And now I am not in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy name whom thou hast given me: that they may be one, as we also are.
και ουκετι ειμι εν τω κοσμω και ουτοι εν τω κοσμω εισιν και εγω προς σε ερχομαι πατερ αγιε τηρησον αυτους εν τω ονοματι σου ω δεδωκας μοι ινα ωσιν εν καθως ημεις
13 Church Fathers comment on this verse
“And I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world,” that is: although I will no longer be seen in the flesh, nevertheless I will be glorified through them.
If He had said, “I will keep them,” they would not have believed so readily. Therefore He says: “Holy Father, keep them in Your name,” that is, by Your help.
Why does He constantly say this: "I am no longer in the world," and, "When I was with them in the world" (Jn 17:12)? To one who understands these words simply, they will seem contradictory. For elsewhere He promised them, "I will be with you" (Jn 15:4), and, "You will see Me" (Jn 16:17). Yet now He seems to say something else. Therefore it is true to say that He speaks this in accommodation to their understanding. It was natural for them to grieve when they were left without a helper. He declares to them that He entrusts them to the Father and gives Him to them as guardian. Then He says to the Father: since You call Me to Yourself, keep them Yourself "in Your name," that is, by Your help and power, which You have given Me. In what should He keep them?
"That they may be one." For if they have love for one another, and there are no divisions among them, they will be invincible, and nothing will overcome them. And not simply that they may be one, but as I and You have one mind and one desire. For concord is their protection. Therefore, to console them, He beseeches the Father to keep them. If He had said, "I will keep you," they would not have believed so deeply. But now, when He entreats the Father for them, He gives them firm hope.
What, then, is this prayer, and for what reason does He ask the Father for goodwill toward His true followers? "I am not in the world," He says, "but they are in the world, and I come to You." While He still dwelt and was present with the holy Apostles in the flesh on earth, He was an evident and visible intercession, as though always ready and able to give help to those who were in danger. For this reason they were very bold.
The human spirit is usually more confident and hopeful in what is wholly manifest than in what is obscure. We do not say this in order to affirm that the Lord is weak in saving anyone if He is not visibly present. Whoever thinks this would quite rightly be a fool. "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and unto the ages" (Heb 13:8). But He knew that the disciples would fall into no small despondency, as though left alone on earth. Meanwhile the world, like savage waves, rages and customarily attacks the preachers of the divine word, while they are not yet initiated, with unbearable terrors and excessive dangers.
Therefore, "because I," He says, "am going to You," for I shall soon ascend, to sit and reign as God with God the Father, while they will remain for the time being "in the world," therefore "I pray for them." Being given to Me, they also became Yours. As for Yours and as for Mine, I deem it necessary to care for them. And "I am glorified in them, because all that You have given Me is Yours, and Yours is Mine."
This saying is true. For merely because some of those in the world have been given to Christ, and so have become the Father's property, they will not refuse to glorify Him through whom they entered into communion with God the Father. Having been brought through Him, they remain no less His own. For He has everything in common with the Father, both the Godhead by nature and omnipotence. For we have one God, worshiped in the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity. We are all the property of God, one, sole, and true, subject as servants to the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity.
"Holy Father, keep them in Your name, which You have given Me, that they may be one, as We are." Notice everywhere the union into one of the two aspects, that is, the human, which has the lowliness proper to us, and the divine, which possesses glory surpassing all things. The discourse presents a mingling of both. As we said in detail in the preceding reflections, it neither carries the divine to the utmost height nor wholly departs from the limits proper to us.
This is because He is God become man, by a certain unspeakable and ineffable union occupying, as it were, a middle place. He neither falls outside the definition of true Godhead nor wholly leaves the boundaries of humanity. The ineffable birth from God the Father, since He is the Word and Only-begotten, raises Him to the divine essence and to the glory that justly follows Him. His self-emptying brings Him down into likeness with us. It does not force into this against His will the One who reigns over all together with the Father. The Only-begotten could never be compelled to what was contrary to His will. Rather, it was voluntary, accepted and preserved out of love for us.
For "He emptied Himself" (Phil 2:7), that is, voluntarily and without any compulsion. Otherwise, if someone were able to have complete mastery over Him and ordered Him to go to this against His desire, He would no longer have undergone the condition of self-emptying voluntarily. Therefore He emptied Himself voluntarily for our sake. Otherwise we would never have received the name of sons by grace and gods, unless the Only-begotten had subjected Himself to humiliation for us and on our behalf. According to this, being transformed through participation in the Spirit, we ourselves are called children of God (Jn 1:12; 1 Jn 3:1) and gods (Jn 10:34-35 from Ps 81:6).
Therefore, when He says something in which He joins the human in some way with the divine, do not be scandalized by it. Leave foolish amazement to the invented and incomparable artistry of the discourse, which always preserves for us this twofold form with precision. Thus the speaker is at one and the same time God by nature and true man. He beautifully joins the lowliness of humanity with the glory of the ineffable Nature, and in a blameless way, free from every reproach, He perfectly preserves what is fitting with respect to both.
In saying this, we do not assert that the nature of the Word descended into a worse condition than it had at the beginning. By no means. Such an opinion would not be free from extreme folly, since the Godhead is wholly impassible and admits no change. Rather, it preserves its state unchanged. We mean that the form of voluntary self-emptying, the appearance of humility assumed as though by necessity according to the humanity, makes the equal and corresponding Only-begotten God, who appeared in Him and from Him, seem to be in a lower condition than that in which the Father is.
Do not be surprised if you hear that the Son according to the humanity seems lower than the greatness of the Father. Paul also assures us that according to the same humanity He is lower than the Angels, when he writes: "We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the Angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor" (Heb 2:9). Yet the holy Angels themselves are commanded to worship Him. "For when," it is said, "He brings the Firstborn into the world, He says, Let all the Angels of God worship Him" (Heb 1:6; Ps 96:7). The holy seraphim also stood around and occupied a ministering position when He appeared to the prophets "sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up" (Isa 6:1).
Therefore, insofar as His true and actual birth from God the Father is in question, the human is not the Son's property. Yet, on the other hand, it is His property, since He appeared as man while always remaining what He was, is, and will be without ceasing. For our sake He brought Himself down into what He was not.
"Holy Father," He says, "keep them in Your name, which You have given Me, that they may be one, as We are." He desires to guard the disciples by the power and omnipotence of the ineffable nature, most rightly assigning to the true and actual God the power to preserve those whom He wills. By this He again glorifies no other nature, but His own, as though in the person of the Father, from whom He was begotten as God. Therefore He says: "Father, keep them in Your name, which You have given Me," that is, in the divine name.
He says that the name of the Godhead is given to Him, yet not as though He were not God by nature and was called to an externally acquired dignity of Godhead. In that case He would be adopted like us, would have a counterfeit and acquired glory, and would not have the true divine nature. It is not fitting for us to think this. For the same reason He would cease to be Son of God by nature. But since, according to the testimony of the divine Scriptures, the Word became flesh (Jn 1:14), that is, man, He is said to have received what He had as God. For the name and real possession of divine glory cannot belong naturally to man.
Understand again and perceive exactly how He revealed Himself as the living and hypostatic power of God the Father, through which He accomplishes all things. For when He cried out and said, "Keep them," He was not satisfied with these words alone. Again, with skill, He introduced Himself as the power acting in this preservation and as the instrument of Him who begot Him. For He says: "Keep them in Your name, which You have given Me."
Notice the precision of the expression. He assigns and attributes care and providence over us to the divine nature alone. At once He affirms that, because of His human appearance, what belongs to His nature is shown as given to Him, namely "the name above every name" (Phil 2:9). Therefore we say that this belongs to the Son by nature, as born from the Father, and according to the humanity as a gift. For He receives as man, since this concerns His humanity like ours. Man is not God by nature, but Christ is God by nature, although He is conceived as man because He is from us.
Nevertheless, He wishes to preserve the disciples in complete oneness of mind and agreement of desires, as though united with one another in soul and heart. By the law of peace and mutual friendship He binds them into an indissoluble bond of love. In this way they may attain such unity that their voluntary union becomes an image of the natural unity understood in the Father and the Son. That is, it becomes unbreakable and unrelaxed, not drawn away by worldly objects or passions into dissimilarity of desires, but preserving the strength of love unweakened in the unity of piety and holiness. And this indeed happened.
Thus we read in the Acts of the Apostles: "The multitude of those who believed had one heart and one soul" (Acts 4:32), evidently in the unity of the Spirit. Paul himself also expressed the same thing: "One body and one Spirit" (Eph 4:4). Again, "We, being many, are one body in Christ, for we all partake of one bread" (1 Cor 10:17; cf. Rom 12:5), and we have all been anointed in the one Spirit of Christ. Since they were to become members of the same body (Eph 3:6) and partakers of one and the same Spirit, He desires to keep His disciples in an unbreakable unity of spirit and in an unharmed oneness of mind.
If someone thinks that the disciples are also united in another way, just as the Father and the Son are "one" not only in essence but also in will, he may understand it so and will not depart from the proper meaning. For in the Holy Nature there is one desire and one and the same will in all things. Among true Christians, too, one can see unity of desires, although consubstantiality in us is not such as it is in the Father and in the Son who is from Him and in Him.
If you consider the hour in which He says this, then all of them were then in the world, both He Himself and those of whom He spoke. Yet we must not understand the words, "I am no longer in the world," as spoken metaphorically of heart and life. [...]
Here one word is used which does not allow such an interpretation. He does not say, "And I am not in the world," but, "I am no longer in the world." By this He shows that He was in the world, but now no longer remains in it.
Are we permitted to believe that He once had a taste for the world, but, being freed from such error, no longer has it? Who would take upon himself such shameless absurdity? It remains, therefore, to understand that in the sense in which He was formerly in the world, He is, as it were, now no longer in it. That is, He speaks of His bodily form.
In other words, He showed that His absence from the world was very near, while the absence of His disciples would come later. Therefore He said that He is not in the world, but they are in it, although all of them were still in the world.
He spoke as man commonly speaks with man. Do we not say every day, "He is not here," of someone who is leaving? This is especially often said of those who are dying. Moreover, the Lord Himself, as if foreseeing the thoughts that might arise in those who would later read these words, added: "I am coming to Thee." Thus He explained why He said: "I am no longer in the world."
"And I," He says, "am no longer in the world, but they are in the world." If you attend to the hour in which He spoke, both He and they were in the world. He certainly was, and so were those of whom He said this.
We cannot and must not take this according to the disposition of the heart and the manner of life. We must not say that they were said to remain in the world because they still had earthly thoughts, while He was no longer in the world because He had divine thoughts.
Here one word wholly forbids us to think in this way. He did not say, "I am not in the world." He said, "I am no longer in the world." Thus He showed that He had formerly been in the world, and now is not in the world.
Are we allowed to believe that He once had earthly thoughts and, having been delivered from that error, no longer had such thoughts? Who would cast himself into such impious judgment? Therefore we must admit that He said He was no longer in the world in the sense that He had formerly been in the world by bodily presence.
He showed that His departure from the world was already near, while their departure would still be delayed. He showed this by saying that He was already no longer here, while they were still here, although He and they were all still here.
He spoke as a man speaks with men, according to the custom of human intercourse. Do we not usually say, "He is no longer here," of a man who is just about to leave? This is especially customary when speaking of one who is about to die.
Still, the Lord Himself, as though foreseeing that what was said might trouble readers, added: "I am coming to Thee." By this He in some way explained why He had said: "I am no longer in the world."
And so He entrusts to the Father those whom He was about to deprive of His bodily presence, saying: "Holy Father, keep them in Thy name, those whom Thou hast given Me." Clearly, as man He prays to God for His disciples, whom He received from God.
But notice what follows: "That they may be one, even as We are." He does not say, "that they may be one with Us," or, "that We and they may be one, as We are one." He says: "that they may be one, even as We are." They are one in their nature, as We are one in Our nature.
What He said would surely not be true if He did not say it in the sense that, as God, He has the same nature as the Father. This accords with what He said elsewhere: "I and the Father are one" (Jn 10:30). He did not say this in relation to His being also man, for according to that He said: "The Father is greater than I" (cf. Jn 14:28).
Yet because God and man in Christ are one and the same Person, una eademque persona, we understand the man in that He prays. At the same time, we understand God in that They are one, both He Himself and the One to whom He prays.
There will, however, be another place later where we must discuss this more carefully.
Let us be sons, yet not as the Son is, and gods, yet not as He Himself is. Let us be merciful as the Father is, yet not as the Father is. As was said, when we become one as the Father and the Son are, we shall not be one in the sense in which the Father is naturally in the Son and the Son in the Father. Rather, we shall be one as accords with our nature, and as it is possible for us to learn to conform ourselves to these things. Thus we learn how we ought to become one, just as we learned to be merciful. For union normally belongs to like with like, since every flesh is joined according to its kind. Cf. Against the Arians 2.23, 42. But the Word is not like us. He is like the Father. Therefore by nature and in truth He is one with His Father.
We, being of one kind with one another, since all come from one and all men have one nature, become one with one another by disposition. We have as our model the natural union of the Son with the Father. For as He taught meekness by His own example, saying, "Learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart" (Mt 11:29), He did not do so that we might be equal to Him. That is impossible. Rather, looking to Him, we should remain always meek. So here also, wishing us to have a true, firm, and unbreakable good disposition toward one another, He takes His example from Himself and says: "That they may be one, as We are. Our unity is indivisible. Therefore they too, having known in Us the indivisible nature, should preserve mutual concord."
"And now I am no more in the world." I am no longer in the world, as one who is soon to die. Again Jesus Christ begins to speak of His death, so that as man He may commend the disciples to God and the Father. "And now," He says, "I am no more in the world." That is, I will soon no longer be in the world as I still am now, living with them, strengthening, exhorting, and consoling them. "But these are in the world." They are in the world, since they are not yet dying and therefore need Your help. Then Jesus Christ explains His words, "And now I am no more in the world." "And I come to You." I am going to You as Son to Father, having fulfilled My work. "Holy Father, keep them in Your name, those whom You have given Me." Holy Father, keep in Your name those whom You have given Me.
"In Your name" means in Your almighty name, which I too, as God, possess by nature. Again Jesus Christ said, "You have given," so that they would not consider Him an opponent of God. Or else, "You have given Me" means to Me as man. "That they may be one," that they may be one in the unity of faith in Me and in mutual love, concerning which Jesus Christ had previously taught them much. "As We are." Earlier Jesus Christ said, "I and the Father are one." We have already explained several times that expressions with "as" and similar words, when applied to God and man, indicate only a certain likeness. The Father and the Son are one in essence and in many other things, and also in Their concord. Thus Jesus Christ says, "as We are," according to indivisibility and inseparability.
We thank You, Holy Father, for Your holy name, which You have made to dwell in our hearts, and for the knowledge, faith, and immortality which You have made known to us through Jesus, Your Son. To You be glory forever.
Remember, O Lord, Your Church, to deliver her from every evil and to make her perfect in Your love. Gather her, sanctified, from the four winds into Your Kingdom, which You have prepared for her.
For Yours is the power and the glory forever.
What the soul is in the body, Christians are in the world. The soul is scattered through all the members of the body, and Christians through all the cities of the world. The soul dwells in the body, but is not from the body. So Christians live in the world, but are not from the world. The soul is invisible, yet is kept in a visible body. So Christians are known while being in the world, but their piety remains invisible. The flesh hates the soul and wars against it, though it suffers no harm from it, because the soul prevents it from surrendering to pleasures. So the world hates Christians, though it suffers no harm from them, because they oppose pleasures. The soul loves the flesh and members that hate it. So Christians love those who hate them.
The soul is enclosed in the body, yet itself holds the body together. So Christians are held in the world as in a prison, yet they themselves hold the world together. The immortal soul dwells in a mortal habitation. So Christians dwell as sojourners in the corruptible world, awaiting incorruption in the heavens. The soul, suffering from hunger and thirst, becomes better. So Christians, enduring punishments, increase more and more each day. God has appointed them to such a calling that they cannot renounce it.
John, who especially unfolds the spiritual aspects of the Gospel, preserves this prayer of the Lord for the apostles, while the other evangelists pass over it in silence. The Lord prayed, saying: "Holy Father, keep them in Your name." "When I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name; those whom You gave Me I have kept." Therefore this prayer was not for Himself, but for the apostles. Nor is He troubled for Himself when He asks them to pray that they may not enter into temptations. See Lk 22:40-46. When He prays, He does so for those whom He kept while He was with them, and whom He now entrusts to the Father, that He may keep them. Now, as He prepares to fulfill the mystery of death, He asks the Father to preserve them.
The presence of the angel sent to Him, if this explanation is correct, is certainly significant. Jesus showed His confidence that the prayer had not remained unanswered when, at its end, He commanded them to rise from sleep. See Lk 22:40-46. The effect of this prayer and the confidence with which He commands them to awaken are already noted by the evangelist during the Passion. There, concerning the apostles who had just escaped the hands of the persecutors, He says: "That the word might be fulfilled which He spoke, 'Of those whom You gave Me I have lost none'" (Jn 18:9). He Himself fulfills the petition of His prayer: all of them are safe. Yet He asks that the Father now keep in His name those whom He had kept. And He preserves them. Peter's faith is not in vain. It is afraid, but repentance immediately follows. Cf. Lk 22:55-62.
Here is the fifth reason for His prayer. I pray, He says, for My disciples, because I am no longer in the world. I, as man, depart from this world and come to You. But these remain amid the confusion and storm of this world, deprived of My bodily presence with them. Therefore, Holy Father, keep them in Your name, that is, by Your help and power. Those, Holy Father, whom You have given Me, that is, My disciples, preserve, "that they may be one, as We are." As I, being Son and God, and You, being Father and God, are one in essence and nature, so may they be one in faith and heart. As We are one in Our will and desire, so may they be one in soul and intention. May they be one. May they think one and the same thing in the confession of faith.
May they believe and teach one and the same thing, and live in concord and love. We see that this prayer was heard and fulfilled in the first disciples of Christ. For the multitude of believers had one heart and one soul (Acts 4:32). We also hear the divine Apostle teaching the same thing: "Endeavoring," he says, "to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling" (Eph 4:3-4).
As Jesus was completing His ministry to the human race, He was leaving only eleven apostles and a few disciples. This little flock of Christ had to go into the kingdom of darkness and bring into it the light of divine truth. It is clear with what malice they would be met in that kingdom. Persecutions would begin against them and their followers. Even the word "Christian" would become hateful to the sons of darkness. What unshakable faith and what courage they needed to withstand the assault of the savage enemies of God's truth. Yet precisely this firmness of faith and this courage were now lacking in them. They would soon abandon their Teacher. Peter, who until then had seemed the strongest believer in Him, this rock of apostolic faith, would deny Him three times.
Foreseeing all this, Jesus knew that victory would not come easily to His disciples. Without special support from above they could not emerge victorious from the struggle before them. Therefore, after giving them all His final farewell instructions, He turns in supplication to His Father. He asks Him to guard their faith from every temptation and wavering, and to sanctify them by His truth. He asks that, after completing their earthly contest, they may be worthy to be where He, Christ, will be. He asks that not only they, but all who believe through their word, may be united by self-sacrificing love for one another. He asks that they remain in constant union with Him, Jesus Christ, and with the Father who sent Him.
"I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world." This is another special reason for prayer concerning them and for the heavenly Father to take them under His special protection. They are not only worthy of this, but now especially need it. They remain alone amid a world hostile to them, a world that hates them (Jn 15:18-19). They are alone after My bodily departure from them to the Father (cf. Jn 17:12). In spirit the Lord presents His work on earth as already accomplished and finished. Then, with the invocation "Holy Father," the very object of the prayer for the disciples is expressed: "Keep them in Your name." "Holy," like later "righteous" (Jn 17:25), is joined here to the name of the Father in accordance with the object of the prayer itself.
The preservation of the disciples in the Father's name corresponds precisely to the holiness of God. The sinfulness of the world, in which the disciples remain, is wholly opposed to that holiness. Left in this unholy and sinful world, they have special need that the heavenly Father keep them pure and holy in the world. "Keep them in Your name," or more exactly, "in Your name," means in that sphere of divine revelations to them and of divine grace which is embraced by the concept of God's name. This is the sphere of divine truth and grace. Preservation in it means preservation in truth and moral purity. Thus the Lord prays that, through the heavenly Father's special care for them, His disciples may not fall away from the truth of Christ. He prays that they may continually abide in it, that the falsehood of the world may not shake them. He prays that, amid this impure and sinful world, they may remain pure and holy. The purpose and result of such preservation is "that they may be one, as We are." That is, that they may be in spiritual unity of faith and love, both among themselves and with Me and with You. He prays that this spiritual and moral unity may not be broken, and that no one, separating from this unity, may perish (Jn 17:12). The expression "as We" means that as the Father and the Son are one in Their essence, so the disciples also become one through communion in faith and knowledge of this essence, that is, of "Your name." But their communion with Christ and the Father can only be moral, not essential. Cf. the note on Jn 14:20.
How much tenderness and love are expressed in these words of the Savior! He foresees Himself already separated from the earth, while His beloved disciples remain without protection amid earthly sorrows.
He sees that the evil and deceitful world is ready to persecute those who do not belong to the world, now by cunning and now by violence. He knows with what bitterness earthly life gives drink to the poor pilgrims of the earth. Therefore He lays open before the heavenly Father the condition of His children, that the Father may take them under His protection.
They were not yet able to be consoled by the Savior's assurance that He is almighty on earth and in heaven. It was necessary to point them to the heavenly Father. His weak disciples were not far from doubts. For their sake He says to God the Father: "I am coming to Thee." He goes to the Father according to the Father's will, having completed His work on earth. He goes "to appear in the presence of God for us" (Heb 9:24), in the rank of eternal High Priest (Heb 6:20).
"Holy Father, keep them in Thy name, those whom Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, even as We are."
The holiness of God is the majesty of God, inaccessible to every moral impurity. In His condescension toward rational creatures it is revealed through the destruction of impurity. This is that property of God by which victory over the evil and impiety of the world will be accomplished, as St. John saw (Rev 6:10).
In union with the Father's love, this holiness has the property, as the Apostle says, of chastening the faithful for their benefit, that they may grow in holiness (Heb 12:10). Christ's disciples remain in the world. On one side they are pressed by the malice and craft of the world. On the other, they are in danger from temptations to sin. To whom should they be entrusted in such a state, if not to the heavenly Father, holy and good?
"Keep them in Thy name." This is the voice of tender love and divine wisdom. In the eyes of heavenly Love, Christ's disciples are God's possession, to be guarded as the apple of the eye. In the eyes of heavenly wisdom, they are still weak children. They require more vigilant keeping, because they do not see all their dangers or all their weakness.
"Keep them in Thy name," more precisely, "in Thy name." Keep them in the knowledge and love of that great name which has been proclaimed to them (v. 6). Christ Jesus desires and prays that His disciples may live for the glory of God. So He Himself lived, and so He trained them. "I kept them in Thy name" (v. 12), He said.
"That they may be one, even as We are." The Savior desires for His disciples a unity like that which He Himself has with God the Father. This is unity of thoughts and desires in everything holy. It is unity in faith, hope, and love.
Thus the faithful are to confess and love alike one heavenly Father, one Redeemer, the Son, and one Sanctifier, the Spirit. They are to seek one and the same rest, eternal rest. In this unity is also contained their mutual love for one another.
The Apostle also asked this unity of his disciples. "Fulfill my joy," he wrote, "that ye be of the same mind, having the same love, being of one accord and of one mind" (Phil 2:2). And again: "Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Eph 4:3).
The unity of the Son with the Father must serve as the pattern for the communion of the disciples: "that they may be one, even as We are." Arians of ancient and modern times point to this teaching of the Savior against the consubstantiality of the Son with the Father. They do so in vain.
The Savior does not pray that He may be one with the Father, but that believers may be one as He is one with the Father. The nature of a pattern is such that it contains far more than can exist in the thing likened to it. The unity of the Son with the Father is the indivisibility of their boundless power (Jn 10:30).
Is this accessible to creation? For weak men it is enough if they strive to fulfill the Apostle's commandment: "As He who called you is holy, so be ye holy in all your manner of life" (1 Pet 1:15). This is what the Savior expects from His disciples.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 32 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS