John 15:1-17
15:1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower.
15:2 He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.
15:3 You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you.
15:4 Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.
15:5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.
15:6 Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.
15:7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
15:8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.
John 15:9-17
15:9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.
15:10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.
15:11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
15:12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
15:13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
15:14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.
15:15 I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.
15:16 You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.
15:17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.
[1] Ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ἄμπελος ἡ ἀληθινή, καὶ ὁ πατήρ μου ὁ γεωργός ἐστι.
[2] πᾶν κλῆμα ἐν ἐμοὶ μὴ φέρον καρπόν, αἴρει αὐτό, καὶ πᾶν τὸ καρπὸν φέρον, καθαίρει αὐτό, ἵνα πλείονα καρπὸν φέρῃ.
[3] ἤδη ὑμεῖς καθαροί ἐστε διὰ τὸν λόγον ὃν λελάληκα ὑμῖν.
[4] μείνατε ἐν ἐμοί, κἀγὼ ἐν ὑμῖν. καθὼς τὸ κλῆμα οὐ δύναται καρπὸν φέρειν ἀφ᾽ ἑαυτοῦ, ἐὰν μὴ μείνῃ ἐν τῇ ἀμπέλῳ, οὕτως οὐδὲ ὑμεῖς, ἐὰν μὴ ἐν ἐμοὶ μείνητε.
[5] ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ἄμπελος, ὑμεῖς τὰ κλήματα. ὁ μένων ἐν ἐμοὶ κἀγὼ ἐν αὐτῷ, οὗτος φέρει καρπὸν πολύν, ὅτι χωρὶς ἐμοῦ οὐ δύνασθε ποιεῖν οὐδέν.
[6] ἐὰν μή τις μείνῃ ἐν ἐμοί, ἐβλήθη ἔξω ὡς τὸ κλῆμα καὶ ἐξηράνθη, καὶ συνάγουσιν αὐτὰ καὶ εἰς τὸ πῦρ βάλλουσι, καὶ καίεται.
[7] ἐὰν μείνητε ἐν ἐμοὶ καὶ τὰ ῥήματά μου ἐν ὑμῖν μείνῃ, ὃ ἐὰν θέλητε αἰτήσασθε, καὶ γενήσεται ὑμῖν.
[8] ἐν τούτῳ ἐδοξάσθη ὁ πατήρ μου, ἵνα καρπὸν πολὺν φέρητε, καὶ γενήσεσθε ἐμοὶ μαθηταί.
[9]καθὼς ἠγάπησέ με ὁ πατήρ, κἀγὼ ἠγάπησα ὑμᾶς· μείνατε ἐν τῇ ἀγάπῃ τῇ ἐμῇ.
[10]ἐὰν τὰς ἐντολάς μου τηρήσητε, μενεῖτε ἐν τῇ ἀγάπῃ μου, καθὼς ἐγὼ τὰς ἐντολὰς τοῦ πατρός μου τετήρηκα καὶ μένω αὐτοῦ ἐν τῇ ἀγάπῃ.
[11]Ταῦτα λελάληκα ὑμῖν ἵνα ἡ χαρὰ ἡ ἐμὴ ἐν ὑμῖν μείνῃ καὶ ἡ χαρὰ ὑμῶν πληρωθῇ.
[12]αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ ἐντολὴ ἡ ἐμή, ἵνα ἀγαπᾶτε ἀλλήλους καθὼς ἠγάπησα ὑμᾶς.
[13] μείζονα ταύτης ἀγάπην οὐδεὶς ἔχει, ἵνα τις τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ θῇ ὑπὲρ τῶν φίλων αὐτοῦ.
[14]ὑμεῖς φίλοι μού ἐστε, ἐὰν ποιῆτε ὅσα ἐγὼ ἐντέλλομαι ὑμῖν.
[15]οὐκέτι ὑμᾶς λέγω δούλους, ὅτι ὁ δοῦλος οὐκ οἶδε τί ποιεῖ αὐτοῦ ὁ κύριος· ὑμᾶς δὲ εἴρηκα φίλους, ὅτι πάντα ἃ ἤκουσα παρὰ τοῦ πατρός μου ἐγνώρισα ὑμῖν.
[16]οὐχ ὑμεῖς με ἐξελέξασθε, ἀλλ᾽ ἐγὼ ἐξελεξάμην ὑμᾶς, καὶ ἔθηκα ὑμᾶς ἵνα ὑμεῖς ὑπάγητε καὶ καρπὸν φέρητε, καὶ ὁ καρπὸς ὑμῶν μένῃ, ἵνα ὅ,τι ἂν αἰτήσητε τὸν πατέρα ἐν τῷ ὀνόματί μου, δῷ ὑμῖν.
[17]ταῦτα ἐντέλλομαι ὑμῖν, ἵνα ἀγαπᾶτε ἀλλήλους.
Comments
I have treated the successive two lections as one. St John’s prose can sing like a prose poem. The pericope opens with a metaphor sustained throughout, that of the fruit-bearing ‘vine’ and the ‘farmer/ vintner’. Vintage and vine imagery is found in ancient Greek poetry usually in wedding-song and other amatory contexts. Note that for the meaning of St John’s and much if not most NT vocabulary it is not always necessary to look beyond the classical period.
[1] Ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ἄμπελος ἡ ἀληθινή: Ἐγώ is not grammatically required, but is rhetorically effective, laying stress on ‘I’.
ἀληθινός, ή, όν, of things, ‘true, genuine’ (in Plato: LSJ s.v. 2). Jesus is the perfect vine in contradistinction to other vines.
[2] πᾶν κλῆμα ἐν ἐμοὶ μὴ φέρον καρπόν, αἴρει αὐτό, καὶ πᾶν τὸ καρπὸν φέρον, καθαίρει αὐτό, ἵνα πλείονα καρπὸν φέρῃ:
κλῆμα: ‘twig, branch, esp. vine-twig’ (cl. Gk: LSJ s.v. A.). In v. 5 the pl. κλήματα rhymes with ῥήματά (μου) in v. 7.
μὴ φέρον καρπόν ~ τὸ καρπὸν φέρον is a chiasmus (a criss-cross rhetorical pattern, AB ~ B’A’). The phrase φέρει καρπόν (‘bears fruit’, i.e. grapes) and its variants occur throughout the lengthy pericope, esp. in the first half.
‘Every branch in me [the vineyard] that does not bear grapes, He [my Father the farmer] lifts/ removes it. Every one that bears fruit, he prunes it.’ ‘It’ in both sentences is redundant, suggesting colloquial syntax. αἴρω, ‘I lift and take away, remove’ (cl. Gk prose & poetry: LSJ s.v. III). One imagines the vinedresser lifting the vine and clipping it. αἴρει rhymes with the etymologically unrelated καθαίρει, ‘purifies, cleanses’, hence ‘clears or cuts away’, ‘prunes’. As J. Brodie, The Gospel of John, p. 479 remarks, ‘The overlapping of the [rhyming] verbs suggests an activity which is coordinated, flowing. This vinedresser knows what to do.’
[3] καθαροί: ‘clean, pure’, etym. related to καθαίρει immed. above.
[4] μείνατε ἐν ἐμοί, κἀγὼ ἐν ὑμῖν: the vb μένω, ‘dwell in, abide’ and its variants recur from the beginning to the end of the pericope.
κἀγὼ ἐν ὑμῖν: ‘and I in you (pl.)’ is an ellipsis, ‘as I abide in you’, ‘and I shall abide in you’.
ὁ μένων ἐν ἐμοὶ κἀγὼ ἐν αὐτῷ, οὗτος φέρει καρπὸν πολύν: the construction ‘he who abides in me as I [abide] in him, THAT person (οὗτος) brings forth much fruit’ throws emphasis on ‘that person’.
[6] ἐὰν μή τις μείνῃ ἐν ἐμοί, ἐβλήθη ἔξω ὡς τὸ κλῆμα καὶ ἐξηράνθη, καὶ συνάγουσιν αὐτὰ καὶ εἰς τὸ πῦρ βάλλουσι, καὶ καίεται: ἐβλήθη ἔξω, ‘was or has been cast out’, a gnomic aorist which (by definition) expresses a general truth in the present. In this prophesying context the aor./ present expresses a future certainty. ἐβλήθη, pass. aor. of βάλλομαι, connotes a violent action (‘I am thrown out’).
καίεται: pass., ‘it burns, is ablaze’, coming at the end of the sentence, is emphatic. Βecause the vb is a prophetic present, the burning carries on in the future.
[8] ἐν τούτῳ ἐδοξάσθη ὁ πατήρ μου: ἐδοξάσθη, ‘was or has been glorified’ is a gnomic, i.e. aor. that generalises in the present.
[9]καθὼς ἠγάπησέ με ὁ πατήρ, κἀγὼ ἠγάπησα ὑμᾶς· μείνατε ἐν τῇ ἀγάπῃ τῇ ἐμῇ: καθὼς, rel. adv., non-cl., ‘just as’ introduces a precise comparison, an interlacing:‘just as… so also I…’ (κἀγὼ). Cf. v. 12, καθὼς ἠγάπησα ὑμᾶς.
ἠγάπησα < ἀγαπῶ (άω): the meaning here is that of the classical vb, ‘I love’, esp. of a father’s for his child (e.g., Plato: LSJ s.v. A.I); in cl. Gk the vb is rarely used of sexual love (although on an Attic vase a racy-looking woman is labelled Άγάπη).
ἐν τῇ ἀγάπῃ: in keeping with vase above, the noun ἀγάπη can refer to carnal love in LXX; it can also refer to ‘zeal’ for God, wisdom, etc. (Muraoka s.v. ),and in LXX and NT ‘charity’. See further C. Cavarnos, The Christian concept of love, Boston, 1996.
[14] ὑμεῖς φίλοι μού ἐστε: ὑμεῖς could easily have been omitted, but stresses the subject of the sentence, ‘YOU (pl.)’. φίλοι < φίλος, an adj. that can also be a substantive, of which the root meaning from Homer onwards is, ‘near and dear’, ‘someone near and dear’ (e.g., a comrade, a relative, friend, etc.), as Gregory Nagy remarks in connection with ancient Greek poetry .
Insights into Biblical Greek Grammar and Syntax 