Having concluded his discourse, Jesus now turns to prayer. Each of the Synoptic Gospels records a time of prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matt. 26:36–46; Mark 14:32–42; Luke 22:40–46), and no doubt John 17 should be compared with this. If John 14:31 was the terminus of the upper room teaching, then John may want us to consider this prayer to be at another location. Some think that Jesus is somewhere between the upper room and the garden (Kidron Valley; 18:1) and suggest that he is in the temple, since at Passover the city gates would remain open. If this is correct (and we cannot be certain), the prayer may be one of consecration, since the Greek term hagiazō, “to make holy” or “sanctify” (17:17, 19), appears elsewhere only at the temple (10:36). In this sense Jesus may be preparing h…