John 17:1-26

John 13:33 to John 17:26. The Last Discourses and Prayer. Perhaps this is the best place to consider the general arrangement and character of the final discourses. They present the same problems of style and language, of content and of arrangement, that are raised elsewhere in this gospel. The language and the theology of the author are conspicuous. And yet we cannot escape the conviction that a greater than John is here, or fail to ask whether something of his style and theology was not learned in the upper room. These Chapter s are not merely the reflections of a later generation. The question of order is also difficult. The last words of ch. 14 mark the end of the discourse, the preceding verses are clearly the last words of a speech. The command, Arise, let us go hence, does not find its counterpart till John 18:1. How are we to regard the intervening discourse and prayer; (a) Wellhausen and others find in them a later stage in the growth of the gospel, perhaps an insertion by the final redactor, the author of 1 Jn., with which they have much in common, who also added ch. 21. (b) Others suggest that there has been transposition, the content of these discourses having been originally fixed in writing or taught orally in a different order. Some of the matter of 15 and 16 certainly seems to come naturally before parts of 14. The pruning of the vine fits on admirably to the teaching which followed the expulsion of the traitor. On the other hand the mention of the Paraclete in 14 seems to be prior to what is taught of Him in 15 and 16. (c) Probably there has been both addition and rearrangement. The interpretation of what Christ taught in the upper chamber grew and took shape in divers parts and at different times. John perhaps taught it at first much as we have it in 13 and 14. But in the light of further meditation he expanded and enlarged, a fact which has left its trace on the present arrangement. In explaining their meaning we shall do well not to regard the whole content of 15 and 16 as subsequent to that of 14.

With John 13:33 the Lord begins to prepare the disciples for losing Him. He uses the term of endearment, teknia, little children, which is frequent in 1 Jn., though not found elsewhere in the gospel. They will miss Him, and cannot follow yet. But their case is not hopeless as that of the Jews (John 7:34). They must make up for their loss by mutual love, according to the standard which He has set (cf. 1 John 2:7 *). Peter's remonstrance is met by the prediction of his failure, placed earlier here than in the other gospels (Mark 14:29).