While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name: those that you gave me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.
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Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
When I was with them I kept them in Thy Name, i.e. "by Thy power, by Thy authority, as Thy messenger to them." So S. Cyril. For they, knowing that I was sent by Thee, willingly and boldly cleaved to Me, as knowing that through Me they were cleaving to God, and were blessed and protected by Him. For those whom the Son guards, the Father guards also. Others explain "Thy Name" as meaning, for the sake of Thee and Thy boundless goodness.
Those that Thou gavest Me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition. The word "son" means here, worthy of, guilty of. And hence it is plain that Christ here did not pray for Judas, who had withdrawn from the company of the Apostles in order to betray Christ. He had not been given to Christ by the Father, but had destroyed himself by his covetousness in betraying Me, and therefore passed away into the number of the reprobate.
That the Scripture might be fulfilled. This signifies, not the end and intent of Scripture, but merely that i...
Our Saviour's speech soon proceeds to illustrate His meaning more plainly; and while at the first dark hints were given, it is now proclaimed and revealed like a storm breaking into sunshine. For the disciples thought that our Saviour's abandonment of them,----I mean in the flesh,----would inflict on them great loss; for nothing could prevent His being with them as God. But they expected that no one could then save them after Christ's Ascension into heaven, but that they would fall a prey to those who wished to injure them, and that there would be nothing to restrain the hand of their powerful adversaries, but rather that any one so disposed might work his will on them without hindrance, and involve them in any peril. But wise as they were and fathers in the faith, and bearers of light to the world, we need not shrink from saying that they ought not merely to have regarded the Incarnate Presence of our Saviour Christ, but to have known that even though He were to deprive them of conver...
While I was with them, I kept them in thy name. He still speaks, says St. Chrysostom, as man, and after a human manner, by mentioning the advantage they seemed to enjoy, as long as he conversed visibly with them on earth, not that his invisible presence should be less beneficial to them.
And none of them hath perished, except the son of perdition, the wretched Judas, whose fall was foretold in the Scriptures. (Psalm cviii.) He hath perished, that is, now is about being lost, by his own fault, says St. Chrysostom on this place. And St. Augustine on Psalm cxxxviii. How did the devil enter into the heart of Judas? he could not have entered, had not he given him place. (Witham)
That the Scripture may be fulfilled: this does not any ways shew, that it was the will of God that Judas should be lost; but only that what happened to Judas was conformable to the prophecies, and not occasioned by them. Who will doubt, says St. Augustine, (lib. de Unit. Eccl. chap. ix.) but that Judas might, if h...
Again He speaks as a man and as a Prophet, since nowhere does He appear to have done anything by the Name of God.
Those that You gave Me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
And in another place He says, Of all that You gave Me, I will surely lose nothing. John 6:39 Yet not only was he lost, but also many afterwards; how then says He, I will in nowise lose? For My part, I will not lose. So in another place, declaring the matter was more clearly, He said, I will in nowise cast out. John 6:37 Not through fault of Mine, not because I either instigate or abandon them; but if they start away of themselves, I draw them not by necessity.
Those that Thou gavest Me I have kept: these words convey profound humility if one properly understands them. Throughout this chapter it might appear that Jesus is directing the Father to guard the disciples after His departure, like a man who gives his friend a sum of money for safe keeping and tells him, “Look, I have not lost any of this: neither must you.” But in reality, the Lord is consoling the disciples: “These things I speak in the world to reassure the disciples and give them joy. Knowing that You have received them safely and will guard them—just as I did, without losing any—they can again breathe freely.” How can the Lord claim to have lost none of them, when Judas fell away, and many other followers left Him as well (see Jn. 6:66)? “As far as it depended on Me,” He explains, “I have lost none of them. I did everything on My part to keep them, and I guarded them zealously. If some chose to reject Me, it is not My fault.” That (ἵνα) the Scripture might be fulfilled, meaning,...
