Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - John 18:9 - 18:9

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Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - John 18:9 - 18:9


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

9. οὓς δεδ. μ., οὐκ ἀπ. Of those whom Thou hast given Me, I lost not one. The reference is to Joh 17:12, and is a strong confirmation of the historical truth of chap. 17. If the prayer were the composition of the Evangelist to set forth in an ideal form Christ’s mental condition at the time, this reference to a definite portion of it would be most unnatural. The change from ‘not one of them perished’ to ‘I lost of them not one’ brings out the protective intervention of Christ.

It does not follow, because S. John gives this interpretation of Christ’s words, that therefore they have no other. This was a first fulfilment, within an hour or two of their utterance, an earnest of a larger fulfilment in the future. The meaning here must not be limited to bodily preservation. Had they been captured, apostasy might have been the result, as was actually the case with S. Peter.