He thinks of the disciples as a body separated from the world (comp. Note on John 15:19), and as given to Him by the Father. (Comp. Note on John 6:37.)

Thine they were, and thou gavest (better, hast given) them me.--The meaning of these words is that they were morally prepared by the earlier manifestation of God for the fuller manifestation in Christ. They were God's in more than name, and therefore when Christ was revealed to them, they recognised Him of whom Moses and the prophets did speak. (Comp. John 1:37 et seq., and especially Notes on John 5:46; John 6:37; John 8:47.) . . .

(2) The prayer for his disciples. Verses 6-8. - Here the Divine Intercessor turns from himself, and from the approaching glory of his own mediatorial Person and position, to meditate, for the advantage of his disciples, on what had already been done for them, in them, to them. He clothes these meditations in the form of a direct address to the eternal God, and makes the series of facts on which he dwells the groundwork of the prayer which follows for his disciples, as representative of all who, like them, have come into relations with the Father through him. I manifested thy Name (ἐφανέρωσα here corresponds to ἐδόξασα τελειώσας of Ver. 4. The force of φανέροω is different from ἀποκάλυπτω or ἐμφάνιζω; see on John 14:21). "I poured light upon, and thus made appreciable, apprehensible, thy Name." This Name was but partially and imperfectly understood before. The Name of God, the compendium of all his excellences, the essential features of his substantial Being which Christ has thus illuminated, is "the Father." "Whatsoever is made manifest is light." This light is the effulgence of the glory of the Father. By being and living on earth as Son of the Father, the Father was revealed. A full revelation of the Father involves and is involved in a manifestation of his own Sonship. The relation between the Father and the Son is one of infinite complacency and mutual affection, and the revelation of it demonstrates the fact of the eternal and essential love of the Divine Being. Thus the fact that "God is love" is manifested in the life of the Son of man, who was in himself a revelation of the Son - the Son of God. "I manifested thy Name," said Jesus - showing that he regarded his work of self-manifestation and God-revelation as virtually complete - to the men whom thou gavest me (cf. here John 6:44 and John 10:29). The Father's "giving" of the sons of men to Christ refers primarily to the men that were made susceptible of his special grace and revelations, who in seeing, saw, in hearing, heard, who, being drawn by inward monitions and Divine grace, and verily taught of God, came to Christ. Thus the Father gave them to Christ. The first monitions, susceptibilities of soul for Christ, which are found throughout the world and the Church, are God's way of giving men to Christ. The supremacy and monergy of grace is involved in the whole of this representation. Out of the world. They were in the world, but have been drawn out of it by the re-relation of the Father. Thine they were, and thou gavest them me. So that the approach even to the Lord Jesus, the drawing to Christ and to the blessed revelation of the Father, was preceded by a previous condition - "Thine they were." Before the process of giving and drawing was begun, there was a sense in which they bore this great designation. Their position as creatures, or as Israelites, or as believers in the Old Testament manifestation of the Name, seems to fall short of the solemn assertion, "Thine they were." There were in every case spiritual predispositions. They were "of God" (John 8:47); "doers of the truth" (John 3:21); "willing to do the will of God" (John 7:17); they were of the truth (John 18:37; John 6:37, 44). All these expressions reveal an extraordinary relation of human souls to the Father, which is presupposed, and precedes the power over them and advantage to them of the grace of Christ. This may throw light on the work of grace in pre-Christian and non-Christian times and places. Thine they were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy Λόγον - the sum total of thy revelation or Word to them. They, these men, these special representative men, have been true to their light, and know of the doctrine whether it be of God. Their own quickened conscience has been strong enough to justify all my διδαχή, my ῤήματα, as Divine assurances. To Christ's eyes they have already come out of their fiery trial faithful and true. Now, at this point in their training, they have known, by a strong experience, by tasting, handling, seeing, trusting, by vivid flashes of light, by keen, clear intuition of the reality, that all things whatsoever which thou hast given me, are from thee. There is no tautology here; the ὥσα are the truths, the fresh revelations, the glorious communion of the Son of man with the Father, which he made known to the disciples - truths which have a worldwide bearing, and also a direct bearing upon themselves - are from thee (παρὰ σοῦ, not παρὰ σοι). This obscure utterance, in its mystic vagueness, is clearly expounded in the next sentence, which is the echo of the grand assertion of John 16:30, which drew from the breaking heart its loud and sublime note of triumph. Because the words, the various sayings, utterances of Divine reality, which thou gavest to me, I have given to them. This blessed recital and exposition of his previous ministry is followed by the record of the effect, without which the whole Christian dispensation would that very night have come to an abrupt end. They believed that all Christ's words, works, energies, revelations, warnings, promises, like Christ himself, came from the eternal Father, therefore represented the supreme reality, more certain than demonstration, more vivid than intuition. They have rendered invincible assent to them as the Divine, absolute, unchangeable, irrevocable, eternal truth. In this overwhelming and satisfying conviction was laid the foundation of the Church of Christ. And they received them. This was a direct consequence of the Divine giving and of the Divine drawing. And they came to know - discerned, i.e. by personal experience - and truly that I came out from thee, and believed that thou didst send me. This knowledge and belief is the germ of the communication to others of the Divine manifestation; it is the Lord's reward for all the toil and sacrifice and Divine humiliation of his earthly ministry (John 16:30). The incarnate Word is recognized as such, the only begotten Son of the Father is known to be the Brightness of his glory. We see in this great utterance the true origin of the evangelist's own words (John 1:14-18; 1 John 1:1-5). This thought of Christ's has now become their voluntary, spontaneous, assured conviction. The inward reason corresponds with the objective facts.

Parallel Commentaries ...