Charles Ellicott Commentary John 17:25

"O righteous Father, the world knew thee not, but I knew thee; and these knew that thou didst send me;" — John 17:25 (ASV)

O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee.—Better, . . . the world indeed knew You not. In these closing words of His prayer, our Lord again solemnly appeals to the Father (compare Notes on John 17:1; John 17:5; John 17:11), but now with the special thought of the Father’s righteousness.

This thought follows upon the prayer that those whom the Father had given Him may be where He is, and behold the divine glory; and the connection seems to be in the thought that sinful humanity cannot see God and live. The world, indeed, knew not God (John 16:3), but the Son knew God, and the disciples had recognised that He had been sent by God, and in their knowledge of Him had passed through a moral change, by which they were no longer of the world, but were sons of God (John 1:12).