quite contrary to the Saviour's words?" For our Lord Jesus Christ expressly in these words repudiates the necessity of praying to God for the whole world, while the wise John affirmed quite the contrary. For he maintains that the Saviour will be the Advocate and propitiation, not merely for our sins, but also for the sins of the whole world. It is not hard to find the solution to this difficulty, or to say how the disciple may be seen to be in accord with his Master's saying. For the blessed John, as he was a Jew and of the Jews, that some might not perhaps think that our Lord was merely an Advocate for the Israelites, and not in any sense for the rest of the nations scattered over the whole world, though destined to distinguish themselves by faith on Him and to be shortly called to knowledge of salvation through Christ, is perforce impelled to declare that our Lord will not only be the propitiation for the race of Israel, but also for the whole world; that is, those of every nation and kindred, who shall be called through faith to righteousness and sanctification. Our Lord Christ distinguishes from His own those who are otherwise minded, and who have chosen to insult Him by stubborn disobedience; and, referring to those who are prone to listen to His Divine commands, and who have already submitted, as it were, the necks of the hearts, and well-nigh bound round them the yoke of submission to God, said that for them only it was most fitting for Him to pray. For to those only, whose Mediator and High Priest He is, He thought it meet to bring the blessings of His mediation; to those, I mean, who, He says, were given to Himself, but were the Father's, as there is no other way of fellowship with God save by the Son. And He will Himself teach you this in the words: No one cometh unto the Father, but by Me. For observe how the Father, when He gave to His Son those of whom He speaks, won them over to Himself. And the Apostle, who was so conversant with the sacred writings, knowing this well, says: God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. For when Christ acted as Mediator, and received those who come to Him by faith, and brought them aright through Himself to the Father, the world was reconciled to God. Therefore also the Prophet Isaiah taught us, in anticipation, to choose peace with God, in Christ: Let us have peace with Him; let us who are in the way have peace. For if we banish from our hearts whatsoever estrangeth us from the love of Christ, I mean the base lasciviousness which hankers after sinful pleasure and is ever inclined to the delights of the world, and is besides the mother and nurse of all vice, and leads us widely astray, we shall become united in fellowship with Christ, and shall make peace with God, being joined to the Father Himself through the Son, inasmuch as we receive in ourselves the Word That was begotten of Him, and cry out in the Spirit, Abba, Father.

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on John 17:9

Christ, who manifested himself in the last times above the types and figures of the Law, at once our high priest and mediator, prays for us as man. And at the same time he is ever ready to cooperate with God the Father, who distributes good gifts to those who are worthy. Paul showed us this most plainly in the words “grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Christ, then, prays for us as man and also unites in distributing good gifts to us as God. For he, being a holy high priest, blameless and undefiled, offered himself—not for his own weakness, as was the custom of those to whom was allotted the duty of sacrificing according to the Law, but rather for the salvation of our souls.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 11.8

[AD 1107] Theophylact of Ohrid on John 17:9

To make it clear that everything He has been saying to the Father is purely for the benefit of His disciples, the Lord now adds, “I pray for them, and not for the world. I love and take care of My disciples; I bestow upon them what is Mine; and I beseech You, Father, to protect them. I do not pray to You on behalf of coarse, vulgar men who think about nothing except this world; I pray … for them whom Thou hast given Me; for they are Thine.” When the Lord says, whom Thou hast given Me, this does not mean that the Father only recently gave Him authority over these men. It does not mean that there was a time when the Father had this authority, but the Son did not, nor that the Father lost this authority when that the Son gained it. To make this clear, the Lord declares, “All Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine. For as long as they have been Yours, they have been Mine, for all Thine are Mine. They did not come into My possession a moment ago. And the fact that they are Mine in no way implies that they are no longer Yours. They have not been taken from You, for all Mine are Thine. Furthermore, I am glorified in them, which means, “I share the glory of My Father, just as the son of an emperor shares his father’s authority and glory: both are held in equal honor by their subjects.” If the Son were less than the Father, He would not dare to say, All Thine are Mine. The master owns everything that his servant has, while the servant owns nothing of his master’s. Here, on the contrary, what the Father has belongs to the Son, and what the Son has belongs to the Father. Thus the Son is glorified in all who belong to the Father, for the Son’s authority over all creation is equal to the Father’s.

[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on John 17:10

Now, if all things that are the Father’s are also Christ’s, certainly among those things that exist is the Father’s omnipotence. Of course, the only-begotten Son ought to be omnipotent, that the Son also may have all things that the Father possesses. “And I am glorified in them,” he declares. For “at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow.” … Therefore he is the effluence of the glory of God in this respect, that he is Almighty—the pure and vivid Wisdom itself—glorified as the effluence of omnipotence or glory.So that it may be more clearly understood what the glory of omnipotence is, we shall add the following: God the Father is omnipotent because he has power over all things, namely, over heaven and earth, sun, moon and stars and all things in them. And he exercises his power by means of his Word.… Now if every knee is bent to Jesus, then, without doubt, it is Jesus to whom all things are subject, and he it is who exercises power over all things and through whom all things are subject to the Father. For through wisdom, that is, by word and reason, not by force and necessity, all things are subject.

Source: ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.2.10

[AD 379] Basil of Caesarea on John 17:10

The Lord says “all mine are yours,” as if he were submitting his lordship over creation to the Father, but he also adds “yours are mine,” to show that the creating command came from the Father to him. The Son did not need help to accomplish his work, nor are we to believe that he received a separate commandment for each portion of his work. Such extreme inferiority would be entirely inadequate to his divine glory. Rather, the Word was full of his Father’s grace. He shines forth from the Father and accomplishes everything according to his parent’s plan. He is not different in essence, nor is he different in power from his Father, and if their power is equal, then their works are the same. Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. All things were made through him, and all things were created through him and for him, not as if he were discharging the service of a slave, but instead he creatively fulfills the will of his Father.

Source: ON THE HOLY SPIRIT 8.19

[AD 386] Cyril of Jerusalem on John 17:10

Angels did not create the world, but the only-begotten Son, begotten, as I have said, before all ages, by whom all things were made, nothing having been excepted from his creation.… “For all mine are yours and yours are mine,” the Lord says in the Gospels. And this we may certainly know from the Old and New Testaments. For he who said, “Let us make man in our image and after our likeness” was certainly speaking to someone present. But clearest of all are the psalmist’s words, “He spoke, and they were made; he commanded, and they were created,” as if the Father commanded and spoke and the Son made all things at the Father’s bidding.

Source: Catechetical Lecture 11:22-23

[AD 395] Gregory of Nyssa on John 17:10

For if the Son were not of the same nature as the Father, how could he have had in himself that which was different? Or how could he have shown in himself what was dissimilar if the foreign and alien nature did not receive the stamp of what was of a different kind from itself? But [Eunomius] says, “Neither does he have a divider of his glory.” Here he speaks truly even though he does not know what he is saying. For the Son does not divide the glory with the Father but has the glory of the Father in its entirety, even as the Father has all the glory of the Son. For this is what he said to the Father, “All mine are yours and yours are mine.” Notice how Christ also says that he will appear on the judgment day “in the glory of the Father,” when he will render to every one according to his works. And by this phrase he shows the unity of nature that subsists between them. For as “there is one glory of the sun and another glory of the moon,” because of the difference between the natures of those luminaries (since if both had the same glory we would think there was any difference in their nature), so he who foretold of himself that he would appear in the glory of the Father indicated by the identity of glory their community of nature.

Source: AGAINST EUNOMIUS 2.6

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:10

Do you see the equality of honor? For lest on hearing, You have given them Me, you should deem that they were alienated from the authority of the Father, or before this from that of the Son, He removed both difficulties by speaking as He did. It was as though He said, Do not when you hear that 'You have given them to Me,' deem that they are alienated from the Father, for what is Mine is His; nor when you hear, 'Yours they were,' think that they were aliens from Me, for what is His is Mine. So that the, You have given, is said only for condescension; for what the Father has is the Son's, and what the Son has is the Father's. But this cannot even be said of a son after the manner of man, but because They are upon a greater Equality of honor. For that what belongs to the less, belongs to the greater also, is clear to every one, but the reverse not so; but here He converts these terms, and the conversion declares Equality. And in another place, declaring this, He said, All things that the Father has are Mine, speaking of knowledge. And the hast given Me, and the like expressions, are to show that He did not come as an alien and draw them to Him, but received them as His own. Then He puts the cause and the proof, saying, And I am glorified in them, that is, either that I have power over them, or, that they shall glorify Me, believing in You and Me, and shall glorify Us alike. But if He is not glorified equally in them, what is the Father's is no longer His. For no one is glorified in those over whom he has no authority. Yet how is He glorified equally? All die for Him equally as for the Father; they preach Him as they do the Father; and as they say that all things are done in His Name, so also in the Name of the Son.

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:10

“And I am glorified in them,” that is, either that “I have power over them” or that “they shall glorify me, believing in you and me. And they shall glorify us alike.” But if he is not glorified equally in them, what the Father has is no longer his. For no one is glorified in those over whom he has no authority. Yet how is the Son glorified equally? All die for him equally as they do for the Father. They preach him as they do the Father. And as they say that all things are done in his name, so also are they done in the name of the Son.

Source: HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 81.2

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:10

It is sufficiently apparent how it is that all that belongs to the Father belongs also to the Son because the Son himself is also God and, born of the Father, is the Father’s equal. It is not in the sense in which the elder son is told, “You are always with me, and all that I have is yours.” For that was said of all those creatures that are inferior to the holy rational creature21 and are certainly subordinate to the church.… But here it means that even the rational creature itself is included, which is subject only to God, so that all beneath the rational heavenly creature are also subject to him. Since then such a creature belongs to God the Father, it would not at the same time be the Son’s unless he were equal to the Father.… For it is impossible that the saints, of whom this is said, should belong to anyone except the one who created and sanctified them. And for the same reason, everything also that is theirs must of necessity be the Son’s also to whom they themselves belong. Since, then, they belong both to the Father and to the Son, they demonstrate the equality of those to whom they equally belong. But when he says, speaking of the Holy Spirit, “All things that the Father has are mine; therefore I said that he shall take of mine and shall show it unto you,” he referred to those things that pertain to the divinity of the Father and in which he is equal to him in having all that he has because he adds, “he [the Holy Spirit] shall receive of mine.” And the Holy Spirit would never receive from a creature what was subject to the Father and the Son.

Source: TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 107.2

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on John 17:10

Those then who have been given to Christ are the Father's, but are not therefore removed from Christ. For God the Father reigneth with Him, and through Him ruleth over His own. For the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity share the same kingdom, and their universal dominion is one and the same; and whatever is the Son's will be subject to the glory of the Son and the Father; and also, whatever is said to be under the rule of the Father, over that the Son will surely hold sway. And therefore He saith: And all Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine. For as in Them perfect identity of Nature is visible and evident, the opinion held about Their majesty is not various, and does not attribute anything individually to One apart from the Other, but considers one and the same glory, identical in every respect, to attach to Both. For He That is by right of His Nature the Heir of His Father's Divine dignities will clearly have all that the Father hath, and will also show that His Father hath all that He Himself hath. For Either naturally reveals the Other in Himself; and the Son is seen in the Father, and the Father also in the Son. This kind of instruction the inspired writings gave us in the mystery. When, then, universal dominion is one of the dignities of the Father, it will belong also to the Son; for He is the express Image of His Person, and can endure no shadow of unlikeness or variance at all. He declares that He has been glorified in them, showing that His prayer for them is, as it were, a recompence well deserved.

[AD 100] Didache on John 17:11

We give you thanks, Holy Father,
For your holy name which you
have caused to dwell in our hearts,
And for the knowledge and faith and immortality
Which you have made known to us
Through Jesus your servant;
To you be the glory forever.…
Remember your church, Lord,
To deliver it from all evil
And to make it perfect in your love;
And gather it, the one that has been sanctified,
From the four winds into your kingdom,
Which you have prepared for it;
For yours is the power and the glory forever.

Source: DIDACHE 10.2-5

[AD 108] Ignatius of Antioch on John 17:11

Wherefore it is fitting that ye also should run together in accordance with the will of the bishop who by God's appointment rules over you. Which thing ye indeed of yourselves do, being instructed by the Spirit. For your justly-renowned presbytery, being worthy of God, is fitted as exactly to the bishop as the strings are to the harp. Thus, being joined together in concord and harmonious love, of which Jesus Christ is the Captain and Guardian, do ye, man by man, become but one choir; so that, agreeing together in concord, and obtaining a perfect unity with God, ye may indeed be one in harmonious feeling with God the Father, and His beloved Son Jesus Christ our Lord. For, says He, "Grant unto them, Holy Father, that as I and Thou are one, they also may be one in us." It is therefore profitable that you, being joined together with God in an unblameable unity, should be the followers of the example of Christ, of whom also ye are members.

Source: Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians

[AD 150] Epistle to Diognetus on John 17:11

In a word, what the soul is to the body, Christians are to the world. The soul is dispersed through all the members of the body, and Christians throughout the cities of the world. The soul dwells in the body but is not of the body. Likewise, Christians dwell in the world but are not of the world. The soul, which is invisible, is confined in the body, which is visible. In the same way, Christians are recognized as being in the world, and yet their religion remains invisible. The flesh hates the soul and wages war against it, even though it has suffered no wrong, because it is hindered from indulging in its pleasures. Similarly, the world also hates the Christians, even though it has suffered no wrong, because they set themselves against its pleasures. The soul loves the flesh that hates it and its members, and Christians love those who hate them. The soul is enclosed in the body, but it holds the body together. And though Christians are detained in the world as if in a prison, they in fact hold the world together. The soul, which is immortal, lives in a mortal dwelling. In a similar way, Christians live as strangers amid perishable things, while waiting for the imperishable in heaven. The soul, when poorly treated with respect to food and drink, becomes all the better. And so Christians when punished daily increase more and more. Such is the important position to which God has appointed them, and it is not right for them to decline it.

Source: LETTER TO DIOGNETUS 6

[AD 220] Tertullian on John 17:11

Run through the whole Gospel, and you will find that He whom you believe to be the Father (described as acting for the Father, although you, for your part, forsooth, suppose that "the Father, being the husbandman," must surely have been on earth) is once more recognised by the Son as in heaven, when, "lifting up His eyes thereto," He commended His disciples to the safe-keeping of the Father. We have, moreover, in that other Gospel a clear revelation, i.e. of the Son's distinction from the Father, "My God, why hast Thou forsaken me? " and again, (in the third Gospel, ) "Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit.

Source: Against Praxeas

[AD 367] Hilary of Poitiers on John 17:11

John, who especially brings out the working of spiritual causes in the Gospel, preserves this prayer of the Lord for the apostles that all the others passed over. Notice how he prayed, namely, “Holy Father, keep them in your name.… While I was with them, I kept them in your name: those whom you gave me I have kept.” That prayer was not for himself but for his apostles. He was not in sorrow for himself since he asks them to pray that they won’t be tempted.… And when he prays, he prays for those whom he preserved, so long as he was with them, whom he now hands over to the Father to preserve. Now that he is about to accomplish the mystery of death, he begs the Father to guard them. The presence of the angel who was sent to him (if this explanation is true) is no doubt significant. Jesus showed his certainty that the prayer was answered when, at its close, he commands the disciples to sleep. The effect of this prayer and the security that prompted the command, “sleep,” is noticed by the Evangelist in the course of the passion, when he says of the apostles just before they escaped from the hands of the pursuers, “That the word might be fulfilled which he had spoken, ‘Of those whom you have given me, I lost not one of them.’ ” He himself fulfills the petition of his prayer, and they are all safe. But he asks that those whom he has preserved the Father will now preserve in his own name. And they are preserved; the faith of Peter does not fail: it cowered, but repentance followed immediately.

Source: ON THE TRINITY 10.42

[AD 380] Apostolic Constitutions on John 17:11

And said concerning us to His Father, "Holy Father, although the world has not known Thee, yet have I known Thee; and these have known Thee."

Source: CONSTITUTIONS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:11

That is, Although I appear no longer in the flesh, yet by these am I glorified. But why does He say continuously, that, I am not in the world; and that, because I leave them I commit them to You; and that, when I was in the world I kept them? For if one should take these words in their simple sense, many absurdities will follow. For how could it be reasonable to say, that He is no longer in the world, and that when He departs He commits them to another? Since these are the words of a mere man parting from them forever. Do you see how He speaks for the most part like a man, and in a way adapted to their state of mind, because they thought that they had a greater degree of safety from His presence? Wherefore He says, While I was with them, I kept them. John 14:28 Yet He tells them, I come to you; and, I am with you till the end. Matthew 28:20 How then says He these words, as if about to be parted from them? He addresses Himself, as I said before, to their thoughts, that they may take breath a little when they hear Him speaking thus, and delivering them over to the care of the Father. For since, after hearing many exhortations from Him, they were not persuaded, He then holds converse with the Father, manifesting His affection for them. As though He had said, Since You call Me to Yourself, place these in safety; for I come to You. What sayest Thou? Are You not able to keep them? Yea, I am able. Wherefore then do You speak thus? That they may have My joy fulfilled John 17:13; that is, may not be confounded, as being imperfect. And by these words He showed that He had spoken all these things so, to give them rest and joy. For the saying appears to be contradictory. Now I am no longer in the world, and these are in the world. This was what they were suspecting. For a while therefore He condescends to them, because had He said, I keep them, they would not have so well believed; wherefore He says, Holy Father, keep them through Your own Name; that is, by your help.

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:11

“For the will of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is one.” This is what he wants us to be as well when he says, “That they may be one, as you and I are one.” There is nothing that can equal unanimity and concord, for this is how one becomes many. If two or ten are of one mind, the one is no longer one, but each one is multiplied tenfold, and you will find the one in the ten and the ten in the one. And if they have an enemy, he who attacks the one (as having attacked the ten) is defeated, for he is the target of ten opponents instead of one. Is someone in need? No, he is not in need, for he is wealthy in his greater part, that is, in the nine. And the needy part, the lesser, is concealed by the wealthy part, the greater. Each of these has twenty hands, twenty eyes and as many feet. For he does not see with his own eyes alone but with those of the others as well. He does not walk with his own feet alone but with those of the others. He does not work with his own hands alone but with theirs. He has ten souls, for not only does he think about himself, but those souls also think about him. And if they are made into a hundred, it will still be the same, and their power will be extended even more. Don’t you see how the excess of love makes the one both irresistible and multiplied? See how one can even be in many places, the same both in Persia and in Rome? Don’t you see that what nature cannot do, love can?… See what a multiplier love is when it can even make one a thousand. Why then do we not acquire this power and place ourselves in safety? This is better than all power or riches. This is more than health, than light itself. It is the groundwork for courage.

Source: HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 78.3-4

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:11

“And now,” he adds, “I am no more in the world, and these are in the world.” If your thoughts turn to the very hour in which he was speaking, both [he and his disciples] were still in the world. And yet, we must not understand “I am no more in the world” metaphorically of the heart and life.… For there is one word used here that makes any such understanding altogether inadmissible, because he does not say, “And I am not in the world” but “I am no more in the world.” In this way he shows that he himself had been in the world but was no more so. And so are we then at liberty to believe that he at one time savored the world, but, delivered from such a mistake, no longer retained such a disposition? Who would venture to shut himself up in so profane a meaning? It remains, therefore, that in the same sense in which he himself also was previously in the world, he declared that he was no longer in the world, that is to say, in his bodily presence. In other words, he was showing that his own absence from the world was now in the immediate future, and his disciples’ absence would be later when he said that he was no longer here but they were—although both he and they were still present. He was using the prevailing custom of human speech. Do we not say every day, “he is no longer here,” about someone who is on the very point of departure? And we talk this way especially about those who are at the point of death. And besides all else, the Lord himself, as if foreseeing the thoughts that might possibly be excited in those who were afterward to read these words, added, “And I come to you,” explaining at least in some measure why he said, “I am no more in the world.”

Source: TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 107.4

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on John 17:11

Holy Father, keep them in Thy Name which Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, even as We are.

CHAPTER IX. That the dignity of Godhead is inherent in the Son; even though He is said to have received this from the Father, because of His humanity and the form of His humiliation.

He still preserves the blending of two things into one: the human element, I mean, which, so far as we are concerned, imparts humiliation, and the Divine element, which is pregnant with the most exalted majesty. For His speech is combined of both; and, just as we stated in our interpretation of the foregoing passage, the Divine element is not perfectly exalted to the height, nor yet is it wholly sundered from the limitations of humanity, holding as it were a middle place by an unspeakable and ineffable fusion of the two, so as not to pass outside the limits of true Godhead, nor yet altogether to leave behind those of humanity. For His ineffable descent from God the Father exalts Him, inasmuch as He is the Word and Only-begotten, into a Divine Nature and the majesty which naturally accompanies it, while His humiliation brings Him down in some sort to our level, not as though it availed perforce to overpower the kingship over the universe which He shares with the Father, for the Only-begotten could never submit to violence against His Will. Rather was His humiliation self-chosen, accepted and maintained from love towards us. For He humbled Himself, that is, of His own Will and not by any compulsion. For He would be proved to have undergone the Incarnation against His Will, if there were any one at all able to prevail over Him, and who bade Him unwillingly take this upon Him. He humbled Himself therefore willingly for our sakes, for we should never have been called His sons and God's, if the Only-begotten had not undergone humiliation for us and on our account; to Whose Likeness we are conformed by participation in the Spirit, and so become children of God, and God's. Whenever, therefore, in His sayings, He blends together in some way the human with the Divine, do not be therefore offended, nor lightly relinquish the admiration you ought to feel at the incomparable art displayed in His sayings, skilfully preserving for us in divers ways their twofold character, so that we can see at the same time the God and the Man speaking truly in His Nature, marvellously combining the humiliation of His Humanity with the glory of His ineffable Divinity; preserving wholly blameless and irreproachable the harmonious fusion of the two.

And how is it that, when we say this, we do not affirm that the Nature of the Word is degraded from its original majesty? To think this would indeed display the greatest ignorance; for that which is Divine is altogether and wholly changeless, and endureth no shadow of turning but rather ever remaineth on one stay. We rather make such a statement because the manner of His voluntary degradation, as by necessary inference investing Him with the form of humiliation, causes the Only-begotten, Who is coequal with, and in the Likeness of, the Father, and in Him and proceeding from Him, to be apparently in an inferior position to Him. Be not astonished at hearing this, if the Son appear to fall short of the Father's majesty because of His Humanity, when for this very reason Paul declared that He was thus inferior even to the angels, in the following words: Him Who hath been made a little lower than the angels, even Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour, though the holy angels were bidden to worship Him, for when, He says, He bringeth in the Firstborn into the world, He saith, And let all the angels of God worship Him, as well as also the Holy Seraphim, who stood around and fulfilled the office of servants when He appeared unto the prophet sitting on a high and lofty throne. Then, so far as His being begotten and proceeding from God the Father is concerned, His Humanity is not proper to the Son; but it is proper to Him in so far as He is Incarnate Man, and remaineth ever what He was and is, and will be such for evermore, and debaseth Himself to what He was not of old for our sakes.

He saith, then: Holy Father, keep them in Thy Name which Thou hast given Me; that they may be one, even as We are. He desires His disciples to be kept by the power and might of the Ineffable Divine Nature, well and suitably attributing the power of saving whomsoever He will, yea, and with ease, to the true and living God; and thereby, again, He glorifies no other nature than His own, as in the Person of the Father, from Whom He proceeded as God. Therefore He saith, Father, keep them in Thy Name which Thou hast given Me; that is, the Name of God. He says again, that the Name of God was not given unto Him as though He had not been God by Nature, and were now called from without to the dignity of Godhead. For then would He be created, and possess a spurious and elective glory and an adulterate nature, which it were impious for us to imagine. For thereby He would be mulcted of His inherent character of Sonship. But since, as the inspired writings prophesy, the Word became flesh, that is, man, He says that He received Divine attributes by gift; for clearly the title and actuality of Divine glory could not naturally attach to man. But consider, and attentively reflect, how He showed Himself the living and inherent Power of God the Father, whereby He doeth all things. For when, addressing His Father, He says, Keep them, He did not indeed suffice for them alone, but suitably brought in Himself as working for their preservation and being for that purpose also the power and instrument of His Father; for He says: Keep them in Thy Name which Thou hast given Me. Note how guarded the saying is. For allotting and attributing as suitable only to the Nature of God providential care over us, He declares at once that to Himself has been given the glory of Godhead, because of the form of manhood, saying that what was His by natural right was given to Him; that is, the Name which is above every name. Therefore also we say that this Name belongs to the Son by nature, as proceeding from the Father; but, so far as He is Man, those things are His by gift which He receives as Man, using herein the form of speech applicable to ourselves; for man is not God by nature, but Christ is God by nature, even though He be conceived of as Human because He was amongst us.

He wishes indeed the disciples to be kept in unity of mind and purpose, being blended, as it were, with one another in soul and spirit and the bond of brotherly love; and to be linked together in an unbroken chain of affection, so that their unity may be so far perfected as that their elective affinity may resemble the natural unity which exists between the Father and the Son; and, remaining undebased and invincible, may not be distorted by anything whatever that exists in the world, or by the lusts of the flesh, into dissimilarity of purpose; but rather preserving in the unity of true piety and holiness the power of love intact, which also came to pass. For, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles, the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and soul, in the unity that is of the Spirit. And this is what Paul himself also meant, when he said: One body and one Spirit; for we who are many are one body in Christ, for we all partake of the one bread, and we have all received the unction of one Spirit, that is, the Spirit of Christ. As, then, they were to be one body, and to partake of one and the selfsame Spirit, He desires His disciples to be preserved in a unity of spirit which nothing could disturb, and in unbroken singleness of mind. And if any man suppose that after this manner the disciples are united even as the Father and the Son are One, not merely in Substance, but also in purpose (for the holy Nature of God has one Will, and one and the selfsame purpose altogether), let him so think. For He will not stray wide of the mark, since we can see identity of purpose among true Christians, though we have not consubstantiality as the Father and the Word That proceeded from Him, and is in Him.

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on John 17:11

And I am no more in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to Thee.

What then is His request, and why does He endeavour to obtain God's favour for His followers? I am no more in the world, He says, and these are in the world, and, I come to Thee. For while He yet lived in converse with His holy Apostles in the flesh upon earth, the consolation of His visible Presence was ever with them in their daily path, as it were to give instant succour to those in peril; and they were therefore sustained in courage. For the mind of man is readier to rely upon the things that are seen than the things that are unseen, for encouragement or pleasure. When we say this, we are far from asserting that the Lord is powerless to save, if He be not visibly present; for any one who thought this would rightly be convicted of folly. For Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, yea, and for ever. But He knew that His disciples were very faint at heart, left desolate as it were on the earth, with the world raging round them like fierce billows, and ever ready to beleaguer with intolerable terrors and imminent and great dangers those who persist in bearing God's tidings to the uninitiated.

Since then, He says, I come to Thee, for I shall soon ascend to sit on the throne of God the Father, and reign with Him, and these will remain the while in the world, I pray for them, for Thou gavest them Me; and as Thine and Mine now I rightly care for them, and I am glorified in them, for all things whatsoever Thou hast given Me are Thine, and Thine are Mine. And the saying is true. For those in the world who have been given to Christ, and are on that account the Father's, have not therefore disavowed the duty of praising Him through Whom they were united to God the Father, and having been brought to Him, will remain none the less His. For He hath all things in common with the Father, together with His inherent Godhead and power. For there is one God in us, Who is worshipped in the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity; and we all of us belong to the one true God, being subject as servants to the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity.

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on John 17:11

Christ wishes the disciples to be kept in a state of unity by maintaining a like-mindedness and an identity of will, being mingled together as it were in soul and spirit and in the law of peace and love for one another. He wishes them to be bound together tightly with an unbreakable bond of love, that they may advance to such a degree of unity that their freely chosen association might even become an image of the natural unity that is conceived to exist between the Father and the Son. That is to say, he wishes them to enjoy a unity that is inseparable and indestructible, which may not be enticed away into a dissimilarity of wills by anything at all that exists in the world or any pursuit of pleasure, but rather reserves the power of love in the unity of devotion and holiness. And this is what happened. For as we read in the Acts of the Apostles, “the company of those who believed were of one heart and soul,” that is, in the unity of the Spirit. This is also what Paul himself meant when he said “one body and one Spirit.” “We who are many are one body in Christ for we all partake of the one bread,” and we have all been anointed in the one Spirit, the Spirit of Christ.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 11.9

[AD 1107] Theophylact of Ohrid on John 17:11

Why does Jesus repeat, I am no more in the world, and, While I was with them in the world? At first glance these statements seem to contradict the promises He had made: Lo, I am with you always (Mt. 28:20), and, Ye shall see Me (Jn. 16:16). The truth is that He tells the disciples only as much as they are able to understand at the moment. Since they were likely to be distraught at being left without His help, Christ declares that He has committed them to His Father’s care and protection. (For the disciples’ benefit) He says to the Father , “Because You are calling Me to Yourself, You must guard them by Your own name,” which means, “by the help and power that You have given Me.” What kind of protection does the Father give? He bestows unity, that they may be one. “If they preserve love for one another and do not separate into factions, they will be invincible.” Of course, Christ does not mean that they should become literally one person. He means that they should imitate the Father and the Son by acquiring unanimity of thought and will among themselves. Because the disciples would have found it impossible to believe Him if He had said, “Even though I am no longer with you, I will still protect you,” Jesus reassures them by calling upon the Father to be their protector. By appearing to entreat the Father on their behalf, He gives them hope. In the same vein, when Christ says, I kept them in Thy name, He does not mean that He kept them safe only by the power of the Father’s name. He speaks in this manner—as we have explained many times—on account of the weakness of His listeners, who as yet could not grasp that He was God. By doing so, the Lord strengthens and reassures them: “While I was with you, you were protected and guarded by the power of the Father’s name. Now you must believe that He will continue to guard you, for it is His nature to do so.”

[AD 202] Irenaeus on John 17:12

And he was called the "son of perdition"

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:12

Again He speaks as a man and as a Prophet, since nowhere does He appear to have done anything by the Name of God.

Those that You gave 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 says, Of all that You gave Me, I will surely lose nothing. John 6:39 Yet not only was he lost, but also many afterwards; how then says 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. John 6:37 Not through fault of Mine, not because I either instigate or abandon them; but if they start away of themselves, I draw them not by necessity.

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:12

In another place he says, “Of all that you gave me, I will surely lose nothing.” Yet not only was [Judas] lost, but also many afterward were lost too. So how then can he say, “I will not lose any?” [He means], “At least for my part, I will not lose them.” So in another place, declaring the matter more clearly, he said, “I will not reject anyone who comes to me.” In other words, [Jesus is saying], it is not through any fault on my part. They will not be lost at my instigation or because I abandon them. But if they start going away on their own, I will not force them back.

Source: HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 81.2

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:12

The betrayer of Christ was called the son of perdition, as foreordained to perdition, according to the Scripture, where it is specially prophesied of him in Psalm 109.

Source: TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 107.7

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:12

Here, if I am asked why God should not have given them perseverance to whom he gave that love by which they might live in a Christian way, I answer that I do not know. I am not speaking arrogantly but rather with an acknowledgment of my own small capabilities when I hear the apostle saying, “O man, who are you that makes a reply against God?” … Insofar as he condescends to make his judgments known to us, let us give thanks. However, insofar as he thinks it is fitting to conceal them, let us not murmur against his counsel. Rather, let us believe that this also is the most wholesome for us. But whoever of you are in opposition to his grace and ask [concerning this question of perseverance], what do you yourself say? It is well that you do not deny yourself to be a Christian and boast of being a catholic. If, therefore, you confess that to persevere to the end in good is God’s gift, I think that equally with me you are ignorant why one person should receive this gift and another should not receive it. And in this case we are both unable to penetrate the unsearchable judgments of God.

Source: ON REBUKE AND GRACE 17

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:12

When, therefore, God’s children say of those who did not have perseverance, “They went out from us, but they were not of us,” and add, “Because if they had been of us, they would assuredly have continued with us,” what else are they saying than that they were not children, even when they were called and professed to be children? It is not because they simulated righteousness but because they did not continue in it. For he does not say, “If they had been of us, they would assuredly have maintained a real and not a feigned righteousness with us.” Rather, he says, “If they had been of us, they would assuredly have continued with us.” Beyond a doubt, he wanted them to continue in goodness. Therefore they were in goodness. However, because they did not remain in it—that is, they did not persevere to the end—he says, “They were not of us, even when they were with us.” In other words, they were not of the number of children even when they were in the faith as children because those who are truly children are foreknown and predestined as conformed to the image of his Son. They are called according to his purpose so as to be elected, as is evident in the fact that the son of promise does not perish, but the son of perdition does.

Source: ON REBUKE AND GRACE 20

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on John 17:12

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. But they expected that no one could then save them after Christ's Ascension into heaven, but that they would fall a prey to those who wished to injure them, and that there would be nothing to restrain the hand of their powerful adversaries, but rather that any one so disposed might work his will on them without hindrance, and involve them in any peril. But wise as they were and fathers in the faith, and bearers of light to the world, we need not shrink from saying that they ought not merely to have regarded the Incarnate Presence of our Saviour Christ, but to have known that even though He were to deprive them of converse with Him in the flesh, and they saw Him not with the eye of the body, yet that it was their duty at any rate to think of Him as present with them for evermore in the power of His Godhead. For will God ever lose the attributes of His Person? Or what power can resist an Omnipotent Nature, or is able perforce to hinder it in the performance of its functions? And it is the power and actuality of God's Being to be present everywhere, and unspeakably to fill the heavens and also the earth, and to contain all things, but to be contained of none. For God is not bounded by place, nor separated by distance within any sphere, however great; for such like things cannot avail to affect that Nature which has nothing to do with the dimensions of space. Then, since Christ was at the same time God and Man, the disciples ought to have been aware that, though He were absent in the body, yet He would not wholly forsake them, but would be ever with them by reason of God's unspeakable might. And for this reason also our Saviour Himself said, in the foregoing passage: Holy Father, keep them in Thy Name which Thou hast given Me; and here again: While I was with them, I kept them in Thy Name which Thou hast given Me; almost pointing out this fact to His disciples, that the ability to save them suited rather the working of His power as God than His Presence in the flesh: for this very flesh was not sanctified of itself; but when, by His Incarnation, the Word was made one with it, it was in some sort transformed into His inherent power, and is now become the channel of salvation and sanctification to those who partake thereof. We must not then attribute the whole of the Divine activities of Christ to the flesh by itself, but we shall be rather right if we ascribe them to the Divine power of the Word. For does not "keeping the disciples in the Name of the Father" mean this, and nothing else? For they are kept by the glory of God. He removes, then, from His disciples' minds, the fear which they felt because they thought themselves forsaken; often following the same course of thought, He assures them that they will be in perfect safety, not through living with their Master in the body, but rather because He is by Nature God. Evidently the universal dominion and might which are His have no end; for He can suffer no change or alteration from that state in which He dwells eternally, but will keep them safe with ease for evermore, and rescue them from every peril that may assail them. Consider also the forethought wrapped up in the saying, to our profit and edification. For when He asks that they----I mean His holy disciples ----should be kept by God the Father, He declares that He Himself had done this, showing Himself like in power and works to His Father, or rather, His inherent might. For surely He Who is seen to have the same power as God, He Who is acknowledged the true God, must be thought to be wholly inherent in Him, and to possess equality of power and identity of Nature with Him. And how can He Who kept them as God in the Name of God, and as a God crowned them with the glory that proceeded from righteous actions befitting the title, be foreign to God, or of different nature? Is He not in very deed shown to be that which He is, namely, God? For nothing that exists can do those works which are peculiar to God, without being in its own nature that which we imagine God to be. He still preserves in the passage the twofold conception of His character owing to His Incarnation. For He takes away, as it were, from His Nature, as a created Being, the power of saving and preserving all to whom this is due for their piety towards God. and ascribes it to the Name of the Father, attributing to the Divine Nature alone the things which are of God. And for this reason, again, though He says that He kept the disciples, He did not give the honour of taking up the work to His Humanity, but rather says that it was fulfilled in the Name of God; excluding Himself, in a manner, from its accomplishment, so far as He is flesh and is so conceived of, but not excluding Himself from the power of keeping them, and of accomplishing the works of a God, insomuch as He is God, and from God, the all-working power of the Father----a Divine force which even when at rest displays by its very attributes the Nature from which it ineffably proceeded. And if here too, again, He says that the Name of God has been given unto Him, although He is in fact God by Nature, as the Only-begotten Who proceeded from Him, He is not thereby in truth degraded, nor would He thereby exclude Himself from the honour and glory which is His due. Far from it. For to receive is appropriate to His Humanity, and can be fittingly ascribed thereto; for, of itself, humanity possesses nothing.

He says that He so kept His disciples, and had such care for them, that none of them was lost save one, whom He called the son of perdition; as though he were doomed to destruction of his own choice, or rather his own wickedness and impiety. For it is inconceivable that the traitor disciple was by a Divine and irresistible decree entangled, as it were, in the snare of the fowler, and brought within the devil's noose; for then would he surely have been guiltless when he succumbed to the verdict of heaven. For who shall oppose the decree of God? And now he is condemned and accursed, and it would have been better for him if he had never been born. And why? Surely the wretched man met his doom as a consequence of his own volitions, and is not convicted by destiny. He that was so enamoured of destruction may well be called a son of perdition, inasmuch as he merited ruin and corruption, and ever awaits the day of perdition as fraught with anguish and lamentation.

And as Christ added to the words He used concerning him, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, we have given an explanation which may be useful to readers of this passage. For it was not because of any prophecy in Scripture that the traitor was lost, and became so vile as to barter for a few coins the precious Blood of Christ, but rather, as through his own innate wickedness he betrayed his Lord, and was infallibly destined to destruction on that account, the Scripture, which cannot lie, foretold that so it would be. For the Scripture is the Word of God, Who knows all things, and carries in His own consciousness the character and life of each one of us, and his conversation from the beginning to the end. Moreover, the Psalmist, attributing to Him knowledge of all things, of the past as well as of the future, thus addresses Him: Thou understandest all my thoughts afar off; Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. The Divine Word, then, Which had complete foreknowledge, and saw the future as though it were already present, besides all the rest which It told us about Christ, revealed unto us that he that was ranked a disciple would also die the death of a traitor. Still, the foreknowledge and foretelling of the future indicated not the pleasure and commandment of God; nor yet was the prophecy directed to compel the actual fulfilment of the evil that was foreshadowed and the conspiracy against the Saviour, but rather to avert it. For when Judas had this knowledge he might, at any rate, if he had so chosen, have shunned and avoided the result, as he was free to determine his inclinations in any direction.

Put perhaps you will say, "How, then, can Christ be said to have kept His disciples, if merely in pursuance of the inclinations and volitions of their own wills the rest escaped the devil's net while Judas alone was taken, ill-fated beyond the others? How, then, can the safekeeping here spoken of be said to have been of profit?

Nay, my good friend, we answer, soberness is indeed a good thing, and the keeping guard over our minds profiteth much, together with an earnest endeavour towards the doing of good works and stablishing ourselves in virtue, for so shall we work out our own salvation; but this alone will not avail to save the soul of man. For it stands in urgent need of assistance and grace from above, to make what is difficult of achievement easy to it, and to render the steep and thorny path of righteousness smooth. And to prove to you that we are not able to do anything at all of ourselves without the aid of Divine grace, hearken to the voice of the Psalmist: If the Lord build not the house, their labour is in vain that build it: and if the Lord keep not the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

I say, then, that it is our bounden duty to foster and practise a home-bred self-denial and a religious frame of mind; but in so doing also to ask help of God, and, receiving the aid that comes from above as a panoply proof against every assault, to acquit ourselves like men. When God has once for all vouchsafed to grant our prayer, and it is therefore in our power to subdue the might of our adversaries, and conquer the power of the devil, if we do not choose to follow him when he allures us to pleasure or any other kind of sin; then, I say, if we let our wills comply with him, and, yielding to our wicked inclinations, are entangled in his noose, how can we any more with justice accuse any one else, or fail to attribute our doom to our own folly? For is not this what Solomon said long ago: The foolishness of man perverteth his way, and his heart fretteth against the Lord? And this is unquestionably the case. If, however, the traitor was unable to enjoy the succour of the Saviour as much as the other disciples, let any man only prove this, and we submit; but if, while he was, in common with the rest, encompassed by the Divine grace, of his own will he relapsed into the abyss of perdition, how can Christ be said not to have kept him, when He vouchsafed him the riches of His mercy, and increased, so far as it was possible in any man's case, his chance of safety, if he had not chosen his doom of his own will? His grace, moreover, was conspicuous in the rest, continually keeping in safety those who made their own free-will, as it were, co-operate therewith. For this is the manner in which the salvation of each one of us is achieved.

[AD 461] Leo the Great on John 17:12

But O ungodliest of people, “seed of Canaan and not of Judah,” and no longer “a vessel of election” but “a son of perdition” and death! You thought the devil’s instigations would profit you better so that, inflamed with the torch of greed, you were ablaze to gain thirty pieces of silver without seeing the riches you would lose. For even if you did not think the Lord’s promises were to be believed, what reason was there for preferring so small a sum of money to what you had already received? You were allowed to command the evil spirits, to heal the sick, to receive honor with the rest of the apostles. And that you might satisfy your thirst for gain, you had the opportunity to steal from the box that was in your charge. But your mind, which lusted after forbidden things, was more strongly stimulated by what was less allowed. It was not the amount of the price that pleased you so much as the enormity of the sin. And so your wicked bargain is not so detestable merely because you valued the Lord so cheaply but because you sold him who was the redeemer, yes, even yours, and yet you asked for no pity for yourself. And justly was your punishment put into your own hands because none could be found more cruelly bent on your destruction than yourself.

Source: SERMON 67.4

[AD 1107] Theophylact of Ohrid on John 17:12

Those that Thou gavest Me I have kept: these words convey profound humility if one properly understands them. Throughout this chapter it might appear that Jesus is directing the Father to guard the disciples after His departure, like a man who gives his friend a sum of money for safe keeping and tells him, “Look, I have not lost any of this: neither must you.” But in reality, the Lord is consoling the disciples: “These things I speak in the world to reassure the disciples and give them joy. Knowing that You have received them safely and will guard them—just as I did, without losing any—they can again breathe freely.” How can the Lord claim to have lost none of them, when Judas fell away, and many other followers left Him as well (see Jn. 6:66)? “As far as it depended on Me,” He explains, “I have lost none of them. I did everything on My part to keep them, and I guarded them zealously. If some chose to reject Me, it is not My fault.” That (ἵνα) the Scripture might be fulfilled, meaning, every Scripture referring to the son of perdition. For he is mentioned in various places in the Psalms and in other prophetic books. As we have explained before, the conjunction ἵνα, (in order) that, is commonly used in Scripture to express the outcome of an event.

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:13

Do you see that the discourse is composed rather in a human manner? So that should any wish from these words to lower the Son, he will lower the Father also. Observe, in proof of this, how from the beginning He speaks partly as though informing and explaining to Him, partly as enjoining. Informing, as when He says, I pray not for the world; enjoining, as, I have kept them until now, and none of them is lost; and, do Thou therefore now keep them, He says. And again, Yours they were, and You have given them unto Me and While I was in the world I kept them. But the solution of all is, that the words were addressed to their infirmity.

But after having said that none of them was lost but the son of perdition, He added, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. Of what Scripture does He speak? That which foretells many things concerning Him. Not that He perished on that account, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But we have before spoken at length on this point, that this is the peculiar manner of Scripture, which puts things which fall out in accordance with it, as though they were caused by it. And it is needful to enquire exactly into all, both the manner of the speaker, his argument, and the laws of Scripture, if at least we are minded not to draw wrong conclusions. For, Brethren, be not children in your minds. 1 Corinthians 14:20

3. This it is necessary to consider well, not only for the understanding the Scriptures, but also for earnestness in one's way of life. For so little children do not desire great things, but are wont to admire those which are worth nothing; they are pleased at seeing chariots, and horses, and the muleteer, and wheels, all made out of earthenware; but if they see a king sitting upon a chariot, and a pair of white mules, and great magnificence, they do not even turn their heads. And they deck out as brides dolls made of the same material, but the actual brides, real and beautiful, they do not even notice; and this is their case in many other matters. Now this many men also undergo at this time; for when they hear of heavenly things, they do not even give heed to them, but toward all the things of clay they are as eager as children, and stupidly admire the wealth which is of earth, and honor the glory and luxury of the present life. Yet these are just as much toys as those; but the other are the causes of life, and glory, and repose. But as children deprived of their playthings cry, and do not know how even to desire the realities, so also are many of those who seem to be men. Wherefore it says, Be not children in your minds. 1 Corinthians 14:20 Desirest thou riches, tell me, and do you not desire the wealth that lasts, but childish toys? If you should see a man admiring a leaden coin, and stooping to pick it up, you would pronounce his penury to be extreme; and do you, who collectest more worthless things than this, number yourself among the rich? How can this consist with reason? We will call him rich who despises all present things. For no one, no one will choose to laugh at these little things, silver and gold, and other things of show, unless he have the desire of greater things; just as the man would not despise the leaden coin, unless he possessed coins of gold. Do thou, therefore, when you see a man running by all worldly things, deem that he does so from no other motive than because he looks to a greater world. So the husbandman despises a few grains of wheat, when he expects a larger harvest. But if, when the hope is uncertain, we despise things which are, much more ought we to do so in a case where the expectation is sure. Wherefore I pray and beseech you not to bring loss on yourselves, nor, keeping hold of mire, rob yourselves of the treasures which are above, bringing your vessel to port laden with straw and chaff. Let each say what he will concerning us, let him be angry at our continual admonitions, let him call us silly, tedious, tiresome, still we will not desist from exhorting you on these matters continually, and from continually repeating to you that of the Prophet, 'Break off your sins by almsgiving, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor' Daniel 4:27, and bind them upon your neck. Do not act in this way today, and desist tomorrow. For even this body has need of daily food; and so too has the soul, or rather that much more; and if it give not, it becomes weaker and more vile. Let us then not neglect it when it is perishing, choking. Many wounds it receives each day, by being lustful, angry, slothful, reviling, revengeful, envious. It is therefore necessary to prepare also remedies for it, and no small remedy is that of almsgiving, which can be placed on every wound. For, Give alms, it says, of such things as you have, and behold all things are clean unto you. Luke 11:41 Alms, not covetousness, for that which proceeds from covetousness endures not, though thou give to those who need. For almsgiving is that which is free from all injustice, this makes all things clean. This is a thing better even than fasting, or lying on the ground; they may be more painful and laborious, but this more profitable. It enlightens the soul, makes it sleek, beautiful, and vigorous. Not so does the fruit of the olive hold up the athletes, as this oil recovers the combatants of piety. Let us then anoint our hands, that we may lift them up well against our adversary. He that practices showing mercy to him that needs, will soon cease from covetousness, he who continues in giving to the poor, will soon cease from anger, and will never even be high-minded. For as the physician continually tending wounded persons is easily sobered, beholding human nature in the calamities of others; so we, if we enter upon the work of aiding the poor, shall easily become truly wise, and shall not admire riches, nor deem present things any great matter, but despise them all, and soaring aloft to heaven, shall easily obtain the eternal blessings, through the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ; to whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:13

But he tells what this joy is when he says, “That they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.” This has already been elucidated above where he says, “That they may be one, even as we are.” This joy of his that is bestowed on them by him was to be fulfilled, he says, in them. And for that very end he declared that he had spoken in the world. This is that peace and blessedness in the world to come. If we want to attain it, we must live temperately and righteously and godly in the present.

Source: TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 107.8

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on John 17:13

Keep in mind once more what we were just now saying, and you will easily understand the drift of the passage. For He on all occasions preserved the juxtaposition of the two aspects of His character, at the same time displaying the Divine majesty for which He was pre-eminent, and not discarding the proper limitations of the Human Nature which He assumed at His Incarnation. For there would be something absurd in the supposition that He wished to disown what He had willingly taken upon Himself. For being Himself in lack of nothing, but the all-perfect Son of a perfect Father, He emptied Himself of His glory, not to do Himself any service, but rather to convey to us the blessing which would result from His humiliation. Showing Himself, then, to them as at the same time both God and Man, He, as it were, induces His disciples to reflect that absent, as well as present, He would work the things which made for their salvation in God; and that, as He had them in His keeping while He was yet with them on the earth in the form of Man, so also would He keep them while absent from them as God, through the excellency of His Substance. For that which is Divine is not bounded by space, and is not far from anything that exists, but fills and pervades the universe, and though present in all things is contained of none. When, addressing His own Father, He says: Holy Father, keep them, He at once refers, by right of its existence, to the universal working of the power of the Father; and at the same time shows that He standeth not apart from His Nature, but, being in it and proceeding from it, is indivisibly united with it, though He be conceived of as independently existing. Keep them, He says, in Thy Name which Thou hast given Me; and again: While I was with them, I kept them in Thy Name which Thou hast given Me. We are bound, therefore, to think that, if He had kept them hitherto in the Name given Him by the Father, that is, in the glory of Godhead, for He gave unto Him the Name which is above every name; and if He wishes the Father Himself also to keep them in the Name given unto Him, He will not be excluded from acting in the work; for the Father will keep those who are knit to Him by faith through the agency of the Only-begotten, Who is His power and might. For He will not exercise His power in any way save through Him. Then, if even in the flesh He kept them, by the power and glory of His Godhead, how can we think that He will fail to think His disciples worthy of the mercy which they need; and how can they ever lose His sure support while the Divine power of the Only-begotten abideth evermore, and the power which is His by Nature is for ever firmly established? For that which is Divine admits of no variance at all, or of any change into any evil agency, but shines forth for ever in those attributes which belong to it eternally.

I have spoken then, He says, these things in the world, that My disciples might have My joy fulfilled in them. What kind of joy is meant we will proceed to show, putting away from us fear of dispute, because of the obscurity of the expression. The blessed disciples, then, thought indeed that while Christ was present with them in their daily lives, I mean, of course, in the flesh, they could easily rid themselves of every calamity and readily escape danger from the Jews, and that they would remain proof against every assault of their foes; but that when He was separated from them, and had gone up to heaven, they would fall an easy prey to perils of every sort, and would have to bear the attack of the king of terrors himself, as there was no one any more with them who was strong to save, and who could scare away the temptations that assailed them. For this cause, then, our Lord Jesus Christ neither disavowed the Manhood He had once for all taken upon Himself, nor yet showed Himself deficient in Divine power; speaking plainly to this intent, and saying that the Name of God had been given to Him as Man, but that through Him, and in Him, the Father c showed mercy to those who worshipped Him, and had them in safe keeping. What, then, was the wise object that He here had in view"? It was that the blessed disciples might understand and know well, if they only slightly considered this saying, that even when He was in the flesh, it was not through the flesh that He was working for their salvation, but in the omnipotent glory and might of His Godhead. My absence in the flesh then, He says, will do My disciples no harm, while the Divine power of the Only-begotten can easily keep them safe, even though He be not visibly present in the body.

We give this explanation, not as making of no account the holy Body of Christ----God forbid; but because it were more fitting that the accomplishment of His Word should be ascribed to the glory of the Godhead. For even the Body Itself of Christ was sanctified by the power of the Word made one with it. and it is thus endowed with living force in the blessed Eucharist, so that it is able to implant in us its sanctifying grace. Therefore also our Saviour Christ Himself, once conversing with the Jews, and speaking many things concerning His own Body, calling it the true Bread of Life, said: The bread which I will give you is My Flesh,; which I will give for the life of the world. And when they were sore amazed and perplexed to know how the nature of earthly flesh could be to them the channel of eternal life, He answered and said: It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I spake unto you are spirit, and are life. For here, too, He says that the flesh can profit nothing, that is, to sanctify and quicken those who receive it, so far, that is, as it is mere human flesh; but when it is understood and believed to be the temple of the Word, then surely it will be a channel of sanctification and life, but not altogether of itself, but through God, Who has been made one with it, Who is holy and Life. Ascribing everything, then, to the power of His Godhead, He says that His disciples will suffer no loss from His departure in the body, with reference, at any rate, to their seeking to be in His keeping. For the Saviour, though He be vanished into heaven, will yet not be far from those who love Him, but will be with them by the power of His Godhead.

In order, then, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves, He says, I have spoken these things in the world. What, then, is this joy which is fulfilled and perfect? It is the knowledge and belief that Christ was not a mere Man as we are, but that, besides being as we are, yet without sin, He is also the true God. It is clear, then, and beyond dispute, that He will always have the power to save those who worship Him at any time He will, even though He be not present in the body. For this knowledge will involve the perfect fulfilment of our own joy, inasmuch as we have an ally ever near us, Who is strong enough to rescue us from every evil.

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on John 17:13

Showing himself to them simultaneously as God and man, Christ induces his disciples to reflect that he would work to accomplish their salvation in God whether present or absent. And that as he had them in his keeping while he was with them on the earth in the form of man, so also would he keep them while absent from them as God.… For that which is divine is not bounded by space and is not far from anything that exists but fills and pervades the universe. And though it is present in all things, it is contained by none. When addressing his own Father, Christ says, “Holy Father, keep them,” referring … to the universal working of the power of the Father. And at the same time showing that he does not stand apart from the nature of the Father but being in it and proceeding from it, Christ is indivisibly united with it, though he is conceived of as independently existing.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 11.9

[AD 220] Tertullian on John 17:14

For a defiled spirit cannot be acknowledged by a holy Spirit, nor a sad by a joyful, nor a lettered by a free.

Source: On Prayer

[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on John 17:14

“And the world hated them, because they are not of the world,” for it hated us from the time when we no longer looked “at the things that are seen but at the things that are not seen,” because of the teaching of Jesus.

Source: COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 13.20

[AD 345] Aphrahat the Persian Sage on John 17:14

Let us hate ourselves and love Christ as he loved us and gave himself up for our sakes. Let us honor the spirit of Christ that we may receive grace from him. Let us be strangers to the world, even as Christ was not of it. Let us be humble and mild that we may inherit the land of life. Let us be unflagging in his service that he may cause us to serve in the abode of the saints. Let us pray his prayer in purity that it may have access to the Lord of majesty. Let us be partakers in his suffering so that we may also rise up in his resurrection. Let us bear his sign on our bodies that we may be delivered from the wrath to come.

Source: DEMONSTRATION 6

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:14-19

(Hom. lxxxii) Again, our Lord gives a reason why the disciples are worthy of obtaining such favour from the Father: I have given them Thy word; and the world hath hated them; i. e. They are had in hatred for Thy sake, and on account of Thy word.

(Hom. lxxxii. 1) Above, when He said, Them whom Thou gavest Me out of the world, He meant their nature; here He means their actions. They are not of the world; because they have nothing in common with earth, they are made citizens of heaven. Wherein He shows His love for them, thus praising them to the Father. The word as when used with respect to Him and the Father expresses likeness of nature; but between us and Christ there is immense distance. Keep them from the evil, i. e. not from dangers only, but from falling away from the faith.

(Hom. lxxxii) Or thus: Sanctify them in Thy truth; i. e. Make them holy, by the gift of the Holy Spirit, and sound doctrines: for sound doctrines give knowledge of God, and sanctify the soul. And as He is speaking of doctrines, He adds, Thy word is truth, i. e. there is in it no lie, nor any thing typical, or bodily. Again, Sanctify them in Thy truth, may mean, Separate them for the ministry of the word, and preaching.

(Hom. lxxxii) Or thus: For their sakes I sanctify Myself, i. e. I offer Myself as a sacrifice to Thee; for all sacrifices, and things that are offered to God, are called holy. And whereas this sanctification was of old in figure, (a sheep being the sacrifice,) but now in truth, He adds, That they also might be sanctified through the truth; i. e. For I make them too an oblation to Thee; either meaning that He who was offered up was their head, or that they would be offered up too: as the Apostle saith, Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy. (Rom. 12:1)

Source: Catena Aurea by Aquinas

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:14

1. When having become virtuous we are persecuted by the wicked, or when being desirous of virtue we are mocked at by them, let us not be distracted or angry. For this is the natural course of things, and everywhere virtue is wont to engender hatred from wicked men. For envying those who desire to live properly, and thinking to prepare an excuse for themselves if they can overthrow the credit of others, they hate them as having pursuits opposite to their own, and use every means to shame their way of life. But let not us grieve, for this is a mark of virtue. Wherefore Christ also says, If you were of the world, the world would love its own. John 15:19 And in another place again, Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you. Luke 6:26 Wherefore also He says here, I have given them Your word, and the world has hated them. Again He tells the reason for which they were worthy to obtain much care from the Father; For Your sake, He says, they have been hated, and for Your word's sake; so that they would be entitled to all providential care.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:14-19

(Tr. cviii) They had not yet experienced these sufferings which they afterwards met with; but, after His custom, He puts the future into the past tense. Then He gives the reason why the world haled them; viz. Because they are not of the world. This was conferred upon them by regeneration; for by nature they were of the world. It was given to them that they should not be of the world, even as He was not of the world; as it follows; Even as I am not of the world. He never was of the world; for even His birth of the form of a servant He received from the Holy Ghost, from Whom they were born again. But though they were no longer of the world, it was still necessary that they should be in the world: I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world.

(Tr. cviii) He repeats the same thing again; They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

(Tr. cviii) Sanctify them through Thy truth: for thus were they to be kept from the evil. But it may be asked, how it was that they were not of the world, when they were not yet sanctified in the truth? Because the sanctified have still to grow in sanctity, and this by the help of God's grace. The heirs of the New Testament are sanctified in that truth, the shadows of which were the sanctification of the Old Testament; they are sanctified in Christ, Who said above, I am the way, the truth, and the life. (c. 14:6) It follows, Thy discourse is truth. The Greek is λόγος, i. e. word. The Father then sanctified them in the truth, i. e. in His Word the Only-Begotten, them, i. e. the heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.

(Tr. cviii) It is manifest by this, that He is still speaking of the Apostles; for the very word Apostle means in the Greek, sent. But since they are His members, in that He is the Head of the Church, He says, And for their sakes I sanctify Myself; i. e. I in Myself sanctify them, since they are Myself. And to make it more clear that this was His meaning, He adds, That they also might be sanctified through the truth, i. e. in Me; inasmuch as the Word is truth, in which the Son of man was sanctified from the time that the Word was made flesh. For then He sanctified Himself in Himself, i. e. Himself as man, in Himself as the Word: the Word and man being one Christ. But of His members it is that He saith, And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, i. e. them in Me, since in Me both they and I are. That they also might be sanctified in truth: they also, i. e. even as Myself; and in the truth, i. e. Myself.

Source: Catena Aurea by Aquinas

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:14

1. While the Lord is still speaking to the Father, and praying for His disciples, He says: I have given them Your saying; and the world has hated them. That hatred they had not yet experienced in those sufferings of their own, which afterwards overtook them; but He speaks thus in His usual way, foretelling the future in words of the past tense. And then, subjoining the reason of their being hated by the world, He says, Because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. This was conferred on them by regeneration; for by generation they were of the world, as He had already said to them, I have chosen you out of the world. It was therefore a gracious privilege bestowed upon them, that they, like Himself, should not be of the world, through the deliverance which He was giving them from the world. He, however, was never of the world; for even in respect of His servant-form He was born of that Holy Spirit of whom they were born again. For if on that account they were no more of the world, because born again of the Holy Spirit; on the same account He was never of the world, because born of the Holy Spirit.

2. I pray not, He adds, that you should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil. For they still accounted it necessary to be in the world, although they were no longer of it. 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 so 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. Is it not because even those who are sanctified still continue to make progress in the same sanctification, and grow in holiness; and do not so without the aid of God's grace, but by His sanctifying of their progress, even as He sanctified their outset? And hence the apostle likewise says: He who has begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6 The heirs therefore of the New Testament are sanctified in that truth which was adumbrated in the purifications of the Old Testament; and when they are sanctified in the truth, they are in other words sanctified in Christ, who said in truth, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. As also when He said, The truth shall make you free, in explanation of His words, He added soon after, If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed; in order to show that what He had previously called the truth, He a minute afterwards denominates the Son. And what else did He mean by the words before us, Sanctify them in the truth, but, Sanctify them in me?

3. Finally, He proceeds, and doing so fails not to suggest the same with increasing clearness: Your speech (sermo) is truth. What else did He mean than I am the truth? For the Greek Gospel has λόγος, which is also the word that is found in the passage where it is said, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And that Word at least we know to be the only begotten Son of God, which was made flesh, and dwelt among us. Hence also there might have been put here as it actually has been put in certain copies, Your Word is truth; just as in some copies that other passage is written, In the beginning was the speech. But in the Greek without any variation it is λόγος in both cases. The Father therefore sanctifies in the truth, that is, in His own Word, in His Only begotten, His own heirs and His (the Son's) co-heirs.

4. But now He still goes on to speak of the apostles, for He proceeds to add, As You have sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. Whom did He so send but His apostles? For even the very name of apostles, which is a Greek word, signifies in Latin nothing more than, those that are sent. God, therefore, sent His Son, not in sinful flesh, but in the likeness of sinful flesh; Romans 8:3 and His Son sent those who, born themselves in sinful flesh, were sanctified by Him from the defilement of sin.

5. But since, on the ground that the Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, has become Head of the Church, they are His members; therefore He says in the words that follow, And for their sakes I sanctify myself. For what means He by the words, And for their sakes I sanctify myself, but I sanctify them in myself, since they also are [part of] myself? For those of whom He so speaks are, as I have said, His members; and the head and body are one Christ, as the apostle teaches when he says of the seed of Abraham, And if you be Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed, after having said before, He says not, And to seeds, as in many, but as in one, And to your seed, which is Christ. If, then, the seed of Abraham is Christ, what else is declared to those to whom he says, Then are you Abraham's seed, but then are you Christ? Of the same character is what this very apostle said in another place: Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh. Colossians 1:24 He said not, of my afflictions, but of Christ's; for he was a member of Christ, and in his persecutions, such as it behooved Christ to suffer in the whole of His body, he also was filling up his own share of His afflictions. And to be assured of the certainty of this in the present passage, give heed to what follows. For after saying, And for their sakes I sanctify myself, to let us understand that He thereby meant that He would sanctify them in Himself, He immediately added, That they also may be sanctified in the truth. And what else is this but in me, in accordance with the fact that the truth is that Word in the beginning which is God? In whom also the Son of man was Himself sanctified from the beginning of His creation, when the Word was made flesh, for the Word and the man became one person. Then accordingly He sanctified Himself in Himself, that is, Himself the man in Himself the Word; for the Word and the man is one Christ, who sanctifies the manhood in the Word. But in behalf of His members He says, And for their sakes I,— that is, that the benefit may be also theirs, for they too are [included in the] I, just as it benefited me in myself, because I am man apart from them— I sanctify myself, that is, I sanctify them as if it were my own self in me, since in me they also are I. That they also may be sanctified in the truth. For what else mean the words they also, but [they] in the same way as I; in the truth, and that truth am I? After this He now begins to speak not only of the apostles, but also of the rest of His members, which we shall treat of, as grace may be granted us, in another discourse.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:14

And then, adding the reason for their being hated by the world, he says, “Because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” This was conferred on them by regeneration. For by generation they were of the world, as he had already said to them, “I have chosen you out of the world.” It was therefore a gracious privilege bestowed on them, that they, like himself, should not be of the world, through the deliverance that he was giving them from the world. He, however, was never of the world. For even in respect of his servant form he was born of that Holy Spirit of whom they were born again. For if they were no more of the world, because they were born again of the Holy Spirit, he too was never of the world because he was born of the Holy Spirit.

Source: TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 108.1

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on John 17:14

The world indeed hates Christ because it is in conflict with his words and does not accept his teaching. People’s minds entirely yield to base desires. And even as the world hates our Savior Christ, it has also hated the disciples who carry through him his message.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 11.9

[AD 735] Bede on John 17:14-19

As if to say, The time is now at hand, when I shall be taken out of the world; and therefore it is necessary that they should be still left in the world, in order to preach Me and Thee to the world. But that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil; every evil, but especially the evil of schism.

Source: Catena Aurea by Aquinas

[AD 780] John of Dalyatha on John 17:14

He said that his friends were not of the world and that the world has hated them. The fulfillment of his commandments is the cross, that is to say, the forgetting and obliteration of all desire for the world and a yearning desire to depart from it in the flame of love, as was the case with Paul. In openness of speech toward my God and in confidence I truly say that the moment the mind strips off the world, it puts on Christ. The moment it departs from thinking about the affairs of the world, it encounters God. The moment the soul cuts off from itself associating with the world, the Spirit starts singing within it of its ineffable mysteries. It is a “mystery for me” here, and a cause for fear. But to the true, truth is revealed.

Source: LETTER 5.2

[AD 1274] Glossa Ordinaria on John 17:14-19

As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. For what Christ was sent into the world, for the same end were they; as saith Paul, God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself; and hath given to us the word of reconciliation. (2 cor. 5:19) As does not express perfect likeness between our Lord and His Apostles, but only as much as was possible in men. Have sent them, He says, according to His custom of putting the past for the future.

Source: Catena Aurea by Aquinas

[AD 1274] Glossa Ordinaria on John 17:14

As you have sent Me into the world, even so have 1 also sent them into the world. For what Christ was sent into the world, for the same end were they as said Paul, God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself; and has given to us the word of reconciliation. As does not express perfect likeness between our Lord and His Apostles, but only as much as was possible in men. Have sent them, He says, according to His custom of putting the past for the future.

[AD 100] Didache on John 17:15

“And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one; for yours is the power and the glory forever.” Pray like this three times a day.

Source: DIDACHE 8.2-3

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:15

Again He simplifies His language; again He renders it more clear; which is the act of one showing, by making entreaty for them with exactness, nothing else but this, that He has a very tender care for them. Yet He Himself had told them, that the Father would do all things whatsoever they should ask. How then does He here pray for them? As I said, for no other purpose than to show His love.

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:15

Christ came not to put us to death and deliver us from the present life in that sense but to leave us in the world and prepare us for a worthy participation in our heavenly home. This is why he said to the Father, “And these are in the world, and I come to you. I pray not that you should take them from the world but that you should keep them from the evil,” that is, from sin. Further, those who insist that the present life is evil … would have to agree that murderers would deserve a crown for rescuing us from evil.… Miserable, wretched person! What are you saying? Is this life evil, a life where we have learned to know God, and meditate on things to come, and have become angels instead of humans and take part in the choirs of the heavenly powers?… In calling the present world evil, he has accommodated himself to our usage.

Source: COMMENTARY ON GALATIANS 1.4

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:15

“I pray not,” he adds, “that you should take them out of the world but that you should keep them from the evil.” For they still thought it was necessary to be in the world, although they were no longer of it. 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 they are kept from the evil, as he had previously prayed that they might be. But it may be inquired how they were no longer of the world if they were not yet sanctified in the truth. Or, if they already were, why does he request that they should be sanctified? Isn’t it because even those who are sanctified still continue to make progress in the same sanctification and grow in holiness? And they do not do so without the aid of God’s grace but by his sanctifying of their progress, even as he sanctified them at the outset [of their sanctification].

Source: TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 108.2

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on John 17:15

Christ does not wish for the apostles to be set free of human affairs or to be rid of life in the body when they have not yet finished the course of their apostleship or distinguished themselves by the virtues of a godly life. Rather, his desire is so see them live their lives in the company of people in the world and guide the footsteps of those who are his to a state of life well pleasing to God. After they have done this, then at last, with the glory they have achieved, they will be carried into the heavenly city and dwell with the company of the holy angels.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 11.9

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:16

How then says He in another place, Which You gave Me out of the world; Yours they were? John 17:6 There He speaks of their nature; here of wicked actions. And He puts 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 says, As I am not of the world, be not troubled; for the as is not here expressive of unvarying exactness. For as, when in the case of Him and the Father the as is used, a great Equality is signified, because of the Relationship in Nature; so when it is used of us and Him, the interval is great, because of the great and infinite interval between the respective natures. For if He did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth 1 Peter 2:22, how could the Apostles be reckoned equal to Him? What is it then that He says, They are not of the world? They look to another world, they have nothing common with earth, but have become citizens of heaven. And by these words He shows His love, when He commends them to the Father, and commits them to Him who begot Him. When He says, Keep them, He does not speak merely of delivering them from dangers, but also with regard to their continuance in the faith. Wherefore He adds,

[AD 435] John Cassian on John 17:16

The Lord speaks to his Father in the Gospel as follows: “They are not of the world, as I am not of the world.” … No one can understand the truth and force of this except one who has gone through the trials of what [Jesus] was talking about—one who has been under the teacher of experience. This is someone the eyes of whose soul the Lord has turned away from all things present, so that he no longer considers them as things that will soon pass away but as things that are already over and done with, and he sees them vanish into nothing, like misty smoke.… And so, if we are anxious to attain true perfection, we ought to ensure that we have outwardly with the body made light of parents, home, the riches and pleasures of the world, so that we may also inwardly with the heart forsake all these things and never be drawn back by any desires to what we have forsaken.

Source: CONFERENCE 1.7.2, 4-5

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on John 17:16

By these words He indicates once more, and makes clear to us, the reason why He requires to ascend to God the Father, and why so to do becomes Him, while He is still our Mediator, and High Priest, and Advocate, according to the Holy Scripture; and shows us that it is in order that, if at any time we encounter failure, or miss the straight path in thought or action, or are assailed by unexpected perils or buffeted by the tempest of the devil's malice, He may approach His Father on our behalf in His appropriate character as Mediator; and join with Him in granting good gifts to those who are worthy. For it would well become Him so to do, as He is God by Nature. Those then, He says, who have received Thy Word, O Father, through Me, show forth My Likeness in themselves and are conformed to the pattern of Thine own Son, who, like Him, pass unscathed through the ocean of the world's wickedness, and have shown themselves foreigners and strangers to the love of pleasure in this life, and every kind of vice. Therefore keep them in Thy truth, for exceeding purity is inherent in Christ. For He is truly God, and cannot be subject to sin nor endure it, but is rather the fountain of all goodness, and the beauty of holiness. For the Divine Nature, that ruleth over all, can do nothing but what is in truth suitable and belongeth thereto. And the holy disciples, I mean all who believe on Him, cannot otherwise exhibit purity unspotted by the wickedness of this world than by means of forgiveness and grace from above, which putteth away the defilement of previous offences and the accusing sins of their past lives; and, further, conferring on them the glory of a life of sanctification, though their continuance therein be not free from conflict, as Paul wisely teaches us, saying: Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. For our life is cast upon the deep, and we are tossed by divers storms, as the devil tempts without ceasing, and continually assails and strives to defile if he can, by the insidious inventions of malice, even those who have been already made pure. For his meat is well chosen, as the prophet says. Having then borne witness to His disciples that their life was out of the world, and that they were conformed to the likeness of His own essential purity, He proceeds to pray to His Father to keep them. It is almost as though He said: O Holy Father, if they were in the world----that is, if they lived the life that has honour in this world----if, sowing the seed of earthly and temporary pleasure in their hearts, they imprinted on themselves the foul image of the evil one, would not have attacked them with temptation, nor have armed himself against his own children, for he would have in them the likeness of his own inherent wickedness. But since they, following after Me, laugh to scorn the deceitfulness of this world, and are out of the world, and, moreover, in their conduct show most clearly the impress of My incomparable holiness, and on that account have Satan, who is ever murmuring against the Saints, for their bitter foe, ever lying in wait for them; therefore of necessity I desire them to be in Thy safe keeping. And to be in Thy safe keeping is not to be far from Thy truth, that is, from Me. For I am by Nature Thy truth, O Father, the Essential, True, and Living Word.

We must suppose that this is what He thinks right to say. See how, in all His sayings, so to speak, He insinuates His own Person into the action of the Father, whatever that action has reference to, and puts Himself altogether side by side with Him, wishing probably to show how true the statement is: All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made. In the previous passage, indeed, He briefly besought His Father to keep the disciples in the Name which had been given unto Himself. In this, however, He desires His prayer on their behalf to be fulfilled in the truth of the Father. What, then, does this mean; or what does the change in the language signify? Is it meant to show that the working of the Father, shown through Him in mercy to the Saints, is not uniform? For in the first passage, when He says that His disciples ought to be kept in the Name of the Father, that is to say, in the glory and power of His Godhead, so that they should be out of the power of the enemy, He declares that aid is vouchsafed to the Saints in whatever happens unto them, after the secret fashion that Christ at the proper season revealed to His disciples when He said: Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to have you, that he might sift you as wheat: but I made supplication for thee, that thy fail not. For many of God's dealings concerning us are in secret, Christ taking thought for the life of each of us, and covering us as with a shield. But here, when He says Keep them in the truth, He signifies clearly their being led by revelation of the truth to apprehend it. For no man can attain to the knowledge of truth without the light of the Spirit, nor can he at all, humanly speaking, work out for himself an accurate comprehension of the Divine doctrines. For the mysteries of Holy Writ exceed our understanding, and glorious is the blessing of having even a moderate knowledge concerning Christ.

The blessed Peter, moreover, when he confessed that the Lord was in truth the Son of the living God, heard the words: Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father Which is in heaven. For He reveals to the Saints His Son, Who is truth, and does not allow Satan to lead the mind of His believers astray to false knowledge; relying on whom, in their season, Hymenaeus and Alexander have made shipwreck concerning the faith, rejecting the true doctrine of the faith. Of great avail, then, towards a right continuance in the straight path of thought and action, is our safe keeping by the Father in the Name of God and in truth; that we may not fail in making our light shine forth in action, nor, by turning aside to folly, stray far away from the doctrines of true holiness. And this may easily be our lot, if we are seen to be out of the world while not disavowing our birth in the world; for of the dust of the earth are we all framed, as the Scripture saith, but by the quality of our deeds we rid ourselves of life in the world. For while they walk upon earth, those who love conformity with Christ are citizens of heaven.

We must also remark that He very appropriately here calls the Father holy, almost, as it were, reminding Him that, as He is holy, He takes pleasure in those that are holy. And all men are holy, whosoever are seen to be unspotted by the world, and whosoever are by nature in Christ, in the Father's likeness adopted, and chosen to be His disciples by the sanctification according to grace, and the light and goodness of their lives. For a man may thus be conformed to the Image of God, Which transcends the world.

[AD 542] Caesarius of Arles on John 17:16

There are two cities, dearest brothers.… The first is the city of this world, the second, the city of paradise. The first city is full of labor, the second is restful. The first is full of misery, the second is blessed. If a person lives sinfully in the first, he cannot arrive in the second. We must be pilgrims in this world in order to be citizens of heaven. If one wants to love this world and remain a citizen of it, he has no place in heaven, for we prove our pilgrim status by our longing for our true country. Let no one deceive himself, beloved brothers. The true country of Christians is in heaven, not here.… The angels are our fellow citizens. Our parents are the patriarchs, prophets, apostles and martyrs. Our King is Christ. May we live, therefore, in this earthly sojourn in a manner that will enable us to long for such a country during our stay here.

Source: SERMON 151.2

[AD 780] John of Dalyatha on John 17:16

Do you want Christ to appear to you in prayer as he would to his friend? Let love for him be within you without a moment’s break. Do you want this love to be continually inflamed in your soul? Then remove from your soul love for the world. Do you want your home to be in that place which is without place, being in God? Leave the world, as a baby leaves the womb. Then you will have seen reality. For Christ cannot live with the world. I beg you, listen to him as he demonstrates to you with his own words, “I am not of the world.” This is why it chases me away from where I would live, and also why I cannot live with it, “because it hates me.” But he is continuously overshadowing the soul and visiting it, so that if it empties itself of the things of the world he can dwell in it.

Source: LETTER 5.1

[AD 215] Clement of Alexandria on John 17:17

These, then, who are disgusting even to the heathen poets for their fashions, how shall they not be rejected by the truth?

Source: Clement of Alexandria The Instructor Book III

[AD 373] Athanasius of Alexandria on John 17:17

We are made sons through Christ by adoption and grace, partaking of his Spirit. For “as many as received him,” he says, “to them he gave power to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name.” And therefore, he is also the Truth, saying, “I am the Truth,” and in his address to his Father, he said, “Sanctify them through your Truth, your Word is Truth.” We, by imitation [of this truth], become virtuous and sons. Therefore, he did not say “that they may be one as we are” so that we might become such as he is, but that as he, being the Word, is in his own Father, we too, seeing him as our example, might become one toward each other in concord and oneness of spirit, nor be at variance as the Corinthians, but be of one mind as those five thousand in the Acts of the Apostles who were as one.

Source: Discourses Against the Arians 3.25.19

[AD 380] Apostolic Constitutions on John 17:17

For there is no other God like Thee; for on Thee is our reliance. "Sanctify them by Thy truth: for Thy word is truth."

Source: CONSTITUTIONS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES

[AD 395] Gregory of Nyssa on John 17:17

The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit alike give sanctification, life, light, comfort, and any other similar graces. And let no one attribute the power of sanctification in a special sense to the Spirit when he hears the Savior in the Gospel saying to the Father concerning his disciples, “Father, sanctify them in your name.” So too all the other gifts are produced in those who are worthy alike by the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit: every grace and power, guidance, life, comfort, the change to immortality, the passage to liberty, and every other boon that exists, which descends to us.

Source: ON THE HOLY TRINITY

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:17

As Paul also says, Having put in us the word of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:19 For the same end for which Christ came, for the same did these take possession of the world. In this place again the as is not put to signify resemblance in the case of Himself and the Apostles; for how was it possible for men to be sent otherwise? But it was His custom to speak of the future as having come to pass.

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:17

“Make them holy by the gift of the Spirit and right doctrines.” As when he says, “You are clean through the word that I spoke to you,” so now he says the same thing, “Instruct them, teach them the truth.” “And yet he says that the Spirit does this. Why then does he now ask it from the Father?” He asks so that you may again learn their equality of honor. For right doctrines concerning God sanctify the soul. And if he says that they are sanctified by the word, do not be amazed. And to show that he speaks of doctrines, he adds, “Your word is truth,” that is, “there is no falsehood in it, and all that is said in it must happen.” Again, it signifies nothing purely figurative or material. Paul says something similar concerning the church that he has sanctified by the Word. For the Word of God is also used to cleanse. Moreover, “sanctify them” seems to me to signify something else, namely, “set them apart for the Word and for preaching.” And this is made plain from what follows. For, he says, “as you have sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.”

Source: HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 82.1

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:17

“Your speech (sermo) is truth.” What else did he mean than “I am the truth?” For the Greek Gospel has logos, which is also the word that is found in the passage where it is said, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” And that Word at least we know to be the only begotten Son of God, which “was made flesh and dwelt among us.” And so, there also might have been put here (as it actually has been put in certain copies) “Your Word is truth,” just as in some copies that other passage is written, “In the beginning was the speech.” But in the Greek without any variation it is logos in both cases. The Father therefore sanctifies in the truth—that is, in his own Word, in his Only Begotten—his own heirs and his [Son’s] co-heirs.

Source: TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 108.3

[AD 428] Theodore of Mopsuestia on John 17:18

The participation in the Spirit will not only give them the power to be freed from evil but will make them so strong that they will travel throughout the world and preach as I have preached.

Source: COMMENTARY ON JOHN 6.17.18

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:18

But now he still goes on to speak of the apostles, for he proceeds to add, “As you have sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.” Whom did he send in this way but his apostles? For even the very name of apostles, which is a Greek word, signifies in Latin nothing more than, those that are sent. God, therefore, sent his Son, not in sinful flesh but in the likeness of sinful flesh. And his Son sent those who (born themselves in sinful flesh) were sanctified by him from the defilement of sin.

Source: TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 108.4

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on John 17:18

CHAPTER X. That Christ is not holy from participation in anything different from Himself; and that the sanctification through the Spirit is not alien to His Substance.

After giving the Father here especially the name of Holy, and praying that the disciples might be kept in the truth, that is, in His Spirit (for the Spirit is the truth, as John says, as He is also the Spirit of truth, that is, of the Only-begotten Himself), He declares that He sent them into the world after the fashion of His own mission; for Jesus is the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, as Paul says, in the appropriate character of His Manhood, and by the way of His humiliation. He says, then, that the disciples, after having been once for all thereto prepared, stand wholly in need of sanctification by the Holy Father, Who implanteth in them the Holy Spirit through the Son. For in truth the disciples of the Saviour would never have become so illustrious as to be the torchbearers of the whole world, nor would they have withstood the brunt of the temptations of their enemies, nor the terrible assaults of the devil, had they not had their minds fortified by communion with the Spirit; and had they not been continually thereby enabled to accomplish a bidding unheard of before and passing mere human power; and had they not been ever led by the light of the Spirit, without effort, to a perfect knowledge of the inspired writings and the holy doctrines of the Church. Furthermore, the Saviour, being assembled together with them after His resurrection from the dead, as is recorded, and bidding them preach grace through faith throughout the whole world, charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which they had heard of Him as well as by the mouth of the holy prophets. For it shall come to pass in those days, saith the Lord, that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh. And the Saviour Himself plainly declared that His Holy Spirit would be shed forth upon them, in the words: I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He shall guide you into all truth; and again: I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter. For the Spirit belongeth unto God the Father, and none the less also unto the Son Himself, not as distinct Entities, or as though He was inherent or existed in Either divisibly; but, inasmuch as the Son by Nature proceeds from the Father and is in Him (being the true Offspring of His Essence), the Spirit----Which is the Father's by Nature----is brought down to men; shed forth indeed from the Father, but through the Son Himself conveyed to the creature; not merely ministerially or in the manner of a servant, but, as I said just now, proceeding from the Substance Itself of God the Father; and shed forth on those worthy to receive Him through the Word, Which is Consubstantial with and proceeded from Him, and so proceeded as to have a self-dependent being, and ever abideth in Him, at the same time in unity, and also, as it were, with an individual existence. For we maintain that the Son has an independent existence, but still inheres in His Father, and has in Himself Him that begat Him; and that the Spirit of the Father is indeed the Spirit of the Son; and that, when the Father sends or promises to distribute the Spirit to the Saints, the Son also vouchsafes the Spirit to them as His own, because of His identity in Substance with the Father. And that the Father works in every respect through Him He has Himself very clearly pointed out to us in the words: It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away the Comforter cannot come unto you; but when I depart I will send Him unto you. And again: I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter. Plainly here He promises to send us the Comforter.

Since, then, the disciples, who respect My sayings, have been sent forth on their mission in the world, even as I myself, keep them, Holy Father, in Thy truth; that is, in Thy Word, in Which, and through Which, the Spirit Which sanctifies is and proceeds. And what is the Saviour's aim in saying this? He besought the Father for that sanctification which is in and through the Spirit to be given to ourselves; and He desires that which was in us at the first age of the world, and at the beginning of creation by gift of God, to be quickened anew into life. This we say, because the Only-begotten is our Mediator, and fulfils the part of Advocate for us before our Father Which is in heaven. But that we may free our explanation from all obscurity, and make the meaning of what is said clear to our hearers, let us say a few words about the creation of the first man.

The inspired Moses said concerning him, that God took dust from the earth and formed man of it. He then goes on to tell the manner in which, after the body was perfectly joined together, life was given to it. He breathed, he says, into his nostrils the breath of life; signifying that not without sanctification by the Spirit was life given to man, nor yet was it wholly devoid or barren of the Divine Nature. For never could anything, which had so base an origin, have been seen to be created in the Image of the Most High, had it not taken and received, through the Spirit moulding it, so to speak, a fair mask, by the Will of God. For as His Spirit is a perfect Likeness of the Substance of the Only-begotten, according to the saying of Paul: For whom He foreknew, He also fore-ordained to be conformed to the Image of His Son, He maketh those in whom He abides to be conformed to the Image of the Father, that is, the Son; and thus all thoughts are uplifted through the Son to the Father, from Whom He proceeds by the Spirit. He desires, therefore, the nature of man to be renewed, and moulded anew, as it were, into its original likeness, by communion with the Spirit; in order that, putting on that pristine grace, and being shaped anew into conformity with Him, we may be found able to prevail over the sin that reigns in this world, and may simply cling to the love of God, striving with all our might after whatsoever things be good, and, lifting our minds above fleshly lusts, may keep the beauty of His Image implanted in ourselves unspoiled. For this is spiritual life, and this is the meaning of worship in the Spirit.

[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on John 17:19

Let us pay attention to the distinction of the Godhead from the flesh. In each there speaks one and the same Son of God, for each nature is present in him. And yet, while it is the same person who speaks, he does not always speak in the same way. At one time you see in him the glory of God, at another time human characteristics. As God he speaks the things of God because he is the Word. As man he speaks in a human way because he speaks in my nature.… Even the letter itself [here] teaches us that it is not the Godhead but the flesh that needed sanctification. For the Lord himself said, “And I sanctify myself for them,” in order that you may acknowledge that he is both sanctified in the flesh for us and sanctifies by virtue of his divinity.

Source: Exposition of the Christian Faith 2.9.77-78

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:19

What is, I sanctify Myself? I offer to You a sacrifice. Now all sacrifices are called holy, and those are specially called holy things, which are laid up for God. For whereas of old in type the sanctification was by the sheep, but now it is not in type, but by the truth itself, He therefore says, That they may be sanctified in Your truth. For I both dedicate them to You, and make them an offering; this He says, either because their Head was being made so, or because they also were sacrificed; for, Present, it says, your bodies a living sacrifice, holy Romans 12:1; and, We were counted as sheep for the slaughter. Psalm 43:22 And He makes them; without death, a sacrifice and offering; for that He alluded to His own sacrifice, when He said, I sanctify, is clear from what follows.

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:19

What does he mean by “I sanctify myself”? He means, “I offer to you a sacrifice.” Now all sacrifices are called “holy.” But those that are specially called “holy” are reserved for God. In [Old Testament times], sanctification was typologically indicated by the sheep. But now it is not in type but in truth itself. Therefore he says, “That they may be sanctified in your truth.” “For I both dedicate them to you and make them an offering.” He says this either because the disciples’ Head was being made so, or because they too would be sacrificed. For it says elsewhere, “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy,” and “We were counted as sheep for the slaughter.” And he makes them a sacrifice and offering apart from death. For it is clear from what follows that he was alluding to his own sacrifice when he said, “I sanctify.”

Source: HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 82.1

[AD 428] Theodore of Mopsuestia on John 17:19

[Christ says], “The reason I bring myself to the passion is so that through me they may obtain the sanctification that comes through the Spirit, and be sanctified and be empowered to preach the truth, being certain of the hope of the resurrection.” He says that he sanctifies himself because, after the passion, he would hurry to heaven along with his own body and be in holiness.

Source: COMMENTARY ON JOHN 6.17.19

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:19

But since, on the ground that the Mediator between God and humanity, the man Christ Jesus, has become head of the church, they are his members. Therefore he says in the words that follow, “And for their sakes I sanctify myself.” For what does he mean by the words “and for their sakes I sanctify myself” but I sanctify them in myself, since they also are myself? For those of whom he speaks in this way are, as I have said, his members. And the head and body are one Christ. … And to be assured of the certainty of this in the present passage, listen to what follows. For after saying, “and for their sakes I sanctify myself”—to let us understand that he thereby meant that he would sanctify them in himself—he immediately added, “that they also may be sanctified in the truth.” And what else is this but in me, in accordance with the fact that the truth is that Word in the beginning that is God?

Source: TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 108.5

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on John 17:19

Christ called down on us the ancient gift of humanity, that is, sanctification through the Spirit and communion with the divine nature, his disciples being the first to receive it. For the saying is true that the hard-working farmer ought to have the first share of the crops. But, in order for him to have preeminence46 in this—for it is fitting that … he is seen as the beginning and the gate and the way of every good thing for us—he is inspired to add what follows, namely, the words “for their sake I consecrate myself.”

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 11.10

[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on John 17:20

I am of the opinion, so far as I can see, that this order of the human race has been appointed in order that in the future world—or in ages to come, when there shall be the new heavens and new earth spoken of by Isaiah—that unity may be restored that was promised by the Lord Jesus in his prayer to God the Father on behalf of his disciples. And this is further confirmed by the language of the apostle Paul: “Until we all come in the unity of the faith to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” And in keeping with this is the declaration of the same apostle when he exhorts us—who even in the present life are placed in the church, which is a form of that kingdom that is to come—to this same similitude of unity, “That you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you. But that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.”

Source: ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.6.2

[AD 258] Cyprian on John 17:20

But the Lord prayed and besought not for Himself-for why should He who was guiltless pray on His own behalf?-but for our sins, as He Himself declared, when He said to Peter, "Behold, Satan hath desired that he might sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not." And subsequently He beseeches the Father for all, saying, "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." The Lord's loving-kindness, no less than His mercy, is great in respect of our salvation, in that, not content to redeem us with His blood, He in addition also prayed for us. Behold now what was the desire of His petition, that like as the Father and Son are one, so also we should abide in absolute unity; so that from this it may be understood how greatly he sins who divides unity and peace, since for this same thing even the Lord besought, desirous doubtless that His people should thus be saved and live in peace, since He knew that discord cannot come into the kingdom of God.

Source: Treatise IV On the Lord's Prayer

[AD 367] Hilary of Poitiers on John 17:20

And this unity is recommended by the great example of unity: As you, Father, are in Me, and I in you, that they also may be one in Us, i.e. that as the Father is in the Son, and the Son in the Father, so after the likeness of this unity, all may be one in the Father and in the Son.
Heretics endeavoring to get over the words, I and My Father are one, as a proving unity of nature, and to reduce them to mean a unity simply of natural love, and agreement of will, bring forwards these words of our Lord’s as an example of this kind of unity: That they may be all one, as You, Father, is in Me, and I in You. But though impiety can cheat its own understanding, it cannot alter the meaning of the words themselves. For they who are born again of a nature that gives unity in life eternal, they cease to be one in will merely, acquiring the same nature by their regeneration: but the Father and Son alone are properly one, because God, only-begotten of God, can only exist in that nature from which He is derived.
Or, the world will believe that the Son is sent from the Father, for that reason, viz.because all who believe in Him are one in the Father and the Son.
By this giving and receiving of honor, then, all are one. But I do not yet apprehendin what way this makes all one. Our Lord, however, explains the gradation and order in the consummating of this unity, when He adds, I in them, and You in Me; so that inasmuch as Hewas in the Father by His divine nature, we in Him by His incarnation, and He again in us bythe mystery of the sacrament, a perfect union by means of a Mediator was established.

[AD 367] Hilary of Poitiers on John 17:20-23

(vii de Trin) And this unity is recommended by the great example of unity: As Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us, i. e. that as the Father is in the Son, and the Son in the Father, so, after the likeness of this unity, all may be one in the Father and in the Son.

(viii. de Trin) Heretics endeavouring to get over the words, I and My Father are one, as a proving unity of nature, and to reduce them to mean a unity simply of natural love, and agreement of will, bring forwards these words of our Lord's as an example of this kind of unity: That they may be all one, as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee. But though impiety can cheat its own understanding, it cannot alter the meaning1 of the words themselves. For they who are born again of a nature that gives unity in life eternal, they cease to be one in will merely, acquiring the same nature by their regeneration: but the Father and Son alone are properly one, because God, only-begotten of God, can only exist in that nature from which He is derived.

(viii. de Trin) Or, the world will believe that the Son is sent from the Father, for that reason, viz. because all who believe in Him are one in the Father and the Son.

(viii. de Trin) By this giving and receiving of honour, then, all are one. But I do not yet apprehend in what way this makes all one. Our Lord, however, explains the gradation and order in the consummating of this unity, when He adds, I in them, and Thou in Me; so that inasmuch as He was in the Father by His divine nature, we in Him by His incarnation, and He again in us by the mystery of the sacrament, a perfect union by means of a Mediator was established.

Source: Catena Aurea by Aquinas

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:20

2. For since He was dying for them, and said, that For their sakes I sanctify Myself, lest any one should think that He did this for the Apostles only, He added, Neither pray I for these only, but for them also who believe in Me through their word. By this again He revived their souls, showing that the disciples should be many. For because He made common what they possessed peculiarly, He comforts them by showing that they were being made the cause of the salvation of others.

After having thus spoken concerning their salvation, and their being sanctified by faith and the Sacrifice, He afterwards speaks of concord, and finally closes his discourse with this, having begun with it and ended in it. For at the beginning He says, A new commandment I give unto you John 13:34; and here,

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:20-23

(Hom. lxxxii) Or thus: For their sakes I sanctify Myself, i. e. I offer Myself as a sacrifice to Thee; for all sacrifices, and things that are offered to God, are called holy. And whereas this sanctification was of old in figure, (a sheep being the sacrifice,) but now in truth, He adds, That they also might be sanctified through the truth; i. e. For I make them too an oblation to Thee; either meaning that He who was offered up was their head, or that they would be offered up too: as the Apostle saith, Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy. (Rom. 12:1)

(Hom. lxxxii) Another ground of consolation to them, that they were to be the cause of the salvation of others.

(Hom. lxxxii) And with this prayer for unanimity, He concludes His prayer; and then begins a discourse on the same subject: A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another.

(Hom. lxxxii) This as again does not express perfect likeness, but only likeness as far as it was possible in men; as when He saith, Be ye merciful, even as your Father, which is in heaven, is merciful. (Luke 6:36)

(Hom. lxxxii) For there is no scandal so great as division, whereas unity amongst believers is a great argument for believing; as He said at the beginning of His discourse, By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another. For if they quarrel, they will not be looked on as the disciples of a peacemaking Master. And I, He saith, not being a peacemaker, they will not acknowledge Me as sent from God.

(Hom. lxxxii. 2) By glory, He means miracles, and doctrines, and unity; which latter is the greater glory. For all who believed through the Apostles are one. If any separated, it was owing to men's own carelessness; not but that our Lord anticipates this happening.

(Hom. lxxxii) Elsewhere1 He says of Himself and the Father, We will come and make Our abode with Him; by the mention of two persons, stopping the mouths of the Sabellians. Here by saying that the Father comes to the disciples through Him, He refutes the notion of the Arians.

Source: Catena Aurea by Aquinas

[AD 420] Jerome on John 17:20

He reminds us that the whole Christian people are one in God, and, as his well-beloved children, are “partakers of the divine nature.” We have already said (and the truth must now be inculcated more in detail) that we are not one in the Father and the Son according to nature but according to grace. For the essence of the human soul and the essence of God are not the same, as the Manichaeans constantly assert. But, says our Lord, “You have loved them as you have loved me.” You see, then, that we are privileged to partake of his essence, not in the realm of nature but of grace. And the reason why we are beloved of the Father is that he has loved the Son—and the members of the body are loved.

Source: Against Jovinianus 2.29

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:20

1. The Lord Jesus, in the now close proximity of His passion, after praying for His disciples, whom He also named apostles, with whom He had partaken of that last supper from which His betrayer had taken his departure on being revealed by the sop of bread, and with whom, after the latter's departure, and before beginning His prayer in their behalf, He had already spoken at length, conjoined all others also who were yet to believe in Him, and said to the Father, Neither pray I for these alone, that is, for the disciples who were with Him at the time, but for them also, He adds, who shall believe in me through their word. Whereby He wished all His own to be understood: not only such as were then in the flesh, but those also who were yet to come. For all that have since believed on Him have doubtless believed, and shall yet believe till He come, through the word of the apostles; for to themselves He had said, And ye also shall bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning; and by them was the gospel ministered even before it was written, and every one assuredly who believes in Christ believes the gospel. Accordingly, those who He says should believe in Him through their word, are not to be understood as referring only to such as heard the apostles themselves while they lived in the flesh; but others also after their decease, and we, too, born long afterwards, have believed on Christ through their word. For they that were then with Him preached to the others what they had heard from Him; and so their word, that we too might believe, has found its way to us, and wherever His Church exists, and shall yet reach down to posterity, whoever and wherever they be who shall hereafter believe in Him.

2. In this prayer, therefore, Jesus may seem to have omitted praying for some of His own, unless we carefully examine His words in the prayer itself. For if He prayed first for those, as we have already shown, who were then with Him, and afterwards for those also who should believe in Him through their word, it may be said that He prayed not for those who were neither with Him when He so spoke, nor afterwards believed through their word, but had done so at some previous time either of themselves, or in some other supposable manner. For was Nathanael with Him at that time? Was Joseph of Arimathea, who begged His body from Pilate, and of whom this same evangelist John testifies that he was already His disciple? Were His mother, Mary, and other women who, we know from the Gospel, had been prior to that time His disciples? Were those with Him then, of whom this evangelist John frequently says, Many believed on Him? For whence came the multitude of those who, with branches of trees, partly preceded and partly followed Him as He sat on the ass, saying, Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord; and along with them the children of whom He Himself declared that the prophecy had been uttered, Out of the mouth of babes and of sucklings You have perfected praise? Whence the five hundred brethren, to all of whom at once He would not have appeared after His resurrection 1 Corinthians 15:6 had they not previously believed on Him? Whence that hundred and nine who, with the eleven, were a hundred and twenty, when, being assembled together after His ascension, they waited and received the promise of the Holy Spirit? Whence came all these, save from those of Whom it was said, Many believed on Him? For them, therefore, the Saviour did not at this time pray, seeing it was for those He prayed who were then with Him, and for others not who had already, but who were yet to believe in Him through their word. But these were certainly not with Him on that occasion, and had already believed on Him at some previous period. I say nothing of the aged Simeon, who believed on Him when an infant; of Anna the prophetess; Luke 2:25-38 of Zachariah and Elisabeth, who prophesied of Him before He was born of the Virgin; of their son John, His forerunner, the friend of the Bridegroom, who both recognized Him in the Holy Spirit, and preached Him in His absence, and pointed Him out when He was present to the recognition of others; — I say nothing of these, as it might be replied that He ought not to have prayed for such when dead, who had gone hence with their great merits, and having met with a welcome reception were now at rest; for a similar answer is also given in connection with the righteous of olden time. For which of them could have been saved from the damnation awaiting the whole mass of perdition, which has been caused by one man, had he not believed, through the revelation of the Spirit, in the one Mediator between God and men as yet to come in the flesh? But behooved He to pray for the apostles, and not to pray for so many who were still alive, but were not then with Him, and had already at some previous period been brought to the faith? Who is there that would say so?

3. We are therefore to understand that their faith in Him was not yet such as He wished it to be, inasmuch as even Peter himself, to whom, on making the confession, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God, He had borne so excellent a testimony, was disposed rather to hinder Him from dying than to believe in His resurrection when dead, and hence was called immediately thereafter by the same of Satan. Those, accordingly, are found to be the greater in faith who were long since deceased, and yet, through the revelation of the Spirit, had no manner of doubt that Christ would rise again, than those who, after attaining to the belief that He should redeem Israel, at the sight of His death lost all the hope they previously possessed regarding Him. The best thing for us, therefore, to believe is, that after His resurrection, when the Holy Spirit was bestowed, and the apostles taught and confirmed, and from its outset constituted teachers in the Church, others, through their word, attained the proper faith in Christ, or, in other words, that they then got firm hold of the faith of His resurrection. And in this way also, that all those who seemed to have already believed on Him really belonged to the number of those for whom He prayed, when He said, Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also who shall believe in me through their word.

4. But we have still in reserve for the further solution of this question the blessed apostle, and that robber who was a villain in wickedness, but a believer on the cross. For the Apostle Paul tells us that he was made an apostle not of men, nor by man, but by Jesus Christ: and speaking of his own gospel, he says, For I neither received it of man, neither did I learn it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. How then was he among those of whom it is said, They shall believe in me through their word? On the other hand, the robber believed at the very time when in the case of the teachers themselves such faith as they previously possessed had utterly failed. Not even he, therefore, believed on Christ through their word, and yet his faith was such that he confessed that He whom he saw nailed to the cross would not only rise again, but would also reign, when he said, Remember me when You come into Your kingdom. Luke 23:42

5. Accordingly it remains that if we are to believe that the Lord Jesus, in this prayer, prayed for all of His own who either then were or should thereafter be in this life, which is a state of trial upon earth, we must so understand the expression, through their word, as to believe that it here signified the word of faith itself which they preached in the world, and that it was called their word because it was primarily and principally preached by them. For it was already in the course of being preached by them in the earth when Paul received that same word of theirs by the revelation of Jesus Christ. Whence also it came about that he compared the Gospel with them, lest by any means he had run, or should run, in vain; and they gave him their right hand because in him also they found, although not given him by them, their own word which they were already preaching, and in which they were now established. And in regard to this word of the resurrection of Christ, it is said by the same apostle, Whether it were I, or they, so we preach, and so ye believed; 1 Corinthians 15:11 and again, This is the word of faith, he says, which we preach, that if you shall confess with your mouth that Jesus is the Lord, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. Romans 10:8-9 And in the Acts of the Apostles we read that in Christ, God has marked out [the ground of] faith unto all men, in that He has raised Him from the dead. Acts 17:31 Accordingly, this word of faith, because principally and primarily preached by the apostles who adhered to Him, was called their word. Not, however, on that account does it cease to be the word of God because it is called their word; for the same apostle says that the Thessalonians received it from him not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word of God. 1 Thessalonians 2:13 Of God, for the very reason that it was freely given by God; but called their word, because primarily and principally committed to them by God to be preached. In the same way also the thief mentioned above had in the matter of his own faith their word, which was called theirs precisely because the preaching of it primarily and principally pertained to the office they filled. And once more, when murmuring arose among the Grecian widows in reference to the serving of the tables, previous to the time when Paul was brought to the faith of Christ, the reply given by the apostles, who before then had adhered to the Lord, was: It is not good that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. Acts 6:1-4 Then it was that they provided for the ordination of deacons, that they themselves might not be drawn aside from the duty of preaching the word. Hence that was properly enough called their word which is the word of faith, whereby all, from whatever quarter they had heard it, believed on Christ, or, as yet to hear it, should thereafter believe. In this prayer, therefore, all whom He redeemed, whether then alive or thereafter to live in the flesh, were prayed for by our Redeemer when, praying for the apostles who were then with Him, He also conjoined those who were yet to believe in Him through their word. But what, after such conjunction, He then proceeds to say, must be reserved for discussion in another discourse.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:20-23

(Tr. cix) When our Lord had prayed for His disciples, whom He named also Apostles, He added a prayer for all others who should believe on Him; Neither pray I for these alone, but for all others who shall believe on Me through their word.

(Tr. cix) All, i. e. not only those who were then alive, but those who were to be born; not those only who heard the Apostles themselves, but us who were born long after their death. We have all believed in Christ through their word: for they first heard that word from Christ, and then preached it to others, and so it has come down, and will go down to all posterity. We may see that in this prayer there are some disciples whom He does not pray for; for those, i. e. who were neither with Him at the time, nor were about to believe on Him afterwards through the Apostles' word, but believed already. Was Nathanael with Him then, or Joseph of Arimathea, and many others, who, John says, believed on Him? I do not mention old Simeon, or Anna the prophetess, Zacharias, Elisabeth, or John the Baptist; for it might be answered that it was not necessary to pray for dead persons, such as these who departed with such rich merits. With respect to the former then we must understand that they did not yet believe in Him, as He wished, but that after His resurrection, when the Apostles were taught and strengthened by the Holy Spirit, they attained to a right faith. The case of Paul however still remains, An Apostle not of men, or by men; (Gal. 1:1) and that of the robber, who believed when even the teachers themselves of the faith fell away. We must understand then, their word, to mean the word of faith itself which they preached to the world; it being called their word, because it was preached in the first instance and principally by them; for it was being preached by them, when Paul received it by revelation from Jesus Christ Himself. And in this sense the robber too believed their word. Wherefore in this prayer the Redeemer prays for all whom He redeemed, both present and to come. And then follows the thing itself which He prays for, That they all may be one. He asks that for all, which he asked above for the disciples; that all both we and they may be one.

(Tr. cx) We must particularly observe here, that our Lord did not say, that we may be all one, but that they may be all one, as Thou, Father, in Me, and I in Thee, are one, understood. For the Father is so in the Son, that They are one, because They are of one substance; but we can be one in Them, but not with Them; because we and They are not of one substance. They are in us, and we in Them, so as that They are one in Their nature, we one in ours. They are in us, as God is in the temple; we in Them, as the creature is in its Creator. Wherefore He adds, in Us, to show, that our being made one by charity, is to be attributed to the grace of God, not to ourselves.

(iv. de. Trin. c. ix) Or that in ourselves we cannot be one, severed from each other by diverse pleasures, and lusts, and the pollution of sin, from which we must be cleansed by a Mediator, in order to be one in Him.

(Tr. cx) But why does He say, That the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me? Will the world believe when we shall all be one in the Father and the Son? Is not this unity that peace eternal, which is the reward of faith, rather than faith itself? For though in this life all of us who hold in the same common faith are one, yet even this unity is not a means to belief, but the consequence of it. What means then, That all may be one, that the world may believe? He prays for the world when He says, Neither pray I for these alone, but for all those who shall believe on Me through their word. Whereby it appears that He does not make this unity the cause of the world believing, but prays that the world may believe, as He prays that they all may be one. The meaning will be clearer if we always put in the word ask; I ask that they all may be one; I ask that they may be one in Us; I ask that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me.

(Tr. cx) Then our Saviour, Who, by praying to the Father, showed Himself to be man, now shows that, being God with the Father, He doth what He prays for: And the glory which Thou gavest Me, I have given them. What glory, but immortality, which human nature was about to receive in Him? For that which was to be by unchangeable predestination, though future, He expresses by the past tense. That glory of immortality, which He says was given Him by the Father, we must understand He gave Himself also. For when the Son is silent of His own cooperation in the Father's work, He shows His humility: when He is silent of the Father's cooperation in His work, He shows His equality. In this way here He neither disconnects Himself with the Father's work, when He says, The glory which Thou gavest Me, nor the Father with His work, when He says, I have given them. But as He was pleased by prayer to the Father to obtain that all might be one, so now He is pleased to effect the same by His own gift; for He continues, That all may be one, even as We are one.

(Tr. cx. 4) Nor is this said, however, as if to mean that the Father was not in us, or we in the Father. He only means to say, that He is Mediator between God and man. And what He adds, That they may be made perfect in one, shows that the reconciliation made by this Mediator, was carried on even to the enjoyment of everlasting blessedness. So what follows, That the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, must not be taken to mean the same as the words just above, That the world may believe. For as long as we believe what we do not see, we are not yet made perfect, as we shall be when we have merited to see what we believe. So that when He speaks of their being made perfect, we are to understand such a knowledge as shall be by sight, not such as is by faith. These that believe are the world, not a permanent enemy, but changed from an enemy to a friend; as it follows: And hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me. The Father loves us in the Son, because He elected us in Him. These words do not prove that we are equal to the Only Begotten Son; for this mode of expression, as one thing so another, does not always signify equality. It sometimes only means, because one thing, therefore another. And this is its meaning here: Thou hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me, i. e. Thou hast loved them, because Thou hast loved Me. There is no reason for God loving His members, but that He loves him. But since He hateth nothing that He hath made, who can adequately express how much He loves the members of His Only Begotten Son, and still more the Only Begotten Himself.

Source: Catena Aurea by Aquinas

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on John 17:20

CHAPTER XI. That the Son is naturally One with God His Father; and that He is in the Father and the Father in Him, according to the essential bond and character of their Unity; and that likewise also we ourselves, when we receive faith in Him, are proved one with each other and with God, both in a corporeal and in a spiritual sense.

Christ is, as it were, the Firstfruits of those who are built up into newness of life, and Himself the first heavenly Man. For, as Paul says: The second Adam, is the Lord from heaven. Therefore also John wrote: And no man hath ascended into heaven, but He That descended out of heaven, even the Son of man. And in close connection with Him, the Firstfruits, yea, and far nearer unto Him than others, were those who were chosen to be disciples, and who held the rank of His followers; who also with their own eyes beheld His glory, ever attending upon Him, and in converse with Him, and gathering in, as it were, the firstfruits of His succour into their hearts. They were then, and are after Him, Who is far above all others, the Head of the body, the Church, the precious and more estimable members thereof. Furthermore, He prays that on them the blessing and sanctification of the Spirit may be sent down from His Father, but through Him wholly; for it could not be otherwise, since He is the living, and true, and active, and all-performing wisdom and power of Him That begat Him. But that none of those, who are not well-practised attentively to hearken to the inspired writings, might thoughtlessly imagine that upon the disciples only He prayed that the Spirit of God might come down, and that He did not pray for us, who clearly follow after them, and live in an early age of Christianity, the Mediator between God and man, the Advocate and High Priest of our souls, is induced, with a view to check beforehand the foolish imaginations of such men, to add this passage to what He had said, namely: Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that believe on Me through their word. For it would have been in a manner absurd, that the sentence of condemnation should fall upon all men through one man, who was the first, I mean Adam; and that those who had not sinned at that time, that is, at which the founder of our race transgressed the commandment given unto him, should wear the dishonourable image of the earthy; and yet that when Christ came among us, Who was the Man from heaven, those who were called through Him to righteousness, the righteousness of course that is through faith, should not all be moulded into His Image. And, just as we say that the unlovely image of the earthy is seen in types, and in a form bearing the defilement of sin, and the weakness of death and corruption, and the impurity of fleshly lusts and worldly thoughts; so also, on the other hand, we think that the Image of the heavenly, that is, Christ, shines forth in purity and sincerity, and perfect incorruption, and life, and sanctification. It was, perhaps, impossible for us who had once fallen away through the original transgression to be restored to our pristine glory, except we obtained an ineffable communion and unity with God; for the nature of men upon the earth was ordered at the beginning. And no man can attain to union with God, save by communion with the Holy Spirit, Who implants in us the sanctification of His own Person, and moulds anew into His own life the nature which was subject to corruption, and so brings back to God and to His Likeness that which was bereft of the glory that this confers. And the Son is the express Image of the Father, and His Spirit is the natural Likeness of the Son. For this cause, moulding anew, as it were, into Himself the souls of men, He stamps them with the Likeness of God, and seals them with the Image of the Most High.

[AD 1963] CS Lewis on John 17:20-23

[Responding to the question "Many people are quite unable to understand the theological differences which have caused divisions in the Christian Church. Do you consider that these differences are fundamental, and is the time now ripe for reunion?"]

The time is always ripe for reunion. Divisions between Christians are a sin and a scandal, and Christians ought at all times to be making contributions toward reunion, if it is only by their prayers. I am only a layman and a recent Christian, and I do not know much about these things, but in all the things which I have written and thought I have always stuck to traditional, dogmatic positions. The result is that letters of agreement reach me from what are ordinarily regarded as the most different kinds of Christians; for instance, I get letters from Jesuits, monks, nuns, and also from Quakers and Welsh Dissenters, and so on. So it seems to me that the "extremist" elements in every church are nearest one another and the liberal and "broad-minded" people in each body could never be united at all. The world of dogmatic Christianity is a place in which thousands of people of quite different types keep on saying the same thing, and the world of "broad-mindedness" and watered-down "religion" is a world where a small number of people (all of the same type) say totally different things and change their minds every few minutes. We shall never get reunion from them.

Source: ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS ON CHRISTIANITY, from God in the Dock

[AD 215] Clement of Alexandria on John 17:21

And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given them; that they may be one, as We are one: I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one."

Source: Clement of Alexandria The Instructor Book I

[AD 258] Cyprian on John 17:21

But let these things which were done by Stephen be passed by for the present, lest, while we remember his audacity and pride, we bring a more lasting sadness on ourselves from the things that he has wickedly done. And knowing, concerning you, that you have settled this matter, concerning which there is now a question, according to the rule of truth and the wisdom of Christ; we have exulted with great joy, and have given God thanks that we have found in brethren placed at such a distance such a unanimity of faith and truth with us. For the grace of God is mighty to associate and join together in the bond of charity and unity even those things which seem to be divided by a considerable space of earth, according to the way in which of old also the divine power associated in the bond of unanimity Ezekiel and Daniel, though later in their age, and separated from them by a long space of time, to Job and Noah, who were among the first; so that although they were separated by long periods, yet by divine inspiration they felt the same truths. And this also we now observe in you, that you who are separated from us by the most extensive regions, approve yourselves to be, nevertheless, joined with us in mind and spirit. All which arises from the divine unity. For even as the Lord who dwells in us is one and the same, He everywhere joins and couples His own people in the bond of unity, whence their sound has gone out into the whole earth, who are sent by the Lord swiftly running in the spirit of unity; as, on the other hand, it is of no advantage that some are very near and joined together bodily, if in spirit and mind they differ, since souls cannot at all be united which divide themselves from God's unity. "For, lo," it says, "they that are far from Thee shall perish." But such shall undergo the judgment of God according to their desert, as depart from His words who prays to the Father for unity, and says, "Father, grant that, as Thou and I are one, so they also may be one in us."

Source: Epistle LXXIV

[AD 367] Hilary of Poitiers on John 17:21

[This passage] shows that since human beings cannot, so to speak, be fused back into God or themselves coalesce into one undistinguished mass, this oneness must arise from unity of will, as all perform actions pleasing to God and unite with one another in the harmonious agreement of their thoughts. Therefore, it is not nature that makes them one but will.

Source: ON THE TRINITY 8.5

[AD 373] Athanasius of Alexandria on John 17:21

When the Saviour says about us, ‘As you Father are in me and I in you, that they too may be one in us,’ He does not mean that we will be the same as He. But it is an appeal to the Father, as John has written, that the Spirit be given through Him to those who believe. Through the Spirit, we find that we have come to be in God and in this way we are joined together in Him. For since the Word is in the Father and the Spirit is given from the Word, He wants us to receive the Spirit, so that when we receive Him and thus have the Spirit of The Word who is in the Father, we may find ourselves also to have become one through The Spirit, in The Word, and through The Word, in The Father. - "Against the Arians 2"

[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on John 17:21

No separation, then, is to be made of the Word from God the Father, no separation in power, no separation in wisdom because of the unity of the divine substance. Again, God the Father is in the Son, as we often times find it written, yet not as sanctifying one who lacks sanctification or as filling a void, for the power of God knows no void. Nor, again, is the power of the one increased by the power of the other, for there are not two powers but one power. Nor does Godhead entertain Godhead, for there are not two Godheads but one Godhead. We … shall be one in Christ through power received [from another] and dwelling in us. The letter [of the unity] is common, but the substance of God and the substance of humanity are different. We shall be one. The Father and the Son [already] are one. We shall be one by grace; the Son is so by substance. Again, unity by conjunction is one thing, unity by nature another. Finally, observe what it is that Scripture has already recorded: “That they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me, and I in you.” Now notice that he did not say, “You in us, and we in you” but “You in me, and I in you.” In this way he sets himself apart from his creatures. Further, he added “that they also may be in us,” in order to separate here his dignity and his Father’s dignity from us so that our union in the Father and the Son may appear the result not of nature but of grace, while the unity of the Father and the Son is the Son’s, not by grace but by natural right of sonship.

Source: Exposition of the Christian Faith 4.3.36-38

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:21

Here again the as does not denote exact similarity in their case, (for it was not possible for them in so great a degree,) but only as far as was possible for men. Just as when He says Be merciful, as your Father. Luke 6:36

But what is, In Us? In the faith which is on Us. Because nothing so offends all men as divisions, He provides that they should be one. What then, says some one, did He effect this? Certainly He effected it. For all who believe through the Apostles are one, though some from among them were torn away. Nor did this escape His knowledge, He even foretold it, and showed that it proceeded from men's slack-mindedness.

That the world may believe that You have sent Me.

As He said in the beginning, By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you love one another. And how should they hence believe? Because, He says, You are a God of peace. If therefore they observe the same as those of whom they have learned, their hearers shall know the teacher by the disciples, but if they quarrel, men shall deny that they are the disciples of a God of peace, and will not allow that I, not being peaceable, have been sent from You. Do you see how, unto the end, He proves His unanimity with the Father?

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:21

This is similar to what he said earlier, “By this shall all know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” And how will they believe this? “Because,” he says, “you are a God of peace.” And, if therefore the [disciples] keep that same peace that they have learned [from me], their hearers will know the teacher by the disciples. But if they quarrel, people will deny that they are the disciples of a God of peace and will not allow that I, not being peaceable, have been sent from you. Do you see how he proves his unanimity with the Father to the very end?

Source: HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 82.2

[AD 420] Jerome on John 17:21

“As we are Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God,” [Jesus might say], “so may they be one people in themselves, that is, like dear children and partakers of the divine nature.” Call the church what you will—bride, sister, mother—its assembly is but one and never lacks husband, brother or son. [The church’s] faith is one, and it is not defiled by variety of doctrine or divided by heresies. [The church] continues a virgin. Wherever the Lamb goes, it follows him. It alone knows the song of Christ.

Source: Against Jovinianus 2.19

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:21

1. After the Lord Jesus had prayed for His disciples whom He had with Him at the time, and had conjoined with them others who were also His own, by saying, Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also who shall believe in me through their word, as if we were inquiring what or wherefore He prayed for them, He straightway subjoined, That they all may be one; as Thou, Father, [art] in me, and I in You, that they also may be one in us. And a little above, while still praying for the disciples alone who were then with Him, He said, Holy Father, keep in Your own name those whom You have given me, that they may be one, as we are John 17:11. It is the same thing, therefore, that He now also prayed for in our behalf, as He did at that time in theirs, namely, that all— to wit, both we and they— may be one. And here we must take particular notice that the Lord did not say that we all may be one, but, that they all may be one; as Thou Father, in me, and I in You (where is to be understood are one, as is more clearly expressed afterwards); because He had also said before of the disciples who were with Him, That they may be one, as we are. The Father, therefore, is in the Son, and the Son in the Father, in such a way as to be one, because they are of one substance; but while we may indeed be in them, we cannot be one with them; for they and we are not of one substance, in as far as the Son is God along with the Father. But in as far as He is man, He is of the same substance as we are. But at present He wished rather to call attention to that other statement which He made use of in another place, I and the Father are one, where He intimated that His own nature was the same with that of the Father. And accordingly, though the Father and Son, or even the Holy Spirit, are in us, we must not suppose that they are of one nature with ourselves. And hence they are in us, or we are in them, in this sense, that they are one in their own nature, and we are one in ours. For they are in us, as God in His temple; but we are in them, as the creature in its Creator.

2. But then after saying, That they also may be one in us, He added, That the world may believe that You have sent me. What does He mean by this? Is it that the world will then be brought to the faith, when we shall all be one in the Father and Son? Is not such a state the everlasting peace, and the reward of faith, rather than faith itself? For we shall be one not in order to our believing, but because we have believed. But although in this life, because of the common faith itself, all who believe in one are one according to the words of the apostle, For you are all one in Christ Jesus; Galatians 3:28 even thus we are one, not in order to our believing, but because we do believe. What, then, is meant by the words, That they all may be one, that the world may believe? This, doubtless, that the all are themselves the believing world. For those who shall be one are not of one class, and the world that is thereafter to believe in this very ground that these shall be one, of another; since it is perfectly certain that He says, That they all may be one, of those of whom He had said before, Neither pray I for these alone, but for those also who shall believe in me through their word, immediately adding as He does, That they all may be one. And this all, what is it but the world; not certainly that which is hostile, but that which is believing? For you see here that He who had said, I pray not for the world, now prays for the world that it may believe. For there is a world whereof it is written, That we might not be condemned with this world. 1 Corinthians 11:32 For that world He prays not, for He is fully aware to what it is predestinated. And there is a world whereof it is written, For the Son of man came not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved; and hence the apostle also says, God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. 2 Corinthians 5:19 For this world it is that He prays, in saying, That the world may believe that You have sent me. For through this faith the world is reconciled unto God when it believes in the Christ whom God has sent. How, then, are we to understand Him when He says, That they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that You have sent me, but just in this way, that He did not assign the cause of the world believing to the fact that those others are one, as if it believed on the ground that it saw them to be one; for the world itself here consists of all who by their own believing become one; but in His prayer He said, That the world may believe, just as in His prayer He also said, That they all may be one; and still further in the same prayer, That they also may be one in us. For the words, they all may be one, are equivalent to the world may believe, since it is by believing that they become one, perfectly one; that is, those who, although one by nature, had ceased to be so by their mutual dissensions. In fine, if the verb which He uses, I pray, be understood in the third clause, or rather, to make the whole fuller, be everywhere supplied, the explanation of this sentence will be all the clearer: I pray that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, in me, and I in You; I pray that they also may be one in us; I pray that the world may believe that You have sent me. And, mark, He added the words in us in order that we may know that our being made one in that love of unchanging faithfulness is to be attributed to the grace of God, and not to ourselves: just as the apostle, after saying, For you were at one time darkness, but now are you light, that none might attribute the doing of this to themselves, added, in the Lord. Ephesians 5:8

3. Furthermore, our Saviour in thus praying to the Father showed Himself to be man; while He now also shows that He Himself, as being God along with the Father, does that which He prays for, when He says, And the glory which You gave me, I have given them. And what was that glory but immortality, which human nature was henceforth to receive in Him? For not even He Himself had as yet received it, but in His own customary way, on account of the absolute fixedness of predestination, He intimates what is future in verbs of the past tense, because being now on the point of being glorified, or in other words, raised up again by the Father, He Himself is going to raise us up to the same glory in the end. What we have here is similar to what He says elsewhere, As the Father raises up the dead, and quickens them, even so the Son quickens whom He will. And whom, but just the same as the Father? For what things soever the Father does, not other things, but these also does the Son, not in a different way, but in like manner. And in this way He also raised up even His own self. For to this effect he said, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again. Accordingly the glory of immortality, which He says had been given Him by the Father, He must be also understood as having bestowed upon Himself, although He does not say it. For on this very account He more frequently says that the Father alone does, what He Himself also does along with the Father, that everything whatever He may attribute to Him of whom He is. But sometimes also He is silent about the Father, and says that He Himself does what He only does along with the Father: that we may thereby understand that the Son is not to be separated from the working of the Father, when He is silent about Himself, and ascribes some work or other to the Father; as, on the other hand, the Father is not separated from the working of the Son, when the Son is said, without any mention being made of [the Father] Himself, to be doing some work in which nevertheless both are equally engaged. When, therefore, in some work of the Father, the Son says nothing of His own working, He commends humility, that He may become the source of sounder health to us; but when, in turn, in the case of some work of His own, He says nothing of the working of the Father, He commends His own equality, that we may not suppose Him to be inferior. In this way, then, and in this passage, He neither estranges Himself from the Father's working, although He has said, The glory which You gave me; for He also gave it to Himself: nor does He estrange the Father from His own working, although saying, I have given to them; for the Father also gave it to them. For the works not only of the Father and the Son, but also of the Holy Spirit, are inseparable. But just as, because of His praying the Father in behalf of all His people, it was His own pleasure that this should be done, that they all may be one; so also on the ground of His own beneficence, as expressed in the words, The glory which You gave me, I have given them, the doing of that was none the less His pleasure; for He immediately added, That they may be one, as we also are one.

4. And then He added: I in them, and You in me, that they may be made perfect in one. Here He briefly intimated Himself as the Mediator between God and men. Nor was this said in any such way as if the Father were not in us, or we were not in the Father; since He had also said in another place, We will come unto him, and make our abode with him; and a little before in this present passage He had not said, I in them and You in me, as He said now; or, They in me, and I in You; but, Thou in me, and I in You, and they in us. Accordingly, when He now says, I in them, and You in me, the words take this form in reference to the person of the Mediator, like that other expression used by the apostle, You are Christ's, and Christ is God's. 1 Corinthians 3:23 But in adding, That they may be made perfect in one, He showed that the reconciliation, which is effected by the Mediator, is carried to the very length of bringing us to the enjoyment of that perfect blessedness, which is thenceforth incapable of further addition. Hence the words that follow, That the world may know that You have sent me, are not, I think, to be taken as if He had again said, That the world may believe; for sometimes, to know, is also used in the same sense as to believe, as it is in the words He uttered some time before: And they have known truly that I came out from You, and they have believed that You sent me. He expressed the same thing by the later words, they have believed, as He had done by the earlier, they have known. But inasmuch as He here speaks of the consummation, the knowledge must be taken for such, as it shall then be by sight, and not, as it now is, by faith. For an order seems to have been preserved in reference to what He said a little before, that the world may believe; while here it is, that the world may know. For although He said there, that they all may be one, and may be one in us, yet He did not say, they may be made perfect in one, and so subjoined the words, that the world may believe that You have sent me; but here He said, That they may be made perfect in one, and then added, not, that the world may believe, but, that the world may know that You have sent me. For so long as we believe what we do not see, we are not yet made perfect, as we shall be when we have merited the sight of that which we believe. Most correctly, therefore, did He say in that previous place, That the world may believe, and here That the world may know; yet both there and here, that You have sent me; that we may know, so far as belongs to the inseparable love of the Father and the Son, that at present we only believe what we are on the way, by believing, to know. And had He said, That they may know that You have sent me, it would be just of the same force as what He actually does say, that the world may know. For they are the world that abides not in enmity, as does the world that is foreordained to damnation; but one that out of an enemy has been transformed into a friend, and on whose account God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. Therefore said He, I in them, and You in me; as if He had said, I in those to whom You have sent me; and You in me, reconciling the world unto Yourself through me.

5. In close relation to these come also His further words: And You have loved them as you have loved me. That is to say, in the Son the Father loves us, because in Him He has chosen us before the foundation of the world. Ephesians 1:4 For He who loves the Only-begotten, certainly loves also His members which, through His in strumentality, He engrafted into Him by adoption. But we are not on this account equal to the only-begotten Son, by whom we have been created and re-created, that it is said, You have loved them as [You have] also [loved] me. For one does not always intimate equality when he says, As this, so also that other; but sometimes only, Because this is, so also is the other; or, That the one is, in order that the other may be also. For who could say that the apostles were sent by Christ into the world in exactly the same way as He Himself was sent by the Father? For, to say nothing of other differences, which it would be tedious to mention, they at all events were sent when they were already men; but He was sent in order that He might be man; and yet He said above, As You have sent me into the world, even so have I sent them into the world; as if He had said, Because You have sent me, I have sent them. So also in the passage before us He says, You have loved them, as You have loved me; which is nothing else than this, You have loved them because that You have also loved me. For He could not but love the members of the Son, seeing that He loves the Son Himself; nor is there any other reason for loving His members, save that He loves Himself. But He loves the Son as regards His Godhead, because He begot Him equal with Himself; He loves Him also in regard to what He is as man, because the Only-begotten Word was Himself made flesh, and on account of the Word is the flesh of the Word dear to Him; but He loves us, inasmuch as we are the members of Him whom He loves; and in order that we might be so, He loved us on this account before we existed.

6. The love, therefore, wherewith God loves, is incomprehensible and immutable. For it was not from the time that we were reconciled unto Him by the blood of His Son that He began to love us; but He did so before the foundation of the world, that we also might be His sons along with His Only-begotten, before as yet we had any existence of our own. Let not the fact, then, of our having been reconciled unto God through the death of His Son be so listened to or so understood, as if the Son reconciled us to Him in this respect, that He now began to love those whom He formerly hated, in the same way as enemy is reconciled to enemy, so that thereafter they become friends, and mutual love takes the place of their mutual hatred; but we were reconciled unto Him who already loved us, but with whom we were at enmity because of our sin. Whether I say the truth on this, let the apostle testify, when he says: God commends His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8-9 He, therefore, had love toward us even when we were practising enmity against Him and working iniquity; and yet to Him it is said with perfect truth, Thou hatest, O Lord, all workers of iniquity. Accordingly, in a wonderful and divine manner, even when He hated us, He loved us; for He hated us, in so far as we were not what He Himself had made; and because our own iniquity had not in every part consumed His work, He knew at once both how, in each of us, to hate what we had done, and to love what He had done. And this, indeed, may be understood in the case of all regarding Him to whom it is truly said, Thou hatest nothing that You have made. Wisdom 11:25 For He would never have wished anything that He hated to exist, nor would anything that the Omnipotent had not wished exist at all, were it not that in what He hated there was also something that He loved. For He justly hates and reprobates vice as utterly repugnant to the principle of His procedure, yet He loves even in the persons of the vitiated what is susceptible either of His own beneficence through healing, or of His judgment by condemnation. In this way God at the same time hates nothing of what He has made; for as the Creator of natures, and not of vices, it was not He who made the evil that He hates; and of these same evils, all is good that He really does, either by mercifully healing them, or by judicially regulating them. Seeing, then, that He hates nothing that He has made, who can worthily describe how much He loves the members of His Only-begotten, and how much more the Only-begotten Himself, in whom are hid all things visible and invisible, which were ordained in their various classes, and which He loves in fullest harmony with such ordination? For the members of His Only-begotten He is leading on by the liberality of His grace to an equality with the holy angels; while the Only-begotten Himself, being Lord of all, is doubtless Lord of angels, being by nature, as God, the equal not of angels, but rather of the Father Himself; while through grace, in respect of which He is man, how can He otherwise than surpass all angelic excellence, seeing that in Him human flesh and the Word constitute but one personality?

7. Nevertheless there are not wanting some who place us likewise before the angels; because, they say, Christ died for us and not for angels. But what else is such a notion than the desire to glory over our very impiety? For Christ, as the apostle says, in due time died for the ungodly. Romans 5:6 Where it is not any desert of ours, but the mercy of God, that is commended. For what can be the character of the man who wishes himself to be lauded, because he has become so abominably diseased through his own wickedness, that he can only be healed by the death of his physician? That surely is not the glory of our deserts, but the medicine of our diseases. Or do we prefer ourselves to the angels on this account, that, while there are angels also who have sinned, there has been no such labor expended on their healing? As if something that was at least small in amount had been undertaken for them, and what was greater for us. But had even such been the case, it might still be a subject of inquiry whether it was so because we had once stood in a position of superior excellence, or because we were now lying in a more desperate condition. But knowing as we do that the Creator of all good has imparted no grace for the reparation of angelic evils, why do we not rather draw the inference that their fault was judged all the more damnable, that the nature of those who committed it was of a loftier sublimity? For to the same extent as they less than we ought to have fallen into sin, were they superior in nature to us. But now in offending against the Creator they became all the more detestably ungrateful for His beneficence, that they were created capable of exercising the greater beneficence; nor was it enough for them to become deserters from Him, but they must also become our deceivers. This, therefore, is the great goodness of which we are to be made the subjects by Him, who has loved us even as He has loved Christ, that, for His sake, whose members He wished us to be, we may be equal to the holy angels, Luke 20:36 to whom we were created with an inferiority of nature, and have by our sin fallen into such greater depths of unworthiness, as to make it incumbent that we should be in some sort their associates.

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on John 17:21

Our Lord Jesus Christ did not pray for the twelve apostles alone. He prayed for all who were destined in every age to yield to and obey the words that call them to be holy by believing and to be purified through participation in the Holy Spirit.… “May they all be one,” he prayed. “As you Father are in me and I am in you, may they also be one in us.” … The only Son shines out from the very substance of the Father and possesses the Father completely in his own nature. He became man, according to the Scriptures, blending himself, so to speak, with our nature by an inexplicable union with an earthly body.… In himself he somehow united totally disparate natures to make us sharers in the divine nature.The communion and abiding presence of the Spirit has passed even to ourselves. This was experienced first through Christ and in Christ when he was seen to have become like us, that is, a human being anointed and sanctified. By nature, however, he was God, for he proceeded from the Father. It was with his own Spirit that he sanctified the temple of his body and also, in a way befitting it, the world of his creation. Through the mystery of Christ, then, sharing in the Holy Spirit and union with God has become possible also for us, for we are all sanctified in him.
By his own wisdom and the Father’s counsel he devised a way of bringing us all together and blending us into a unity with God and one another, even though the differences between us give us each in both body and soul a separate identity. For in Holy Communion he blesses with one body, which is his own, those who believe in him, and he makes them one body with himself and one another. Who could separate those who are united to Christ through that one sacred body or destroy their true union with one another? If “we all share one loaf,” we all become one body, for Christ cannot be divided.
So it is that the church is the body of Christ, and we are its members. For since we are all united to Christ through his sacred body, having received that one indivisible body into our own, our members are not our own but his.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 11.11

[AD 235] Hippolytus of Rome on John 17:22

You shall escape the boiling flood of hell's eternal lake of fire and the eye ever fixed in menacing glare of fallen angels chained in Tartarus as punishment for their sins; and you shall escape the worm that ceaselessly coils for food around the body whose scum has bred it. Now such (torments) as these shall thou avoid by being instructed in a knowledge of the true God. And thou shalt possess an immortal body, even one placed beyond the possibility of corruption, just like the soul. And thou shalt receive the kingdom of heaven, thou who, whilst thou didst sojourn in this life, didst know the Celestial King. And thou shalt be a companion of the Deity, and a co-heir with Christ, no longer enslaved by lusts or passions, and never again wasted by disease. For thou hast become God: for whatever sufferings thou didst undergo while being a man, these He gave to thee, because thou wast of mortal mould, but whatever it is consistent with God to impart, these God has promised to bestow upon thee, because thou hast been deified, and begotten unto immortality. This constitutes the import of the proverb, "Know thyself; "i.e., discover God within thyself, for He has formed thee after His own image. For with the knowledge of self is conjoined the being an object of God's knowledge, for thou art called by the Deity Himself. Be not therefore inflamed, O ye men, with enmity one towards another, nor hesitate to retrace with all speed your steps. For Christ is the God above all, and He has arranged to wash away sin from human beings, rendering regenerate the old man. And God called man His likeness from the beginning, and has evinced in a figure His love towards thee. And provided thou obeyest His solemn injunctions, and becomest a faithful follower of Him who is good, thou shall resemble Him, inasmuch as thou shall have honour conferred upon thee by Him. For the Deity, (by condescension,) does not diminish aught of the divinity of His divine perfection; having made thee even God unto His glory!

Source: The Refutation of All Heresies Book 10

[AD 367] Hilary of Poitiers on John 17:22

Now I ask whether glory is identical with will, since will is an emotion of the mind while glory is an ornament or embellishment of nature. So then, it is the glory received from the Father that the Son has given to all who shall believe in him, and certainly not will. Had will been given, faith would carry with it no reward, for a necessity of will attached to us would also impose faith on us. However, he has shown what is effected by the bestowal of the glory received: “that they may be one, even as we are one.” It is then with this object that the received glory was bestowed, that all might be one. So now all are one in glory, because the glory given is none other than that which was received; nor has it been given for any other reason than that all should be one. And since all are one through the glory given to the Son and by the Son bestowed on believers, I ask how the Son can be of a different glory from the Father’s, since the glory of the Son brings all that believe into the unity of the Father’s glory. Now it may be that the utterance of human hope in this case may be somewhat immoderate, yet it will not be contrary to faith. For though to hope for this were presumptuous, yet not to have believed it is sinful, for we have one and the same author both of our hope and of our faith.

Source: ON THE TRINITY 8.12

[AD 373] Athanasius of Alexandria on John 17:22

What advantage then was it for the immortal to have assumed the mortal? Or what improvement does the everlasting one get by putting on the temporal? How great can any reward be for the everlasting God and King in the bosom of the Father? Don’t you see that this too was done and written because of us and for us? The Lord became man for us, we who are mortal and temporal, so that he might make us immortal and bring us into the everlasting kingdom of heaven.… It is not the Word then (viewed as the Word) that is improved. For he had all things and has them always. But it is the human race, which has its origin18 in him and through him, that is the one who receives the improvement. For when he is now said to be anointed according to human terms, it is we who in him are anointed, since also when he is baptized, it is we who in him are baptized. But on all these things the Savior throws significant light when he says to the Father, “And the glory that you gave me, I have given to them, that they may be one, even as we are one.” Because of us, then, he asked for glory. And the words “took” and “gave” and “highly exalted” occur so that we might take, and to us might be given and we might be exalted in him. He also sanctifies himself for us so that we might be sanctified in him.

Source: Discourses Against the Arians 1.12.48

[AD 395] Gregory of Nyssa on John 17:22

In giving “all power” to his disciples by his blessing, in his prayer here to the Father he grants many other favors to those who are holy. And he adds this, which is the crown of all blessings, that in all the diversity of life’s decisions they should never be divided greatly in their choice of the good. And so he prays that all “may be one,” united in a single good so that linked “in the bond of peace,” as the apostle says, through “the unity of the [Holy] Spirit,” all might become “one body and one spirit,” through the “one hope” to which they have all been called.But it would be better here if we would quote the actual words of the Gospel. “That they all may be one,” he says, “as you, Father, are in me, and I in you; that they also may be one in us.” Now the bond of this unity is glory, and no one who would consider seriously the Lord’s words would deny that this glory is the Holy Spirit. For he says, “The glory that you have given me, I have given to them.” He gave his disciples this glory when he said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” And he himself received this glory when he put on human nature, though he had indeed always possessed it since before the beginning of the world. And now that his human nature has been glorified by the Spirit, this participation in the glory of the Spirit is communicated to all who are united with him, beginning with his disciples.

Source: HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 15

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:22

That by miracles, that by doctrines, and, that they should be of one soul; for this is glory, that they should be one, and greater even than miracles. As men admire God because there is no strife or discord in That Nature, and this is His greatest glory, so too let these, He says, from this cause become glorious. And how, says some one, does He ask the Father to give this to them, when He says that He Himself gives it? Whether His discourse be concerning miracles, or unanimity, or peace, He is seen Himself to have given these things to them; whence it is clear that the petition is made for the sake of their comfort.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:22

“And the glory that you gave me, I have given them.” And what was that glory but immortality, which human nature was afterward to receive in him? For not even he himself had as yet received it, but in his own customary way, because predestination is so absolutely inflexible, he intimates what is future in verbs of the past tense. He does this because he is now on the point of being glorified, or in other words, raised up again by the Father, knowing that he himself is going to raise us up to the same glory in the end.

Source: TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 110.3

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on John 17:22

CHAPTER XII. That the Son is by Nature One with God His Father, though He says that He received, as by way of grace, His being One with the Father.

We say, and therein we are justified, that the Only-begotten hath an essential and natural unity with His Father, insomuch as He was both in the true sense begotten, and from Him proceeds, and is in Him: and though He seem in His own Person to have a separate and distinct Being, yet that He is accounted, by reason of His innate identity of Substance, as One with the Father. But since, in His Incarnation, on our behalf, in order to save our souls, He abdicated, as it were, that place which was His at the beginning, I mean His equality with God the Father, and appears to have been in some sort so far removed therefrom as to have stepped outside His invisible glory, for this is what is meant by the expression, He made Himself of no reputation, He that of old and from the very beginning was enthroned with the Father, receives this as a gift when in the Flesh; His earthy and mortal frame and human form, which was actually part of His Nature, of necessity requiring as a gift that which was His by Nature; for He was and is in the form of the Father, and in equality with Him. Though, therefore, the flesh from a woman's womb, that temple wherewith the Virgin endowed Him, was not in any wise consubstantial with God the Father, nor of like Nature with Him; yet, when once received into the Body of the Word, henceforth it was accounted as One with Him. For Christ is One, and the Son is One, even when He became Man. In this aspect of His Person He is conceived of as taken into union with the Father, being admitted thereto even in the Flesh, which originally enjoys not union with God. And, to speak more concisely and clearly, the Only-begotten says, that that which was given unto Him was given to His Flesh; given too, of course, wholly by the Father, through Himself, in the Spirit. For in no other way than this can union with God be effected, even in the case of Christ Himself, so far as He manifested Himself as, and indeed became, Man. The flesh, that is, was sanctified by union with the Spirit, the twain coming together in an ineffable way; and so unconfusedly attains to God the Word, and through Him to the Father, in habit of mind, that is, and not in any physical sense. This favour and glory then, He says, given unto Me, O Father, by Thee, that is, the glory of being One with Thee, I have given unto them, that they may be one, even as We are One.

[AD 215] Clement of Alexandria on John 17:23

And again, "And hast loved them as Thou hast loved Me? "

[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on John 17:23

There are some … who in their desire to deny the unity of the divine substance try to make light of the love of the Father and the Son, because it is written, “You have loved them, as you have loved me.” But when they say this, what else do they do but adopt a likeness of comparison between the Son of God and human beings? Can we indeed be loved by God as the Son is, in whom the Father is well-pleased? The Son is well-pleasing in himself; we are well-pleasing through him. For those in whom God sees his own Son after his own likeness, he admits through his Son into the favor of sons [children]. As we go through likeness unto likeness, in the same way, we are called to adoption through the generation of the Son. The eternal love of God’s nature is one thing; that of grace is another. And if they start a debate on the words that are written, “And you have loved them, as you have loved me,” and think a comparison is intended, they must think that the following also was said by way of comparison, “Be merciful, as your Father who is in heaven is merciful.” It is also elsewhere said, “Be perfect, as my Father who is in heaven is perfect.” But if he is perfect in the fullness of his glory, we are but perfect according to the growth of virtue within us. The Son also is loved by the Father according to the fullness of a love that always remains in him, but in us growth in grace merits the love of God. You see, then, how God has given grace to humankind, and do you want to separate the natural and indivisible love of the Father and the Son? And do you still strive to make nothing of words, where you note the mention of a unity of majesty?

Source: Exposition of the Christian Faith 5.7.88-91

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:23

How gave He the glory? By being in them, and having the Father with Him, so as to weld them together. But in another place He speaks not so; He says not that the Father comes by Him, but, that He and the Father come, and take up their abode with him, there removing the suspicion of Sabellius, here that of Arius.

That they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me. John 14:23

He says these latter words immediately after the other, to show that peace has more power to attract men than a miracle; for as it is the nature of strife to separate, so it is that of agreement to weld together.

And I have loved them as You have loved Me.

Here again the as means, as far as it is possible for a man to be loved; and the sure proof of His love is His giving Himself for them. After having told them that they shall be in safety, that they shall not be overturned, that they shall be holy, that many shall believe through them, that they shall enjoy great glory, that not He alone loved them, but the Father also; He next tells them of what shall be after their sojourning here, concerning the prizes and crowns laid up for them.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:23

He did not say, “I and they are one,” although inasmuch as he is the head of the church and the church is his body, he could not only say, “I and they are one but also one person,” because the head and the body are the one Christ. But when he reveals that his own Godhead is consubstantial with the Father (for which reason he also says in another place, “I and the Father are one”30), then it is rather his will that his own in their own kind, that is to say, in the consubstantial equality of the same nature, should be one, but be one in him. For they could not be one in themselves, since they were separated from one another by conflicting inclinations, desires and unclean sins. They are, therefore, purified through the Mediator, in order that they may be one in him. And indeed [they are one] not only through the same nature in which all mortals become equal to the angels, but also [they are one] by the same will working together most harmoniously toward the same blessedness, and [they are] fused together in some way by the fire of charity into one spirit.

Source: ON THE TRINITY 4.9.12

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on John 17:23

For we are made one with each other after the manner already indicated, and we are also made one with God. And in what sense we are made one with Him, the Lord very clearly explained, and to make the benefit of His teaching plain, added the words: I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfected into one. For the Son dwells in us in a corporeal sense as Man, commingled and united with us by the mystery of the Eucharist; and also in a spiritual sense as God, by the effectual working and grace of His own Spirit, building up our spirit into newness of life, and making us partakers of His Divine Nature. Christ, then, is seen to be the bond of union between us and God the Father; as Man making us, as it were, His branches, and as God by Nature inherent in His own Father. For no otherwise could that nature which is subject to corruption be uplifted into incorruption, but by the coming down to it of That Nature Which is high above all corruption and variableness, lightening the burthen of ever sinking humanity, so that it can attain its own good; and by drawing it into fellowship and intercourse with Itself, well-nigh extricating it from the limitations which suit the creature, and fashioning into conformity with Itself that which is of itself contrary to It. We have, therefore, been made perfect in unity with God the Father, through the mediation of Christ. For by receiving in ourselves, both in a corporeal and spiritual sense, as I said just now, Him that is the Son by Nature, and Who has essential union with the Father, we have been glorified and become partakers in the Nature of the Most High.

When Christ desires us to be admitted to union with God the Father, He at the same time calls down upon our nature this blessing from the Father, and also declares that the power which the grace confers will be a convincing refutation of those who think that He is not from God. For what ground will there be any longer for this false accusation, if of Himself He exalts to union with the Father those who have been brought near to Him through faith and sincere love? When, then, O Father, they gain union with Thee, through Me, then the world will know that Thou didst send Me; that is, that I came to succour the earth by Thy lovingkindness, and to work out the salvation of those who err therein. Besides, none the less, He says, will they know, who have partaken of a grace so acceptable, that Thou lovedst them, even as Thou lovedst Me. For surely He that received into union with Himself Him that is Man, even as we are, that is, Christ, and deemed Him worthy of so great love (we are arguing here concerning Christ as Man), and gave to us the chance of gaining this blessing, surely He would speak of His love as dealt out to us in equal measure. And let not any attentive hearer be perplexed hereby. For it is clear beyond dispute, that the servant can never vie with his master, and that the Father will not give as full a measure of His love to His creatures, as to His own Son. But we must consider that we are here looking upon Him That is beloved from everlasting, as commencing to be loved when He became Man. What, therefore, He then, as it were, took and received, we shall find that He took not for Himself, but for us. For just as, when He lived again after subduing the power of death, He accomplished not His Resurrection for Himself, for He is the Word and God, but gave us this blessing through Himself, and in Himself (for man's nature was in Christ in its entirety, fast bound by the chains of death); in like manner we must suppose that He received the Father's love, not for Himself, because He was continually beloved of Him from the beginning, but rather He accepts it at His Hands upon His Incarnation, that He may call down upon us the Father's love. Just as, then, we shall be, nay, we are even now, as in Christ first the Firstfruits of our race, made conformable to His Resurrection and His glory, even so are we, as it were, like Him; beloved, but yielding the supremacy in all things to the Only-begotten, and justly marvelling at the incomparable mercy of God, shown towards us; Who showers, as it were, upon us the things that are His, and shares with His creatures what appertains to Himself alone.

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on John 17:23

The Son dwells in us in a corporeal sense as man, commingled and united with us by the mystery of the Eucharist. And also [he dwells with us] in a spiritual sense as God, by the effectual working and grace of his own Spirit, building up our spirit into newness of life and making us partakers of his divine nature. Christ, then, is seen to be the bond of union between us and God the Father. He is seen as human, making us, as it were, his branches, and is seen as God because he is by nature inherent in his own Father. For in no other way could that nature which is subject to corruption be elevated to incorruption, except by the coming down to it of that nature that is high above all corruption and changeability.… We have, therefore, been made perfect in unity with God the Father, through the mediation of Christ. For by receiving in ourselves (both in a corporeal and spiritual sense, as I said just now) him who is the Son by nature and who has essential union with the Father, we have been glorified and become partakers in the nature of the Most High.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 11.12

[AD 202] Irenaeus on John 17:24

Indicating that they did not glorify Him when they followed Him; but that, in following the Son of God, they were glorified by Him. And again, "I will, that where I am, there they also may be, that they may behold My glory; "

[AD 202] Irenaeus on John 17:24

Service [rendered] to God brings no profit to God, nor does God need our obedience. However, he grants life, incorruption and eternal glory to those who follow and serve him, bestowing gifts on those who serve [him] because they do serve him and on his followers because they do follow him. But he does not receive any benefit from them because he is already rich, perfect and in need of nothing. Still, God demands service from men and women so that he can benefit those who continue in his service, since he is so good and merciful. For as much as God lacks nothing, that is how much we stand in need of fellowship with God, because our glory consists in continuing and remaining permanently in God’s service.

Source: AGAINST HERESIES 4.14.1

[AD 215] Clement of Alexandria on John 17:24

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 to them Thy name, and will declare it."

Source: Clement of Alexandria The Instructor Book I

[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on John 17:24

The Lord himself, in the Gospel, not only declares that these same results will occur in the future but that they are to be brought about by his own intercession when he himself decides to obtain them from the Father for his disciples, saying, “Father, I will that where I am, they also may be with me. And as you and I are one, may they also be one in us.” In this, the divine likeness itself already appears to advance (if we may so express it) from being merely similar to becoming the same, because, undoubtedly, in the consummation, or the end, God is “all and in all.” …I am of the opinion that the expression by which God is said to be “all in all” means that he is “all” in each individual person. Now he will be “all” in each individual when all those with any rational understanding—cleansed from the dregs of every sort of vice and with every cloud of wickedness completely swept away—either feel, understand or think in terms wholly divine. He will be “all” in each person when that person’s understanding will no longer behold or retain anything else other than God, but God alone will be the measure and standard of all his or her movements. This is when God will be “all,” for there will no longer be any distinction of good and evil, since evil will no longer exist. For God is, then, all things, and no evil can be present where he is. Nor will there be a desire any longer to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil on the part of one who is always in the possession of good and to whom God is everything.

Source: ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.6.1, 3

[AD 258] Cyprian on John 17:24

That in the meantime we die, we are passing over to immortality by death; nor can eternal life follow, unless it should befall us to depart from this life. That is not an ending, but a transit, and, this journey of time being traversed, a passage to eternity. Who would not hasten to better things? Who would not crave to be changed and renewed into the likeness of Christ, and to arrive more quickly to the dignity of heavenly glory, since Paul the apostle announces and says, "For our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change the body of our humiliation, and conform it to the body of His glory? " Christ the Lord also promises that we shall be such, when, that we may be with Him, and that we may live with Him in eternal mansions, and may rejoice in heavenly kingdoms, He prays the Father for us, saying, "Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given me be with me where I am, and may see the glory which Thou hast given me before the world was made." He who is to attain to the throne of Christ, to the glory of the heavenly kingdoms, ought not to mourn nor lament, but rather, in accordance with the Lord's promise, in accordance with his faith in the truth, to rejoice in this his departure and translation.

Source: Treatise VII. On the Mortality

[AD 258] Cyprian on John 17:24

That no one should be made sad by death; since in living is labour and peril, in dying peace and the certainty of resurrection. In Genesis: "Then said the Lord to Adam, Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of that tree of which alone I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat, cursed shall be the ground in all thy works; in sadness and groaning shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life: thorns and thistles shall it cast forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field in the sweat of thy brow. Thou shall eat thy bread until thou return unto the earth from which also thou wast taken; because earth thou art, and to earth thou shall go." Also in the same place: "And Enoch pleased God, and was not found afterwards: because God translated him." And in Isaiah: "All flesh is grass, and all the glory of it as the flower of grass. The grass withered, and the flower hath fallen away; but the word of the Lord abideth for ever." In Ezekiel: "They say, Our bones are become dry, our hope hath perished: we have expired. Therefore prophesy, and say, Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I open your monuments, and I will bring you forth from your monuments, and I will bring you into the land of Israel; and I will put my Spirit upon you, and ye shall live; and I will place you into your land: and ye shall know that I the Lord have spoken, and will do it, saith the Lord." Also in the Wisdom of Solomon: "He was taken away, lest wickedness should change his understanding; for his soul was pleasing to God." Also in the eighty-third Psalm: "How beloved are thy dwellings, Thou Lord of hosts? My soul desires and hastes to the courts of God." And in the Epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians: "But we would not that you should be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who sleep, that ye sorrow not as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also them which have fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring with Him." Also in the first Epistle to the Corinthians: "Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened except it have first died." And again: "Star differeth from star in glory: so also the resurrection. The body is sown in corruption, it rises without corruption; it is sown in ignominy, it rises again in glory; it is sown in weakness, it rises again in power; it is sown an animal body, it rises again a spiritual body." And again: "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality. But when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall come to pass the word that is written, Death is absorbed Into striving. Where, O death, is thy sting? Where, O death, is thy striving? " Also in the Gospel according to John: "Father, I will that those whom Thou hast given me be with me where I shall be, and may see my glory which Thou hast given me before the foundation of the world." Also according to Luke: "Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, O Lord, according to the word; for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation." Also according to John: "If ye loved me, ye would rejoice because I go to the Father; for the Father is greater than I."

Source: Treatise XII. Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews.

[AD 330] Arnobius of Sicca on John 17:24

He should not have been despised by you even on this account, that He showed to you things concerning your salvation, that He prepared for you a path

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:24

This again is a sign of his being of one mind with the Father and of a higher character than those who lived in former times. For he says “before the foundation of the world.” And yet, there is also a certain humility evident when Jesus says, “You have given me.” Now if this is not the case, I would gladly ask those who do not think so a question: The one that gives is considered superior to the one who receives the gift. Did the Father, then, having first begotten the Son, afterward give him glory, having allowed him to be without glory until then? How can this be reasonable? See that the “he gave” really means “he begot”? But why didn’t he say, “That they may share my glory” instead of “that they may behold my glory”? Here he implies that what they are doing is looking on the Son of God. This certainly is what causes them to be glorified, as Paul says, “with open face mirroring the glory of the Lord.” For as they who look on the sunbeams and enjoy a very clear atmosphere draw their enjoyment from their sight, so then also our sight will cause us greater pleasure. At the same time also he shows that what they should behold was not the body then seen but something awesome.

Source: HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 82.2-3

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:24-26

(Hom. lxxxii. 2) After He has said that many should believe on Him through them, and that they should obtain great glory, He then speaks of the crowns in store for them; Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am.

(Hom. lxxxii) He saith not, that they may partake of My glory, but, that they may behold, intimating that the rest there is to see the Son of God. The Father gave Him glory, when He begat Him.

(Hom. lxxxii) He says this as if He were troubled at the thought, that they should be unwilling to know One so just and good. And whereas the Jews had said, that they knew God, and He knew Him not: He on the contrary says, But I have known Thee, and these have known that Thou hast sent Me, and I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare1 it, by giving them perfect knowledge through the Holy Ghost. When they have learned what Thou art, they will know that I am not separate from Thee, but Thine own Son greatly beloved, and joined to Thee. This I have told them, that I might receive them, and that they who believe this aright, shall preserve their faith and love toward Me entire; and I will abide in them: That the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them.

Source: Catena Aurea by Aquinas

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:24

Let us not be making inquiries as to where the Son, the Father’s co-equal, is, since no one has yet found out where he is not. But if anyone would inquire, let him inquire rather how he may be with him—not everywhere, as he is, but wherever he may be. For when he said to the [thief] … “Today you will be with me in paradise,” in respect to his human nature his own soul was on that very day to be in hell, his flesh in the sepulcher. But as respected his Godhead he was certainly also in paradise. And therefore the soul of the thief, absolved from his past crimes and already in the blessed enjoyment of his grace, although his soul could not be everywhere as Christ was, yet could on that very day be also with him in paradise, from which he, who is always everywhere, had not withdrawn. On this account, doubtless, it was not enough for him to say, “I will that they also be where I am,” but he added, “with me.” For to be with him is the chief good. For even the miserable can be where he is, since wherever any are, there is he also. But the blessed are only with him because it is only of him that they can be blessed. Was it not truly said to God, “If I ascend into heaven, you are there. And if I go down into hell, you are present”? Or is not Christ after all that Wisdom of God that “penetrates everywhere because of its purity”? But “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not comprehend it.” Let us take a similar illustration from what is visible, even if it is only remotely similar. The blind person—even when there is light where he is—does not really experience the light but is, in reality, absent from its presence. In the same way, because someone who is an unbeliever and ungodly (or even a believer who is godly) is not yet competent to gaze on the light of wisdom—although there is nowhere he or she could be where Christ is not—yet that person still cannot experience Christ with actual sight. For there is no doubt that a true believer is with Christ by faith, because in reference to this he says, “He that is not with me is against me.” But when he said to God the Father, “I will that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am,” he spoke exclusively of that sight that will see him as he is.

Source: TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 111.2

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:24-26

(Tr. cx. 4) Nor is this said, however, as if to mean that the Father was not in us, or we in the Father. He only means to say, that He is Mediator between God and man. And what He adds, That they may be made perfect in one, shows that the reconciliation made by this Mediator, was carried on even to the enjoyment of everlasting blessedness. So what follows, That the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, must not be taken to mean the same as the words just above, That the world may believe. For as long as we believe what we do not see, we are not yet made perfect, as we shall be when we have merited to see what we believe. So that when He speaks of their being made perfect, we are to understand such a knowledge as shall be by sight, not such as is by faith. These that believe are the world, not a permanent enemy, but changed from an enemy to a friend; as it follows: And hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me. The Father loves us in the Son, because He elected us in Him. These words do not prove that we are equal to the Only Begotten Son; for this mode of expression, as one thing so another, does not always signify equality. It sometimes only means, because one thing, therefore another. And this is its meaning here: Thou hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me, i. e. Thou hast loved them, because Thou hast loved Me. There is no reason for God loving His members, but that He loves him. But since He hateth nothing that He hath made, who can adequately express how much He loves the members of His Only Begotten Son, and still more the Only Begotten Himself.

(Tr. cxi. 1) These are they whom He has received from the Father, whom He also chose out of the world; as He saith at the beginning of this prayer, Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, i. e. all mankind, That He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him. Wherein He shows that He had received power over all men, to deliver whom He would, and to condemn whom He would. Wherefore it is to all His members that He promises this reward, that where He is, they may be also. Nor can that but be done, which the Almighty Son saith that He wishes to the Almighty Father: for the Father and the Son have one will, which, if weakness prevent us from comprehending, piety must believe. Where I am: so far as pertains to the creature, He was made of the seed of David according to the flesh: He might say, Where I am, meaning where He was shortly to be, i. e. heaven. In heaven then, He promises us, we shall be. For thither was the form of a servant raised, which He had taken from the Virgin, and there placed on the right hand of God.

(Tr. cxi) But as respects the form of God, wherein He is equal to the Father, if we understand these words, that they may be with Me where I am, with reference to that, then away with all bodily ideas, and enquire not where the Son, Who is equal to the Father, is: for no one hath discovered where He is not. Wherefore it was not enough for Him to say, I will that they may be where I am, but He adds, with Me. For to be with Him is the great good: even the miserable can be where He is, but only the happy can be with Him. And as in the ease of the visible, though very different be whatever example we take, a blind man will serve for one, as a blind man though He is where the light is, yet is not himself with the light, but is absent from it in its presence, so not only the unbelieving, but the believing, though they cannot be where Christ is not, yet are not themselves with Christ by sight: by faith we cannot doubt but that a believer is with Christ. But here He is speaking of that sight wherein we shall see Him as He is; as He adds, That they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me. That they may behold, He says, not, that they may believe. It is the reward of faith which He speaks of, not faith itself.

(Tr. cxi. 3) When then we shall have seen the glory which the Father gave the Son, though by this glory we do not understand here, that which He gave to the equal Son when He begat Him, but that which He gave to the Son of man, after His crucifixion; then shall the judgment be, then shall the wicked be taken away, that he see not the glory of the Lord: what glory but that whereby He is God? If then we take their words, That they may be with Me where I am, to be spoken by Him as Son of God, in that case they must have a higher meaning, viz. that we shall be in the Father with Christ. As He immediately adds, That they may see My glory which Thou hast given Me; and then, Which Thou gavest Me before the foundation of the world. For in Him He loved us before the foundation of the world, and then predestined what He should do at the end of the world.

(Tr. cxi. 5) Or thus; What is to know Him, but eternal life, which He gave not to a condemned but to a reconciled world? For this reason the world hath not known Thee; because Thou art just, and hast punished them with this ignorance of Thee, in reward for their misdeeds. And for this reason the reconciled world knows Thee, because Thou art merciful, and hast vouchsafed this knowledge, not in consequence of their merits, but of thy grace. It follows: But I have known Thee. He is God the fountain of grace by nature, man of the Holy Ghost and Virgin by grace ineffable. Then because the grace of God is through Jesus Christ, He says, And they have known Me, i. e. the reconciled world have known Me, by grace, forasmuch as Thou hast sent Me. And I have made known Thy name to them by faith, and will make it known by sight: that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them. (2 Tim. 4:7) The Apostle uses a like phrase, I have fought a good fight, by a good fight being the more common form. The love wherewith the Father loveth the Son in us, can only be in us because we are His members, and we are loved in Him when He is loved wholly, i. e. both head and body. And therefore He adds, And I in them; He is in us, as in His temple, we in Him as our Head.

Source: Catena Aurea by Aquinas

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on John 17:24

After having prayed for His disciples, or rather all those who come to Him through faith, and having required of the Father that they may have union with Him, and love, and sanctification, He proceeds at once to add these words; showing that to live with Him and to be deemed worthy to see His glory, belongeth only to those who have been already united to the Father through Him, and have obtained His love, which He must be conceived to enjoy from the Father. For we are loved as sons, according as we are like Him Who is actually by Nature His Son. For though it be not dealt out to us in equal measure, yet as it is a complete semblance of the love the Father hath for the Son, and is coincident therewith, it images forth the glory of the Son. I will, therefore, He says, O Father, that those who are Mine, through their coming to Me through faith, and the light that proceedeth from Thee, may be with Me and see My glory. And what language can reveal the greatness of the blessing which is implied in being with Christ Himself? For we shall enjoy ineffable fruition of soul, and eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor mind conceived, what God hath prepared for those that love Him. For what thing that maketh for the fulness of joy can be lacking to those who have allotted to them the portion of being with Christ Himself, the Lord of all? Yea, the wise and holy Paul seems to have thought it a thing surpassing conception, for he says, to depart and be with Christ is far better. And surely he that preferred this great and acceptable reward to this world's life, will bear us true testimony that great is the blessing of converse with Him which He confers on His own; He that giveth all things to all men plenteously. And the word spoken through him to us will also help to support our contention. For having in himself Christ speaking, and revealing the powers of the age to come, he spoke also after this manner: For the dead shall rise, he says, and also we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Further, our Lord Himself plainly promised us this blessing, saying: I go and will prepare a place for you. I will come again, and will receive you with Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also with Me.

For either, without thinking deeply on the subject, we shall readily conclude that our abiding home in heaven is meant, or, following another line of thought, we shall suppose that the same place will be allotted to us as to Christ; that is, similar and analogous honours, according to our likeness to Himself. For we shall be conformed to His glory, and shall reign with Him, according to Holy Writ; and He promises that, like as He is wont, we shall also be enthroned in the kingdom of the heavens.

Leaving, then, for the present, as beyond dispute, any further proof that we shall be with Christ and share His glory, and be partakers in His kingdom, we proceed to the other point, I mean the words, that they may behold My glory. Not, therefore, to the profane and sinners, nor to those who dishonour the law of God, will it be given to gaze on the vision of Christ's glory; but only to the holy and righteous. This also we may know by the prophet's words: Let the impious man be taken away, that he see not the glory of the Lord; and in the Gospel message of our Saviour Christ: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. And who can the pure in heart be but they who, by union with God, through the Son, in the Spirit, have rid themselves of fleshly lusts, and put far away from them the pleasure of the world, and have, as it were, denied their own lives, and resigned them wholly to the Will of the Spirit, and who are in all purity and sincerity fellow-citizens with Christ; such as was Paul, who out of his own exceeding purity feared not to say: I have been crucified with Christ, yet I live; and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me? I hear also the voice of another of the Saints in his song: Make me a pure heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Thy presence, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. Give me again the comfort of Thy salvation, and establish me with Thy free Spirit. He calleth the Spirit the comfort of salvation, as giving men joy unceasing and perpetual, and affording them guidance through all the changes and chances of the world; for the Spirit belongeth to the only true Saviour, that is, Christ. He giveth Him many names, and adds a pure heart to his prayer, and straightway invokes the Spirit; since they who are not yet united unto God, and made partakers of Christ's blessing through the Spirit, have not a perfect heart, but rather one that is froward and distraught.

To sum it up, therefore, in brief: Christ desired that to His followers might be granted in special the blessing of being with Him, and beholding His glory; for He says that He was loved even before the foundation of the world, hereby clearly showing how ancient was the great mystery of the redemption He wrought for us, and that the way of our salvation, effected through the mediation of Christ, was foreknown by God the Father. This knowledge was not, indeed, vouchsafed to men upon earth at the beginning, but the Law intervened, which was our schoolmaster to teach us the Divine life, creating in us a dim knowledge through types, God the Father keeping for the fitting time the blessing through the Saviour. And this knowledge seems to us of much avail to show how groundless was the scorn and impious murmuring of the children of Israel, who chose continually to advocate the Law, even when at the advent of the truth, they ought henceforth to have made of no account the types; and it seems very useful also to controvert the others who think that the counsel of the Father, Which contrived the great mystery of our redemption, was an afterthought. Therefore also Paul said concerning Christ (destroying the contention of those who hold this view), that He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the last times.

We must observe, also, that He says that the Father had given unto Him the disciples themselves, as well as Divine glory and universal dominion; not in His character as by Nature God, the Lord of all, Who therefore has kingly dignity inherent in Himself, but rather in so far as He manifested Himself as man, who has all things as gifts from God, and not as his birthright. For the created world receives everything from God; and nothing at all that is in it is its own, though it appear to possess things that are good.

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on John 17:24

He shows that to live with him and to be considered worthy to see his glory is something that belongs only to those who have been already united to the Father through him and have obtained his love—a love that he must be conceived to enjoy from the Father. For we are loved by God the Father as children inasmuch as we are like him who is actually the Son of God by nature. For although it is not dealt out to us in equal measure, it still is a complete resemblance of the love the Father has for the Son and, intersecting with it, images forth the glory of the Son.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 11.12

[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on John 17:24

What means then what the Truth says above, No man has ascended into heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. Yet here is no discrepancy for our Lord being the Head of His members, the reprobates excluded, He is alone with us. And therefore, we making one with Him, whence He came alone in Himself, there; He returns alone in us.

[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on John 17:24-26

(Moral.) What means then what the Truth saith above, No man hath ascended into heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. (John 3:13) Yet here is no discrepancy, for our Lord being the Head of His members, the reprobates excluded, He is alone with us. And therefore, we making one with Him, whence He came alone in Himself, thither He returns alone in us.

Source: Catena Aurea by Aquinas

[AD 735] Bede on John 17:24-26

That which He calls glory then is the love wherewith He was loved with the Father before the foundation of the world. And in that glory He loved us too before the foundation of the world.

Source: Catena Aurea by Aquinas

[AD 1107] Theophylact of Ohrid on John 17:24-26

After then that He had prayed for believers, and promised them so many good things, another prayer follows worthy of His mercy and benignity: O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee; as if to say, I would wish that all men obtained these good things, which I have asked for the believing. But inasmuch as they have not known Thee, they shall not obtain the glory and crown.

Source: Catena Aurea by Aquinas

[AD 215] Clement of Alexandria on John 17:25

It is this same Father of His, then who being one is manifested by many powers And this was the import of the utterance, "No man knew the Father"

Source: Clement of Alexandria The Instructor Book I

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:25

What means this? What connection has it? He here shows that no man knows God, save those only who have come to know the Son. And what He says is of this kind: I wished all to be so, yet they have not known You, although they had no complaint against You. For this is the meaning of, O righteous Father. And here He seems to me to speak these words, as vexed that they would not know One so just and good. For since the Jews had said that they knew God, but that He knew Him not, at this He aims, saying, For You loved Me before the foundation of the world; thus putting together a defense against the accusations of the Jews. For how could He who had received glory, who was loved before the foundation of the world, who desired to have them as witnesses of that glory, how could He be opposed to the Father? This then is not true which the Jews say, that they know You, and that I know You not; on the contrary, I know You, and they have not known You.

And these have known that You have sent Me.

Do you see that He alludes to those, who said that He was not from God, and all is finally summed up to meet this argument?

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:25

What does he mean when he says, “O righteous Father, the world has not known you”? What is the connection with what preceded? Here he shows that no one knows God except those who have come to know the Son. And what he says, then, is like this: “I wanted everyone to know you, and yet they have not known you, although they can find no fault with you.” For this is the meaning of “O righteous Father.” And here he seems to me to speak these words as one who is frustrated that they refused to know someone who is so just and good. For since the Jews had said that they knew God but that Jesus did not, he takes aim at this perception, saying, “For you [the Father] loved me before the foundation of the world.” In this way he put together a defense against the accusations of the Jews. For how could he who had received glory, who was loved before the foundation of the world, who desired to have them as witnesses of that glory—how could he be opposed to the Father? And so, he is in effect saying, “What the Jews say then is not true when they say they know you and I don’t. On the contrary, I know you, and they don’t.”

Source: HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 82.3

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on John 17:25

He here calls the Father righteous, where He might have used another title. For He is holy, pure, undefiled, Maker and Creator of the world, and whatever else befits the Ruler of the Universe. It is very desirable, then, to inquire why Christ entitled Him righteous, when He might have given Him another name. It will, then, be productive to us of much profit, if we do not allow any passages of Holy Writ to escape us. When, then, Christ desired us to be sanctified by the favour of His Father, fulfilling Himself the character of Advocate and Mediator, He made His intercession for us in the words: Holy Father, keep them in Thy Truth; meaning by Truth nothing but His own Spirit, by Whom He secureth our souls, sealing them in His Likeness, and edifying them, as it were, by His ineffable power, so that courage is undaunted; and exhorting us to manifest unrestrained zeal in abundant good works, and to let nothing stand in our way, or avail to call us back, that so we may hasten eagerly on our course to do God's pleasure, and may set at naught the manifold inventions of the devil and the pleasures of the world. For they who have once been sealed by the Holy Spirit, and who receive into their minds the earnest of His grace, have their hearts fortified, as they are girded with power from on high. Christ, therefore, besought the Father that He would sanctify us, in order that we might enjoy blessings so acceptable. Here, too, I think, He seems to have some such idea in His mind. For besides what He said about our need of sanctification from the Father, |561 He also added these words concerning us: And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given unto them; that they may be one, even as We are One; for Thou lovedst them, even as Thou lovedst Me; and again: Father, those whom Thou hast given Me, I will that where I am, they also may be with Me.

After thus speaking, He straightway calls the Father righteous, and with reason; for by His approval and consent the Son became Man, that He might endow the nature of man, which was created for good works, with sanctification through the Spirit, and union with God, and with an abiding place in the mansions above, there to live and reign with Him. For God did not create man at the beginning to work wickedness; but his nature was perverted into vice by the impious wiles of the devil, and was led astray from its guidance of old by the hand of God, and, as it were, upheaved from its foundation. Truly, it well beseemed the righteous Father to lift up again that human nature which had been cast down through the devil's malice, and to establish in its former position that which had been unduly debased, and to rid it of the foulness of sin, and, as it were, transform it into its original image as it had been at first created, and also to subject the adversary that assaulted man and impiously dared to compass his ruin, that is, Satan, to the vengeance that was meet; though methinks any kind of chastisement were slight for him who exhibited such madness against God. Therefore He saith: O righteous Father----for Thou art righteous and good, and true is Thy judgment; for Thou hast sent down Me, Who am Thine own true Son, to the world to succour and renew it. But, alas for the blindness of the world! He says: For though Thou wert such as I have said, the world knew Thee not. For surely they should straightway have seen the loving-kindness of Thy judgment and Thy merciful Will, and should have hastened to welcome their Saviour, and have brought Him willing service.

Christ, then, held this discourse with the Father, offering up, as it were, thanks on our behalf and for our sake, inasmuch as He, in His righteousness, had vouchsafed salvation to those who had suffered through the devil's malice, and had doomed the devil to perdition. And the world, He says, that is, they who oppose the Divine message of the Gospel through their worldly-mindedness, have not learnt that the Father is righteous, for the god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, as Paul says, that the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ should not dawn upon them. But He bore witness to His own disciples that they knew and understood Him, and hereby He endows them once more with a great and enviable dignity. For He shows them to be far above all the humiliation and contumely of the world, through their knowledge of the Father, and clearly also through their confession that Christ was the Son. When, therefore, at the same time as the charge was brought against the world that it knew not the Father, that is, the true and living God, He bore witness to the disciples that they knew Him, is it not henceforth quite beyond dispute, that they were not of the world now that they had become Christ's, Who is above the world, according to the saying of Paul: Through which the world hath been crucified unto me, and I unto the world; who saith again concerning us: And they that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof? When we say that the disciples were out of the world, we do not mean that they were absent so far as their bodies and position in space were concerned, for they appear as lights in the world, holding forth the Word of Life. We rather mean that, while they still walked upon earth, they were citizens of heaven; and that, bidding farewell to the lusts of the flesh, and lifting their minds high above all worldly desire, they had attained to an exceeding height of virtue, according to the saying in the Psalms: The mighty men of God have been exalted high above the earth. For they who have reached true manliness through God have put aside the grovelling thoughts of earth, and |563 turned their minds heavenward; for this, I think, is the meaning of the word exalted. The world then, He says, O Father, knew not Thee in Thy righteousness. But I know Thee, for I am Thy Counsel and Wisdom. I regarded not the glory and Divine dignity that is Mine by Nature, but humbled Myself, and descended to human poverty, that I might save with Thine approval the race that had fallen away from kinship with Us. Though the world knew not this, yet were the disciples enriched with this knowledge, and verily comprehended that Thou hast sent Me; that is, that I have come to bring Thy purpose to a glorious issue, by rescuing the world which was in peril.

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on John 17:25

Christ calls the Father righteous with good reason. For by the Father’s approval and consent the Son became man that he might endow human nature, which was created for good works, with sanctification through the Spirit, and union with God and an abiding place in the mansions above where he will live and reign with him. For God did not create humanity at the beginning to do wickedness. But their nature was perverted into vice by the impious schemes of the devil, and they were led astray from the guidance of old that they had received at the hands of God. They were uprooted, as it were, from its moorings. In truth, it seemed good to the righteous Father to lift up again that human nature that had been cast down through the devil’s malice and to establish in its former position what had been unduly debased. He wanted to rid the human nature of the foulness of sin and, as it were, transform it into its original image as it had been at first created. He also sought to subject the adversary, that is, Satan, who assaulted humanity and impiously dared to make its ruin complete, to the vengeance that was fitting for him. Although I personally think any kind of chastisement was slight for someone who exhibited such madness against God. Therefore he says, “O righteous Father,” “for you are righteous and good, and your judgment is true,” because you have sent me down, your own true Son, to the world to help and renew it. But the world is blind to all this! He says, For though you are exactly as I described you, “the world did not know you.” Otherwise they would have surely seen the loving-kindness of your judgment and your merciful will. In that case, they should have hurried to welcome their Savior and provided him with willing service.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 11.12

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:26

Yet you say that perfect knowledge is from the Spirit. But the things of the Spirit are Mine.

That the love wherewith You have loved Me may remain in them, and I in them.

For if they learn who You are, then they shall know that I am not separated from You, but one of the greatly beloved, and a true Son, and closely knit to You. And those who are rightly persuaded of this, will keep both the faith which is on Me and perfect love; and while they love as they ought, I remain in them. Do you see how He has arrived at a good end, finishing off the discourse with love, the mother of all blessings?

4. Let us then believe and love God, that it may not be said of us, They profess that they know God, but in their works they deny Him. Titus 1:16 And again, He has denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel. 1 Timothy 5:8 For when he helps his domestics and kinsmen and strangers, while thou dost not even succor those who are related to you by family, what will henceforth be your excuse, when God is blasphemed and insulted by reason of you? Consider what opportunities of doing good God has given to us. Have mercy on one, He says, as a kinsman, on another as a friend, on another as a neighbor, on another as a citizen, on another as a man. And if none of these things hold you, but you break through all bonds, hear from Paul, that you are worse than an infidel; for he having heard nothing of almsgiving, or of heavenly things, has overshot you in love for man; but thou who art bidden to love your very enemies, lookest upon your friends as enemies, and art more careful of your money than of their bodies. Yet the money by being spent will sustain no injury, but your brother if neglected will perish. What madness then to be careful of money, and careless about one's kindred? Whence has this craving for riches burst in upon us? Whence this inhumanity and cruelty? For if any one could, as though seated on the highest bench of a theater, look down upon all the world—or rather, if you will, let us for the present take in hand a single city—if then a man seated on an elevated spot could take in at a glance all the doings of the men there, consider what folly he would condemn, what tears he would weep, what laughter he would laugh, with what hatred he would hate; for we commit such actions as deserve both laughter, and the charge of folly, and tears, and hatred. One man keeps dogs to catch brute animals, himself sinking into brutality; another keeps oxen and asses to transport stones, but neglects men wasting with hunger; and spends gold without limit to make men of stone, but neglects real men, who are becoming like stones through their evil state. Another, collecting with great pains golden quarries, puts them about his walls, but when he beholds the naked bellies of the poor, is not moved. Some again contrive garments over their very garments, while their brother has not even wherewithal to cover his naked body. Again, one has swallowed up another in the law-courts; another has spent his money on women and parasites, another on stage-players and theatrical bands, another on splendid edifices, on purchases of fields and houses. Again, one man is counting interest, another interest of interest; another is putting together bands full of many deaths, and does not enjoy rest even at night, lying awake for others' harm. Then, when it is day, they run, one to his unjust gain, another to his wanton expense, others to public robbery. And great is the earnestness about things superfluous and forbidden, but of things necessary no account is taken; and they who decide questions of law have indeed the name of jurymen, but are really thieves and murderers. And if one should enquire into law suits and wills, he would find there again ten thousand mischiefs, frauds, robberies, plots, and about these things is all time spent; but for spiritual things there is no care, and they all inconvenience the Church, for the sake of seeing only. But this is not what is required; we need works, and a pure mind. But if you spend all the day in grasping after riches, and then coming in sayest a few words, you have not only not propitiated God, but hast even angered Him more. Would you conciliate your Lord, exhibit works, make yourself acquainted with the mass of woes, look upon the naked, the hungry, the wronged; He has cut out for you ten thousand ways of showing love for men. Let us not then deceive ourselves by living aimlessly and to no purpose, nor presume, because we now are in health; but bearing in mind, that often when we have fallen into sickness, and have reached the extreme of debility, we have been dead with fear and the looking for things to come, let us expect to fall again into the same state, let us get again the same fear, and let us become better men; since what is done now deserves infinite condemnation. For those in the courts of justice are like lions and dogs; those in the public places like foxes; and those who lead a life of leisure, even they do not use their leisure as they ought, spending all their time on theaters and the mischiefs arising from them. And there is no one to reprove what is being done; but there are many who envy, and are vexed that they are not in the like condition, so that these in their turn are punished, though not actually doing wicked things. For they not only do these things, but also have pleasure in them that do them. Because what belongs to their will is alike corrupt; whence it is plain, that the intention also will be punished. These things I say each day, and I will not cease to say them. For if any listen, it is gain; but if none give heed, you shall then hear these things, when it will avail you nothing, and you shall blame yourselves, and we shall be flee from fault. But may it never come to pass that we should only have this excuse, but that you may be our boast before the judgment-seat of Christ, that together we may enjoy the blessings, through the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father and the Holy Ghost be glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on John 17:26

For, [Jesus says], if they learn who you are, O Father, then they will know that I am not separated from you. They will know that I am one of your most dearly loved, a true Son and someone who is closely knit to you. And those who are rightly persuaded of this will keep their faith focused on me and remain in perfect love. And as long as they exercise their love as they should, I remain in them. Isn’t it great how he finishes off this discourse on the note of love, the mother of all blessings? Let us then believe and love God, that it may not be said of us, “They profess that they know God, but in their works they deny him.” And again, “He has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel.” For when he helps his workers and family and strangers, while you do not even help those who are related to you by family, what will be your excuse later on when God is blasphemed and insulted because of you? Consider what opportunities of doing good God has given to us. “Have mercy on one,” he says, “as a family member, on another as a friend, on another as a neighbor, on another as a citizen, on another as a fellow human being.”

Source: HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 82.3-4

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on John 17:26

But how else is the love with which the Father has loved the Son in us as well, except because of the fact that we are his members and are loved in him—since he is loved in the totality of his person as both head and members? Therefore he added, “and I in them,” as if he were saying, “Since I am also in them.” For in one sense he is in us as in his temple. But in another sense, he is also in us because we are also [part of] him, since, when he became man and our head, we became his body. And so, the Savior’s prayer is finished, his passion begins. Let us, therefore, also finish the present discourse, that we may treat his passion, as he grants us grace.

Source: TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 111.6

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on John 17:26

He says that knowledge of God the Father was at once in Him and in the disciples who attended Him. And, lest any man should be beguiled into gross extravagances of opinion, and think that His disciples had this knowledge in an equal degree with Himself, Christ at once distinguishes between them and Himself, and makes the difference very clear, showing that He revealed God unto them, while they, through Him, received knowledge. For our Lord Jesus Christ, as He is the Word, and Counsel, and Wisdom of the Father, intuitively knows what is in Him, and concerns Himself about His Father's most secret thoughts; just as, indeed, the mind of a man knows what is in him, and as nothing that is in our hearts is hidden from our human understanding. The inspired disciples, on the other hand, do not enjoy, as the fruit of their own understanding, the ability to form any conception about God; but, through the light of the Spirit, lay hold of the true meaning of the mysteries of the Son, and so are enabled to know the Father. Very appropriately, then, and to our profit, Christ added the words: And I made known unto them Thy Name, and will make it known.

Observe, too, how Both Persons, I mean the Father and the Son, effectually work together to make the Godhead comprehensible to men. For the Father makes us wise by revealing to us His own Son, and none the less also the Son makes us wise by revealing to us the Father. To the blessed Peter, moreover, He spake these words, about the parts of Caesarea called Philippi: Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father Which is in heaven. For the disciple confessed and maintained his belief that He was Christ, the Son of the living God. And now He says, concerning Himself: I made known unto them Thy Name, and will make it known. For the Only-begotten ceaseth not to reveal unto us the meaning of the mystery concerning Himself, as He revealed it to His first followers at the beginning; and this He doeth continually, implanting in each of us the light of the Spirit, and guiding those that love Him to knowledge of those things which pass their understanding and conception. What His purpose is, and what kind of benefit He will confer on us by His declaration that He had already revealed the Father unto the disciples, and would also make Him known to their successors, He pointed out to us, when He said, that the love wherewith Thou lovedst Me may be in them, and I in them. For they who have been able, by purity of thought, to know God the Father, and have been throughly instructed in the knowledge of the mystery that is in Christ, will wholly gain and indisputably enjoy the perfect love of the Father, like unto the Son. For the Father loves His Son with a perfect love; and Christ also Himself abideth in Him, through the Holy Spirit, uniting, through Himself, into spiritual fellowship with God the Father him that knows Him, and is in travail, as it were, with the unperverted word of Divine Truth. He makes known to us the Name of the Father by declaring to us Himself, Who is His Son. For hand in hand with the knowledge of Him That was begotten will be closely linked the knowledge of Him That begat Him, just as the converse is also true. And if the saying is true, and to be accepted without question, that the conception of the Son is necessarily implied in that of the Father, and so also the conception of the Father in that of the Son, and the knowledge of One is contained in the knowledge of the Other; how can the Son any more be a creature, as some impious men say? For if a man speak of the Son, he thereby instils the idea of a Father in his hearers; while if he were to call Him a creature, he leads them on to the conception of a maker. But as the Son calls God Father, not Maker or Creator, He is clearly conscious that He is Himself in fact a Son. Therefore the Son is deemed, and is, a Son, and not a creature, as they say, which would imply that He That made Him was His Creator, and not His Father. And the force of the argument will be no whit damaged by the fact, that the title of child or son is accounted human. For the attributes which peculiarly and especially belong to Him, as being by Nature the Son of God His Father, these were brought down even to us; Holy Writ often so applying them on occasion, and at times investing those who are sons by adoption with the attributes of a son by nature. And it is no marvel, if we also have obtained the title of son, and that God has thus chosen to honour us in His loving-kindness, as He has even called those gods who are avowedly sprung from the earth.