While I was with them, I protected and preserved them by Your name, the name You gave Me. Not one of them has been lost, except the son of destruction, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.
Parallel translations
- WEB While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. Those whom you have given me I have kept. None of them is lost, except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
- KJV While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.
- NKJV While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
- NASB While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name, which You have given Me; and I guarded them, and not one of them perished except the son of destruction, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.
- NLT During my time here, I protected them by the power of the name you gave me. I guarded them so that not one was lost, except the one headed for destruction, as the Scriptures foretold.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
While with them, Jesus guarded the disciples and lost none except Judas, the 'son of destruction,' fulfilling Scripture. Christ keeps his own securely.
Overview
Jesus testifies to his faithful guarding of those the Father gave him. The exception of Judas is described as the fulfillment of Scripture (cf. Psalm 41:9), not a failure of Christ's keeping; Judas was never truly one of the given ones in the saving sense. The verse both comforts believers with Christ's preserving care and soberly shows that mere outward nearness to Jesus is not the same as belonging to him.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Ps 109:6–19Set over him a wicked man; let an accuser stand at his right hand.
- John 10:27–28My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me.
- John 18:9This was to fulfill the word He had spoken: “I have not lost one of those You have given Me.”
- John 13:18I am not speaking about all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But this is to fulfill the Scripture: ‘The one who shares My bread has lifted up his heel against Me.’
- John 6:37Everyone the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never drive away.
- Acts 1:16–20“Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit foretold through the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus.
- John 6:70–71Jesus answered them, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!”
- John 6:39–40And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I shall lose none of those He has given Me, but raise them up at the last day.
- 1 Jn 2:19They went out from us, but they did not belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But their departure made it clear that none of them belonged to us.
- Acts 1:25to take up this ministry and apostleship, which Judas abandoned to go to his rightful place.”
- 2 Th 2:3Let no one deceive you in any way, for it will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness—the son of destruction—is revealed.
- Heb 2:13And again: “I will put My trust in Him.” And once again: “Here am I, and the children God has given Me.”
- Luke 4:26–27Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to the widow of Zarephath in Sidon.
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Christ at the center
John declares him plainly: the eternal Word made flesh, the Lamb of God, the great 'I AM' — bread, light, door, shepherd, way, truth, life, resurrection — that you may believe and have life in his name.
How John 17:12 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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