Chapter 17

¹When Jesus had said all this he raised his eyes to heaven and said,

“Father, the time has come. Do honor to your son, that your son may do honor to you, ²just as you have done in giving him power over all mankind, so that he may give eternal life to all whom you have given him. ³And eternal life means knowing you as the only true God, and knowing Jesus your messenger as Christ. ⁴I have done honor to you here on earth, by completing the work which you gave me to do. ⁵Now, Father, do such honor to me in your presence as I had done me there before the world existed.

⁶“I have revealed your real self to the men you gave me from the world. They were yours and you gave them to me, and they have obeyed your message. ⁷Now at last they know that all that you have given me comes from you, ⁸for I have given them the truths that you gave me, and they have accepted them and been convinced that I came from you, and they believe that you sent me. ⁹I have a request to make for them. I make no request for the world, but only for those whom you have given me, for they are yours— ¹⁰all that is mine is yours and what is yours is mine—and they have done me honor. ¹¹Now I am to be no longer in this world, but they are to remain in the world, while I return to you. Holy Father, keep them by your power which you gave me, so that they may be one just as we are. ¹²As long as I was with them I kept them by your power which you gave me, and I protected them, and not one of them was lost (except the one who was destined to be lost), so that what the Scripture says might come true. ¹³But now I am coming to you, and I say this here in this world in order that they may have the happiness that I feel fully realized in their own hearts. ¹⁴I have given them your message, and the world has come to hate them, for they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. ¹⁵I do not ask you to take them away from the world, but to keep them from evil. ¹⁶They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. ¹⁷Consecrate them by truth. Your message is truth. ¹⁸Just as you sent me to the world, I have sent them to the world. ¹⁹And it is for their sake that I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated by truth.

²⁰“It is not for them only that I make this request. It is also for those who through their message come to believe in me. ²¹Let them all be one. Just as you, Father, are in union with me and I am with you, let them be in union with us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. ²²I have given them the glory that you gave me, so that they may be one just as we are, ²³I in union with them and you with me, so that they may be perfectly unified, and the world may recognize that you sent me and that you love them just as you loved me. ²⁴Father, I wish to have those whom you have given me with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me, for you loved me before the creation of the world. ²⁵Righteous Father, though the world did not know you, I knew you, and these men knew that you had sent me. ²⁶I have made your self known to them and I will do so still, so that the love which you have had for me may be in their hearts, and I may be there also.”