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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJohn Bengel Commentary - John 17:1 - 17:1
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Joh 17:1. Ταῦτα, these things) He prays respecting Himself, Joh 17:1-2; respecting the apostles, Joh 17:6-7; and again, Joh 17:24-25; respecting those about to believe, Joh 17:20-23; and in this prayer comprises all things which He spake from ch. Joh 8:31, and sets His seal on all that He has heretofore done, having in His view the past, present, and future. The new Pentecost, now close at hand, is tacitly meant. Who is there that would not rejoice, that these words which Jesus spake to the Father, are extant in writing? This chapter, of all the chapters in Scripture, is the easiest in regard to the words, the most profound in regard to the ideas meant.-καὶ ἐπῆρε, and lifted up) forthwith [in continuation].-εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν, to heaven) Thither He was now directing all His thoughts.-εἶπε, spake) He prays the Father, and at the same time teaches His disciples.-Πάτερ) So Jesus addresses Him by the appellation, Father, absolutely, four times in this sweet and lengthened prayer; and twice, accompanied with an epithet; in all only six times, and that generally when a new part of the discourse is being begun: Joh 17:1; Joh 17:5; Joh 17:11; Joh 17:21; Joh 17:24-25. The names of God ought not to be accumulated together in prayer, but are to be addressed to Him sparingly and with religious reverence: as Hottinger shows that the Hebrews also inculcate, where he is treating of the names of God among the people of the East. Such simplicity in His mode of address was above all becoming in the Son of God: and accordingly as each believer has his soul in the best state of readiness for confidence in prayer, so he can most fully follow in the steps of His Master’s simplicity,-ἡ ὥρα) the hour of glorification.-δόξασον, glorify) This verb and the noun δόξα, glory, throughout the whole of this prayer, have the same force, and that the highest degree of force. Both before His glorification, and after it, the Son glorified the Father. Hence arises the various alternations in the mutual glorification [the Son glorifying the Father, and then as the consequence, the Father glorifying the Son, and vice versâ]: Joh 17:4-5; Joh 5:1.-σοῦ τὸν ὑιὸν, Thy Son) By this appellation it is expressed that Jesus is to be glorified, as it is becoming that the Son should be; and for this very reason, because He is the Son. Here, in treating with (where He is having to do with) the Father, He does not call Himself the Son of Man.