They are not of the world. St John Chapter xvii. 13-19

St John Chapter xvii : Verses 13-19

Contents

• St John Chapter xvii : Verses 13-19
   Douay-Rheims (Challoner) text, Greek (SBLG) & Latin text (Vulgate); 
• Annotations based on the Great Commentary of Cornelius A Lapide (1567-1637)

St John Chapter xvii : Verses 13-19

They are not of the world, as I also am not of the world.
J-J Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

13 And now I come to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy filled in themselves.  

14 I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world; as I also am not of the world.  

15 I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from evil.

16 They are not of the world, as I also am not of the world.  

17 Sanctify them in truth. Thy word is truth.  

18 As thou hast sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.  

19 And for them do I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

13 νῦν δὲ πρὸς σὲ ἔρχομαι, καὶ ταῦτα λαλῶ ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ἵνα ἔχωσιν τὴν χαρὰν τὴν ἐμὴν πεπληρωμένην ἐν ⸀ἑαυτοῖς.

13 Nunc autem ad te venio : et haec loquor in mundo, ut habeant gaudium meum impletum in semetipsis.  

14 ἐγὼ δέδωκα αὐτοῖς τὸν λόγον σου, καὶ ὁ κόσμος ἐμίσησεν αὐτούς, ὅτι οὐκ εἰσὶν ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου καθὼς ἐγὼ οὐκ εἰμὶ ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου.

14 Ego dedi eis sermonem tuum, et mundus eos odio habuit, quia non sunt de mundo, sicut et ego non sum de mundo.  

15 οὐκ ἐρωτῶ ἵνα ἄρῃς αὐτοὺς ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου ἀλλ’ ἵνα τηρήσῃς αὐτοὺς ἐκ τοῦ πονηροῦ.

15 Non rogo ut tollas eos de mundo, sed ut serves eos a malo.

16 ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου οὐκ εἰσὶν καθὼς ἐγὼ ⸂οὐκ εἰμὶ ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου⸃.

16 De mundo non sunt, sicut et ego non sum de mundo.  

17 ἁγίασον αὐτοὺς ἐν τῇ ⸀ἀληθείᾳ· ὁ λόγος ὁ σὸς ἀλήθειά ἐστιν.

17 Sanctifica eos in veritate. Sermo tuus veritas est.  

18 καθὼς ἐμὲ ἀπέστειλας εἰς τὸν κόσμον, κἀγὼ ἀπέστειλα αὐτοὺς εἰς τὸν κόσμον·

18 Sicut tu me misisti in mundum, et ego misi eos in mundum :  

19 καὶ ὑπὲρ αὐτῶν ἐγὼ ἁγιάζω ἐμαυτόν, ἵνα ⸂ὦσιν καὶ αὐτοὶ⸃ ἡγιασμένοι ἐν ἀληθείᾳ.

19 et pro eis ego sanctificabo meipsum : ut sint et ipsi sanctificati in veritate.

 

Annotations 

    13. And now I come to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy filled in themselves. I speak of these things, in order that the Apostles may fully rejoice with Me at these great blessings, and hope that they will hereafter be received by Me into heaven, to the same glory with Myself.

    S. Augustine says, “He stated before the nature of this glory, when He said ‘that we may be one.’ For this is the peace and blessedness of the life to come.”

    15. I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from evil. From evil (1.) first of guilt, which alone is real evil. (2.) Of punishment, i.e. to preserve them from every adversity, or strengthen them to bear it. (3.) From the evil one, his snares and temptations. In Greek τοῦ πονηροῦ.

    16. They are not of the world, as I also am not of the world. He repeats what He had said before about the world, to show why the Father should care for and protect them, viz., because they had left the world, and given themselves wholly to the worship and protection of Christ.

    17. Sanctify them in truth. This signifies not the beginning of sanctification, but its progress and perfection (Rev. xxi.) Confirm and perfect them in holiness; pour into them by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost complete evangelical truth, that they may be filled with wisdom and holiness, both within and without, and thus become in life and doctrine true teachers of the world, Priests and Rulers of the churches, breathing on all their own holiness, as a fire from above.

    Thy word is truth. (1.) It is not Moses or Philosophers, but Thy word which teaches this evangelical truth. The holiness of Moses and the Jews was merely ceremonial and shadowy. That of Philosophers was either pretended, or else merely moral and natural. That of Christ was supernatural, heavenly, and divine. Others understand by the words, sanctify them truly, that is completely and perfectly, as the Apostle says (Eph.iv. 24), in true holiness (the holiness of truth, Vulg.). For perfect and great holiness is required in an Apostle, for continuous preaching, for resisting tyrants, for labouring night and day, for suffering martyrdom and death (2 Cor. xi.) 

    2d. It can be explained thus: “Sanctify them in Me, who am the way, the truth, and the life. Make them partakers of My goodness and holiness.” So S. Augustine (in loc.), S. Cyril, Rupertus, and S. Thomas.

    3d. Maldonatus explains it: Set them apart as holy ministers and preachers of the Gospel. But in truth, not in shadow, as of old Aaron and his sons were consecrated only in a shadowy and typical way. So S. Chrysostom. And Jeremiah (i. 5) was said to have been sanctified in the womb, that is designated and, as it were, consecrated as a Prophet.

    4th. It might be thus understood: “Make them holy victims, that they may be sanctified and offered to Thee in martyrdom.” It was fitting that the Apostles should become martyrs, in order to confirm and seal the holiness of their doctrine by the holiness of their martyrdom. And thence, in fact, all the Apostles were martyrs, after the pattern of Christ, who said (ver. 19), “I sanctify Myself,” i.e., I offer Myself. For in Leviticus the victims are always said to be sanctified, when they are offered to God. See below, ver. 19. Observe, Christ as man had a threefold sanctity, which He imparted to the Apostles and the faithful. (1.) The first was infused into the soul of Christ at the very instant of His conception, just as God bestows all power on us by virtue of His merits. (2.) The second was Divine sanctity, by which the Deity is Itself most holy, and the fount of all holiness in men and angels. For Christ had this as man by communicatio idiomatum, by which the attributes of Godhead are truly ascribed to the man Christ, as subsisting with the Godhead in the one Person of the Word. (3.) The holiness of Christ as man, was absolutely caused by this hypostatical union with the Word, for by this the manhood of Christ was absolutely sanctified and made most holy. For even if Christ as man had had no infused grace, yet His very hypostatical union with the Word was His highest sanctification and holiness. Whence the manhood of Christ, as being united to the Word, was clearly impeccable, most pleasing and acceptable to God. Nay more, Christ, as man, was the Son of God, not by adoption, as we are, but properly, and in His very nature.

    Thy word is truth. The gospel which I preach, as I received it of Thee, is not shadowy, as was the old Law, but is in spirit and in truth. See notes on chap. xv. 3. For “the Law was given by Moses, but grace and truth were wrought by Jesus Christ.” (John i. 17).

    Morally. Learn here how holy a Christian ought to be, especially a “Religous” and Apostolic man, who wishes to make others holy, so as to be like the Apostles, and even like Christ, and to be diligent in imitating their most holy practices and deeds “Christianity,” says S. Gregory Nyssen, “is the imitation of the Divine Nature.” For a Christian ought to imitate, as much as He can, the holiness of God in Christ, so that Christ may always shine forth in his words and actions, and that any one who sees or hears him, may think that he sees and hears Christ. Holiness is a turning away from the world, and a turning to God and Christ, and union with them. Accordingly the Apostles converted the world, more by their holiness and burning love than by their preaching. Nay, they thundered with their mouth, because they flashed forth in their life, as Nazianzen said of S. Basil. See my sketch of S. Paul, pre fixed to the Acts of the Apostles.

    18. As thou hast sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. This is a fresh reason for Christ commending His Apostles to the Father, to preserve and sanctify them. For as Thou hast Me into the world to restore and sanctify it, so do I send My Apostles through all nations to sanctify them. They need therefore great holiness, so as not to be ensnared by their allurements, or overpowered by their persecutions, and also that they may sanctify them who are utterly depraved by their vices. Sanctify them therefore, O Father, more and more every day, that they may be able to sanctify numerous others.

    19. And for them do I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. 1st. S. Augustine uses the word sanctify in its proper sense. I as the Son of God sanctify human nature which I have assumed, that by it I may sanctify the Apostles. As S. Augustine says, “When the Word was made flesh, He sanctified Himself in Himself; Himself the man, in Himself the Word, because the Word and the Man is one Christ. But He says it for the sake of His members; and for these I sanctify Myself, that is, them in Me, because in Me they are even Myself. That they also might be sanctified. What meaneth this, ‘that they too,’ but that they may be sanctified even as I, and in the Truth which I Myself am?”

    2d, and correctly, “I offer Myself to Thee as a Holy Victim,” i.e. within a few hours I shall offer It upon the Cross, so that they may by It “be sanctified in the truth,” that is, that by Thy word which is truth, and no shadow, they may be sanctified, be truly Thine, and devote themselves, for Thee, to Apostolic labours; in order to convert all nations to Thee, and thus by the sufferings they endure, even martyrdom itself, they may offer themselves to Thee, just as I do Myself. So S. Chrysostom, S. Cyril (at great length), Rupertus, S. Thomas, Jansenius, Maldonatus, Toletus, Ribera, and others.

            

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The Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.

 

 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.