Can you help explain John, 17:16 and following, “They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I have also sent them into the world. For them I sanctify Myself, so that they too may be sanctified by the truth. Sanctify them in the truth. In verse 17 Jesus prays “Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth.” And then in v 19 “…and I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.” Are the words interchangeable? What were the original words and their meaning?
Thanks!
Johann von Furchtbarkalterstadt
Dear Hans,
This is more complicated than you would think. First, the words are the same. Whether the translation is consecrate or sanctify, the Greek word is “
hagiázō” which means to make holy, consecrate, sanctify; to dedicate, separate. The word for holy is “
hagios” we don’t have a verb “to holy” but let’s pretend for a moment that we do. We used to have such a word. To “holy” something is to hallow it. We say this word every time we pray the Our Father, but I doubt that many people understand what it means.
President Lincoln said regarding the cemetery of Gettysburg that,
“…in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate — we cannot consecrate — we cannot hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.”
To hallow is a rather archaic word that no one uses much anymore. It means to make holy. When something is holy, it is for the exclusive use of some noble principle, or of God, and not available for any other purpose.
I remember a very modern church building built sometime in the 1970’s. It was state of the art. The pastor was so pleased to demonstrate that all he had to do was press a button and the altar and tabernacle retracted into a wall, muzak started to play and suddenly what had been a very beige church now became a beige hall, suitable for receptions, weddings etc.. The parish is now closed. It was not holy. It was multi-purpose. To be holy is the opposite of being multi-purpose.
The use of the verb “
hagiazo” is significant in the context of the Last Supper. It is the same verb that we use in the Our Father “Hallowed be thy name.” How can I make the Name of God any holier than it is? I am faced with the same quandary that Lincoln faced at Gettysburg.
One has to understand the phrase to sanctify the Name in a Jewish context. When a Jew sanctifies the Name (of the Lord) he means that he is going to die simply for being Jewish. At the Last Supper when Jesus is talking about consecrating Himself, He is about to go to the cross. He has consecrated Himself by His willingness to die. He is praying that His sacrificial death will allow His disciples to do the same thing. “As You sent Me into the world, I have also sent them into the world." There is an interesting story in the Gospel of John. Philip and Andrew say to Jesus, “Some Greeks want to talk to you.” Jesus goes into a long disquisition saying, “Now has the hour come for the son of man to be glorified. Unless the grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies it remains just a grain of wheat.” This seems an odd way to respond to a simple request to talk with some Greeks!
There is a story behind the text. It seems that the Greeks had come to offer Jesus political asylum in Athens where He could live out His life as a respected philosopher. Jesus explains that He is not a philosopher. He has come into the world to die as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. At the Last Supper, Jesus says that He is sending (literally “apostoling” in Greek) His disciples into the world as He was sent. He is inviting them to be sanctified, to become sacrifices for the redemption of the world. Tall order, no? Yet that is what we volunteer for every time we say the Our Father. We ask to consecrate the name of the Lord in the world even to the point of giving our lives. Our commitment to the Lord is not supposed to be part of our lives. It is in fact the purpose of our lives, if we are Christians.
“Sanctify them in truth,” is a part of the text that gave me a great deal of trouble. What can it possibly mean to be sanctified in truth? It’s easy if you understand what Greek mean by “truth” Some translations say “consecrated by the truth.” The text says “in” not “by”. When we say “by the truth” it sounds like we are being called to argue about theology. In English, when we say “truth,” we usually mean reasoned assertions that are demonstrably factual. The word
aletheia, (truth) in Greek means the opposite of illusion. It means “reality.”
Jesus is saying that we should be consecrated in reality, not just in theory. He says that the Father’s word is truth. “
Logos” usually translated as “word”, means a whole lot more than “word.” It means the reasonable heart of something. It means a way of being as well as a way of thinking or speaking.
“God is true though all others be false.” (Rom 3:4) We can claim to be aware of the truth, but still be very far from the reality of total consecration to the Lord and the life to which He calls us. I am reminded of the words of my old pastor, “A man of words and not of deeds is just a garden full of weeds.”