Tool Beta
Hebrew and Greek Without Learning Either
A walk through Genesis, the Psalms, and John, plus the key Hebrew and Greek words worth knowing. Each card is a place the English Bibles part company, and what in the Hebrew or Greek made them.
John 17:5
The glory which I had with thee before the world was. Glory again, and para with the dative.
John 17:5, in every translation this tool compares.
He had it with him. Alongside, in company. Not sent from a distance.
Because the preposition places the glory alongside the Father rather than merely coming from him, echoing the relational placement of John 1:1b even though the Greek construction there, pros with the accusative, is not literally the same as this verse's para with the dative.
Every version reads with thee or in your presence.
παρά para · G3844
Para with the dative means beside, in the presence of. The same relational placement as pros ton theon at John 1:1, and the pairing of that verse with this one is the frame of the whole Gospel.
English with is flat enough to carry it, but the deliberate echo of the prologue is not visible.
When a Gospel's last discourse uses the vocabulary of its opening, the echo is structural. Look for the prologue in the prayer.
With you is the majority rendering.
- para with the dative: John 1:39; 8:38; 19:25
- pros ton theon at John 1:1
- The prologue and the prayer as bookends
