Psalms 55:16-17

55:16 As for me, I will call out to God,

and the Lord will deliver me.

55:17 During the evening, morning, and noontime

I will lament and moan, ¹ 

and he will hear ²  me. ³ 

Psalms 91:15

91:15 When he calls out to me, I will answer him.

I will be with him when he is in trouble;

I will rescue him and bring him honor.

Matthew 26:36-46

Gethsemane

26:36 Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to the disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 26:37 He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and became anguished and distressed. 26:38 Then he said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, even to the point of death. Remain here and stay awake with me.” 26:39 Going a little farther, he threw himself down with his face to the ground and prayed, ⁴  “My Father, if possible, ⁵  let this cup ⁶  pass from me! Yet not what I will, but what you will.” 26:40 Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. He ⁷  said to Peter, “So, couldn’t you stay awake with me for one hour? 26:41 Stay awake and pray that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 26:42 He went away a second time and prayed, ⁸  “My Father, if this cup ⁹  cannot be taken away unless I drink it, your will must be done.” 26:43 He came again and found them sleeping; they could not keep their eyes open. ¹⁰  26:44 So leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same thing once more. 26:45 Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is approaching, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 26:46 Get up, let us go. Look! My betrayer ¹¹  is approaching!”

Luke 22:44

22:44 And in his anguish ¹²  he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.] ¹³ 

John 17:1-26

Jesus Prays for the Father to Glorify Him

17:1 When Jesus had finished saying these things, he looked upward ¹⁴  to heaven ¹⁵  and said, “Father, the time ¹⁶  has come. Glorify your Son, so that your ¹⁷  Son may glorify you – 17:2 just as you have given him authority over all humanity, ¹⁸  so that he may give eternal life to everyone you have given him. ¹⁹  17:3 Now this ²⁰  is eternal life ²¹  – that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, ²²  whom you sent. 17:4 I glorified you on earth by completing ²³  the work you gave me to do. ²⁴  17:5 And now, Father, glorify me at your side ²⁵  with the glory I had with you before the world was created. ²⁶ 

Jesus Prays for the Disciples

17:6 “I have revealed ²⁷  your name to the men ²⁸  you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, ²⁹  and you gave them to me, and they have obeyed ³⁰  your word. 17:7 Now they understand ³¹  that everything ³²  you have given me comes from you, 17:8 because I have given them the words you have given me. They ³³  accepted ³⁴  them ³⁵  and really ³⁶  understand ³⁷  that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 17:9 I am praying ³⁸  on behalf of them. I am not praying ³⁹  on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those you have given me, because they belong to you. ⁴⁰  17:10 Everything ⁴¹  I have belongs to you, ⁴²  and everything you have belongs to me, ⁴³  and I have been glorified by them. ⁴⁴  17:11 I ⁴⁵  am no longer in the world, but ⁴⁶  they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them safe ⁴⁷  in your name ⁴⁸  that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one. ⁴⁹  17:12 When I was with them I kept them safe ⁵⁰  and watched over them ⁵¹  in your name ⁵²  that you have given me. Not one ⁵³  of them was lost except the one destined for destruction, ⁵⁴  so that the scripture could be fulfilled. ⁵⁵  17:13 But now I am coming to you, and I am saying these things in the world, so they may experience ⁵⁶  my joy completed ⁵⁷  in themselves. 17:14 I have given them your word, ⁵⁸  and the world has hated them, because they do not belong to the world, ⁵⁹  just as I do not belong to the world. ⁶⁰  17:15 I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but that you keep them safe ⁶¹  from the evil one. ⁶²  17:16 They do not belong to the world ⁶³  just as I do not belong to the world. ⁶⁴  17:17 Set them apart ⁶⁵  in the truth; your word is truth. 17:18 Just as you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. ⁶⁶  17:19 And I set myself apart ⁶⁷  on their behalf, ⁶⁸  so that they too may be truly set apart. ⁶⁹ 

Jesus Prays for Believers Everywhere

17:20 “I am not praying ⁷⁰  only on their behalf, but also on behalf of those who believe ⁷¹  in me through their testimony, ⁷²  17:21 that they will all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. I pray ⁷³  that they will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me. 17:22 The glory ⁷⁴  you gave to me I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one – 17:23 I in them and you in me – that they may be completely one, ⁷⁵  so that the world will know that you sent me, and you have loved them just as you have loved me.

17:24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, ⁷⁶  so that they can see my glory that you gave me because you loved me before the creation of the world ⁷⁷ . 17:25 Righteous Father, even if the world does not know you, I know you, and these men ⁷⁸  know that you sent me. 17:26 I made known your name to them, and I will continue to make it known, ⁷⁹  so that the love you have loved me with may be in them, and I may be in them.”

Hebrews 5:7

5:7 During his earthly life ⁸⁰  Christ ⁸¹  offered ⁸²  both requests and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death and he was heard because of his devotion.

Hebrews 5:1

5:1 For every high priest is taken from among the people ⁸³  and appointed ⁸⁴  to represent them before God, ⁸⁵  to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.

Hebrews 2:1

Warning Against Drifting Away

2:1 Therefore we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.

[55:17]  ¹ tn The first verb is clearly a cohortative form, expressing the psalmist’s resolve. The second verb, while formally ambiguous, should also be understood as cohortative here.

[55:17]  ² tn The prefixed verb with vav (ו) consecutive normally appears in narrational contexts to indicate past action, but here it continues the anticipatory (future) perspective of the preceding line. In Ps 77:6 one finds the same sequence of cohortative + prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive. In this case as well, both forms refer to future actions.

[55:17]  ³ tn Heb “my voice.”

[26:39]  ⁴ tn Grk “ground, praying and saying.” Here the participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[26:39]  ⁵ tn Grk “if it is possible.”

[26:39]  ⁶ sn This cup alludes to the wrath of God that Jesus would experience (in the form of suffering and death) for us. See Ps 11:6; 75:8-9; Isa 51:17, 19, 22 for this figure.

[26:40]  ⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[26:42]  ⁸ tn Grk “saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant here in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[26:42]  ⁹ tn Grk “this”; the referent (the cup) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[26:43]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “because their eyes were weighed down,” an idiom for becoming extremely or excessively sleepy (L&N 23.69).

[26:46]  ¹¹ tn Grk “the one who betrays me.”

[22:44]  ¹² tn Grk “And being in anguish.”

[22:44]  ¹³ tc Several important Greek mss (Ì⁷⁵ א¹ A B N T W 579 1071*) along with diverse and widespread versional witnesses lack 22:43-44. In addition, the verses are placed after Matt 26:39 by ˹³. Floating texts typically suggest both spuriousness and early scribal impulses to regard the verses as historically authentic. These verses are included in א*^,2 D L Θ Ψ 0171 ˹ Ï lat Ju Ir Hipp Eus. However, a number of mss mark the text with an asterisk or obelisk, indicating the scribe’s assessment of the verses as inauthentic. At the same time, these verses generally fit Luke’s style. Arguments can be given on both sides about whether scribes would tend to include or omit such comments about Jesus’ humanity and an angel’s help. But even if the verses are not literarily authentic, they are probably historically authentic. This is due to the fact that this text was well known in several different locales from a very early period. Since there are no synoptic parallels to this account and since there is no obvious reason for adding these words here, it is very likely that such verses recount a part of the actual suffering of our Lord. Nevertheless, because of the serious doubts as to these verses’ authenticity, they have been put in brackets. For an important discussion of this problem, see B. D. Ehrman and M. A. Plunkett, “The Angel and the Agony: The Textual Problem of Luke 22:43-44,” CBQ 45 (1983): 401-16.

[17:1]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “he raised his eyes” (an idiom).

[17:1]  ¹⁵ tn Or “to the sky.” The Greek word οὐρανός (ouranos) may be translated “sky” or “heaven” depending on the context.

[17:1]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “the hour.”

[17:1]  ¹⁷ tc The better witnesses (א B C* W 0109 0301) have “the Son” (ὁ υἱός, Jo Juios) here, while the majority (C³ L Ψ Ë¹³ 33 Ï) read “your Son also” (καὶ ὁ υἱὸς σου, kai Jo Juio" sou), or “your Son” (ὁ υἱὸς σου; A D Θ 0250 1 579 pc lat sy); the second corrector of C has καὶ ὁ υἱός (“the Son also”). The longer readings appear to be predictable scribal expansions and as such should be considered secondary.

[17:2]  ¹⁸ tn Or “all people”; Grk “all flesh.”

[17:2]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “so that to everyone whom you have given to him, he may give to them eternal life.”

[17:3]  ²⁰ tn Using αὕτη δέ (Jauth de) to introduce an explanation is typical Johannine style; it was used before in John 1:19, 3:19, and 15:12.

[17:3]  ²¹ sn This is eternal life. The author here defines eternal life for the readers, although it is worked into the prayer in such a way that many interpreters do not regard it as another of the author’s parenthetical comments. It is not just unending life in the sense of prolonged duration. Rather it is a quality of life, with its quality derived from a relationship with God. Having eternal life is here defined as being in relationship with the Father, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom the Father sent. Christ (Χριστός, Cristos) is not characteristically attached to Jesus’ name in John’s Gospel; it occurs elsewhere primarily as a title and is used with Jesus’ name only in 1:17. But that is connected to its use here: The statement here in 17:3 enables us to correlate the statement made in 1:18 of the prologue, that Jesus has fully revealed what God is like, with Jesus’ statement in 10:10 that he has come that people might have life, and have it abundantly. These two purposes are really one, according to 17:3, because (abundant) eternal life is defined as knowing (being in relationship with) the Father and the Son. The only way to gain this eternal life, that is, to obtain this knowledge of the Father, is through the Son (cf. 14:6). Although some have pointed to the use of know (γινώσκω, ginwskw) here as evidence of Gnostic influence in the Fourth Gospel, there is a crucial difference: For John this knowledge is not intellectual, but relational. It involves being in relationship.

[17:3]  ²² tn Or “and Jesus the Messiah” (Both Greek “Christ” and Hebrew and Aramaic “Messiah” mean “one who has been anointed”).

[17:4]  ²³ tn Or “by finishing” or “by accomplishing.” Jesus now states that he has glorified the Father on earth by finishing (τελειώσας [teleiwsas] is best understood as an adverbial participle of means) the work which the Father had given him to do.

[17:4]  ²⁴ tn Grk “the work that you gave to me so that I may do it.”

[17:5]  ²⁵ tn Or “in your presence”; Grk “with yourself.” The use of παρά (para) twice in this verse looks back to the assertion in John 1:1 that the Word (the Λόγος [Logos], who became Jesus of Nazareth in 1:14) was with God (πρὸς τὸν θεόν, pro" ton qeon). Whatever else may be said, the statement in 17:5 strongly asserts the preexistence of Jesus Christ.

[17:5]  ²⁶ tn Grk “before the world was.” The word “created” is not in the Greek text but is implied.

[17:6]  ²⁷ tn Or “made known,” “disclosed.”

[17:6]  ²⁸ tn Here “men” is retained as a translation for ἀνθρώποις (anqrwpoi") rather than the more generic “people” because in context it specifically refers to the eleven men Jesus had chosen as apostles (Judas had already departed, John 13:30). If one understands the referent here to be the broader group of Jesus’ followers that included both men and women, a translation like “to the people” should be used here instead.

[17:6]  ²⁹ tn Grk “Yours they were.”

[17:6]  ³⁰ tn Or “have kept.”

[17:7]  ³¹ tn Or “they have come to know,” or “they have learned.”

[17:7]  ³² tn Grk “all things.”

[17:8]  ³³ tn Grk And they.” The conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has not been translated here in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use shorter sentences.

[17:8]  ³⁴ tn Or “received.”

[17:8]  ³⁵ tn The word “them” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[17:8]  ³⁶ tn Or “truly.”

[17:8]  ³⁷ tn Or have come to know.”

[17:9]  ³⁸ tn Grk “I am asking.”

[17:9]  ³⁹ tn Grk “I am not asking.”

[17:9]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “because they are yours.”

[17:10]  ⁴¹ tn Grk And all things.” The conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has not been translated here in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use shorter sentences.

[17:10]  ⁴² tn Or “Everything I have is yours.”

[17:10]  ⁴³ tn Or “everything you have is mine.”

[17:10]  ⁴⁴ tn Or “I have been honored among them.”

[17:11]  ⁴⁵ tn Grk And I.” The conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has not been translated here in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use shorter sentences.

[17:11]  ⁴⁶ tn The context indicates that this should be translated as an adversative or contrastive conjunction.

[17:11]  ⁴⁷ tn Or “protect them”; Grk “keep them.”

[17:11]  ⁴⁸ tn Or “by your name.”

[17:11]  ⁴⁹ tn The second repetition of “one” is implied, and is supplied here for clarity.

[17:12]  ⁵⁰ tn Or “I protected them”; Grk “I kept them.”

[17:12]  ⁵¹ tn Grk “and guarded them.”

[17:12]  ⁵² tn Or “by your name.”

[17:12]  ⁵³ tn Grk And not one.” The conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has not been translated here in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use shorter sentences.

[17:12]  ⁵⁴ tn Grk “the son of destruction” (a Semitic idiom for one appointed for destruction; here it is a reference to Judas).

[17:12]  ⁵⁵ sn A possible allusion to Ps 41:9 or Prov 24:22 LXX. The exact passage is not specified here, but in John 13:18, Ps 41:9 is explicitly quoted by Jesus with reference to the traitor, suggesting that this is the passage to which Jesus refers here. The previous mention of Ps 41:9 in John 13:18 probably explains why the author felt no need for an explanatory parenthetical note here. It is also possible that the passage referred to here is Prov 24:22 LXX, where in the Greek text the phrase “son of destruction” appears.

[17:13]  ⁵⁶ tn Grk “they may have.”

[17:13]  ⁵⁷ tn Or “fulfilled.”

[17:14]  ⁵⁸ tn Or “your message.”

[17:14]  ⁵⁹ tn Grk “because they are not of the world.”

[17:14]  ⁶⁰ tn Grk “just as I am not of the world.”

[17:15]  ⁶¹ tn Or “that you protect them”; Grk “that you keep them.”

[17:15]  ⁶² tn The phrase “the evil one” is a reference to Satan. The genitive noun τοῦ πονηροῦ (tou ponhrou) is ambiguous with regard to gender: It may represent the neuter τὸ πονηρόν (to ponhron), “that which is evil,” or the masculine ὁ πονηρός (Jo ponhro"), “the evil one,” i.e., Satan. In view of the frequent use of the masculine in 1 John 2:13-14, 3:12, and 5:18-19 it seems much more probable that the masculine is to be understood here, and that Jesus is praying for his disciples to be protected from Satan. Cf. BDAG 851 s.v. πονηρός 1.b.β and 1.b.γ.

[17:16]  ⁶³ tn Grk “they are not of the world.” This is a repetition of the second half of v. 14. The only difference is in word order: Verse 14 has οὐκ εἰσὶν ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου (ouk eisin ek tou kosmou), while here the prepositional phrase is stated first: ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου οὐκ εἰσίν (ek tou kosmou ouk eisin). This gives additional emphasis to the idea of the prepositional phrase, i.e., origin, source, or affiliation.

[17:16]  ⁶⁴ tn Grk “just as I am not of the world.”

[17:17]  ⁶⁵ tn Or “Consecrate them” or “Sanctify them.”

[17:18]  ⁶⁶ sn Jesus now compared the mission on which he was sending the disciples to his own mission into the world, on which he was sent by the Father. As the Father sent Jesus into the world (cf. 3:17), so Jesus now sends the disciples into the world to continue his mission after his departure. The nature of this prayer for the disciples as a consecratory prayer is now emerging: Jesus was setting them apart for the work he had called them to do. They were, in a sense, being commissioned.

[17:19]  ⁶⁷ tn Or “I sanctify.”

[17:19]  ⁶⁸ tn Or “for their sake.”

[17:19]  ⁶⁹ tn Or “they may be truly consecrated,” or “they may be truly sanctified.”

[17:20]  ⁷⁰ tn Or “I do not pray.”

[17:20]  ⁷¹ tn Although πιστευόντων (pisteuontwn) is a present participle, it must in context carry futuristic force. The disciples whom Jesus is leaving behind will carry on his ministry and in doing so will see others come to trust in him. This will include not only Jewish Christians, but other Gentile Christians who are “not of this fold” (10:16), and thus Jesus’ prayer for unity is especially appropriate in light of the probability that most of the readers of the Gospel are Gentiles (much as Paul stresses unity between Jewish and Gentile Christians in Eph 2:10-22).

[17:20]  ⁷² tn Grk “their word.”

[17:21]  ⁷³ tn The words “I pray” are repeated from the first part of v. 20 for clarity.

[17:22]  ⁷⁴ tn Grk And the glory.” The conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has not been translated here in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use shorter sentences.

[17:23]  ⁷⁵ tn Or “completely unified.”

[17:24]  ⁷⁶ tn Grk “the ones you have given me, I want these to be where I am with me.”

[17:24]  ⁷⁷ tn Grk “before the foundation of the world.”

[17:25]  ⁷⁸ tn The word “men” is not in the Greek text but is implied. The translation uses the word “men” here rather than a more general term like “people” because the use of the aorist verb ἔγνωσαν (egnwsan) implies that Jesus is referring to the disciples present with him as he spoke these words (presumably all of them men in the historical context), rather than to those who are yet to believe because of their testimony (see John 17:20).

[17:26]  ⁷⁹ tn The translation “will continue to make it known” is proposed by R. E. Brown (John [AB], 2:773).

[5:7]  ⁸⁰ tn Grk “in the days of his flesh.”

[5:7]  ⁸¹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Christ) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:7]  ⁸² tn Grk “who…having offered,” continuing the description of Christ from Heb 5:5-6.

[5:1]  ⁸³ tn Grk “from among men,” but since the point in context is shared humanity (rather than shared maleness), the plural Greek term ἀνθρώπων (anqrwpwn) has been translated “people.”

[5:1]  ⁸⁴ tn Grk “who is taken from among people is appointed.”

[5:1]  ⁸⁵ tn Grk “appointed on behalf of people in reference to things relating to God.”