I have made you known means the same as I showed your glory in verse 4. The verb have made you known is in the aorist tense, and it sums up the total revelation of God in Jesus’ ministry.

You is literally “your name.” To refer to the “name” of God is another way to refer to God himself. This is the basis for rendering you in Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch. See also comments at 2.23; 3.18; and the detailed discussion at 14.13.

The verb make known was first used in 1.31. I have made you known must normally be treated as a causative, but this may result in complications in the clause structure. I have made you known may be rendered “I have caused men to know you.” However, a difficulty results from the dependent clause you gave me out of the world. In some languages it may be related to the preceding clause as “Those you gave me out of the world, these I have caused to know you.”

The phrase out of the world is the same rendered from this world in 15.19. In rendering those you gave me out of the world, it is important to avoid an expression implying that God had taken the people out of the world and given them to Jesus. The reference is, rather, to the disciples who remained in the world, but who were not in a sense “of the world.” For the thought that the disciples were given to Jesus by the Father see 6.37; this thought is a frequently recurring theme throughout the priestly prayer (17.2,9,12,24).

They belonged to you, and you gave them to me simply expands the thought of the previous statement, those you gave me out of the world.

They have obeyed your word translates the same expression used in 8.51 (obeys my message), except for a different pronoun and the use here of the Greek perfect tense. The perfect tense suggests that this aspect of the prayer relates to the time the book was written. It suggests that the disciples had kept and were continuing to keep Jesus’ word.

They have obeyed your word may be rendered in some languages “they have done what you told them to do.” A complication here is that your word refers to the message God had relayed to the disciples through Jesus, but this fact can also be understood from the context.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .