John 17:24. What He has already bestowed on them, but as yet as a possession of hope (John 17:22), He wills (θέλω) that they may also partake of in reality. He does not merely wish it (against Beza, Calvin, B. Crusius, Tholuck, Ewald), but the Son prays in the consciousness of the ἐξουσία bestowed on Him by the Father according to John 17:2, for the communication of eternal life to His own. This consciousness is that of the most intimate confidence and clearest accord with the Father. Previously He had said ἐρωτῶ; “nunc incrementum sumit oratio,” Bengel. The idea of the last will, however (Godet), is not to be imported here.

The relative definition is placed first emphatically, because justifying the θέλω according to its contents. This is neutral (ὅ, see the critical notes), whereby the persons (ἐκεῖνοι, i.e. the disciples and all believers, John 17:20) are designated in abstracto, according to their category (comp. John 17:2; John 6:37), and the moment of δέδωκάς μοι, which is a motive cause to the granting of the prayer, becomes more prominent in and of itself.

ἵνα] Purpose of θέλω (they should, etc.), and therewith its contents; see on Luke 6:31.

ὅπου εἰμὶ ἐγὼ, κἀκεῖνοι, κ.τ.λ.] shall be realized at the Parousia.[200] See on John 14:3, also on ἀναστήσω αὐτὸ, κ.τ.λ., John 6:39.

θεωρῶσι] behold, experimentally, and with personal participation, as συνδοξασθέντες, Romans 8:17; Romans 8:29, and συμβασιλεύοντες, 2 Timothy 2:12. The opposite: behold death, John 8:51.[201] Against the interpretation that the beholding of the ΔΌΞΑ of Christ in itself (its reflection, as it were) constitutes blessedness (Olshausen, comp. Chrysostom and Euth. Zigabenus), John 17:22 testifies, although it is also essentially included in it, 1 John 3:2; Hebrews 12:14.

ἣν ἔδωκάς μοι, ὅτι, κ.τ.λ.] Further added in childlike feeling of gratitude to ΤῊΝ ἘΜΉΝ, and that proleptically (comp. εἰμί), because the Lord is on the point of entering into this ΔΌΞΑ (John 17:1), as if He had already received it (comp. John 17:22): whom Thou gavest me, because (motive of the ἐδωκ.) Thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world (πρὸ κατ. κ. not belonging to ἜΔΩΚ. Μ., as Paulus and B. Crusius think). The ΔΌΞΑ of Christ, as the ΛΌΓΟς ἌΣΑΡΚΟς (John 17:5), was, according to the mode of view and expression of the N. T., not one imparted to Him from love, but in virtue of the ontologically Trinitarian relation to the Father,[202] that which pertained with metaphysical necessity to the Son in the unity of the divine nature, the μορφὴ ΘΕΟῦ, which He as ΘΕῸς ΛΌΓΟς, John 1:1, had, being from eternity eternally with the Father (John 17:5); whereas the δόξα here intended is in His exaltation after the completion of His work, since it concerned His entire person, including its human side, that given to Him by the Father from love (Php 2:9), from that love, however, which did not first originate in time, but was already cherished by the Father toward the Son before the foundation of the world. That δόξα possessed by Jesus before His incarnation, to which for the most part (as still Luthardt, Ebrard, Hengstehberg) reference is wrongly made, whereby, according to John 17:5, ἜΔΩΚΑς would have to be conceived of as brought about through the generation of the ΜΟΝΟΓΕΝΉς, was the purely divine; that given to Him through His exaltation is indeed the same, into which He now again has entered, but because it is the glory of the λόγος ἔνσαρκος, divine-human in eternal consummation (Php 2:9). Comp. on John 17:5; John 1:14. Nowhere in the N. T. is the premundane δόξα of the Son designated as given to Him (Php 2:6; Colossians 1:15; 2 Corinthians 8:9), although this would be imaginable in and of itself as an eternal self-communication of Fatherly love (comp. Brückner and Ebrard).[203] Further, it is strangely incorrect that the ΔΌΞΑ, which the Father has given to the Son, has been explained here differently from that in John 17:22.

The love of the Father to the Son before the foundation of the world implies the personal pre-existence of the latter with God, but is not reconcilable with the idea of the pre-temporal ideal existence which He has had in God, as the archetype of humanity. This in answer to Beyschlag, p. 87, who considers the relation as analogous to the eternal election of grace, Ephesians 1:4, Romans 8:29; which is not appropriate, since the election of grace concerns those as yet not in existence, namely, future believers, whom God προέγνω as future. The Son, however, whom He loved, must personally exist with the Father, since it was in Christ that the motive already lay for the election of grace (see on Ephesians 1:4). Comp. also on John 17:5. To suppose that God, according to the present passage, had loved His own ideal of humanity before the foundation of the world, the idea consequently of His own thought, is an idea without any analogy in the N. T., and we thereby arrive at an anthropopathic self-love, as men form to themselves an ideal, and are glad to attain it.

[200] The intermediate state denoted in Php 1:23 (see in loc.) is not meant (Hengstenberg), nor a part of the meaning (Godet), but as what follows shows, the completed fellowship of glory. Comp. 1 John 3:2.

[201] Baur thus explains away the historical sense: “They behold this glory, see it in reality before them, if in them, through the communication of the true God consciousness, and of the eternal life thereby conditioned, through which they have become one with Jesus and the Father, just as He is one with the Father, the divine principle (to this, according to Baur, δέδωκα, ver. 22, refers) has realized itself as that which it is in itself.”

[202] Comp. J. Müller, Von der Sünde, II. p. 183 f.

[203] Euth. Zigabenus: τὴν δόξαν τῆς θεότητος, ἣν δέδωκάς μοι, οὐχ ὡς ἐλάττονι ἢ ὑστερογενεῖ, ἀλλʼ ὡς αἴτιος, εἴτουν ὡς γεννήσας με. But in the N. T. this mode of presentation is unsupported; in ver. 26, to which Johansson appeals, ἔδωκεν in truth refers first to the time of the sending into the world.

John 17:24. Πάτερ, ὅ δέδωκάς μοι, “that which Thou hast given me,” i.e., the community of believers; θέλω, “I will,” no longer, ἐρωτῶ, “that where I am, there they may be also”; ὅ resolved into individuals. To share in the destiny of Christ has already been promised to His followers, John 10:26; cf. John 14:3. This is the consummation of Christian blessedness. They are not only in the same condition as their Lord, but enjoy it in fellowship with Him, μετʼ ἐμοῦ.—ἵνα θεωρῶσι τὴν δόξαν τὴν ἐμήν. To see Christ honoured and supreme must ever be the Christian’s joy. But this glory of Christ resulting from the eternal love of the Father is not only seen but shared in by the disciples in the measure of their capacity, John 5:22, 2 Timothy 2:12, Revelation 3:21.

24. Father] Comp. John 17:1; John 17:5; John 17:11, John 11:41, John 12:27. The relationship is the ground of the appeal; He knows that His ‘will’ is one with His Father’s.

I will] Comp. John 21:22; Matthew 8:3; Matthew 23:37; Matthew 26:39; Luke 12:49. He has already granted this by anticipation (John 17:22); He wills that this anticipation may be realised.

they whom] Literally, that which; the faithful as a body. See on John 17:2.

where I am] Comp. John 14:3.

behold] In the sense of sharing and enjoying it; for the faithful ‘shall also reign with Him.’ 2. Tim. John 2:12. This glory they behold with unveiled face, on which it is reflected as on the face of Moses. See on 2 Corinthians 3:18 and comp. 1 John 3:2.

my glory] Literally, the glory which is Mine, a stronger expression than that in John 17:22 : see on John 14:27.

which thou hast given me] Not the glory of the Word, the Eternal Son, which was His in His equality with the Father, but the glory of Christ, the Incarnate Son, with which the risen and ascended Jesus was endowed. In sure confidence Christ speaks of this as already given, and wills that all believers may behold and share it. Thus two gifts of the Father to the Son meet and complete one another: those whom He has given behold the glory that He has given.

for] Better, because.

the foundation of the world] Our Lord thrice uses this expression, here, Luke 11:50, and Matthew 25:34. Two of those who heard it reproduce it (1 Peter 1:20; Revelation 13:8; Revelation 17:8): comp. Ephesians 1:4; Hebrews 4:3; Hebrews 9:26; Hebrews 11:11.

John 17:24. Οὓς, whom) He returns to the apostles: in John 17:25, these.—θέλω, I will) He had said in John 17:9; John 17:15; John 17:20, ἐρωτῶ, I ask; now His language assumes an increase in force. It is to be interpreted, I will; for, I would desire, is too weak a rendering. Jesus asks with the right of a claim, and demands with confidence, as the Son, not a servant. Comp. Psalm 2:8, “Ask of Me, and I shall give Thee,” etc.; Mark 10:35, James and John say, “Master, we would (θέλομεν) that Thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall desire;” John 6:25, the daughter of Herodias to Herod, “I will (θέλω) that thou give me forthwith.” [In a different tone from what He used in behalf of Himself at the Mount of Olives, Matthew 26:39, “Let this cup pass from Me: nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt.”]—θεωρῶσι) that they may behold, viz. in enjoying it.—πρὸ, before) Construe with, Thou lovedst Me. The economy of salvation flows from eternity to eternity. Between eternity and the foundation of the world no intervening period is admissible (is given). For in the beginning God created, etc. [John 17:5].

Verse 24. - Now passing from this glorification of his people in the convictions and knowledge of the world, our Lord offers "as a Son to a Father," and therefore with profound naturalness, the prayer of the incarnate Logos to the eternal Father, and therefore an address indubitably supernatural and lifted above all human consciousness. It is a prayer, too, which rises from the high and unique term ἐρωτῶ (one which he never puts into the lips of his disciples) to a yet higher one, θέλω, as one who speaks with ἐξουσία which God had given him over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to those whom God had given him. Θέλω means less than "I will," and more than "I desire," and is destitute of that element of "counsel" or deliberation that is involved in βουλόμαι. Very soon after this, when the full force of his human consciousness pressed upon him, he said (Mark 14:36), "Not what (ἐγὼ θέλω) I will, but what thou wiliest." But here he is so conscious of the Father's will concerning others that he cries, Father, as for them whom - or, as some ancient codices read, that which - thou hast given me, regarded as a mystic unity, as the Bride which he has redeemed, I will that they also be with me where I am. Κἀκεῖνοι resolves the ὅν into the elements of which it is composed. This is the first part of the final petition, and it embraces everything. "With Christ;" "Forever with the Lord;" in his glory and part of it, in the place which he is going to localize and prepare for them, is heaven. The glory which he had already given to his disciples (Ver. 22) falls far short of this fellowship with him where his undimmed radiance shines, is only a preparation for sharing with him in his ultimate triumph over the world and death, and also for sitting down with him on his throne (Revelation 3:21). In this world fellowship with him in his suffering humanity did not finally reveal the transcendent glory (though in John 1:14 the apostle says, "We beheld his glory," etc.) of his Person. To realize this he prays, And that they may also behold the glory which is mine, which thou hast given me. The glory given cannot be the glory of the λόγος ἀσάρκος, according to Meyer, for that is not given, but belongs to him by eternal right; yet Meyer admits that the Father gave the Son to have life in himself; and that even the eternal Sonship itself may be regarded as the eternal bestowment of an infinite love. Seeing that the Lord goes on to give a reason of his θέλημα founded on an eternal or at least pre-mundane manifestation of a conscious love, surely he is thinking of the exaltation of humanity into the eternal glory, which he distinctly relinquished and veiled in the days of his flesh. That which they had hitherto seen they only partially apprehended, though he had even given it to them (ver. 22), and though they had been drawn out of the world to high places of transfiguration, that they might behold it and learn how it coexisted with and was compatible with a perfect resignation to the will of God in human redemption. Our Lord prays, nay, wills, that they should hereafter see it in its fullness of grace and beauty, see it when relieved from obstructive hindrances due to the flesh and to the world, see it on the grandest scale, see it as it really is, see the full capacity and infinite momentum of the glory which he had already bestowed upon them. For thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. This, say Meyer and Luthardt, is given as a reason of the prayer for his disciples, not as an explanation of the glory which he had with the Father before the world was. It is often said that the exaltation of the Son of man is a reward for his self-humiliation, and the crown of his sacrificial death (Philippians 2:9; Revelation 3:21; Hebrews 1:1, 2), but these very passages couple that exaltation with the premundane glory of him who was, to begin with, and before his work of redemption, the "Effulgence of the Father's glory," who was "in the form of God," and regarded the being equal with God as no ἁρπαγμός ( νοτ as a thing to be seized, prized, and held in its integrity. And in Hebrews 2:9, "He was by reason of his intended passion crowned with glory and honor, in order that he might taste death for every man." So that the glory which he had with the Father before the world was, and therefore before his incarnation, was that very glory of self-devoting and unutterable love into which he would come again with all the trophies of his redemptive work. The new and higher embodiment of his humanity would prove of such a kind that his essential glory would shine through it in undimmed luster. If this be the meaning, we cannot dilute this pregnant saying, one of the most mysterious of all his words, one which leads us up to the highest possible conception of the relations between the Father and the Son. The eternal love of which the Godhead itself is the SOURCE and the OBJECT is that to which we shall be introduced, and which our Lord would have us see and share (cf. 1 John 3:1-3). John 17:24They - whom (οὓς)

The best texts read ὃ, that which. The construction is similar to that in John 17:2, "that He should give eternal life," etc. Like πᾶν, all, in that passage, that which here refers to the body of believers taken collectively.

I will (θέλω)

See on Matthew 1:19.

My glory

The glory which is mine.

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