Passage

John 17.5

Book: John · NASB95

Verse

"Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was." (John 17:5, NASB95)

Immediate context (±2 verses)

NASB95 (NASB95)

"3. This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. 4. I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do."

"5. Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was."

"6. I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. 7. Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You;" (John 17:3-7, NASB95)

Setting

Speaker: Jesus, in prayer to the Father.
Audience: the Father (direct address), with the eleven disciples within earshot, this is the High Priestly Prayer (John 17), spoken aloud after the Last Supper discourse and before crossing the Kidron to Gethsemane.
Location: likely still in the upper room or en route to Gethsemane (cf. John 14:31 "get up, let us go from here," followed by chapters 15-17).
Time period: Passover eve, c. AD 30 (or AD 33), the night before the crucifixion.

Theological reading

The verse is the strongest single self-attestation of Christ's pre-incarnate glory in the Gospels. Three load-bearing claims:

"The glory which I had", past possession. The aorist tense ("which I had") with the imperfect eichon describes ongoing pre-existent state. Christ does not request new glory but the return of glory previously possessed.
"With You" (para soi), relational presence. The same preposition family (para, pros) underlies John's prologue language of relational being-with-God. Cf. John 1.1 pros ton theon, see G4314 - pros.
"Before the world was" (pro tou ton kosmon einai), temporal anteriority to creation itself. Christ's pre-existence is not merely antedating His incarnation but antedating the entire created order.

Combining the three: Christ existed in glorious relational presence with the Father before creation. This is identical with the Christology of John 1:1.

Two heresies are eliminated:

Adoptionism, Christ became divine at baptism. Refuted: Christ asks for return of pre-creational glory.
Arianism, Christ is the highest creature, made before time. Refuted: Christ has glory equal to the Father, not derivative of the Father's. Note "glorify Me together with Yourself" (para seautō), joint glory, not Christ glorifying-as-second-tier.

Patristic. Athanasius (Discourses Against the Arians III.27, c. AD 358) treats John 17:5 as one of his strongest single proof-texts against Arius: a creature cannot have glory "before the world existed" because creatures came into being with the world. Augustine (Tractates on John 105, c. AD 414-417) develops the verse's Trinitarian structure: the Son's glory shared with the Father is the eternal mutual love and indwelling that constitutes the divine being. Cyril of Alexandria (Commentary on John, Book 11, c. AD 425) wields the verse against Nestorius: the same person who is asking is the eternal Son, incarnate without ceasing to be the One who eternally possesses divine glory.

Reformed / modern. Calvin (John commentary) reads the verse as a decisive proof-text against all subordinationist Christologies, the glory Christ requests is not bestowed but restored, requiring prior possession. Modern conservative scholarship (D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John PNTC; Andreas Köstenberger, John BECNT) treats the verse alongside John 1:1, 14, 18 as the four-corner-stones of Johannine high Christology.

Connection to John's prologue

John deliberately frames his Gospel with this glory-language:

John 1.1, en archē (in the beginning), eternal pre-existence
John 1.14, eskēnōsen + etheasametha tēn doxan autou, the glory tabernacled and beheld
John 17:5, "the glory which I had… before the world was", the prologue's claim now in Christ's own voice
John 17:24, "they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world"

Key words

G1391 - doxa, doxa (glory), the Shekinah glory predicated of the pre-incarnate Christ
G3962 - pater, patēr (Father), relational distinction
G2316 - theos, theos (God), the Father's identity as the audience
G2889 - kosmos, kosmos (world), created order; "before the world existed"
G3056 - logos, same eternal Subject as in John 1:1