Father, the Hour Has Come 'glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you' · authority over all flesh · eternal life is to know God · the glory he had before the world existed

Greek Text (SBLGNT)

The Greek text below is the Society of Biblical Literature Greek New Testament (SBLGNT), edited by Michael W. Holmes — © 2010 SBL and Logos, released CC BY 4.0. These five verses form one continuous address; the recurring keyword is glory — the verb δοξάζω appears five times in as many verses.

Working Translation

An original literal rendering, not borrowed from any copyrighted translation. Brackets mark phrases added for English clarity.

Note on v. 2: the sentence shifts from a neuter singular ("all that you have given him," πᾶν ὅ, a collective) to a masculine plural ("he may give them," αὐτοῖς) — the gift is a people, viewed first as one whole and then as the individuals within it. Note on v. 3: the relative clause "the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ" stands grammatically alongside "the only true God" as a joint object of the verb "know"; see the dedicated note below. Note on v. 5: παρὰ σεαυτῷ and παρὰ σοί ("at your own side," "alongside you") frame the verse with the same preposition that opened the Gospel ("the Word was with God," 1:1).

Passage Structure

John 17 is often called the High-Priestly Prayer: the Son, on the threshold of the cross, prays aloud — first for himself (vv. 1–5), then for his disciples (vv. 6–19), then for all who will believe through them (vv. 20–26). These opening verses form the first movement, the Son's prayer for his own glorification, and they unfold in five tight steps:

• v. 1 — The hour has come; the request for mutual glorification. Jesus lifts his eyes and addresses the Father directly. The long-awaited "hour" has arrived (perfect tense), and the petition follows: "glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you." The keynote of the whole prayer — glory — is struck at once.
• v. 2 — The ground: authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to the given ones. The Father has given the Son universal authority for a saving purpose: to grant eternal life to "all whom you have given him." The Son's glorification serves the salvation of a people the Father has given to him.
• v. 3 — The definition: eternal life is knowing God and the sent Son. A parenthetical definition: eternal life consists in the personal knowledge of "the only true God" and of "Jesus Christ whom you sent." The two are joined as the co-object of saving knowledge.
• v. 4 — The Son's report: the work on earth is completed. The Son turns from petition to a statement of accomplishment: "I glorified you on the earth, having completed the work you gave me to do." The earthly mission, climaxing at the cross, has fulfilled its purpose.
• v. 5 — The request renewed: restore the pre-existent glory. "And now" — the hour having come and the work being finished — the Son asks the Father to glorify him at the Father's side with the very glory he had "before the world existed." The petition of v. 1 returns, now grounded in eternity past.

The structure moves in a great arc from eternity to eternity. It opens with "the hour has come" — a definite moment in history — and closes with "before the world existed" — eternity past. In between stands the completed work on earth (v. 4). The verb that binds the whole is δοξάζω ("glorify"): the Son asks to be glorified (v. 1) so that he may glorify the Father (v. 1); he reports that he has already glorified the Father (v. 4); and he asks again to be glorified with the eternal glory (v. 5). Glory given, glory returned, glory resumed — the mutual glory of Father and Son is the engine of the prayer.

Verse-by-Verse Notes

A Note on "the Only True God" (v. 3)

Verse 3 reads: eternal life is "that they may know you, the only true God (τὸν μόνον ἀληθινὸν θεόν), and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ." This verse is sometimes pressed into service against the deity of Christ — the argument being: if the Father alone is "the only true God," then Jesus, who is named separately, is not God. The reading is understandable on the surface, but it does not survive a careful look at the verse, the phrase, and John's own Gospel.

First, the verse sets the Son alongside the Father as the co-object of saving knowledge. The single verb "know" (γινώσκωσι) governs both "you, the only true God" and "Jesus Christ whom you sent." Eternal life is defined as knowing the two together. But knowing a creature — however exalted — could never be made the content of eternal life on a par with knowing God himself. To join the Son to the Father as the joint object of the knowledge that is eternal life is, far from demoting the Son, to place him on the divine side of the line. No mere creature could be so joined.

Second, "the only true God" distinguishes the true God from false gods, not the Father from the Son. The adjective is ἀληθινός — "true, genuine, real" as opposed to counterfeit. The phrase "the only true God" stands over against the idols and false deities of the pagan world (cf. 1 Thess 1:9, turning "from idols to serve a living and true God"; 1 John 5:20–21, which ends "keep yourselves from idols"). The contrast is between the one real God and the many unreal gods — not between the Father as God and the Son as not-God. The Son is not one of the "false gods" being excluded; he is the sent one through whom the only true God is known.

Third, John's own framing makes the Son fully God, and here he speaks as the incarnate, sent Son. The same Gospel opens by saying "the Word was God" (1:1), calls him "the only God" at the Father's side (1:18), and closes with Thomas confessing the risen Jesus as "my Lord and my God" (20:28). John could not have intended 17:3 to deny what he himself asserts at the seams of his Gospel. In 17:3 Jesus prays as the Son sent into the world (the incarnate Mediator), addressing the Father; it is wholly fitting that, in that role, he names the Father "the only true God" while setting himself beside the Father as the one the Father sent. Indeed, the very next thing he does is ask for the glory he had with the Father "before the world existed" (v. 5) — a claim no creature could make.

So the verse, read in its own terms, teaches the opposite of the Arian or modern unitarian conclusion drawn from it. Eternal life consists in knowing both the Father and the Son; the Son is set on the side of the only true God, not among the false gods excluded; and the same Gospel that records this prayer calls the Son God outright. (For the full biblical case, see Jesus Is God and The Trinity.)

Key Greek Words and Phrases

Grammar and Syntax that Affect Interpretation

1. Perfect ἐλήλυθεν ("has come") — v. 1. Not "is coming" but "has come and is now here." The perfect tense marks the arrival of the long-deferred hour as a present, settled reality; the suspense of 2:4; 7:30; 8:20 is over.
2. Aorist imperative δόξασον + purpose ἵνα δοξάσῃ — v. 1. The Son asks to be glorified so that the Father may be glorified. The construction makes the two glorifications reciprocal and mutually ordered, not competing.
3. Tense shift ἔδωκας (aorist) vs. δέδωκας (perfect) — v. 2. The authority "was given" (a past grant); the people "you have given" (an abiding gift with continuing result). The perfect underlines that the given ones remain the Son's.
4. Neuter singular πᾶν ὅ resolving to masculine plural αὐτοῖς — v. 2. "All that" (a collective whole) becomes "to them" (the individuals). The given people are seen first as one body, then as the persons within it — a syntactic hallmark of the Johannine "given ones" motif.
5. Demonstrative αὕτη pointing forward to ἵνα — v. 3. "This is eternal life: that they may know…" The ἵνα clause is epexegetic (defining), so eternal life is identified with the act of knowing, not merely a result of it.
6. Present subjunctive γινώσκωσι — v. 3. Durative aspect: ongoing, continual knowing, not a single past act. Eternal life is a living, persisting relationship of knowing God.
7. One verb, two joined objects — v. 3. "Know" governs both "you, the only true God" and "Jesus Christ whom you sent." The single governing verb sets the Son alongside the Father as the co-object of the saving knowledge that is eternal life.
8. Adjective ἀληθινός ("true, genuine") — v. 3. "True" as opposed to counterfeit/false, not as opposed to "the Son." "The only true God" excludes idols, not the Son; the contrast is real-versus-unreal deity.
9. Aorist participle τελειώσας — v. 4. "Having completed." States the means by which the Son glorified the Father: by finishing the assigned work. Same root as τετέλεσται ("it is finished," 19:30).
10. Imperfect εἶχον ("I had / was having") — v. 5. The Son asks for the glory he continuously possessed in the past. The tense itself shows the glory is resumed, not newly granted — it was his all along.
11. Articular infinitive πρὸ τοῦ … εἶναι with παρὰ σοί — v. 5. "Before the world existed… alongside you." Locates the Son's glory in eternity past and in the Father's presence — a grammatical statement of personal pre-existence and shared divine glory.

Theological Significance

The hour and the cross as glory. John's Gospel has trained the reader to wait for "the hour," and to expect that when it comes it will be the hour of the Son's glorification. The astonishing thing is that this glory comes through the cross. The hour of betrayal, arrest, and crucifixion is the hour in which the Father is glorified in the Son's obedience and the Son is glorified in his self-giving and exaltation. There is no glory here that bypasses the cross; the cross is the throne.

The mutual glory of Father and Son. The reciprocal "glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you" presupposes a relationship of equals in glory — Father and Son giving glory to one another. This is the inner life of God opened to view: the Son does not seek a glory that competes with the Father's but one that returns to the Father, and the Father glorifies the Son. The Trinitarian shape of the prayer is unmistakable.

The given people and the Son's saving authority. The Son holds authority over all flesh, but the saving purpose of that authority terminates on a definite people — "all whom you have given him." Salvation begins in the Father's gift of a people to the Son, is secured by the Son's authority and finished work, and issues in the gift of eternal life. The Son's glorification is not an end in itself; it serves the salvation of those the Father has given him. (See Soteriology.)

Eternal life as knowing God. Verse 3 gives the Bible's most compact definition of eternal life: it is to know God — the only true God — and Jesus Christ whom he sent. Eternal life is not first a duration but a relationship; not merely unending existence but the living knowledge of God himself. And that knowledge has two joined objects, the Father and the sent Son, which is why eternal life is impossible apart from Christ. To know the Father is to know him in the Son.

The deity and pre-existence of the Son. Verse 5 is one of the strongest assertions of the Son's eternal pre-existence in the Gospels. The Son asks for the glory he had — possessed continuously — "before the world existed," "alongside" the Father. This is glory shared with God before creation; it is the glory of one who is himself divine. The incarnation veiled that glory (cf. Phil 2:6–11); the Son now asks to have it manifest again. The eternal, glorious Son who was with the Father before the world is the same Son who completed the work on earth and goes to the cross. (See Jesus Is God and Christology.)

Common Misreadings and Careful Corrections

1. Verse 3 teaches that the Son is not God ("the Father alone is the only true God"). Handled in full in the dedicated note above. In brief: the verse joins the Son to the Father as the co-object of the knowledge that is eternal life (which no creature could be); "the only true God" excludes idols and false gods, not the Son; and the same Gospel calls the Son God (1:1; 1:18; 20:28). The verse, read rightly, supports the Son's deity rather than denying it.
2. The glory of v. 5 is a new dignity granted to a creature. The imperfect εἶχον ("I had") and the phrase "before the world existed" make this impossible. The Son asks to resume a glory he already possessed in eternity past, not to be elevated for the first time. This is the glory of one who was with the Father before creation — the language of pre-existent deity, not of creaturely promotion.
3. "Those you have given him" (v. 2) are people who earned their place. The text says they were given by the Father to the Son — an unearned gift, a major Johannine motif (6:37, 39; 17:6, 9, 24). The initiative is the Father's; the people are a gift to the Son, not self-selected achievers. (See Soteriology.)
4. "The hour" is glory apart from the cross. John has been clear that the hour, when it comes, is the hour of glorification through suffering, death, resurrection, and exaltation (12:23–24; 13:31–32). The glory the Son prays for is reached by the cross, not around it. To divorce the glory from the cross is to misread the whole Gospel.
5. Eternal life is reduced to endless duration. Verse 3 defines it as knowing God — a present, relational, covenantal reality, not merely quantity of time. The eternal life the Son gives begins now in the knowledge of God and the Son, and is qualitative before it is quantitative.
6. The mutual glorification makes the Son a rival to the Father. The Son seeks glory only so that the Father may be glorified (v. 1), and reports that he has glorified the Father on earth (v. 4). The glory is reciprocal and self-giving within the Godhead, not competitive. The Son's glory returns to the Father, and the Father glorifies the Son.

Cross-References

• John 12:23; 13:1, 31–32 — "the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified"; the hour of glory through the cross that v. 1 declares has now arrived.
• John 2:4; 7:30; 8:20 — "my hour has not yet come"; the long suspense of "the hour" that v. 1 finally resolves.
• John 6:37, 39 — "all that the Father gives me will come to me… I should lose nothing of all he has given me"; the given people of v. 2.
• John 17:6, 9, 24 — the recurring "those you gave me" within this same prayer; the people given by the Father to the Son.
• Matthew 28:18 — "all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me"; the universal authority of v. 2.
• John 1:1, 14, 18 — "the Word was with God and was God… the only God at the Father's side"; the eternal relation and deity that vv. 1–5 presuppose.
• John 20:28 — Thomas's confession "my Lord and my God"; the Gospel's own framing against the misreading of v. 3.
• 1 John 5:20–21; 1 Thessalonians 1:9 — "the true God… keep yourselves from idols"; "the living and true God" over against idols; the sense of "the only true God" in v. 3.
• John 4:34; 19:30 — "my food is to accomplish his work"; "it is finished" (τετέλεσται); the completed work of v. 4.
• John 1:1; Philippians 2:6–11 — the Word with God in the beginning; the Son who, being in the form of God, emptied himself and was exalted; the pre-existent, veiled, and resumed glory of v. 5.
• John 17:6–19; 17:20–26 — the Son's prayer for his disciples and for all who will believe; the rest of the High-Priestly Prayer that flows out of vv. 1–5.

Preaching / Teaching Summary

John 17:1–5 lets us overhear the Son praying on the edge of the cross. It is the opening movement of the High-Priestly Prayer, and three lines preach.

First, the hour has come — and the hour is glory through the cross. For chapters the Gospel has whispered, "his hour has not yet come." Now Jesus lifts his eyes and says, "Father, the hour has come." It is the hour of the cross — and he calls it the hour of glory. "Glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you." Here is the great surprise of the gospel: the place of deepest shame is the place of highest glory; the Father is glorified in the Son's obedience unto death, and the Son is glorified in his self-giving and exaltation. We do not preach a glory that skips the cross; we preach the cross as the throne.

Second, eternal life is to know God. Jesus pauses, mid-prayer, to define eternal life — and he does not define it as endless time but as a relationship: "that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you sent." Eternal life is to know God, and to know him in his Son. It begins now, the moment a sinner comes to know the Father through the Son, and it never ends. So salvation is not a transaction at a distance; it is the gift of knowing God himself — and that gift is the Son's to give, by his authority over all flesh, to all the Father has given him.

Third, the one who prays is the eternal, glorious Son. The prayer ends with a window into eternity past: "glorify me at your own side with the glory I had with you before the world existed." The man praying in the garden's shadow is the Son who was with the Father, radiant in shared glory, before there was a world. He laid that glory's open display aside to become flesh and finish the work; now he asks to take it up again. Worship him: the one who completed the work on earth is the one who was glorious with the Father before the world began.

Memory and Review Questions

1. What does the perfect tense of ἐλήλυθεν ("the hour has come") signal in v. 1, and what is "the hour"?
   The perfect means "has come and is now here" — the long-deferred hour (2:4; 7:30; 12:23; 13:1) has finally arrived. In John "the hour" is the hour of the Son's glorification through the cross, resurrection, and exaltation.
2. What is the "mutual glorification" of v. 1?
   "Glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you" — the Son asks to be glorified so that the Father may be glorified in return. The glory is reciprocal and self-giving within the Godhead, accomplished through the cross, not competitive.
3. What is "authority over all flesh" (v. 2), and what is its saving purpose?
   ἐξουσία πάσης σαρκός is universal authority over the whole human race (cf. Matt 28:18). Its purpose is to give eternal life to a definite people — "all whom you have given him."
4. Who are "all whom you have given him" (v. 2), and what motif does this reflect?
   They are the people the Father has given to the Son — an unearned gift, seen first as a collective whole (πᾶν ὅ) and then as individuals (αὐτοῖς). It is a major Johannine motif (6:37, 39; 17:6, 9, 24).
5. How does v. 3 define eternal life?
   Eternal life is "that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you sent." It is defined as relational, ongoing knowledge of God — a living relationship, not merely endless duration.
6. Does v. 3 ("the only true God") teach that Jesus is not God? Why or why not?
   No. The single verb "know" joins the Son to the Father as the co-object of the knowledge that is eternal life (no creature could be so joined); "the only true God" excludes idols/false gods, not the Son; and the same Gospel calls the Son God (1:1; 1:18; 20:28). Read rightly, the verse supports the Son's deity.
7. What does ἀληθινός ("true") contrast with in "the only true God"?
   It contrasts the one genuine, real God with false/counterfeit gods — idols (cf. 1 Thess 1:9; 1 John 5:20–21). It does not contrast the Father with the Son.
8. What does τελειώσας mean in v. 4, and what later word echoes it?
   "Having completed/finished" (from τελειόω). The Son glorified the Father by completing the work given him. The same root sounds from the cross in τετέλεσται, "it is finished" (19:30).
9. What glory does the Son ask for in v. 5, and why does the tense matter?
   The glory he had with the Father "before the world existed." The imperfect εἶχον ("I was having") shows it was glory he already possessed — so he asks to resume it, not to receive it newly. It was veiled in the incarnation (cf. Phil 2).
10. How does v. 5 testify to the deity and pre-existence of Christ?
    The Son asks for glory he possessed "alongside" the Father (παρὰ σοί) "before the world existed" — shared divine glory in eternity past, before creation. This is the language of personal pre-existence and full deity, echoing "the Word was with God" (1:1).
11. Why is "the hour" not glory apart from the cross?
    Because John consistently presents the hour of glorification as coming through suffering, death, resurrection, and exaltation (12:23–24; 13:31–32). The cross is the throne; the glory is reached by the cross, not around it.