Jn 17:11–12 speaks of the Father’s name, which he has
given to the Son. The previous discussion has demonstrated that the most likely
name is ἐγὼ εἰμι. This name pervades the Gospel of John both in its
predicative and absolute forms. It has further been argued that this name is
intimately associated with the Hebrew name יהוה, and once that linkage is allowed then one can see how ἐγὼ εἰμι undergirds the Johannine Christology, which is
climatically summarized in Thomas’s confessional statement before the risen
Jesus: ‘Ο κύριός
μου καὶ
ὁ θεός
μου (20:28).
Jesus is one with Yhwh. Jesus has
effectively been given the name יהוה by the
Father.
This is also the name the Jewish high priests carried
on their foreheads, engraved in gold. For Jesus it is not engraved in gold; it
is given not ἐπʼ αὑτῷ, but
rather ἐν αὑτῷ or בקרבו as the mt describes the giving of the name of
God to the angel of Yhwh (Exod.
23:21) (discussed above, 9.5.7). For the high priests there was a sense in
which the name יהוה was
external—they wore it as part of their priestly attire—whereas for Jesus the
name was part and parcel of who he was. It is because of this that Shirbroun is
right when he says that the name the Father gives the Son cannot be given to
the disciples. It belongs to Jesus by virtue of who he is—it cannot be passed
on to his disciples in the same sense in which he has been given it.
Nevertheless he does have the name יהוה, and in having it, not just upon him, but
within him as it were, he is the fulfilment of the high priest. (Kerr, A. (2002). The
Temple of Jesus’ Body: The Temple Theme in the Gospel of John (Vol. 220, p.
335). New York, NY: Sheffield Academic Press.)
