translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: JHN

label: NET translator note

text: Or “the farmer.”


text: Or “He cuts off.” sn The Greek verb αἴρω ( airw ) can mean “lift up” as well as “take away,” and it is sometimes argued that here it is a reference to the gardener “lifting up” (i.e., propping up) a weak branch so that it bears fruit again. In Johannine usage the word occurs in the sense of “lift up” in 8:59 and 5:8-12 , but in the sense of “remove” it is found in 11:39, 11:48, 16:22, and 17:15 . In context (theological presuppositions aside for the moment) the meaning “remove” does seem more natural and less forced (particularly in light of v. 6 , where worthless branches are described as being “thrown out” – an image that seems incompatible with restoration). One option, therefore, would be to understand the branches which are taken away (v. 2 ) and thrown out (v. 6 ) as believers who forfeit their salvation because of unfruitfulness. However, many see this interpretation as encountering problems with the Johannine teaching on the security of the believer, especially John 10:28-29 . This leaves two basic ways of understanding Jesus’ statements about removal of branches in 15:2 and 15:6 : (1) These statements may refer to an unfaithful (disobedient) Christian, who is judged at the judgment seat of Christ “through fire” (cf. 1 Cor 3:11-15 ). In this case the “removal” of 15:2 may refer (in an extreme case) to the physical death of a disobedient Christian. (2) These statements may refer to someone who was never a genuine believer in the first place (e.g., Judas and the Jews who withdrew after Jesus’ difficult teaching in 6:66 ), in which case 15:6 refers to eternal judgment. In either instance it is clear that 15:6 refers to the fires of judgment (cf. OT imagery in Ps 80:16 and Ezek 15:1-8 ). But view (1) requires us to understand this in terms of the judgment of believers at the judgment seat of Christ. This concept does not appear in the Fourth Gospel because from the perspective of the author the believer does not come under judgment; note especially 3:18, 5:24, 5:29 . The first reference ( 3:18 ) is especially important because it occurs in the context of 3:16-21 , the section which is key to the framework of the entire Fourth Gospel and which is repeatedly alluded to throughout. A similar image to this one is used by John the Baptist in Matt 3:10 , “And the ax is already laid at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” Since this is addressed to the Pharisees and Sadducees who were coming to John for baptism, it almost certainly represents a call to initial repentance. More importantly, however, the imagery of being cast into the fire constitutes a reference to eternal judgment, a use of imagery which is much nearer to the Johannine imagery in 15:6 than the Pauline concept of the judgment seat of Christ (a judgment for believers) mentioned above. The use of the Greek verb μένω ( menw ) in 15:6 also supports view (2). When used of the relationship between Jesus and the disciple and/or Jesus and the Father, it emphasizes the permanence of the relationship ( John 6:56, 8:31, 8:35, 14:10 ). The prototypical branch who has not remained is Judas, who departed in 13:30 . He did not bear fruit, and is now in the realm of darkness, a mere tool of Satan. His eternal destiny, being cast into the fire of eternal judgment, is still to come. It seems most likely, therefore, that the branches who do not bear fruit and are taken away and burned are false believers, those who profess to belong to Jesus but who in reality do not belong to him. In the Gospel of John, the primary example of this category is Judas. In 1 John 2:18-19 the “antichrists” fall into the same category; they too may be thought of as branches that did not bear fruit. They departed from the ranks of the Christians because they never did really belong, and their departure shows that they did not belong.


text: Or “does not yield.”


text: Grk “And he”; the conjunction καί ( kai , “and”) has been omitted in the translation in keeping with the tendency in contemporary English style to use shorter sentences.


text: Or “trims”; Grk “cleanses” (a wordplay with “clean” in v. 3 ). Καθαίρει ( kaqairei ) is not the word one would have expected here, but it provides the transition from the vine imagery to the disciples – there is a wordplay (not reproducible in English) between αἴρει ( airei ) and καθαίρει in this verse. While the purpose of the Father in cleansing his people is clear, the precise means by which he does so is not immediately obvious. This will become clearer, however, in the following verse.


text: Or “that yields.”


text: Or “Reside.”


text: Grk “and I in you.” The verb has been repeated for clarity and to conform to contemporary English style, which typically allows fewer ellipses (omitted or understood words) than Greek.


text: Or “resides.”


text: While it would be more natural to say “on the vine” (so NAB), the English preposition “in” has been retained here to emphasize the parallelism with the following clause “unless you remain in me.” To speak of remaining “in” a person is not natural English either, but is nevertheless a biblical concept (cf. “in Christ” in Eph 1:3, 4, 6, 7, 11 ).


text: Or “you reside.”


text: Or “yields.”


text: Grk “in him, this one bears much fruit.” The pronoun “this one” has been omitted from the translation because it is redundant according to contemporary English style. sn Many interpret the imagery of fruit here and in 15:2, 4 in terms of good deeds or character qualities, relating it to passages elsewhere in the NT like Matt 3:8 and 7:20 , Rom 6:22 , Gal 5:22 , etc. This is not necessarily inaccurate, but one must remember that for John, to have life at all is to bear fruit, while one who does not bear fruit shows that he does not have the life (once again, conduct is the clue to paternity, as in John 8:41 ; compare also 1 John 4:20 ).


text: Or “do.”


text: Or “reside.”


text: Grk “they gather them up and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.”


text: Grk “glorified.”


text: The ἵνα ( Jina ) clause is best taken as substantival in apposition to ἐν τούτῳ ( en toutw ) at the beginning of the verse. The Father is glorified when the disciples bring forth abundant fruit. Just as Jesus has done the works which he has seen his Father doing ( 5:19-29 ) so also will his disciples.


text: Or “yield.”


text: B D L Θ 0250 1 565 al ) have the aorist subjunctive γένησθε ( genhsqe ; “[and show that] you are”). The original reading is difficult to determine because the external evidence is fairly evenly divided. On the basis of the external evidence alone the first reading has some credibility because of א and 33, but it is not enough to overthrow the Alexandrian and Western witnesses for the aorist. Some who accept the future indicative see a consecutive (or resultative) sequence between φέρητε ( ferhte ) in the ἵνα ( Jina ) clause and γενήσεσθε , so that the disciples’ bearing much fruit results in their becoming disciples. This alleviates the problem of reading a future indicative within a ἵνα clause (a grammatical solecism that is virtually unattested in Attic Greek), although such infrequently occurs in the NT, particularly in the Apocalypse (cf. Gal 2:4 ; Rev 3:9; 6:4, 11; 8:3; 9:4, 5, 20; 13:12; 14:13; 22:14 ; even here, however, the Byzantine mss , with א occasionally by their side, almost always change the future indicative to an aorist subjunctive). It seems more likely, however, that the second verb (regardless of whether it is read as aorist or future) is to be understood as coordinate in meaning with the previous verb φέρητε (So M. Zerwick, Biblical Greek §342). Thus the two actions are really one and the same: Bearing fruit and being Jesus’ disciple are not two different actions, but a single action. The first is the outward sign or proof of the second – in bearing fruit the disciples show themselves to be disciples indeed (cf. 15:5 ). Thus the translation followed here is, “that you bear much fruit and show that you are my disciples.” As far as the textual reading is concerned, it appears somewhat preferable to accept the aorist subjunctive reading ( γένησθε ) on the basis of better external testimony.


text: Or “keep.”


text: Or “kept.”


text: Grk “These things I have spoken to you.”


text: Or “one dies willingly.”


text: See the note on the word “slaves” in 4:51 .


text: Or “does not know.”


text: Grk “all things.”


text: Or “learned.”


text: Or “and yield.”


text: Grk “These things.”


text: Grk “know.”


text: Grk “it hated me before you.”


text: Grk “if you were of the world.”


text: The words “you as” are not in the original but are supplied for clarity.


text: Grk “because you are not of the world.”


text: Or “world, therefore.”


text: Grk “Remember the word that I said to you.”


text: Or “if they kept.”


text: Or “they will keep.”


text: Or “because of.”


text: Jesus is referring to God as “the one who sent me.”


text: Grk “they would not have sin” (an idiom). sn Jesus now describes the guilt of the world. He came to these people with both words ( 15:22 ) and sign-miracles ( 15:24 ), yet they remained obstinate in their unbelief, and this sin of unbelief was without excuse. Jesus was not saying that if he had not come and spoken to these people they would be sinless; rather he was saying that if he had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of the sin of rejecting him and the Father he came to reveal. Rejecting Jesus is the one ultimate sin for which there can be no forgiveness, because the one who has committed this sin has at the same time rejected the only cure that exists. Jesus spoke similarly to the Pharisees in 9:41 : “If you were blind, you would have no sin (same phrase as here), but now you say ‘We see’ your sin remains.”


text: Or “If I had not done.”


text: Grk “the works.”


text: Grk “they would not have sin” (an idiom).


text: The words “the deeds” are supplied to clarify from context what was seen. Direct objects in Greek were often omitted when clear from the context.


text: Or “But now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father.” It is possible to understand both the “seeing” and the “hating” to refer to both Jesus and the Father, but this has the world “seeing” the Father, which seems alien to the Johannine Jesus. (Some point out John 14:9 as an example, but this is addressed to the disciples, not to the world.) It is more likely that the “seeing” refers to the miraculous deeds mentioned in the first half of the verse. Such an understanding of the first “both – and” construction is apparently supported by BDF §444.3.


text: The words “this happened” are not in the Greek text but are supplied to complete an ellipsis.


text: Or “Helper” or “Counselor”; Grk “Paraclete,” from the Greek word παράκλητος ( paraklhto" ). See the note on the word “Advocate” in John 14:16 for discussion of how this word is translated.


text: Grk “that one.”