What Does John 17:2 Mean?
As you have given him power over all flesh, that he may give the life of the ages to as many as you have given him.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.THE KEY
The authority given over all flesh reaches its purpose when it gives life to those entrusted to it.
THE MEANING
Authority here is received, and its purpose is to give life. The life Jesus gives is life of the age, present to the reader now through him.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that authority proves itself by control: here, authority fulfills its purpose by giving life.
THE ROOT
δίδωμι
didōmi
GROWS FROM
δο-/δω- (from δίδωμι)
To give, grant, or hand over.
“give” in this verse is didōmi. The verse repeats this word family: authority is given to Jesus, he gives life, and those who receive that life are given to him. Giving is the movement that joins authority, life, and the people entrusted to him.
ALSO GROWS
dosis: A giving; an act of giving.
δόσις
It makes the repeated verb’s underlying action visible: life arrives as a gift.
paradidōmi: To hand over or entrust.
παραδίδωμι
This related compound shows how giving can also mean placing someone into another’s care.
dōrea: A gift, something freely bestowed.
δωρεά
It echoes the passage’s pattern of received authority becoming a gift of life.
αἰώνιον
aiōnion
GROWS FROM
αἰών
aiōn
An age, era, or order of time.
“the life of the ages” in this verse is aiōnion. The Greek word connects this life with an age, not only with duration without end. The phrase opens onto life belonging to the age that comes through Jesus, already present in the reader’s encounter with him.
ALSO GROWS
aiōn: An age or era.
αἰών
This is the noun beneath the verse’s description of life.
aiōnios: Of or belonging to an age; age-lasting.
αἰώνιος
This adjective describes the kind of life Jesus gives.
eis tous aiōnas: Into the ages.
εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας
This phrase uses the same word family and shows how the Greek can speak of life across the ages.
ἐξουσίαν
exousian
GROWS FROM
ἐξουσία (exousia), related to ἔξεστιν (exestin)
The right or authority to act; ἔξεστιν means “it is permitted” or “it is possible.”
“power” in this verse is exousian. The verse’s authority is not presented as self-made: it is given. Its purpose is named in the next phrase, where this received authority becomes the capacity to give life.
ALSO GROWS
exestin: It is permitted; it is possible.
ἔξεστιν
This related form highlights authority as the right or capacity to act.
exousiazō: To exercise authority or power.
ἐξουσιάζω
This verb shows the authority in motion; in this verse, its defining action is giving life.
THE PATTERN
Life is received as a gift, and the one entrusted with authority gives that life onward.
He asks life from you, and you give it to him, length of days for ages and ages.I give them the life of the ages, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand.And this is the witness, that God has given us the life of the ages, and this life is in his Son.THE THREAD
I give them the life of the ages, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand.John 10:28 repeats the same Greek words for giving and life of the age found in John 17:2. It adds that this gift is held securely: no one can pluck its recipients from his hand.
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