I cannot understand Jesus' introduction to His first talk as it is translated in the King James Version:1
Therefore, when he [Judas] was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him.2
I take for granted that Jesus is referring to Himself as the «Son of Man», something He has done consistently in this Gospel. In fact, it cannot possibly refer to anyone else in the context of this Gospel.
This statement about «glorification» has the
following logical structure:
The Oxford Dictionary states that «glorify» means «make glorious», «exalt to the glory of heaven» where «glory» means «exalted renown», «honourable fame», «special distinction», «subject for boasting» and so on. A paraphrase based on this definition would be something like: «I am now going to become a subject of boasting; My exalted fame will give God a special distinction in the eyes of humans. Because of this exalted renown I will give God, He will immediately make Me a subject of boasting.»3 I must say that I do not find this at all clear! So perhaps it would be useful to go back to the original Greek text and see if there is another possible translation for the term «glorify».
The Greek verb translated by «is glorified» in the first verse of this segment is «edoksasthè» (ed??as??), the passive (aorist) form of the verb «doksazô» (d??a??). In its active form, its first meaning is «have an opinion», «believe», «think», «judge». In its passive form, it would thus mean: «to be known as», «to be thought of as», «to be judged as», «to be believed to be». The problem then becomes «to be known as» what? This is not expressed in the sentences where these words appear. Part of the idea behind the normal understanding of «glory» is «fame»: a public understanding of someone or something.
Jesus saying about «glorification» would have the following translation:
I think we could all agree on the fact that any judgment, opinion, belief of God on Jesus must be a correct and truthful one. So, surely, there must be in the use of this term here the idea that the judgment that will be made is a correct and truthful one. If this is the case, the most reasonable translation would be «to be known correctly», «to be judged correctly». This sort of fame has to do with accuracy, correct knowledge.
So our segment could be translated quite differently as: «It is now that I am really going to be known for Who I am, and Me being really known will mean that God will also be really known for Who He is; furthermore, as God will be really known in Me, He will make sure that His knowledge of Me is proclaimed right away.»
From this, I understand Jesus to be saying that the coming events, His handling of the ordeal to come, His passion and death, which His disciples will be witnesses to, are going to clearly define Who He is and thus Who God is. God will vouch for this affirmation of Who He Is through Jesus' actions by His own corroboration that He is indeed like Jesus says. This corroboration of God will be Him raising Jesus from the dead, Him bringing Jesus back to life, another event which the disciples will witness.
This interpretation seems to make sense since Jesus earlier in this Gospel made it clear that His «glorification» was related to His death, as He mentions it immediately after.4
This text as last interpreted is a fitting introduction to Jesus' first talk as it contains its major theme in a nutshell.
Jesus then gives to His disciples His farewell message: «Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you.».5 After what can be described as a term of endearment applied to His disciples, Jesus tells them that He is leaving them for somewhere they cannot go, as He had told them and others many times before. They will look for Him and will be unable to find Him. He neither tells them where He is going or why they cannot go with Him (probably as He assumes that they will have worked it out by what He had said on other occasions).
He then goes on to say: «A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.».6 This is His last will and testament, His «new commandment»: love one another like He loves them.
1 Jesus' words will be in red
throughout as is often found in Protestant Bibles;
all biblical quotes are from the King James Bible
recognized by Protestants as the Bible in English.
2 John 13:31b-32
3 My paraphrases of Jesus' words will be in
purple throughout.
4 «And Jesus answered them, saying,
The hour is come, that the Son of man
should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn
of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die,
it bringeth forth much fruit.» (John 12:23-24)
5 John 12:33
6 John 13:34
7 John 13:35