Charles Ellicott Commentary John 17:12

"While I was with them, I kept them in thy name which thou hast given me: and I guarded them, and not one of them perished, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled." — John 17:12 (ASV)

While I was with them in the world.—Compare the opening words of John 17:11. During His presence with them, there was not this special need for commending them to the Father’s care. His relation to them now is like that of a parent blessing and praying for His children before He is taken away from them .

I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept.—It is better to read (compare the previous verse), I kept them in Thy name which Thou gavest Me, and guarded them. The pronoun is emphatic. “While I was in the world I kept them. I am now praying that You would keep them.” The words “kept” and “guarded” differ slightly in meaning. The former points to the preservation in the truth revealed to them, and the latter to the watchfulness by means of which this result was obtained. The former may be compared to the feeding of the flock, the latter to the care that protects from the wild beasts around .

And none of them is lost, but the son of perdition.—A better rendering is, None of them perished, except the son of perdition. The tense is the same as that of the word “guarded.” The Good Shepherd watched His flock, and such was His care that none perished but the “son of perdition.” Of him the words carefully state that “he perished.” He, then, was included in “them which Thou gavest Me.” For him there was the same preservation and the same guardianship as for those who remained in the fold. The sheep wandered from the flock and was lost by his own act (Compare especially Notes on John 6:37-39; John 6:71. See also John 18:9).

The term “son of perdition” is a well-known Hebrew idiom, in which the lack of qualitative adjectives is supplied by using abstract nouns that express that quality. A disobedient child, e.g., is “a son of disobedience”; other common instances are “children of light” and “children of darkness.” A “son of perdition” is one in whose nature the quality expressed by “perdition” exists. The phrase is used in Isaiah 57:4 to express the apostasy of the Israelites (in the English version, “children of transgression”).

It occurs once again in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, of the “man of sin” (Compare Notes there). It is used in the Gospel of Nicodemus to refer to the devil. In the present passage, it is difficult to express the meaning in English. This is because we have no verb from the same root as the abstract noun “perdition,” and no abstract noun from the same root as the verb “perish.” Therefore, no exact English translation can convey the point of our Lord’s words: “And none of them perished except him whose nature it was to perish.” Here, as often (compare Note on John 10:16), the reader who can consult Luther’s German will find that he captures the sense exactly: “Und ist keiner von ihnen verloren ohne das verlorne Kind.”

That the scripture might be fulfilled.—Compare Note on John 13:18, and Acts 1:20.