BIBLE CHAPTER STUDY
John 17: The High Priestly Prayer
Jesus prays to the Father for glorification, for the protection and unity of his disciples, and for all future believers to be one as the Father and Son are one.
Scripture
1These things spake Jesus; and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that the son may glorify thee:
2even as thou gavest him authority over all flesh, that to all whom thou hast given him, he should give eternal life.
3And this is life eternal, that they should know thee the only true God, and him whom thou didst send, even Jesus Christ.
4I glorified thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which thou hast given me to do.
5And now, Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
6I 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.
7Now they know that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are from thee:
8for 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.
9I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for those whom thou hast given me; for they are thine:
10and all things that are mine are thine, and thine are mine: and I am glorified in them.
11And I am no more in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy name which thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we are.
12While 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.
13But now I come to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy made full in themselves.
14I have given them thy word; and the world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
15I pray not that thou shouldest take them from the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil one.
16They are not of the world even as I am not of the world.
17Sanctify them in the truth: thy word is truth.
18As thou didst send me into the world, even so sent I them into the world.
19And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.
20Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that believe on me through their word;
21that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us: that the world may believe that thou didst send me.
22And the glory which thou hast given me I have given unto them; that they may be one, even as we are one;
23I in them, and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that thou didst send me, and lovedst them, even as thou lovedst me.
24Father, I desire that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.
25O righteous Father, the world knew thee not, but I knew thee; and these knew that thou didst send me;
26and I made known unto them thy name, and will make it known; that the love wherewith thou lovedst me may be in them, and I in them.
What this passage means
John 17 is commonly called the High Priestly Prayer. Spoken after the Last Supper discourse (chs. 13–16) and before Jesus crosses the Kidron to Gethsemane, it is Jesus' longest sustained address to the Father in the Gospels. The prayer moves in three sections: Jesus prays for himself (vv. 1–5), for the eleven disciples (vv. 6–19), and for all who will believe through their word (vv. 20–26).
The self-prayer centers on 'glorify' (doxazō): Jesus has glorified the Father by completing the assigned work on earth, and now asks to be glorified with the pre-creation glory he shared with the Father. Eternal life is defined in v. 3 not as endless duration alone but as relational knowledge (ginōskō) of the only true God and of Jesus Christ whom he sent—a striking Johannine equation of knowing God and knowing Christ.
The prayer for the disciples (and future believers) centers on three requests: keep them in the Father's name (protection), sanctify them in the truth (consecration), and make them one as the Father and Son are one (unity). Verse 17 ('Sanctify them in the truth: thy word is truth') ties sanctification directly to the revealed word, and v. 19 frames Jesus' own self-consecration as the pattern that enables theirs.
Context
John 17 sits at the hinge between the farewell discourse and the passion narrative (chs. 18–19). Chapters 13–16 prepared the disciples for Jesus' departure; chapter 17 shows Jesus entrusting them to the Father in light of that departure. The chapter has no narrative action—it is pure address—which is why commentators often treat it as the theological climax of the Gospel's first half.
The recurring phrase 'the world' (kosmos) in this prayer is significant: Jesus does not pray for the world in v. 9 because his present task is the disciples' preservation; yet the world's salvation is the goal of the disciples' unity (vv. 21, 23). The prayer thus distinguishes the church's identity from the world without abandoning the world to which the church is sent (v. 18).
Whether the prayer is a literary composition by the evangelist or a remembered summary of Jesus' actual words is a question scholars answer differently; what is clear is that the Fourth Gospel presents it as a real moment of intercession, not a theological essay.
Key words in the original
- G1097 ginōskō (γινώσκω) — 'to know.' In John 17:3 eternal life is defined as knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ. John uses this verb for relational, experiential knowledge (cf. 10:14, 15), not mere intellectual assent; the present tense 'that they know' suggests an ongoing relationship rather than a one-time event.
- G0166 aiōnios (αἰώνιος) — 'eternal, age-long.' Combined with zōē (life) in v. 3, the phrase points beyond mere duration to a quality of life that belongs to God's own age. John elsewhere uses 'eternal life' as a present possession (5:24), not only a future hope.
- G1392 doxazō (δοξάζω) — 'to glorify.' The verb appears repeatedly in John 17 (vv. 1, 4, 5, 10). Jesus' glorification is not display for its own sake but the cross-and-resurrection event through which the Father is revealed; in Johannine theology glory and the cross are not opposed but intertwined (cf. 12:23–24).
Related verses
- John 1:1 John 17:5 looks back to the pre-creation glory the Son shared with the Father, which John 1:1 likewise affirms ('the Word was with God'). The two passages together frame the incarnation as the Word entering the world without losing the divine communion it possessed 'in the beginning.'
- John 1:3 Verse 10 ('all things that are mine are thine, and thine are mine') presupposes the full sharing of Father and Son in all that belongs to the divine economy, consistent with John 1:3, where all created things came through the Word who was God.
- 1 John 5:20 John 17:3 defines eternal life as knowing 'the only true God, and him whom thou didst send, even Jesus Christ.' 1 John 5:20 restates this confession: 'we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life,' linking the prayer's theology to the Johannine epistles' Christological confession.
- 1 John 5:11 1 John 5:11 ('God gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son') echoes John 17:2, where the Father gave the Son authority over all flesh so that he might give eternal life. The two passages together locate eternal life not in abstract duration but in the Son given by the Father.
- John 15:3 Jesus says in John 15:3, 'Already ye are clean because of the word which I have spoken unto you.' John 17:17 repeats this logic: 'Sanctify them in the truth: thy word is truth.' The disciples' cleansing and sanctification are tied to the Father's word received through Jesus.
- John 3:17 John 17:18 ('As thou didst send me into the world, even so sent I them into the world') parallels John 3:17 ('God sent not the Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world should be saved through him'). The disciples' mission mirrors the Son's: sent not for condemnation but for the world's salvation through witness to the truth.
Common questions
Why is John 17 called the High Priestly Prayer?
The title reflects Jesus' role as intercessor: he prays to the Father on behalf of his disciples and future believers, a priestly function. The prayer also sits between the Last Supper and the cross, the moment when, in Hebrews' later theology, the high priest entered the holy of holies—Jesus here consecrates himself (v. 19) for the sacrifice to come.
Does Jesus pray for the world in John 17?
Not directly in this prayer. Jesus explicitly says he is not praying for the world (v. 9), because his immediate task is the preservation and unity of those the Father has given him. However, the world's salvation is the ultimate purpose of the disciples' unity (vv. 21, 23)—the world is saved through the church's faithful witness, not by being absorbed into it.
What does it mean for believers to be 'one' as the Father and Son are one?
The unity Jesus requests is patterned on, but not identical to, the Father-Son unity. The Father and Son share one divine essence; believers share one visible life, mission, and love (v. 22 says Jesus has given them the glory given to him). John 17:21–23 makes the purpose clear: the church's oneness is so 'that the world may believe'—it is a witness-bearing unity, not a metaphysical identity.