---
title: John 17:24
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/john-17-24/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/john-17-24.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: John 17:24
testament: NT
section: Gospels
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# John 17:24

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am, that they may see the glory You gave Me because You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (1984 edition): "Father, as to what you have given me, I wish that, where I am, they also may be with me, in order to behold my glory that you have given me, because you loved me before the founding of the world."
- NWT (2013 revision): "Father, I want those whom you have given me to be with me where I am, in order that they may look upon my glory that you have given me, because you loved me before the founding of the world."

## JW Usage

JWs read John 17:24 as the Father's special favour toward the firstborn of creation. Within the Michael-the-archangel framework, the Father's pre-creation love for the Son is read as covenantal favour toward a uniquely beloved created being — the first thing Jehovah brought into existence and chose to share his works with. The "founding of the world" language is taken to mark when Jehovah's affection for his Son began.

## Protestant Usage

John 17:24 is one of the load-bearing texts for the eternal love between Father and Son. Jesus prays that those given to him "may look upon my glory that you have given me, because you loved me before the founding of the world" (NWT 2013). Pre-creation love presupposes pre-creation relationship between distinct persons. Pair this verse with 1 John 4:8 (God IS love) and Malachi 3:6 (God does not change). If God's nature is love, and his nature is unchanging, then there must always have been a beloved Other within God. A unitarian Jehovah loving no one for the eternity before he made his Son contradicts both immutability and the love-nature of God. On the doorstep, ask the gentle question: what was Jehovah loving for the eternity before he created Jesus? John 17:24 already supplies the answer — he was loving the Son, before the world began.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [God Is Love — From Eternity, Or Not At All](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/trinity-from-immutable-love.md) — 1 John 4:8 / Malachi 3:6 / John 17:24 [Deity of Christ]
- [Always the Father, Always a Son](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/eternal-father-eternal-son.md) — Malachi 3:6 / John 17:24 — if Jehovah never changes and has always been Father, he has always had a Son [Deity of Christ]