How do deniers of Jesus' preincarnate existence interpret John 17:5? `And now, glorify me, Thou Father, with Thyself, with the glory that I had before the world was, with Thee; [John 17:5, YLT]


And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. [John 17:5, KJV]


And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. [John 17:5, ESV]

At face value, this verse appears to be saying 1) that Jesus already existed before the creation of the world, 2) that He was in a glorified form and 3) that He was with the Father at that time. The top answers on this related question from Hermeneutics.SE arrive at the same conclusion. Of course, deniers of Jesus' preincarnate existence do not accept this conclusion, so they must interpret John 17:5 differently. How do they interpret this verse?

Note: a related discussion on Hermeneutics.SE for the interested reader: Is there room for interpreting John 17:5 as Jesus having notional/ideal pre-existence in light of 2 Timothy 1:9?
Ancient Jewish culture had a concept of notional pre-existence. See Jesus’ Pre-Existence – Literal or Ideal? Something could exist in the mind of God (God's plan), and be talked about as existing but in a different sense from how we normally talk about existence - it exists or existed notionally.
So, the question is if Jesus had notional pre-existence but not literal pre-existence, then how can that be squared with the phrase

&quot;with the glory that I had with you before the world was.&quot;

at John 17:5. That is, how can something that doesn't have literal existence have glory?
But again, if someone can exist notionally, what makes one think glory can't exist notionally? That is, why can't Jesus existing notionally in God's plan have glory in God's plan? There seems to be no reason why not. It is simply an imposition of our modern ways of thinking upon an ancient Jewish text to say he couldn't. As commentary on John 17:5 in the Revised English Version Bible says

&quot;Jesus was praying that the glory the Old Testament foretold he would
have, and which had been in the mind of God the Father since before
the world began, would come into concretion.&quot;

Addendum: the debate about pre-existence is to a large extent a proxy debate which is actually about whether Jesus is God. Unitarians say Jesus is not God, and usually say Jesus did not have literal pre-existence. Trinitarians say Jesus is God, and therefore did have literal pre-existence.
It is interesting to note that almost immediately prior to the verse about Jesus' glory, at John 17:3, Jesus says &quot;You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.&quot; It's pretty clear - two entities, God on the one hand and Jesus on the other. If Jesus did pre-exist, according to John's Gospel he wasn't God pre-existing.