John 17:7Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

As soon as, He says, I spoke, “they understood that everything You have given Me is from You.” They understood that I have nothing alien, nothing peculiar apart from You.

For what is peculiar already seems to imply much that is alien. Therefore they understood that everything I taught is Yours, both the instructions and the doctrines.

But how did they know? From My words, because this is how I taught.

And behold, they have kept this: “Now they have understood that everything You have given Me is from You.” Some read the Greek “they have understood” as “now I have known,” but such a reading is unfounded.

Now, He says, My disciples have learned that I have nothing peculiar to Myself, and that I am not alien to You. Everything that You have given Me is from You.

You did not give it as a gift to some creature, for it was not acquired by Me. Rather, it belongs to Me as Son and as a Person possessing authority over what belongs to the Father.

In the reflections just set forth, I have already shown sufficiently, as it seems to me, that Christ addressed the heavenly Father both according to His Godhead and according to His humanity, as God and also as man. He frames His speech in relation to both natures. He does not confine it within the limits of humanity alone, nor refer it wholly to divine glory. Here again the same character is preserved.

As God by nature and the impress of the Ineffable Nature, He says to His Father: "I have manifested Your name to men." He uses "name" in place of glory, as also commonly happens in our speech. Thus the all-wise Solomon wrote: "A good name is better than much wealth" (Prov 22:1). That is, a good opinion and glory are better than the nobility and splendor that wealth supplies.

So also God Himself says in one place through Isaiah to those who "made themselves eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven" (Mt 19:12): "Let not the eunuch say, I am a dry tree. For thus says the Lord to the eunuchs who keep My commandments and do what I will: I will give them in My house and within My walls a renowned place, a name better than sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name" (Isa 56:3-5).

No prudent person will think that the reward from God's generosity consists merely in names being given to pious and virtuous people. These have overcome every pleasure in the world, put to death "the members which are on the earth" (Col 3:5), and honored only what accords with the divine laws. Again, He uses name in place of glory, for those who reign with Christ will be glorious.

Therefore the Savior clearly affirms that He "manifested the name" of God and the Father. That is, He made His glory manifest throughout the whole inhabited world. How, or in what manner? Clearly by presenting Himself as the proof in His deeds, which surpass speech. For the Father is glorified in the Son, as in the image and reflection of His own image, since in the impress the beauty of the archetype is always made manifest.

Thus the Only-begotten appears as wisdom and life in His very essence, the Maker of all and Creator. He appears as the One who conquered death and corruption, righteous, guileless, merciful, holy, and good. Such also was the One who begot Him known to be. For by nature He cannot be other than, or different from, the One who is from Him by nature.

Therefore He shone forth in the glory of His Son, as in the image and reflection of His own image. Such was the word concerning Him among the ancients, and now He appears so to our very eyes. For in matters of faith, what is seen with the eyes always seems stronger than what is expressed in words. I think that what we have already said about this saying is not without meaning.

Yet we must also proceed by another path of reasoning in explaining the words under interpretation. The Son "manifested the name" of the Father, clearly by bringing us to understanding and clear perception not only that God exists. This had been proclaimed through the God-inspired Scripture even before Christ's coming. He also brought us to know that, besides being true God, He is Father not falsely so called. He has in Himself and from His own Self His own Son, coeternally coexisting with His own nature. For He did not beget the Creator of the ages in time.

But Father, one might say, is a name more fitting to God than God. The latter denotes dignity, while the former contains an indication of an essential property. Whoever says "God" points to the Lord of all. But whoever names the Father expresses particularity or personal property, ἰδιότητος, for he shows that He has begotten. The Son Himself assigned to God the name Father as more proper and true, so to speak, when He said not, "I and God," but, "I and the Father are one" (Jn 10:30). Again, in another place He said of Himself: "For on Him God the Father has set His seal" (Jn 6:27).

And when He commanded His disciples to baptize all nations, He clearly commanded them to do this not in the name of God, but "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Mt 28:19). For the divine Moses also, when recounting the creation of this world, did not assign the formation of the world to one person. He wrote: "And God said, Let Us make man according to Our image and likeness" (Gen 1:26). In the words "Let Us make" and "according to Our likeness," the Holy Trinity is indicated. For the Father created all things and called them into being through the Son in the Spirit.

Yet this was not altogether easy for the ancients to understand. Rather, the saying was wholly unclear, since neither the Father was named separately nor the person of the Son set forth clearly. But our Lord Jesus Christ, without any veil and with great boldness, clearly called God His Father. Naming Himself Son and showing Himself to be the true fruit of the Nature that rules over all, He thereby manifested the Father's name and raised us to perfect knowledge.

For the fullest knowledge of God and of the beginning of all things consists not only in knowing that God exists. It also consists in knowing that He is Father, and whose Father He is, including here, evidently, the Holy Spirit. Indeed, to know of God only that He exists belongs to us in no greater measure than to those under the law. This did not go beyond Jewish understanding.

And as the law brought nothing to perfection (Heb 7:19), providing instruction as a tutor (Gal 3:24) and not sufficient for attaining most perfect piety, so also it gave imperfect knowledge of God. It only turned people away from devotion to falsely named gods and compelled them to worship the One and True God: "You shall have no other gods besides Me" (Ex 20:3), and, "You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve" (Mt 4:10; Deut 6:13).

But our Lord Jesus Christ added something better to the ordinances of Moses and offered teaching more excellent than the commandment under the law. He gave knowledge higher and more glorious than that ancient knowledge. He made manifest to us that the Creator of all is not only God and Lord, but also Father. The proof is at hand: He declared Himself to be the image of God in the words, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" (Jn 14:9), and, "I and the Father are one" (Jn 10:30).

This is rightly so, since, being God and from God by nature, He speaks to His Father in an exalted manner proper to God. Yet immediately He adds, speaking in a manner more proper to man: "Those whom You gave Me out of the world were Yours, and You gave them to Me." Still. We must not think that the Lord said this because anything in the dominion of God the Father was specially and separately set apart, or distinct, which the Son Himself did not possess.

For He is King before the ages, according to the voice of the Psalmist (Ps 73:12; Ps 54:20), and the eternal sharer of the Father's dominion. So also the wise Evangelist John teaches that all belongs to Him and is subject to Him, clearly with the Father reigning together with Him, when he writes: "He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him" (Jn 1:11). He calls even those His own who did not yet know Him and who, as it were, rejected the yoke of His Kingdom.

He said this now to bring before His hearers that there were some in this world who had no notion at all of the one true God and served the creature and the devices of the devil. But although they did not know the Creator of all, wandering outside the truth, they were still God's property, since He is Master of all as Creator. Everything is God's property. In general, there is nothing among created things that does not have the One as Master, even if the creature itself does not know it.

Certainly no one will say that the error of some can deprive the Creator of all of His authority over all. Rather, he will subject to His authority everything that was made and brought into being through Him. If this is true, then those held by diabolical delusions and given over to worldly abominations also belonged to the true God.

But how were they given to the Son? God the Father was well pleased that Emmanuel should reign over them, not as though He had only now begun to reign over them. He was always Lord and King as God by nature. Rather, having become man and given Himself for the life of all, He redeemed all for Himself and through Himself brought them to God the Father.

Thus, while reigning from eternity and from the beginning as God together with His Begetter, He is appointed King as man, to whom kingship is given along with other things, according to the measure of human nature. For a king is not the same as a man considered as a rational animal endowed with mind and knowledge, possessing these as natural properties. These belong to the definition of human essence. Royal dignity, however, is external and additional, and does not belong to the inseparably innate properties. It comes and goes without altering the subject at all, so far as essence is concerned.

Thus royal dignity is something given, coming to man from without, from God. "For by Me," He says, "kings reign, and rulers by Me govern the earth" (Prov 8:15-16). Therefore, while reigning over all with the Father, since He was and is and will be God by nature, He receives dominion over those who live in the world in a manner and measure fitting to man. Therefore He says, "All that You have given Me is Yours."

In the proper and exact sense, everything is God's property, while to us, His creatures, it is only given. If it belongs to the divine nature to possess and rule all things, then it belongs to us, in turn, only to receive. Indeed, He testified that sincere servitude and zealous obedience undoubtedly belong to those who believe in Him. For He says: "The words which You gave Me I have given them, and they received them and truly knew that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me."

He clearly calls His own sayings the "words" of God the Father because of the identity of essence, and because God the Word reveals the Father's desires. So also, beyond doubt, the word that proceeds from our mouths and enters the neighbor's hearing through outward utterance reveals the secrets lying in the depth of the heart. For this reason the prophetic word said of Him that "His name is called Angel of Great Counsel" (Isa 9:6).

The truly wondrous, supernatural, and great counsel of the Begetter is revealed by the Word who is in Him and from Him. He revealed it through uttered words as man, when He became like us. After His ascent into heaven, He reveals it through spiritual knowledge and illumination. For He reveals His mysteries to the worthy, as Paul also will testify in the words: "Do you seek proof that Christ is speaking in me?" (2 Cor 13:3). Therefore He testified concerning those who love Him that they received and kept the words given to Him by God the Father.

What name of the Father, then, does the Savior speak of, which He affirms that He made manifest to men? Is it the same as saying, "I proclaimed You as God before men"? What, then, are the words of the prophets? Did they call the Master of all God or not God so many years before the Incarnation? What greater thing was revealed through Christ? For He likewise calls the Father the Fashioner, Creator, and Maker of the whole world. Yet blessed Moses, who composed the book about the creation of the world, is the first to proclaim Him both God and Creator, saying: "In the beginning God created heaven and earth" (Gen 1:1).

What name, then, does He say He manifested? Is it not obvious that it is Father? For since the Apostles believed in Him as Son, they certainly confessed at the same time that there is a Father. They came to know who the Father is and what He is like. From the natural beauty, ώραιότητος, of the Son they were led up to the beauty, κάλλος, of Him who begot Him. From the exact Image they turned the eye of the mind toward the Archetype, άπό τής ακριβούς είκόνος τό άρχέτυπον βλέποντες.

Everything that God the Father gave to God the Son, He gave when He begot Him. The Father gave the Son everything without which He could not be the Son, just as He gave Him existence itself.

That is, He said: “They have understood that I am from You.” For the Father gave all things at the very moment when He begot Him who would possess all things.

“Now,” that is, after they had heard My teaching, the disciples understood that everything You have given Me, meaning everything I say and teach, is from You.

All these are Your commandments, and there is nothing of My own that is peculiar or alien to You. Then Jesus Christ says how the disciples learned this.

They understood that everything was given Me by Thee, God the Father. This means authority over the elements, dominion over unclean spirits, healing power over the sick, and authority to raise the dead.

It also includes the testimonies at the River Jordan and on Mount Tabor, that I am Thy beloved Son (Mt 3:17), the Holy Spirit descending and abiding in Me, and the preaching of Thy heavenly teaching.

Whence did they understand this? 'The words which Thou hast given Me I have given to them.' They understood this because I handed on to them the words which I received from Thee.

I taught them that all things have been delivered to Me by Thee, the Father (Mt 11:27). And they received Thy teaching, and understood, and believed, not feignedly but truly, that I came forth from Thee.

As Jesus Christ begins His supplication for the disciples, He first discloses their merits before the Father. By this He says that the apostles are worthy of God's blessing.

Through His teaching and works, and through His very Person, Jesus Christ fully revealed God to men. He revealed the name of God equally to all.

Yet not all accepted His word. Only those accepted it who, by their spiritual and moral condition, were capable of doing so. They were God's, and therefore God called them to salvation, removed them from the world, the kingdom of sin, and entrusted them to Christ.

Having received the word of Christ within themselves and kept it, they were established in it (8:51). They understood and believed that in Jesus Christ everything is God's: His teaching, His works, and He Himself, who is God.

The Prayer of Jesus.

After speaking His last farewell instructions to those who were to carry His teaching into the world, Jesus was ready to go to the Cross. He ended His earthly course with a solemn prayer, not constrained by the presence of the Apostles.

Besides the petition to support and sanctify the Apostles and all who would believe through their word, this prayer contains a brief survey of how Jesus fulfilled the charge given Him by the Father who sent Him.

The words of this prayer portray the inner state of the divine Sufferer so clearly to anyone acquainted with His life that any commentary on it seems unnecessary.

'Now they have known,' that is, through faith in My word they have been convinced, 'that all things which Thou hast given Me are from Thee.'

This refers not only to the Lord's teaching as received from the Father, but to the whole work of Christ which the Father entrusted to the Son to accomplish (Jn 17:4).

The disciples understood that this whole work, being accomplished by their Teacher in the world, is divine work. It was appointed by God the Father and fulfilled by the Son according to this appointment.

They did not yet fully understand this work in its whole scope and greatness. Much about it had not yet been revealed to them, because they were not yet able to bear much, and only in time would they become able (Jn 16:12-13).

Yet they now understood that this whole work was God's work from the entire course of Christ's deed and teaching. This was enough. They would understand the rest when the other Comforter came to them (Jn 14:26; Jn 15:26).

'All things whatsoever Thou hast given Me.' Everything given by the Father to Christ Jesus pertains to His office as Messiah, the Messenger of God. Therefore this means His teaching, works, and gifts.

He spoke of Himself in this way on other occasions as well (Jn 3:31; Jn 13:3; Jn 5:27).

Since the Apostles were sincere disciples of the heavenly Father and equally disciples of the Lord Jesus, they finally understood the truth despite all the scandals placed before their faith by the unbelief of the Jews.

They understood that the works and teaching of Christ Jesus are the works of the heavenly Father. He did nothing and taught nothing that was not in harmony with the will of the heavenly Father.

In the Lord's prayer, which is a revelation for the disciples, the Lord spoke in the preceding verses about the glorification of God's name in the Son. In verses 6-8, the Lord prays that God's name may be glorified in the disciples and in all believers.

'I have manifested Thy name to the men whom Thou hast given Me out of the world. They were Thine, and Thou hast given them to Me.'

The glory of God in man is the salvation and eternal blessedness of men. Therefore God was pleased to reveal His name through the Lord Jesus.

Those who were God's became the possession of the incarnate Son of God, who manifested God's name on earth.

God the Creator, the ruler of heaven and earth, gives to the Lord Jesus those souls which are God's. The whole spiritual and irrational world belongs to God.