John 17

KJV · Chapter 17/21

¹These 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:

²As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.

³And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

⁴I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.

⁵And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.

⁶I 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.

⁷Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.

⁸For 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.

⁹I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.

¹⁰And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.

¹¹And 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.

¹²While 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.

¹³And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

¹⁴I 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.

¹⁵I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

¹⁶They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

¹⁷Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

¹⁸As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

¹⁹And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.

²⁰Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;

²¹That 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.

²²And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:

²³I 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.

²⁴Father, 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.

²⁵O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.

²⁶And 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.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Jesus offers a long prayer to the Father, known as the 'high priestly prayer,' asking for his own glorification, for the protection and sanctification of the disciples, and for the unity of all who would come to believe in him through their preaching.

Explanation

This prayer, offered shortly before Jesus' arrest, reveals his deep intimacy with the Father and his pastoral care for the disciples he would leave in the world. He asks not that they be taken out of the world, but protected from evil as they carry out their mission (v.15). The emphasis on the believers' unity ('that they may be one, even as we are one,' v.11, 21-22) reflects the desire that the church reflect the very unity of the Trinity as a witness to the world. The prayer also extends to future believers who would come to believe through the apostles' preaching (v.20), including all Christians of every age. The practical application today is to remember that unity among Christians is not optional but part of the testimony that proves the truth of the gospel to the world.

Fun facts

This prayer is traditionally called the 'high priestly prayer' because in it Jesus intercedes for God's people in a way similar to the role of the high priest in the Old Testament, who interceded for the people before God on the Day of Atonement.
The phrase 'that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent' (v.3) defines eternal life not merely as endless duration, but as a relationship of personal knowledge of God — a central idea in Johannine theology.

Verse-by-verse explanation

John 17:1This is the last time, at a crucial point, that the theme of Jesus’s “hour” appears, after being mentioned several times throughout the Gospel as something that had not yet come. Here, on the eve of His arrest and death, Jesus Himself declares that the moment has finally arrived.
John 17:2Explains the basis of Jesus’s authority: it exists precisely so that He can give eternal life to everyone the Father has placed in His care.
John 17:3The text defines eternal life not as something that only begins after death, but as a relationship of knowing God that can already begin in this life. It is a direct definition, right in the middle of a prayer, of what this expression means to the Gospel’s author.
John 17:4Jesus speaks as though His mission were already complete, even before the crucifixion actually happens — a total confidence in what is about to be fulfilled.
John 17:5Jesus is asking to receive back something that, according to the text, He already had before anything existed, a position prior to the very creation of the world. It continues the idea presented back in chapter 1, about the Word that was already with God in the beginning.
John 17:6Describes Jesus’s ministry as revealing God’s own character to the disciples, who already belonged to God before being entrusted to Him.
John 17:7Speaks of the disciples’ gradual understanding: they now realize that everything Jesus has comes originally from the Father.
John 17:8Describes the chain by which the message was passed on: from the Father to Jesus, and from Jesus to the disciples, resulting in their faith that He truly came from God.
John 17:9Jesus specifies whom He is praying for at this moment: not for the world in general, but specifically for the disciples the Father entrusted to Him.
John 17:10Describes complete shared ownership between Father and Son, and explains that the disciples’ faithfulness, in some way, also glorifies Jesus.
John 17:11Jesus already speaks like someone about to leave the world, even though still physically present, and asks the Father to protect the disciples, keeping among them the same unity that exists between Father and Son.
John 17:12Jesus recalls that He personally watched over the disciples while He was with them, and that only Judas was lost — something that, He says, already fulfilled an ancient prophecy from Scripture.
John 17:13Jesus ties this prayer, spoken out loud in front of the disciples, to the purpose that they might have His joy made complete within themselves.
John 17:14Explains that the disciples will suffer the same rejection He suffered, because they share the same identity: not belonging to the world’s system of values.
John 17:15Jesus makes clear that He is not asking for the disciples to be taken out of the world, but for them to be protected from evil while they continue living in it.
John 17:16Repeats the same statement of identity: the disciples do not belong to the world, just as Jesus Himself does not belong to it.
John 17:17Asks that the disciples be set apart through the truth, directly defining that truth as the very word of God.
John 17:18Establishes a direct parallel: just as the Father sent Jesus into the world, Jesus now sends the disciples in the same way, carrying the same mission forward.
John 17:19Jesus describes His own consecration, a reference to His coming death, as something done for the disciples’ benefit, so that they too may be sanctified.
John 17:20Jesus broadens the scope of this prayer: it is not only for the disciples present, but for everyone who would come to believe in the future through their testimony — including, in a sense, every future reader of the Gospel.
John 17:21Jesus is praying for unity among those who would come to follow Him, using the relationship between Him and the Father as the model. It is not a unity of agreeing on everything, but of purpose and connection, the same way He describes His own relationship with God.
John 17:22Continues the theme of unity, now stating that Jesus shared His own glory with the disciples for the very purpose of making that unity happen.
John 17:23Completes the image of a mutual union between Father, Son, and disciples, with a clear purpose: that the world may recognize that God sent Jesus and loved the disciples the same way He loved His own Son.
John 17:24Jesus expresses a personal desire for the future: that the disciples be with Him wherever He is, beholding a glory that already existed before the creation of the world.
John 17:25Draws a final contrast between the world’s general ignorance of God and the disciples’ particular recognition of Him, echoing the same theme already presented at the very beginning of the Gospel.
John 17:26Closes the prayer by declaring an ongoing purpose: that the same love the Father has for Jesus may continue living in the disciples, together with the presence of Jesus Himself within them.

Chapters

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