John 17:5

3 And ^athis is eternal life, that they may know You, ^bthe only true God, and Jesus Christ ^cwhom You have sent.

4 ^aI have glorified You on the earth. ^bI have finished the work ^cwhich You have given Me to do.

5 And now, O Father, glorify Me together¹ with Yourself, with the glory ^awhich I had with You before the world was.

Jesus Prays for His Disciples

6 ^a“I have¹ manifested Your name to the men ^bwhom You have given Me out of the world. ^cThey were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.

7 Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You.

8 For I have given to them the words ^awhich You have given Me; and they have received them, ^band have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that ^cYou sent Me.

9 “I pray for them. ^aI do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours.

10 And all Mine are Yours, and ^aYours are Mine, and I am glorified in them.

11 ^aNow I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, ^bkeep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one ^cas We are.

12 While I was with them in the world, ^aI kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and ^bnone of them is lost ^cexcept the son of perdition, ^dthat the Scripture might be fulfilled.

13 But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves.

Commentaries:

Forerunner Commentary
What is the Forerunner Commentary?

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What Does John 17:5 Mean?

He asks to have restored the glory He possessed as fully God before His birth from Mary but lacked during His physical life on earth. This glory, which brings honor and praise through works, attitude, or status, returned upon His resurrection and ascension. Thus He was not fully man and fully God while human. He establishes that He was with the Father, meaning beside or alongside, as in John 1:1 where the Word was with God and was God.

John 17:5

Whatever this glory is that He asks to be restored, it is something He did not have as a human, but He did have when He truly was fully God. He had it before He was born of Mary, did not have it during His physical life, and had it returned to Him upon His resurrection and ascension.

In the New Testament, glory is used in the sense of anything that brings honor and praise upon a person. It can be one's works, attitude, manner of living, skill, strength, wisdom, power, appearance, or status. Some or all of these could be included within the framework of Christ's request. The Bible does not clarify or expand on what He specifically meant, but whatever it was, it was lacking in Him while He was human. Therefore He could not have been "fully man and fully God."

John W. Ritenbaugh
Fully Man and Fully God? (1994)

John 17:5

The first thing Christ does in this prayer is establish that He was with the Father. In this case, the word with means "beside" or "alongside of." This agrees with John 1:1, "In the beginning was the Word [Christ], and the Word was with [along side of] God, and the Word was God."

John W. Ritenbaugh
The Nature of God: Elohim

**Other Forerunner Commentary entries containing John 17:5:**

Genesis 18:1-8
Matthew 6:9-13
Matthew 6:9-13
Matthew 26:39-44
Luke 12:47-48
John 1:1-3
John 17:11

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