This is the conclusion of my consideration whether my assumption that Jesus called Judas Iscariot ὁ υἱὸς τῆς ἀπωλείας (NET: the one destined for destruction) is like Jesus’ disciples’ discussion about having no bread¹ after He said: “Watch out! Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod!”² I’ll begin with a request John recorded that Jesus’ made of his Father (John 17:15 NET):

I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but that you keep them safe from the evil one.

John also recorded God’s answer to Jesus’ request (1 John 5:18 LSV):

We have known that everyone who has been begotten of God does not sin, but He who was begotten of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him;

I’ll pause here a moment to address the NET translators’ objection (NET note 50) to ὁ γεννηθεὶς ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ as a reference to Jesus.

The One fathered by God [Jesus] protects him [the Christian].” This is a popular interpretation, and is certainly possible grammatically. Yet the introduction of a reference to Jesus in this context is sudden; to be unambiguous the author could have mentioned the “Son of God” here, or used the pronoun ἐκεῖνος (ekeinos) as a reference to Jesus as he consistently does elsewhere in 1 John. This interpretation, while possible, seems in context highly unlikely.

As I mentioned in another essay, the NET translators’ confused everyone who has been begotten of God does not sin with “the Christian.” Listen to how differently John addressed “the Christian” (1 John 1:8-2:2 ESV):

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

John had very high expectations for My little children (Τεκνία μου): ἵνα μὴ ἁμάρτητε (that you may not sin) is a purpose clause in the subjunctive mood. But this expectation is different from the positive affirmation: We have known that everyone who has been begotten of God does not sin.⁴ For this reason I would amend the NET translators’ first statement: “The One fathered by God [Jesus] protects him [the new man].” So, their main objection that “the introduction of a reference to Jesus in this context is sudden” and therefore “highly unlikely” rests solely on a desire for John “to be unambiguous.”

Did John or the Holy Spirit intend “to be unambiguous” or, rather, did they intend to highlight the strong connection between πᾶς ὁ γεγεννημένος ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ (everyone who has been begotten of God) and ὁ γεννηθεὶς ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ (He who was begotten of God)? Listen to another related request that Jesus made of his Father in the very same prayer (John 17:20, 21 LSV):

And I do not ask in regard to these alone, but also in regard to those who will be believing in Me through their word, that they all may be one, as You Father [are] in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one⁵ in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.

So, to conclude God’s answer to Jesus’ previous request that his Father keep them:

As I mentioned in another essay, the translators’ understood autou as a personal pronoun in the genitive case: “The genitive case has more uses than most other cases, but in general a noun in the genitive case helps to limit the scope of another noun by indicating its ‘kind’ or ‘class’.” None of the English translations I found understood autou as an adverb. There are probably more uses of the genitive case than I can glean from these short definitions, but this seems to ignore the genitive case and treat autou as if it were in the accusative case. I’ve begun a new thread surveying the New Testament usage of αὐτοῦ and ἑαυτοῦ so I won’t belabor that here.

My point here is the focus and concern of Jesus’ prayer as He is no longer in the world (John 17:6-12 LSV):

I revealed Your Name to the men whom You have given to Me out of the world; they were Yours, and⁶ You have given them to Me, and they have kept Your word [Table]; now they have known that all things, as many as You have given to Me, are from You, because the sayings that You have given to Me, I have given to them, and they themselves received, and have known truly, that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me [Table]. I ask in regard to them; I do not ask in regard to the world, but in regard to those whom You have given to Me, because they are Yours, and all Mine are Yours, and Yours [are] Mine, and I have been glorified in them; and I am no longer in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your Name, whom You have given to Me, that they may be one as We [are one]; when I was with them in the world, I was keeping them in Your Name; I guarded those whom You have given to Me, and none of them were destroyed, except the son of the destruction, that the Writing may be fulfilled [Table].

At the beginning of this passage I think it’s safe to say that Jesus prayed specifically for those to whom He had ministered personally: I revealed Your Name to the men whom You have given to Me out of the world; they were Yours, and You have given them to Me, and they have kept Your word.⁷ But then his gaze broadened: I ask in regard to them; I do not ask in regard to the world, but in regard to those whom You have given to Me, because they are Yours, and all Mine are Yours, and Yours [are] Mine, and I have been glorified in them.⁸

I say that Jesus’ gaze broadened here because John also recorded who Jesus would consider Mine, and therefore those whom You have given to Me, if he was crucified (John 12:27-33 LSV):

Now My soul has been troubled; and what will I say—Father, save Me from this hour? But because of this (John 12:20-26) I came to this hour; Father, glorify Your Name.” Therefore there came a voice out of Heaven, “I both glorified, and again I will glorify [it]”; the multitude, therefore, having stood and heard, were saying that there has been thunder; others said, “A messenger has spoken to Him.” Jesus⁹ answered and said, “This voice has not come because of Me, but because of you; now is a judgment of this world, now will the ruler of this world be cast forth; and I, if I may be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.” And this He said signifying by what death He was about to die [Table];

The Greek phrase ουδεις εξ αυτων seems like a strange construction for none of them (LSV) and Not one of them (NET). Why not simply ουδεις αυτων? And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, yet none of them (οὐδεὶς αὐτῶν) was cleansed except (εἰ μὴ) Naaman¹⁰ the Syrian.¹¹ But John used ουδεις εξ three times.

Was he less proficient in Greek than Luke? I wondered. If John’s Gospel were written by a twenty-something John, I might accept that, but every indication is that it was written by the elder John who not only spent his youth with Jesus but enjoyed a lifetime with the indwelling Holy Spirit, making sense of those years. And what of the Holy Spirit? I decided to look deeper than mere occurrence.

Hasn’t Moses¹² given you the law? Yet not one of you (οὐδεὶς ἐξ ὑμῶν) keeps the law! Why do you want to kill me?¹³ The Greek word translated keeps was actually ποιεῖ (a form of ποιέω) rather than τήρει (a form of τηρέω) or φύλασσε (a form of φυλάσσω). So Jesus said to Jewish leaders¹⁴ (οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι), “not one of you does the law”? That sounds ridiculous on the face of it.

Jewish leaders were all about doing the law. Of course, one of the more salient features of the Gospels is that Jewish leaders were “all about doing the law” in much the same way I was all about doing compliance, to minimize my experience of being screamed at, to maximize my experience of being thought of and spoken of well, all for my praise and my glory. And Jesus was never all about looking at things “on the face of it” but on the heart.

It was past time to take ἐξ more seriously: Jesus said to Jewish leaders, “nothing out of you” or “from within you does the law.” In other words, nothing out of them or from within them loved God or their neighbor with the love God supplies through his own indwelling Holy Spirit (Mark 12:28-31 NET).

Now one of the experts in the law came and heard them debating. When he saw that Jesus answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is: ‘Listen, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one [Table]. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength’ [Table]. The second is: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these” [Table].

The Jewish leaders (and I) were like actors pretending to love like God by our own skill and in our own strength (weakened through the flesh). Only John recorded the disturbing words Jesus spoke to those Judeans who had believed (“and continued to believe”; Perfect Tense) him¹⁵ (πρὸς τοὺς πεπιστευκότας αὐτῷ Ἰουδαίους): You people are from your father the devil, and you want to do what your father desires.¹⁶ It may not have been the best way to win friends and influence people, but it was perhaps the only way to tell his followers the truth about the evil within them, that evil Paul would later describe as the old man (τὸν παλαιὸν ἄνθρωπον) who is being corrupted in accordance with deceitful desires.¹⁷

John also recorded Jesus saying (John 16:4b-6 NET):

I did not tell you these things (John 15:1-16:4a) from the beginning because I was with you [Table]. But now I am going to the one who sent me, and not one of you (οὐδεὶς ἐξ ὑμῶν) is asking me, ‘Where are you going?’ Instead your hearts are filled with sadness because I have said these things to you.

Though Jesus’ word and his presence had already created in his disciples what Paul would later describe as the new man (τὸν καινὸν ἄνθρωπον) who has been created in God’s image—in righteousness and holiness that comes from truth,¹⁸ it was weak compared to the old man apart from Jesus’ own indwelling Spirit. “Nothing out of you” or “from within you is asking me” the most obvious question, Jesus marveled. They were focused instead on their own feelings.

So now, when I come to—Not one of them (οὐδεὶς ἐξ αὐτῶν) was lost except the one destined for destruction¹⁹—it is much easier to hear: “Nothing out of” or “from within them was lost (LSV: destroyed) except the one destined for destruction” (KJV: the son of perdition), e.g., the old man (τὸν παλαιὸν ἄνθρωπον) who is being corrupted in accordance with deceitful desires.²⁰

I wondered for a moment or two at ἀπώλετο, translated was lost (NET), is lost (KJV) and were destroyed (LSV), a form of ἀπόλλυμι, ἀπόλλω, ἀπολλύω in the 2^nd aorist tense and indicative mood. But Bill Mounce answered my concern in his article, “The Aorist is so much more than a past tense”:

I like Con Campbell’s word picture of the aorist. You are in a helicopter over the parade, looking at the parade as a whole. Buist Fanning talks about seeing the action from the outside as a whole rather than from inside the action (i.e., being part of the parade).

Because this is the basic genius of the aorist, it can have a phenomenally wide range of usage. You can be looking at the action as a whole but paying special attention to the beginning (“ingressive”) or to the end (“consummative”). It can describes [sic] something that simply is regardless of any time reference (“gnomic”).

But my favorite is to [sic] proleptic (futuristic) use of the aorist. Because time is secondary, the aorist can describe a future event and emphasize the certainty of the action. It is not a common usage, but it does show how we need to keep the idea of “time” in its proper place.

So, Jesus did not refer to Judas Iscariot any more or any less than He referred to me or anyone or everyone else. What Scripture, what Writing did this fulfill once and for all? Nothing less than the Name of God:

According to a note (62) in the NET Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy 6:4, 5 and Joshua 22:5. A table comparing the Greek of his quotation in Mark 12:29b, 30 to that of the Septuagint follows.

According to a note (63) in the NET Jesus quoted from Leviticus 19:18. A table comparing the Greek of his quotation in Mark 12:31a to that of the Septuagint follows.

Tables comparing Deuteronomy 6:4 and Joshua 22:5 in the Tanakh, KJV and NET, and tables comparing the Greek of Deuteronomy 6:4 and Joshua 22:5 in the Septuagint (BLB and Elpenor), and tables comparing John 17:21; 12:30; Luke 4:27 and John 7:19 in the KJV and NET follow.