Expositor's Bible Commentary 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)

Jesus’ request for the protection of the disciples is occasioned by the prospect of his leaving the world. They will still remain in it, exposed to its temptations and hostility. In reviewing his care of them to date, he uses two different words: “protected” (see comment in v.11) and “kept them safe” (i.e., “guarded them against external attack”). Jesus has kept safely all the disciples except Judas, “the one doomed to destruction” (a phrase applied to the Antichrist in 2 Thessalonians 2:3). This Semitic phrase denotes an abandoned character, one utterly lost and given over to evil. The language does not imply that Judas was a helpless victim who was destined to perdition against his will. Rather, it implies that, having made his decision, he had passed the point of no return; and, by so doing, he carried out what the Scriptures had indicated would happen (109:6–8).