In verse 11 Jesus addressed God as Holy Father, while in this verse he addresses him as Righteous Father. Both the Old Testament (Jer 12.1; Psa 119.137) and the New Testament (Rom 3.26) speak of God as “righteous.” He is righteous because he does what is right; and this is seen primarily in the punishment of evil men and the saving of the innocent. The term righteous is probably chosen for the present context because the idea of judgement is implicit in the statement that the world does not know the Father. However, Jesus knows the Father and Jesus’ disciples know that the Father sent Jesus. In Greek, the verbs does not know … know … know are in the aorist indicative tense, and so they are rendered in the past tense in several translation (New American Bible, for example, “has known … have known … have known”). But the verbs may be used to summarize the total outcome of Jesus’ ministry, and so the present, indicating timelessness, is a valid rendering. However, one may choose to render “The world has never known you, but I have always known you, and these have come to know that you sent me.”

The phrase Righteous Father involves the same problems encountered in the expression Holy Father (verse 11). It may be necessary to use for Father an expression which cannot have such an attributive as righteous. Thus one may need to say “my Father, you who are righteous” or “… who are just.” In some languages it is difficult to employ an adjective with the meaning “righteous.” It is usually possible, however, to qualify an action, for example, “you who always do what is right” or “you who act fairly.” It may even be necessary in some languages to say “you who judge fairly,” since to judge fairly is an important aspect of God’s relationship to people and is linked closely with an expression of God’s righteousness.

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 .