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John 17:1. After these words, Jesus raised His eyes to heaven and said: Father! the hour has come, glorify Your Son, that Your Son also will glorify You, Having told the disciples that they will have sorrows, and having convinced them not to lose heart, the Lord also encourages them with prayer, teaching us in temptations to leave everything and run to God. Otherwise. These words are not prayer, but conversation with the Father. If in other cases (Matthew 26:39) He prays and kneels, then do not be surprised at this. For Christ came not only to reveal Himself to the world, but also to teach all virtue. And the teacher must teach not only with words, but also with deeds. Wanting to show that he is going to suffer not against his will, but of his own free will, he says: “Father! the hour has come." Behold, He desires this as something pleasant, and calls the upcoming work glory, and not only His own glory, but also the Father’s. And so it was. For not only was the Son glorified, but also the Father. For before the Cross even the Jews did not know Him, as it is said: “Israel does not know Me” (Is. 1:3); and after the Cross the whole universe flowed to Him. John 17:2. Because You gave Him power over all flesh, He also shows what the glory of Him and the Father consists of; The glory of God is that all flesh should believe and be blessed. For grace will not be limited to the Jews alone, but will extend to the entire universe. He said this because he intended to send them to the pagans. So that they do not consider this an innovation displeasing to the Father, He declares that power over all flesh has been given to Him from the Father. Before this, He told them: “Do not go into the way of the pagans” (Matthew 10:5). What does “over all flesh” mean? After all, not everyone believed? But Christ, for His part, tried to lead everyone to faith; if they did not listen to Him, then this is not the fault of the Teacher, but of those who do not accept Him. When you hear “thou hast given, received” (John 10:18), and the like, then understand that this is said out of condescension, as we have said many times. For, always being careful not to say anything great about Himself, He condescends to the weakness of the listeners. And just as they were tempted by hearing great things about Him, He proclaims what is available to them, just as we, when talking with children, call bread, water and everything else, just like they do. When the evangelist speaks about the Lord (on his own behalf), listen to what he says: “all things came into being through Him” (John 1:3) and “to those who received Him He gave the power to become children of God” (John 1:12). If He gives such power to others, did He really not have it Himself, but received it from the Father? Then, in these very words, apparently humiliated, something lofty was inserted. that He may give eternal life to all that You have given Him. “Yes to everything that You have given Him” is condescension; “He will give eternal life” is the power of the Only Begotten and the Divine. For only God can give life, and eternal life at that. John 17:3. This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent. He called the Father “the one true God” to distinguish him from the false pagan gods, and not separating Himself from the Father (away with such a thought!). For He, being the true Son, cannot be a false god, but is the true God, as this same evangelist in his conciliar epistle says about the Lord: “Jesus Christ is the true God and Eternal Life” (1 John 5:20). If heretics insist that the Son is a false god, since the Father is called the one true God, then let them know that this same evangelist says about the Son: “There was the true Light” (John 1:9). Is it really possible, according to their concept, that the Father is a false Light? But no, get rid of such a thought! Therefore, when he calls the Father the true God, he calls Him so in contrast to the false gods of the pagans, just as in the words “the glory which is from the One God you do not seek” (John 5:44), according to the concept of the heretics it will come out: since the Father is the only God, the Son is not God at all. But such a conclusion is truly insane. John 17:4. I glorified You on earth, I accomplished the work that You entrusted Me with. From here learn how the Father glorifies the Son. Without a doubt, the Son also glorifies the Father. “I,” he says, “glorified You on earth.” He rightly adds “on the ground”. For He was glorified in heaven, being worshiped by the angels, but the earth did not know Him. And since the Son announced Him to everyone, he says: “I glorified You by sowing the knowledge of God throughout the whole earth and completing the work that You entrusted to Me.” For the work of the incarnation of the Only Begotten was to sanctify our nature, to overthrow the ruler of the world, whom we had previously idolized, to implant the knowledge of God among creation. How did He do this when He had not yet begun? “Everything,” he says, “that I needed to do, I did.” Yes, He did what was most important: He planted the root of good into us, having defeated the devil, and gave Himself over to the all-consuming beast - death, and from this root, of necessity, the fruits of the knowledge of God will come. “So,” he says, “I have done the work, because I have sowed, I have planted a root, and the fruit will grow.” John 17:5. And now glorify Me, O Father, with You, with the glory that I had with You before the world was. The nature of the flesh had not yet been glorified, since it had not yet been made worthy of incorruption and had not yet participated in the royal throne. That is why he says “glorify Me,” that is, My human nature, which is now not in honor, which will be crucified, and raise it to the glory that I, Your Word and Son, had with You before the world was. For He seated human nature with Himself on the royal throne, and now every creature worships Him. John 17:6. I have revealed Your name to the people whom You gave Me out of the world; “I have revealed Your name to men.” Now he explains what the words “I have glorified You on earth” mean, namely: I have proclaimed Your name. How did the Son proclaim? For Isaiah also said: “Swear... by the true God” (Is. 65:16). But we have said many times that if then the name of God was known, it was only to the Jews, and not to everyone, and now it is said about the pagans that they will know the name of God, since Christ has already given the seeds of the knowledge of God, having cast down the devil, who introduced idolatry. And otherwise. If they knew God, they knew it not as Father, but only as Creator; but the Son announced Him as a Father, both in words and in deeds making Himself known; and whoever proved about Himself that He is the Son of God, obviously, together with Himself, made it known about the Father. they were Yours, and You gave them to Me, The Lord wants to affirm two thoughts: one is that He is not an opponent of the Father, and the other is that the Father wants them to believe the Son. Therefore he says: “They were Yours, and You gave them to Me.” The words “Thou hast given Me” show both. I did not kidnap them, but You deigned that they should come to Me. Therefore, I do not have enmity, but you have like-mindedness and love for Me, Father. and they have kept Your word. “They have kept Your word” because they believed Me and did not listen to the Jews. For whoever believes in Christ preserves the word of God, that is, the Scripture, the Law. For Scripture proclaims Christ. Even differently. Everything that the Lord said to the disciples belonged to the Father. “For I,” he says, “speak not of Myself” (John 14:10). And He said to them among other things: “Abide in Me” (John 15:4). John 17:7. Now they have understood that everything that You have given Me is from You, So they kept this: “Now they have understood that everything that You have given Me is from You.” Some read the Greek “understood” as “now I have known”; but such a reading is unfounded. “Now,” he says, “My disciples have learned that I have nothing special, and that I am not a stranger to You, but that everything that You have given Me (not given as a gift, as to some creature, for it was not acquired by Me) is from You, that is, belongs to Me, as the Son and the Person who has power over what belongs to the Father.” How did My disciples know this? John 17:8. For the words that You gave Me, I delivered to them, and they received, and truly understood that I came from You, and they believed that You sent Me. “For the words that You gave Me, I gave to them,” that is, from My words, from My teaching, for I always taught them what is from the Father, and not only taught this, but also taught that I came from You, and that You sent Me. For throughout the Gospel He wanted to establish the truth that He is not an opponent of God, but fulfills the will of the Father. John 17:9. I pray for them: I do not pray for the whole world, but for those whom You have given Me, because they are Yours. Showing that He is telling this to the Father not for anything else, but only for their sake, so that they may know that He loves them and cares for them, He says: “I pray and ask for them, and not for the world.” For by this I, without a doubt, prove that I love them, when I not only give what I have, but also ask You to keep them. So, I do not pray to You for vicious people and worldly minded people, “but for those whom You have given Me, because they are Yours.” John 17:10. And all that is mine is yours, and yours is mine; So that you, constantly hearing Him say “You gave Me,” do not think that this leadership and power was given to Him recently, and while the Father had them, He (the Son) did not, or again now that He has, the Father has lost power over them, for this he says: “And all that is Mine is Thine, and Thine is Mine.” I did not now accept this power, but when they were Yours, they were also Mine. For everything is Yours and Mine. And now that I Myself have them, You also have them, and have not lost them, for all Mine is Yours. “And I was glorified in them,” that is, having power over them, I am glorified in them as a Lord, just as the son of a king, having equal honor and kingdom with his father, is glorified by the fact that he has as much as his father. So, if the Son were less than the Father, He would not have dared to say “all things are Mine,” for the master has everything that belongs to the slave, but the slave does not have everything that belongs to the master. Here He mutually assimilates: the Father to the Son, and the Son to the Father. So the Son is glorified in those who belong to the Father; for He has as much power over all as the Father. John 17:11. I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to You. Why does he constantly say this: “I am no longer in the world” and “when I was with them in the world”? Whoever understands these words simply, they will seem contradictory. For in another place He promised them: “I will be in you” (John 15:4) and “you will see Me” (John 16:17), but now, apparently, he says something else. So, it can truly be said that He says this, adapting to their concepts. Holy Father! keep them in Your name, those whom You have given Me, It was natural for them to be sad since they were left without an assistant. He announces to them that He entrusts them to the Father and gives Him to them as a guardian, and then says to the Father: “Since You call Me to Yourself, then keep them Yourself “in Your name,” that is, with Your help and the power that You have given Me.” so that they are one, just like We are. What should you store it in? "So that they may be one." For if they have love for each other, and there is no division between them, then they will be invincible, and nothing will overcome them. And not just so that they were one, but because I and You had one wisdom and one desire. For unanimity is their protection. So, to console them, He begs the Father to keep them. For if He had said, “I will keep you,” they would not have believed so deeply. And now, when He pleads with the Father for them, He gives them firm hope. John 17:12. When I was at peace with them, I kept them in Thy name; “I kept them in Your name,” he says this, not because He could not keep them except in the name of the Father, but, as we have said many times, because His listeners were weak and did not yet imagine anything great about Him. That is why he says: “With Your help I kept them.” At the same time, He strengthens them in the hope that just as during My time with you you were kept in the name and help of My Father, so believe, and you will again be kept by Him; for it is His custom to keep you. those whom You gave Me, I have preserved, and none of them perished, There is a lot of humiliation in these words if someone does not accept them as they should. For look what appears here. “Those whom You gave Me, I have kept.” Apparently, He commands the Father so that the Father also preserves, just as someone, transferring property for safekeeping to another, would say: “Look, I haven’t lost anything, so don’t you lose either.” But He says all this to console the disciples. How, Lord, did You not destroy anyone when Judas died and many others went back (John 6:66)? “For My part,” he says, “I have not destroyed anyone. Whatever depended on Me, I did not leave anything unfulfilled, but I observed them, that is, I tried in every possible way to preserve them. If they fall away of their own accord, this is not at all my fault.” “Let the scripture be fulfilled,” that is, every scripture that prophesies about the son of destruction. For it is spoken about in various psalms (Ps. 109:8, 17; Ps. 68:26) and in other prophetic books. We have said many times about the particle “yes” that Scripture is in the habit of calling the cause what happens subsequently. John 17:13. Now I come to You, and I say this in the world, so that they may have My complete joy within themselves. “This,” he says, “I say in the world for the peace, consolation and joy of the disciples, so that they will be inspired and not worry, since You accept them whole and will keep them, just as I kept them, and did not destroy anyone.” John 17:14. I have given them Your word; and the world hated them, because they were not of the world, Begging the Father to help the apostles, he also expresses the reason why they are worthy of great care from the Father. Because of Your word, which I delivered to them, they hated them. Therefore, they are worthy to receive help from You, since the wise of the world hated them for Your sake. Evil people hate them because they are “not of the world,” that is, they are not tied to the world with their minds and do not exhaust their activities for it. How then does He say in another place (John 17:6): “Those whom You gave Me out of the world were Yours”? There He spoke about their nature, that they are people and part of the world, but here He speaks about thoughts and will and notes that they are not from the world. Don't be embarrassed by these words. The apostles were not as holy and alien to worldly passions as the Lord: “He committed no sin, neither was flattery in His mouth” (1 Pet. 2:22), and they did not escape the weakness of human nature. So, having heard the words “just as I am not of the world,” do not take them for the perfect similarity of the apostles with the Lord; but when this “how” is spoken about the Father and Him, then only understand equality. John 17:15. I do not pray that You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from evil. “I do not pray that You take them out of the world.” He said this, wanting to prove his love for them, and that He cares a lot about them when he prays for them with such zeal. For He does not teach the Father what is necessary (for this would be incongruous with anything), but, as I said, He says this to the Father in order to show that He loves the disciples very much and cares about them. I do not pray that You take them out of the world, but that while they are in the world, You keep them from evil. John 17:16. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Again he repeats “they are not of the world.” “They,” he says, “need strong support, for they, who have become citizens of heaven, have nothing in common with the earth. And when the whole world treats them as strangers, then You, Heavenly One, already help them as heavenly citizens.” He says this very often out loud to his disciples, so that when they hear this, they will hate the world and not be ashamed of such praise. Keep them “from hostility”; speaks not only about delivering them from dangers, but also about remaining and strengthening in faith. Therefore he adds: John 17:17. Sanctify them with Your truth; Your word is truth. Make them saints through the teaching of the Spirit, keep them in the righteousness of word and dogma, and instruct them and teach them the truth. For holiness consists in maintaining right dogmas. And what He says about dogmas is clear from the explanation: “Your word is truth,” that is, there is no lie in it. Therefore, if You give them to keep Your word and themselves to be preserved from evil, they will be sanctified by the truth. The words “sanctify them with Thy truth” mean something else, namely: set them apart for the word and preaching and make them a sacrifice; let them serve this truth, let them devote their own lives to it. John 17:18. As You sent Me into the world, so I sent them into the world. John 17:19. And for them I consecrate Myself, so that they too may be sanctified by the truth. He adds: “Just as You sent Me into the world... and for them I dedicate Myself,” that is, I sacrifice; so You sanctify them too, that is, set them apart as a sacrifice for preaching and make them witnesses of the truth, just as You sent Me as a witness of the truth and a sacrifice. For everything that is sacrificed is called holy. “So that they too,” like Me, “may be sanctified” and offered to You, God, not as sacrifices under the law, slain in an image, but “in the truth.” For the Old Testament sacrifices, for example, a lamb, doves, turtle doves, etc., were images, and everything holy in the type was dedicated to God, prefiguring something else, spiritual. The souls offered to God are in truth sanctified, set apart and dedicated to God, just as Paul says: “Present your bodies as a living, holy sacrifice” (Rom. 12:1). So, sanctify and consecrate the souls of the disciples, and make them true offerings, or strengthen them to endure death for the truth. John 17:20. I pray not only for them, but also for those who believe in Me through their word, Said: “For them I dedicate Myself.” So that anyone would not think that He died only for the apostles, he adds: “Not only about them, but also about all those who believe in Me according to their word.” Here He again encouraged the souls of the apostles that they would have many disciples. And so that, hearing “not only for them I pray,” the apostles would not be tempted, as if He did not give them any advantage over others, He consoles them, declaring that for many they will be the originators of faith and salvation. John 17:21. May they all be one And how He sufficiently betrayed them to the Father so that He sanctified them by faith and made a holy sacrifice for them for the truth, finally speaks again about unanimity, and where he began, that is, with love, with this he ends his speech and says: “May they all be one,” that is, may they have peace and like-mindedness, and in Us, that is, by faith in Us, may they maintain complete harmony. For nothing tempts disciples more than when teachers are divided and not of the same mind. as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, so may they also be one in Us, - For who would want to obey those who are not of the same mind? Therefore he says: “And they may be one in faith in Us, as You, Father, are in Me and I in You.” The particle “how” again does not mean perfect equality. For it is impossible for us to unite with each other, like the Father and the Son. The particle “how” should be understood in the same way as in the words “be merciful, just as your Father is” (Luke 6:36). that the world may believe that You have sent Me. The unanimity of the disciples will prove that I, the Teacher, came from God. If there is discord between them, then no one will say that they are disciples of the Conciliator; and if I am not the Reconciler, then they will not recognize Me as sent from You. Do you see how He completely confirms His unanimity with the Father? John 17:22. And the glory that You gave Me, I have given them: that they may be one, even as We are one. What glory did He give? The glory of miracles, the dogmas of teaching and also the glory of unanimity, “that they may be one.” For this glory is greater than the glory of miracles. “As we are amazed before God, because in His nature there is no rebellion or struggle, and this is the greatest glory, so,” he says, “let them also be glorious in the same way, that is, like-mindedness.” John 17:23. I am in them, and You are in Me; may they be perfect in one, “I am in them, and You are in Me.” This shows that the apostles included the Father within themselves. “For I,” he says, “am in them; and I have You in Me, therefore You also are in them.” In another place he says that the Father and He Himself will come and create a monastery (John 14:23). Here He stops the mouth of Sabellius and shows two Faces. This overthrows the fury of Arius; for he says that the Father abides in the disciples through Him. and let the world know that You sent Me “Let the world know that You sent Me.” He often talks about this to show that peace can attract more than a miracle. For just as enmity destroys, so harmony strengthens. and loved them as you loved Me. Here again understand the particle “how” to mean how much a person can be loved. John 17:24. Father! whom You have given Me, I want them to be with Me where I am, So, having said that they will be safe, that they will be holy, that many will believe through them, that they will receive great glory, he now speaks of the rewards and crowns that will be offered to them after their departure from here. “I want,” he says, “for them to be where I am”; and lest you, having heard this, think that they will receive the same dignity as He, he adds: He did not say “let them receive My glory,” but “let them see,” for the greatest pleasure for man is to contemplate the Son of God. And in this is glory for all those who are worthy, just as Paul says: “But we all have open faces, beholding the glory of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18). This shows that then they will contemplate Him not as they now see Him, not in a humiliated form, but in the glory that He had before the creation of the world. which You gave Me, because You loved Me before the foundation of the world. “I had this glory,” he says, “because You loved Me.” For “he loved me” is placed in the middle. As he said above (John 17:5): “Glorify Me with the glory that I had before the world was,” so now he says that the glory of the Divine was given to Him before the foundation of the world. For truly the Father gave Him Godhead, as the Father gave to the Son by nature. Since He gave birth to Him, then, as the Author of existence, He is necessarily called the Author and Giver of glory. John 17:25. Righteous Father! and the world did not know You; but I have known You, and these have known that You sent Me. After such a prayer for the believers and promising them so many benefits, he finally expresses something merciful and worthy of His love for mankind. He says: “Righteous Father! I would like all people to receive the same benefits that I asked for the faithful, but they did not know You and therefore will not receive that glory and those rewards.” “And I have come to know You.” It also hints at the Jews who said that they know God, and shows that they do not know the Father. For in many places he calls the Jews “the world.” John 17:26. And I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them. Although the Jews say that You did not send Me; but I have made known to My disciples “And I have revealed Your name, and I will make it known.” How can I open it? He sent down the Spirit to them, who will guide them into all truth. And when they know who You are, then the love with which You loved Me will be in them, and I in them. For they will know that I am not alienated from You, but am greatly loved, that I am Your true Son and united to You. Having learned this, they will maintain faith in Me and love, and, finally, I will abide in them because they are such that they know You and honor Me as God. And they will keep their faith in Me unshakable.