Jesus appoints his disciples as his agents to continue his divine mission according to John 17:17-19

Abstract

This article attempts to point out that John 17:18 does not refer to the historical sending of the disciples by Jesus, but rather the official appointment of the disciples as his agents to continue his divine mission in the world. The historical sending of the disciples will take place at a later stage, in 20:21, after Jesus’ resurrection. In order to prove this hypothesis the following aspects are considered, namely: The two complementary themes (Jesus’ approaching departure and discipleship) in the Last Discourses, also mentioned in Ch 17, point to the continuation of Jesus’ mission and converge in 17:17-19; the ‘agency’ concept in the Fourth Gospel constitutes the theological context in which the continuation of Jesus’ mission is to be understood; a semantic- linguistic account and the theological understanding and interpretation of 17:17-19 approves the legitimacy of the above- mentioned hypothesis. Finally, a comparison of 17:17-19 with 20:21 also proves that 17:17-19 refers to Jesus’ appointment of his disciples to be his agents in order to continue his mission, while 20:21 refers to the historical sending of the disciples by Jesus.