John 17:6 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

I have manifested thy name— In the Hebrew language the name of any thing signifies the thing itself, Acts 3:16. Our Lord's meaning is, "I have explained thy nature and perfections; I have declared thy merciful designs towards the world; and I have fully taught thy will and worship unto the men whom thou gavest me out of the world, the persons who were chosen by thee out of all mankind to be my apostles. See ch. John 6:44. Thine they were, &c. My apostles belonged to thee, and thou gavest them to me; and they, under my powerful influence upon their hearts, have embraced, and have adhered to the testimony which thou hast given to me, and to the doctrine which I have delivered from thee." By the apostles belonging to God, our Lord means, "they were originally God's, the creatures of his hand, the happy objects of his choice; his by creation, as well as by being sincere disciples of the former dispensation which God had given by Moses."