Church Fathers Commentary John 17:6-8

"I manifested thy name unto the men whom thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them to me; and they have kept thy word. Now they know that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are from thee: for the words which thou gavest me I have given unto them; and they received [them], and knew of a truth that I came forth from thee, and they believed that thou didst send me." — John 17:6-8 (ASV)

St. John Chrysostom: Having said, I have finished My work, He shows what kind of work it was, namely, that He should make known the name of God: I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world.

St. Augustine of Hippo: If He is speaking only of the disciples with whom He had supper, this has nothing to do with the glorification He spoke of earlier, with which the Son glorified the Father. For what glory is it to be known by only twelve or eleven men? But if by “the men whom You gave Me out of the world” He means all those who would later believe in Him, this is undoubtedly the glory with which the Son glorifies the Father. In this case, I have manifested Your name is the same as what He said before, I have glorified You, with the past tense being used for the future in both instances. However, what follows shows that He is speaking here of those who were already His disciples, not of all who would later believe in Him.

At the beginning of His prayer, then, our Lord is speaking of all believers—all to whom He would make the Father known, thereby glorifying Him. For after saying, that Your Son also may glorify You, and showing how that was to be done, He says, As You have given Him power over all flesh. Now let us hear what He says to the disciples: I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world. Had they not known the name of God when they were Jews? We read in the Psalms, In Judah is God known; His name is great in Israel (Psalm 76:1).

Therefore, I have manifested Your name must be understood not as the name of “God” in general, but of the Father's name specifically, which could not be manifested without the manifestation of the Son. The name of God, as the God of all creation, could not have been entirely unknown to any nation. As the Maker of the world, He was known among all peoples even before the spread of the Gospel. In Judah He was known as a God who was not to be worshiped with false gods. But His name as the Father of that Christ, by whom He took away the sins of the world, was unknown. It is this name that Christ now manifests to those whom the Father had given Him out of the world.

But how did He manifest it, when the hour had not yet come of which He said, The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in proverbs? We must understand that He used the past tense to speak of a future event.

St. John Chrysostom: Christ had already manifested to them by His words and deeds that He was the Son of the Father.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Whom you have given Me out of the world means those who were not of the world. But they were this way by regeneration, not by nature. What is meant by the phrase, Yours they were, and You gave them to Me? Did the Father ever possess anything without the Son? God forbid! But the Son of God possessed things that He did not possess as the Son of Man. For example, He possessed the universe with His Father even while He was still in His mother's womb.

Therefore, by saying, They were Yours, the Son of God does not separate Himself from the Father, but attributes all His power to Him, from whom He is and from whom He has this power. So, and You gave them to Me means that He, as man, had received the power to have them. Indeed, He Himself had given them to Himself—that is, Christ as God, with the Father, gave them to Christ as man. His purpose here is to show His unity with the Father and that it was the Father's will for them to believe in Him.

The Venerable Bede: And they have kept Your word. He calls Himself the Word of the Father because the Father created all things through Him, and because He contains all words in Himself. It is as if to say, “They have committed Me to memory so well that they will never forget Me.” Alternatively, they have kept Your word means that they have believed in Me, as it follows: Now they have known that all things whatever You have given Me are from You. Some read this as, Now I have known, etc., but this cannot be correct. For how could the Son be ignorant of what belongs to the Father? He is speaking of the disciples, as if to say, “They have learned that there is nothing in Me that is foreign to You, and that whatever I teach comes from You.”

St. Augustine of Hippo: The Father gave Him all things when, having all things, He begat Him.

St. John Chrysostom: And from where have they learned this? From My words, in which I taught them that I came forth from You. For this is what He has been striving to show throughout the entire Gospel: For I have given to them the words that You gave Me, and they have received them.

St. Augustine of Hippo: This means they have understood and remembered them. For a word is truly received when the mind comprehends it, as it follows: and have known surely that I came out from You. And so that no one might imagine that this knowledge was one of sight rather than faith, He adds, And they have believed (with “surely” being understood) that You sent Me. What they “believed surely” is what they “knew surely,” for I came out from You is the same as You sent Me.

They “believed surely”—not in the same way as their earlier belief, but “surely” in the sense that they were about to believe firmly, steadily, and unwaveringly, never again to be scattered to their own homes and leave Christ. The disciples were not yet as He describes them here, using the past tense. He is speaking of them as they would be after they had received the Holy Spirit.

The question of how the Father gave these words to the Son is easier to solve if we suppose that He received them from the Father as the Son of Man. But if we understand it as something He received as the Begotten of the Father, we must not imagine a time before He possessed them, as if He once existed without them. For whatever God the Father gave to God the Son, He gave in the act of begetting Him.