John 17:2

Vv. 2 is an explanatory annex to John 17:1. Jesus reminds the Father of that which gives Him the right to say to Him: Glorify me! In praying thus, He acts only in conformity with the decree of God Himself: As thou hast given him power. This gift consists in the decree by which God conferred the sovereignty over the whole human race (all flesh) upon the Son, when He sent Him to fulfil here on earth His mission of Saviour (John 10:36); comp. Ephesians 1:10.

The work of salvation which He has to fulfil in the midst of mankind has indeed as its condition the position of Lord; comp. Matthew 28:18: “All power has been given to me,” a passage in which the sovereignty which has been gained serves as a basis for the command to teach and baptize all the nations that is to say, to take possession of them. The second clause: that he may give life, is parallel to the second clause of John 17:1: that he may glorify thee. The true means of glorifying God is to communicate eternal life that is to say, to associate men with the life of God. In presenting the aim of His petition under this new aspect, Jesus therefore gives the ground for it in a different way. His petition is equivalent to saying: “Grant me the Ascension, that I may be able to bring to pass the Pentecost.” For it is through the gift of the Holy Spirit that Jesus communicates life to believers (John 7:37-39). Weiss does not recognize this relation, which is so simple, between the life and the Spirit, and wishes to see here only the extension of the action of Jesus to the whole world. Πᾶν, all, designates the future body of believers, that unity, that ἕν (of which John 7:33; John 11:52; Ephesians 2:14, speak) which God has eternally completed and given to the Son (Romans 8:28). The word πᾶν is a nominative absolute; comp. John 6:39. Afterwards, the same idea is taken up again and placed in its regular case in the limiting word αὐτοῖς, to them. This plural pronoun individualizes the contents of the totality, which is the object of the gift. For if the gift made by God to Christ is a collective act including every one who believes, the communication of life by Christ to believers is an individual fact.

The term: that which thou hast given him, recalls the expressions of ch. 6: “those whom the Father teaches, draws, gives to the Son” (John 6:37; John 6:44-45; John 6:65); they are those whom the influence of the law and prophecy lead with eagerness for salvation to the feet of Jesus.

The form δώσῃ is not Greek; it recurs, however, in Revelation 8:3; Rev 13:16 in some MSS. We must see in it either a future subjunctive, a later form of which some examples, it is thought, are found in the New Testament (Baumlein cites ὄψησθε, Luke 13:28; καυθήσωμαι, 1 Corinthians 13:3; κερδηθήσωνται, 1 Peter 3:1; εὑρήσῃς, Rev 18:14); or may it be the subjunctive of an incorrect aorist ἔδωσα, instead of ἔδωκα ? It would indeed have been difficult to say δώκῃ. But the true reading is perhaps δώσει (Vatic.), of which it was thought a subjunctive must be made because of the ἵνα (comp. the reading γινώσκωσι in John 17:3). The reading δώσω in the Sinaitic MS. is incompatible with the third person used throughout the whole passage. The reading αὐτῷ, to it (the πᾶν), in the same MS., is also an evident correction.

The meaning of the expression: all that which thou hast given him, is less extensive than that of the term all flesh; it refers only to believers. If Jesus has received power over every man living, it is with reference to believers whom it is His mission to save. Comp. Ephesians 1:22: “He has given Him to the Church as head over all things,” that is to say, as its head, who, at the same time, is on its behalf established over all things.