Hamblin, John 17:1 1 Nov 13, 2010

John 17:1, Prayer

John 17:1 (KJV, literal) John 17:1 (Greek, transliteration

These words spake Jesus, Tauvta e˙la¿lhsen Δ∆Ihsouvß,

and lifted up his eyes kai« e˙pa¿raß tou\ß ojfqalmou\ß aujtouv
to heaven, and said, ei˙ß to\n oujrano\n ei•pen:
Father, the hour is come; pa¿ter, e˙lh/luqen hJ w‚ra:
glorify thy Son, do/xaso/n sou to\n ui˚o/n,
that thy Son also may glorify thee: iºna oJ ui˚o\ß doxa¿shØ se÷,

These [words] spoke Jesus, tauta elalēsen iēsous,

And lifted the eyes of him kai eparas tous ofthalmous autou
To the heaven, he said: eis ton ouranon eipen:
Father, has come the hour pater, elēluthen hē hōra.
Glorify you the Son doksason sou ton huion,
so that the Son might glorify you hina ho huios doksasē se

When Jesus had spoken these words, he raised his eyes toward heaven, saying:
“Father, the hour has come; May you glorify your Son that your Son might
glorify you.”

17:1a, “When Jesus had spoken these words”

John 17 is part of Jesus’ esoteric teachings at the Last Supper. These teachings begin in

John 13, and conclude with Christ’s prayer in John 17. The transition between chapters 16 and

17 is important; in 16, Jesus is speaking to the Disciples in a farewell discourse. In 17 he begins

speaking to the Father in prayer. Throughout chapter 17 Jesus’ role as intermediary between the

Father and the Disciples is emphasized. As such, it is often called the “Intercessory Pray” by

scholars because Jesus is interceding with the Father on behalf of the Disciples. In other words,

he is playing the same role for the Disciples that Moses and the Israelite High Priest had played
Hamblin, John 17:1 2 Nov 13, 2010

in ancient Israel. 1 In chapters 13-16 Jesus teaches the Disciples what they must do to come to

the Father. In chapter 17, Jesus intervenes with the Father, asking him to accept the Disciples

into his presence. In a sense, Jesus’ perspective has pivoted. In chapters 13-16 Jesus faces the

world, and tells the Disciples about the Father. In chapter 17 Jesus turns and faces the Father.

Christ is preparing to return to the Father, and tells the Disciples how they, too can return to the

Father.

17:1b, “he raised his eyes to heaven”

Lifting or raising the eyes is a biblical idiom meaning simply to look towards something.

The phrase “he raised his eyes to heaven” could be more idiomatically translated “he looked

towards heaven,” or even more literally “he looked towards the sky.” While lifting one’s eyes in

the Hebrew Bible generally means simply looking at something, raising one’s eyes to heaven

means looking towards heaven in prayer. Raising the eyes to heaven is one of three common

biblical idioms for prayer. These three prayer gestures are raising eyes, voice or hands to heaven.

They essentially describe a set of three gestures which were all often undertaken simultaneously

in ancient Israel during prayer.

Raising Eyes to Heaven. There are a number of passages in the Bible where raising one’s

eyes toward heaven represents a gesture or posture of prayer. 2 This is counter-intuitive to many

contemporary Christians who often bow their heads in prayer as a sign of reverence. That raising

1 Ex 32:11-13, 32: 30-32, 33:12-16; Lev 16.

2 Ps 123.1; Isa 40:26; Dan 4:34; Mt 14:19; Mk 6:40, 7:34; Lk 6:20, 9:16, 16:23, 18:13; Jn 11:41;
in Revelation, looking into heaven is equated with looking into the holy of holies in the celestial
temple (Rev 4:1, 15:5).
Hamblin, John 17:1 3 Nov 13, 2010

the eyes to heaven was a normal stance of prayer is especially clear when the publican’s sense of

guilt prevents him from lifting his eyes to heaven to pray (Lk 18:13), which implies that raising

the eyes would have been the natural thing for him to do when praying. Jesus likewise prayed

with uplifted eyes at the multiplication of the loaves and fishes (Mt 14:19; Mk 6:40, Lk 9:16).

Raising Voice to Heaven (or God). In a general sense the biblical idiom raising or “lifting

one’s voice” means to speak loudly, cry out, or shout. Lifting one’s voice to heaven, however,

means to specifically to speak loudly in prayer, or perhaps simply to speak a prayer aloud.3 A

more common expression for prayer in the Hebrew Bible is to “call upon the name of

YHWH,” (hDwh◊y MEvV;b a∂rVqˆy = yiqrā’ bĕ-šēm yĕhwāh),4 which implies saying the name of the
YHWH aloud.5

Raising Hands to Heaven. While John 17:1 explicitly states that Jesus lifted his eyes to

heaven and called upon the name of God the Father aloud, the third major gesture of ancient

prayer--raising hands to heaven--is not explicitly mentioned by John. However, it is the most

commonly described prayer-gesture in the Bible, and seems implied by the text. It is clear from

a number of lines of evidence ancient Israelites, like most other ancient Near Eastern peoples,

3 Judg 9:7; 2 Chr 5:13, 30:27; Isa 24:14, 40:9, 52:8.

4Gen 4:26; 1 Kgs 18:24; Ps 105:1, 116:13, 17; Zech 13:9; Zeph 3:9; Joel 2:32; Acts 2:21, 4:24;
Rom 10:13. Examples could be further multiplied. This is equated with calling on the name of
Jesus in 1 Cor 1:2.
5The range of meaning for the verb qārā’ in Hebrew is “call, give a name, shout, summon,
proclaim, recite” etc. (HALOT 1129-30). It is interesting to note that the phrase “call upon the
name of God” does not occur in Bible, because YHWH (Jehovah) is understood to be the personal
name of God.
Hamblin, John 17:1 4 Nov 13, 2010

prayed with upraised arms, especially at the temple.6 Most prominently Solomon is described as

raising his hands towards heaven in his prayer at the dedication of the temple (1 Kgs 8:22, 54; 2

Chr 16:3), with numerous other examples scattered throughout the Bible.7

The earliest Christians naturally used the same

Jewish raised-hand gesture in their prayers (Lk 24:50).

Indeed, Christians were instructed to “raise holy hands”

in prayer (1 Tim 2:8). This reflects the practice that only

one who has “clean hands”--that is, hands that have been

purified and made holy--can ascend to the temple to

worship and pray (Ps 24:4).8 The earliest artistic

representations of early Christian prayer are called orans

or orantes by scholars, after a Latin word for prayer.

This practice of praying with upraised arms continued

A Christian praying with upraised
hands and uplifted eyes. (Catacomb among second and third century Christians. 9 Tertuallian
of Pricilla, c. 300, Rome, Italy)

6 Praying with upraised hands was a standard cultural practice throughout the ancient Near East,
see O Keel, The Symbolism of the Biblical World, (Eisenbrauns, 1997) 308-323 for numerous
iconographic examples.
7 Ex 9:22,29,33, 10:21, 14:22, 17:1; Dt 32:40; Neh 8:6; Isa 1:15; Hab 3:10; Ps 24:4, 28:2, 63:4,
88:9, 134:2, 141:2; Lam 2:19, 3:41; Ezra 9:5; 2 Macc 3:20, 14:34, 15:21; 3 Macc 5:25; 4 Macc
4:11. This is also counter-intuitive to modern Christians who often pray with folded arms, or
clasped hands.
8 Ex 30:19-21; Dt 21:6; Ps 26:6; Isa 1:15-16; Mt 15:2; Mk 7:3. Anciently the practice of washing
hands before meals arose not for sanitary purposes, but as a purification ritual in preparation for
blessing the food in prayer. Hands needed to be clean to pray and bless the food, not to eat the
food.
9Odes of Solomon {first century AD} 27:1-3, 35:7, 37:1; Tertullian {c +150}, Apology 30.4;
Origin {early third century}, On Prayer 20-21; Minucius Felix {mid-3C}, Octavius, 29.
Hamblin, John 17:1 5 Nov 13, 2010

{c. +150}, for example, believed that “not only do we [Christians] raise [our hands], we even

spread them out, and, imitating the Passion of our Lord, we confess Christ as we pray.”10 Thus,

although it is not explicitly mentioned, the average first century reader of John 17 would have

naturally assumed that Jesus was raising his hands as he prayed.

The raising of the hands in prayer is also associated with temple sacrificial offerings,

which were intimately connected with prayer. “Let my prayer be counted as incense before you,

and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!” (Ps 141:2). The KJV translated the

Hebrew term tĕnûpâh (hDp…wnV;t) as “wave offering” but it is better translated as and “uplifted or

elevated offering,” meaning that the offering was physically lifted upward towards YHWH by the

hands of the priests.11 This type of ritual gesture survived in early Christian art where hands are

raised over altars, or are holding up an offering over the altar.

Offering table (of the eucharist?)

with man in prayer with upraised Abel (left) and Melchizedek (right) make offerings at an
hands (Catacombs of San altar adorned with gammadia markings. The sacrificial
Callistus, Rome, 3rd Century) lamb of Abel and the bread of Melchizedek are seen as
prototypes of Christ and the Eucharist. Note: 1- both are
lifting their offerings to God with upraised hands, 2- the
hand of God comes through the heavens to accept the
offering, 3- the temple of Melchizedek in the background on
the right. (Church of San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy, c. 540).
10 Tertullian, On Prayer 14, cf. 17, 29.
11 HALOT 1762; Ex 24:29-26; Lev 7:30; Lev 8:27-29, 9:21, 10:15, 14:12,24, 23:20; Num 6:20.
Hamblin, John 17:1 6 Nov 13, 2010

The ritual of “elevating the host” in Catholic and Orthodox eucharistic liturgy is a survival of this

ancient Israelite practice in Christian ritual.

(Detail of previous)
Melchizedek raises the bread
of his offering (Gen 14:18)
over an altar, with the temple
of Melchizedek (right;
Josephus, War 6.438) in the
background. This image is A priest elevates the host over the A priest elevates the host
seen as an archetype of the altar, while angels participate. while angels participate.
elevation of the host. (Simone Martini, “Elevation of Note the Trinity in heaven,
(Church of San Vitale, the Host,” church of St Francis of with an incarnate Father
Ravenna, Italy, c. 540). Assisi, c. 1325) (right). (Juan Carreño de
Miranda, “Elevation of the
Host,” Spain, 1666)

A third symbolic significance of the raised

hands gesture in early Christianity is to receive

blessing from God. This is found in early Christian

funerary art when the Christian in the orantes-

raised-hand posture receives a twig of olive or a

Dove brings a
twig of an olive
wreath of martyrdom/salvation from a dove. This
branch to the soul
of the deceased Noah (?) praying
is linked to Noah “stretching out his hand” to and reaching out
representing
salvation brought his hand to the
receive the the olive twig from a dove as a sign of
to the soul. dove with an olive
branch.
salvation of all mankind from the Flood (Gen 8:9).
Hamblin, John 17:1 7 Nov 13, 2010

This type of iconography was eventually expanded to include scenes of Moses receiving

the Law from the hand of God on Mount Sinai. In these types of scenes Moses raises two hands

covered by cloth to prevent his hands from profaning the scroll of the Law he is receiving.

God’s hand reaches out of the heavens and gives the Law to Moses.

Two mosaics of Moses receiving the Law from the hand of God. (St. Same scene from a
Catherine’s Monastery, mid-sixth century, Sinai, Egypt. 13th century icon at
St. Catherine’s

Finally, it is important to note that raised hands were also a gesture associated with giving

blessings in ancient Israel (Lev 9:22-23). 12 Rabbinic tradition says that the raising of the hands

gesture in Lev 9:22, should be performed with the recitation of the words of the blessing found in

Num 6:22-27. Rabbinic tradition calls this recitation of the blessing in Numbers 6 by a priest

with upraised hands the Birkat Kohanim (“blessing of the priests”), or Nesiat Kapayim (“the

raising of the hands”). 13 Essentially this entailed holding the hands up in prayer as the blessing

in Numbers 6:22-27 was invoked. If done for a group, the hands were held up, outstretched

12Dt 10:8, 21:5; 1 QS 2.2-4. In 1 Kg 8:55-61 Solomon, at the dedication of the temple, blesses
the people, indicating a conflation of royal, prophetic, and priestly authority.
13
For an anthology of Rabbinic sources and traditions on the subject, see N. Gold, Bircas
Kohanim: The Priestly Blessings (Artscroll, 1981)
Hamblin, John 17:1 8 Nov 13, 2010

towards the group, with palms facing those being blessed.14 The same gesture could be done to

an individual, but it was often transformed into laying the hands directly on the head of the

individual being blessed. Thus, lifting one’s hands upward toward heaven was always a gesture

of prayer, but, if done in a group context, with the palms facing a group of people, it could be a

gesture of praying for a blessing for that group. I believe this is the probable ritual and social

context of John 17.

Thus, raising hands in prayer anciently had a fourfold significance: 1- raising hands to

hold up an offering for the Lord, 2- raising outstretched hands in prayer and supplication (with

the empty upraised hands perhaps presenting a symbolic sacrifice or offering, Ps 141:2), 3-

raising hands to receive a blessing (or some object) from God, and 4- offering a blessing to a

group. As we shall see, all four elements of the ancient raised-hands gesture are important in

understanding John 17. If, as I shall argue later, John intended to portray Christ in John 17 as

the Great High Priest giving his Day of Atonement blessing to Israel, then Christ’s prayer gesture

would have included raised hands with palms facing the disciples.

In summary, it is likely that a reference to any one of these three prayer gestures--uplifted

eyes, voice and hands--implies that all three were being done. If so, then we should imagine

Christ at prayer in John 17 raising his face and looking upward towards heaven, raising his hands

at or slightly above the level of his head, palms outward facing his Disciples, and speaking in an

elevated voice. Certainly this is the implied understanding early Jewish and Christian readers

would have taken from the text.

14The priestly benediction can be seen on YouTube at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki3lmE7VOe4&NR=1
Hamblin, John 17:1 9 Nov 13, 2010

17:1c, “Father, the hour has come”

Although all the Gospels use the title Father to refer to God, in John the emphasis of God

as Father is overwhelming; “Father” is Jesus’ standard form of address for God in John (Jn 11.41,

12:27). Although the term Father is in part used to emphasize Christ’s unique relationship with

God, there are several passages where God is also said to be the Father of all Mankind.15 The

concept of God as Father is not well developed in the Hebrew Bible, but is reflected in a number

of passages.16

Father. The Greek Father (patēr) is expressly said to translate the Aramaic word

“Abba” (aD;bAa ‘abbā’ Mk 14:36), and was used as a term for God by the early Greek-speaking

Christians in their prayers and hymns (Rom 8:15, Gal 4:6). This is probably the term Christ used

when addressing God as Father. Abba means simply “father,” but is a familiar term, that is a

form of address used for family members. 17

As is indicated by a number of Aramaic words in the New Testament (often translated

into Greek for the reader), Aramaic was the daily language of Jews in Judea and Galilee during

the lifetime of Jesus.18 In Egypt, Anatolia and Greece, on the other hand, the daily language of

Jews was Greek. Thus, by the time of Jesus, Judaism was already developing into a bi-lingual

society: Greek-speaking Jews in the eastern coastal regions of the Roman Empire, and Aramaic-

15 Especially Jn 20:17; see also Mt 5:16, 5:45, 6:6, 10:20, 29, 23:9; Lk 6:36, 12:30.
16 Ex 4:22-23; Dt 14:1; Ps 80:15; 103:13-14; Jer 3.19, 31:9,20; Hos 11:1.
17 ABD 1:7.
18 ABD 1:173-178; M. Black, An Aramaic Approach to the Gospels and Acts, (Hendrickson,
1998).
Hamblin, John 17:1 10 Nov 13, 2010

speaking Jews in the inland regions, Syria, and Persian-ruled Babylonia. By the time of Jesus,

the Hebrew Bible had been translated into both Greek (Septuagint)19 and Aramaic (Targums)20

because the ordinary people could not understand it when read in Hebrew. Reflections of both

translations can be seen in the quotations from the Hebrew Bible in the New Testament, and in

how many Old Testament passages are understood and interpreted by New Testament writers.

The hour has come. As in English, the Greek term hōra (w‚ra) can mean either an

unspecified, but rather short period of time, or a specific division of the daylight into twelve

roughly equal periods.21 The idea of an hour, in the sense of a specific division of the daylight

into equal proportional parts, is not found in the Hebrew Bible, but was adopted from time-

keeping practices in Egypt and Mesopotamia, and, more directly in the time of Jesus, from

Greece.22 Here John uses the term hour in its broader sense of a period of time. The phrase “the

hour has come” has reference to the cosmic moment of the glorification of the Son, and is unique

to John’s Gospel.23 Christ’s “hour” in John is also associated with the harrowing of Hell, the

concept that Christ will preach to the dead in the tombs.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear
the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. ... Do not marvel at this, for an
hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice” (Jn 5:25, 28).

19
K Jobves, M. Silva, Invitation to the Septuagint, (Baker, 2000). G. Beale, and D. Carson,
Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament, (Baker, 2007).
20M. McNamara, Targum and Testament Revisited (Eerdmans, 2010), J. Bowker, The Targums &
Rabbinic Literature (Cambridge, 2009).
21Matthew 20:3-12 describes twelve daylight hours of the work day. A daylight “hour” in
winter, however, was shorter than a daylight “hour” in summer; both are 1/12th of the overall
period of daylight, but daylight is longer in summer than in winter.
22 Gerhard Dohrn-van Rossum, History of the Hour, (University of Chicago, 1996)
23 Jn 2:4, 7:30, 8:20, 12:23, 27-32, 13:1, 31; 17:1.
Hamblin, John 17:1 11 Nov 13, 2010

Thus, for John Christ’s “hour” is the time of Christ’s glorification: his atonement, death, descent

into spirit prison, resurrection, ascension.

17:1d, “May you glorify your Son that your Son might glorify you”

As noted above, for John, Christ’s “hour” is the time of his glorification. John 12:23

likewise emphasizes this: “the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” Glory and

glorification are key concepts in John 17, and will be discussed in detail in the commentary on

verses 4 and 5.