(2) Hence others, and we believe rightly, hold that in the latter part of the verse there is question of the Divine and eternal glory of Christ, and understand Him to pray that His humanity, according to its capacity, may be made to partake of the glory of the Divinity. Of course, the humanity was incapable of receiving the infinite glory of the Divinity; but the glorious qualities of Christ's glorified body are a participation, according to the capacity of the body, of the eternal glory of the Son. “Da ut claritas et gloria quam ego ut Deus ab aeterno tecum habeo, communicetur et extendatur usque ad carnem meam, quae propter dispensationem hactenus est suspensa”[109] (Tolet.)
| 6. Manifestavi nomen tuum hominibus, quos dedisti mihi de mundo. Tui erant, et mihi eos dedisti: et sermonem tuum servaverunt. | 6. I have manifested thy name to the men whom thou hast given me out of the world. Thine they were, and to me thou gavest them: and they have kept thy word. |
6. This passage from verse 6-19 refers primarily to the Apostles, as appears from verses 12 and 18; and Christ prayed specially for them because He was sending them into the world, the heralds of His Gospel (verse 18), the foundations upon which His earthly kingdom was to be reared (Eph. ii. 20). The sense is: I have manifested Thy name, [pg 298] Thy glory effectually (He had manifested it to others, who refused to believe) to those whom Thou hast given Me to be My Apostles; they were Thine by election, &c.
In this verse, as well as in verses 7 and 8, the correct reading is ἔδωκας (gavest), not δέδωκάς (hast given).[110]
| 7. Nunc cognoverunt quia omnia, quae dedisti mihi: abs te sunt: | 7. Now they have known that all things which thou hast given me are from thee. |
| 8. Quia verba quae dedisti mihi, dedi eis: et ipsi acceperunt, et cognoverunt vere quia a te exivi, et crediderunt quia tu me misisti. | 8. Because the words which thou gavest me, I have given to them: and they have received them, and have known in very deed that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. |
| 9. Ego pro eis rogo: non pro mundo rogo, sed pro his quos dedisti mihi, quia tui sunt: | 9. I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them whom thou hast given me: because they are thine: |
9. I pray for them. The pronouns are emphatic. For these men who on so many grounds are deserving of Thy grace and care, do I, to whom Thou gavest them, ask. But what does the Saviour of the world mean by saying that He does not pray for the world, He who on the cross prayed for the very men that crucified Him: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”? (Luke xxiii. 34). Some reply that Christ speaks not of sufficient, but of efficacious prayer; but the true view is that He is speaking only of this particular prayer, in which He asks for the Apostles what the world was unfit and unwilling to receive (see verses 13, 17, 18).
The fact, then, that He prays in this prayer, not for the Father's enemies, but for those who belong to both the Father and Himself is put forward as a reason why He ought to be heard by the Father.
Because they are thine. These words sum up this first reason, and we take them as depending upon the phrase: “I pray for them” at the commencement of the verse.
| 10. Et mea omnia tua sunt: et tua mea sunt: et clarificatus sum in eis. | 10. And all my things are thine, and thine are mine: and I am glorified in them. |
10. And all my things are thine, and thine are mine. [pg 299] Could anyone but God address God so? These words seem to be thrown in to give a reason for the statement: “they are thine,” the reason being that since they were Christ's (the Father had made them Christ's), they must be the Father's also, for “all my things are thine, and thine are mine.”