What Does John 17:26 Mean?
I have made your nature known to them, and I will make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.
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
And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.THE KEY
The name Jesus makes known is the Father’s nature shared as love dwelling within you.
THE MEANING
The love the Father has for the Son is present in you, and Jesus is in you. The verse joins knowing the Father’s nature with that nature dwelling within you as love.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that knowing God’s name is only knowing what to call him: here, the name disclosed becomes love within you.
THE ROOT
ὄνομα
onoma
GROWS FROM
ὀνομ-
onom-
Name, designation, or reputation.
Here, ὄνομα (onoma, “name”) is made known so the Father’s love for the Son may be in you, with Jesus in you. The verse presents the name as more than a spoken label: the Father’s nature is disclosed as indwelling love.
ALSO GROWS
onomazō: To name or identify.
ὀνομάζω
Naming gives voice to what is being disclosed; here, the disclosed name is joined to the Father’s love living within you.
onomastos: Known by name; renowned.
ὀνομαστός
A name can carry what someone is known for, echoing the verse’s movement from the Father’s name being made known to the Father’s love being present in you.
ἀγάπη
agapē
GROWS FROM
ἀγαπ-
agap-
Love; the related verb means to love or cherish.
The noun ἀγάπη (agapē, “love”) and the verb ἀγαπάω (agapaō, “to love”) share this word family. Jesus says the very love with which the Father loves him may be in you, so the love received is continuous with the love already shown to the Son.
ALSO GROWS
agapaō: To love or cherish.
ἀγαπάω
The verb names the Father’s love for Jesus; the noun names that love present in you.
agapētos: Beloved; dearly loved.
ἀγαπητός
This branch describes one who is loved, illuminating the verse’s movement from the Father’s love for the Son to love dwelling in you.
THE PATTERN
When God’s nature is made known, its goodness takes form as indwelling presence and love.
And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before your face, and I will call out the name of the LORD before you. I will favor whom I favor, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.Jesus answered and said to him, If anyone loves me, that one will guard my word, and my Father will love that one, and we will come to him and make a place to remain with him.No one has ever beheld God. If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love has been made complete in us.THE THREAD
And the LORD passed by before his face, and called out, The LORD, The LORD God, compassionate and full of favor, slow to flare, abounding in faithful love and truth,Here the LORD’s proclaimed name is followed by words describing the LORD’s nature. That makes the declaration in John concrete: the name is made known as the love that comes to dwell within you.
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