The Glory Before the World Was: A Reflection on John 17:5

**The Glory Before the World Was: A Reflection on John 17:5**


John 17:5 records a profound prayer of Jesus, where He asks the Father to “glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” This verse opens a window into the complex relationship between the Father, the Logos, and the human Jesus, as well as the nature of divine glory prior to the manifestation of the Messiah in history. Understanding this passage requires a clear distinction between the corporeal Father, the divine Logos as the mind or Word of the Father, and the human Jesus as the embodiment of the promised Messiah.


The Logos, understood as the mind or reason of the Father, is the divine agent through which all things were made and sustained. The Father is corporeal, a living, dynamic Being with form and substance, not an abstract or purely spiritual essence. The Logos is distinct yet inseparable in purpose and will from the Father, acting as His self-expression or Word. This distinction is crucial when reading the Gospel of John and interpreting Jesus’ words, for sometimes the voice of the divine Logos speaks through the human Jesus, while other times the human Jesus speaks as himself. The two are united but not identical.


Heracleon, an early Christian commentator on John’s Gospel, elucidates this distinction in his commentary on John 1:29, where John the Baptist declares, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” He writes:


> “John spoke the words, ‘Lamb of God’ as a prophet, but the words, ‘who takes away the sin of the world’ as more than a prophet. The first expression was spoken with reference to his body, the second with reference to Him who was in that body (the Logos). The lamb is an imperfect member of the genus of sheep; the same being true of the body as compared with the one that dwells in it. Had he meant to attribute perfection to the body he would have spoken of a ram about to be sacrificed.”


Heracleon’s insight reveals that the human Jesus is like a lamb, an imperfect and mortal body, whereas the Logos dwelling within Him is perfect and divine. Thus, the words attributed to Jesus in the Gospel need to be understood sometimes as utterances of the human Jesus and other times as the speech of the Logos, the divine Word.


This distinction is crucial in John 6, where Jesus responds to the Jewish question about manna:


> “Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.” But in reply to this, Jesus said, “Moses gave you not the bread out of heaven; but my Father giveth to you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of the Deity is He, who descendeth out of heaven, and giveth life to the kosmos.” (John 6:31-33)


Here, the manna is symbolic of the Logos, the true bread that came down from heaven to give life to the world. John’s Gospel makes it clear that “in him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4). The Logos, or Spirit of Deity, is the life-imparting agent, not simply the human Jesus. It is this Logos who says, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Resurrection and the Life; I am the Bread of Life; I came down from heaven.” The true bread descending from heaven that gives life to those who partake is the Logos, the divine Word.


Yet this Logos promised to give “His Flesh” for the life of the kosmos (world). This flesh is the human Jesus, the Son of Mary and David. The Logos appointed that Jesus’ flesh should be eaten and His blood drunk, symbolically signifying participation in the resurrection and eternal life of the Age to Come (the Aion). Jesus Himself declared:


> “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.” (John 6:53)


This statement refutes the notion of an immortal soul independent of the body. Rather, “eating the flesh and drinking the blood” means to receive and believe in the testimony of the Logos regarding Jesus and to participate in the transformation granted by repentance and remission of sins.


The human Jesus is the temporal vessel of the Logos’ manifestation, and His flesh is to be consumed symbolically by faith in Him. Those who do so “have aion-life” — eternal life in the age to come, as promised in Revelation 22:14:


> “Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the Tree of Life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. And I will raise him up at the last day.”


Thus, it is the Logos — the divine mind and Word of the corporeal Father — who embodies eternal life and divine glory. This glory was present before the world was made, and it was this glory the Logos manifested when dwelling among men in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. The human Jesus, though corporeal and subject to mortality, is the vessel through which the divine glory is revealed to humanity.


John’s Gospel begins with the profound statement:


> “In the beginning was the Word (Logos), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” (John 1:1-2)


The Logos is both distinct from and yet inseparable from the corporeal Father. This Logos is the glory that Jesus speaks of in John 17:5 — the glory He had with the Father before the world began. It is not the human Jesus who existed before the world but the divine Logos, the pre-existent Word and mind of the Father.


The prayer of Jesus in John 17:5 expresses a longing to be restored to that divine glory, not as a separate entity but in unity with the Father, through the divine Logos. The glory is not an abstract concept but the dynamic, corporeal presence of the Father manifesting through the Logos.


This reflection shows us that the Gospel of John demands discernment: sometimes the human Jesus speaks from His earthly experience; sometimes it is the Logos, the divine Word, speaking through Him. The Logos is the source of eternal life, the true bread from heaven, the light shining in the darkness. The human Jesus is the one who reveals this Logos to the world, so that all who believe may partake in the resurrection and life of the age to come.


In this way, John 17:5 invites believers to contemplate the glory of the divine Logos — the mind of the Father — who existed before all things and who promises to restore believers to that eternal glory through Jesus Christ, the Son of Man and Son of God.