SCOPE OF JESUS'S HIGH PRIESTLY PRAYER IN JOHN 17, THE

Encounter, Winter 2006 by Janzen, J Gerald

The occurrence of "holy Father" in 17:11 is, to put it colloquially, a no-brainer. This verse ("and now") introduces that part of the prayer in which Jesus prays that the Father will guard and keep his disciples (a centripetal concern), and in which he goes on to pray that God will sanctify the disciples in the truth even as Jesus sanctifies himself for their sake (17:17-19). So, as with "living Father," "holy Father" is appropriate to the immediate context. But what of "righteous Father"?

What I write now (Sunday afternoon, March 20, 2005) comes after attendance at this morning's Palm/Passion Sunday service in which the Epistle for the day is Philippians 2:5-11 and the Old Testament reading is Isaiah 45:20-25. As I listened to the Isaiah passage and my eyes followed the text in the bulletin, my attention was riveted by the phrase in 45:21, "righteous God." Could it be that Jesus in John 17:25 is echoing that phrase? A concordance check (using the Accordance 5.2 research program) disclosed that the phrase "righteous God" occurs only twice in the Hebrew Bible, in Psalm 7:10[9], elohim tsaddiq [LXX simply ho theos]; and in Isaiah 45:21 [el tsaddiq, LXX dikaios}. Interestingly, both passages speak of a gathering of peoples or nations for purposes of divine judgment (Isaiah 45:20; Psalm 7:8[7]). Psalm 7:11 [10] portrays God as a "shield" for the psalmist vis-à-vis the enemy (who are presumably the nations). Isaiah 45, on the other hand, sets God forth not only as universal judge but as universal eschatological savior.

With John 17 in mind, we may note the following four elements in this passage. First, those who worship idols "have no knowledge" (see John 17:25). Second, the one who is called "a righteous God" is at the same time called "a Savior." This befits Deutero-Isaiah, where the nouns tsedeq and tsedaqah occur frequently with the connotation of "victory" or "deliverance" and in parallelism with "salvation."18 Third, the idol-worshippers who "have no knowledge" are called to "Turn to me and be saved." Fourth, that call is undergirded by a divine oath, assured by the divine self (by myself I have sworn [nishba'ti]) that the invitation to be saved will not be in vain, for "To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear [tishshaba'].19 What will every tongue swear? "Only in the LORD are righteousness and strength [tsedaqot we-Oz, LXX dikaiosyne kai doxa]." The oath in the latter instance is a confession (and LXX translates tishshaba' with exomologesetai, "confess") that the power to save and "set things right" rests only with YHWH.

We may note also the occurrence in this passage of the LXX phrase ego eirni that runs through Deutero-Isaiah, often as a formal epithet for God (like ego eimi for the first ehyeh in Exod. 3:14), and that Jesus echoes in his seven times repeated "I AM" (ego eimi).20 But what of Isaiah 45:24b-25? Does this not, despite the universal invitation in 45:22 and the divine oath in 45:23, suggest a final division between the saved and the lost? I think not. The difference between "shame" and "glory" here pertains only to the difference between vindication of those who were faithful all along and the need for contrition and repentance on the part of those who had all along "bet on the wrong horse." "Shame" here, I suggest, has its counterpart in Paul's vision of those who will be saved "only as through fire" (1 Cor. 3:15), shame being the burning heat appropriately involved, among other things, in refining crude ore into a pure metal (see Isa. 48:10-11). Certainly, that is the redemptive connotation of shame in Ezekiel 36:32: "It is not for your sake that I will act, says the Lord GOD; let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel." Rather, God will act "for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned..." (36:22).