Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
And now—in return.
glorify thou me—The "I Thee" and "Thou Me" are so placed in the original, each beside its fellow, as to show that A PERFECT RECIPROCITY OF SERVICES of the Son to the Father first, and then of the Father to the Son in return, is what our Lord means here to express.
with the glory which I had with thee before the world was—when "in the beginning the Word was with God" (John 1:1), "the only-begotten Son in the bosom of the Father" (John 1:18). With this pre-existent glory, which He veiled on earth, He asks to be reinvested, the design of the veiling being accomplished—not, however, simply as before, but now in our nature.
I have glorified thee on the earth—rather, "I glorified" (for the thing is conceived as now past).
I have finished—I finished.
the work which thou gavest me to do—It is very important to preserve in the translation the past tense, used in the original, otherwise it might be thought that the work already "finished" was only what He had done before uttering that prayer; whereas it will be observed that our Lord speaks throughout as already beyond this present scene (John 17:12, etc.), and so must be supposed to include in His "finished work" the "decease which He was to accomplish at Jerusalem."
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing John 17:5:
Isaiah 49:3
John 1:1
John 17:10
John 17:24-26
Ephesians 1:4
Philippians 2:6
Philippians 2:11
Hebrews 1:3
Hebrews 7:26
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