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Joh_17:11. Before He now gives expression to the special supplication itself ( πάτερ ἅγιε , τήρησον , κ . τ . λ .), He first brings forward the peculiar ground of need, connecting in profound emotion its individual members unperiodically by καί .
οὐκέτι εἰμὶ , κ . τ . λ .] Thus He speaks, “nunc quasi provincia sua defunctus,” Calvin.
καὶ οὗτοι , κ . τ . λ .] “hos relinquam in tantis fluctibus,” Grotius.
ἅγιε ] As in Joh_17:25, δίκαιε , so here ἅγιε is added significantly; for to guarantee that which Jesus would now pray ( τήρησον , κ . τ . λ .) is in harmony with the holiness of His Father, which has been revealed to Him in entire fulness, a holiness which is the absolute antithesis of the ungodly nature of the profane world.[192] Placed by their calling in this unholy κόσμος , they shall be guarded by the holy God so as to abide faithfully in His name. In harmony with this antithesis of the holiness of God to the nature of the world, stands the petition, “hallowed be Thy name,” at the head of the Lord’s Prayer. Comp. also 1Jn_2:20; Heb_12:10; 1Pe_1:16; Rev_6:10. Thus the Father discharges the obligation lying on Himself, if He keeps the disciples of the Son in His name.
ἐν τῷ ὀνόμ . σ .] Specific sphere, in which they are to remain through being so kept; the name of the Father is made known to them (Joh_17:6; Joh_17:26), and with a happy result (Joh_17:6-8); thus are they to persevere in His living acquaintance and believing confession, not to depart out of this holy element of their life.
ᾧ δέδωκ . μοι ] ᾧ by attraction, instead of ὅ , which, however, does not stand instead of οὕς (Bengel, comp. Ewald and Godet, who would read ὅ , see the critical notes), but: God has given His name to Christ, and that not in the sense of the divine nature entering into manifestation, as Hengstenberg here drags in from Exo_23:21, but rather in the sense of Joh_17:6, for revelation to the disciples; He has for such a purpose delivered His name to Him as the object of a holy commission. In conformity with this, the Lord prays that God would keep them in this His name, in order that they, in virtue of the one common faith and confession resting on the name of God, may be one (in the spiritual fellowship, of like mind and love, comp. Joh_17:22-23), in conformity with the archetype[193] of the ethical unity of the Father and the Son (comp. the Pauline εἷς θεὸς κ . πατὴρ πάντων , κ . τ . λ ., Eph_4:6). Hence ἵνα expresses the object of τήρησον , κ . τ . λ ., not of δέδωκ . μοι .
[192] According to Diestel in the Jahrb. f. Deutsche Theol. 1859, p. 45, God is here conceived of as ἅγιος τοῦ Χριστοῦ , which is the completion of the N. T. ἅγιος τοῦ ʼΙσραήλ . But of this there is neither any indication in the context, nor do we find generally the idea of God as of the ἅγιος τοῦ Χριστοῦ expressed. Hengstenberg refers too exclusively to the power of the holy God.
[193] Bengel: “Illa unitas est ex natura, haec ex gratia; igitur illi haec similis est, non aequalis.”