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Chapter 15

The Vine and the Branches. [a]“I am the true vine,[b] and my Father is the vine grower.(A) He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does he prunes[c] so that it bears more fruit. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.(B) Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. [d](C)Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.(D) By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.(E) As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love.(F) 10 If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.(G)

11 “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.(H) 12 This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.(I) 13 [e]No one has greater love than this,(J) to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends,[f] because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.(K) 16 It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.(L)

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Footnotes

  1. 15:1–16:4 Discourse on the union of Jesus with his disciples. His words become a monologue and go beyond the immediate crisis of the departure of Jesus.
  2. 15:1–17 Like Jn 10:1–5, this passage resembles a parable. Israel is spoken of as a vineyard at Is 5:1–7; Mt 21:33–46 and as a vine at Ps 80:9–17; Jer 2:21; Ez 15:2; 17:5–10; 19:10; Hos 10:1. The identification of the vine as the Son of Man in Ps 80:15 and Wisdom’s description of herself as a vine in Sir 24:17 are further background for portrayal of Jesus by this figure. There may be secondary eucharistic symbolism here; cf. Mk 14:25, “the fruit of the vine.”
  3. 15:2 Takes away…prunes: in Greek there is a play on two related verbs.
  4. 15:6 Branches were cut off and dried on the wall of the vineyard for later use as fuel.
  5. 15:13 For one’s friends: or: “those whom one loves.” In Jn 15:9–13a, the words for love are related to the Greek agapaō. In Jn 15:13b–15, the words for love are related to the Greek phileō. For John, the two roots seem synonymous and mean “to love”; cf. also Jn 21:15–17. The word philos is used here.
  6. 15:15 Slaves…friends: in the Old Testament, Moses (Dt 34:5), Joshua (Jos 24:29), and David (Ps 89:21) were called “servants” or “slaves of Yahweh”; only Abraham (Is 41:8; 2 Chr 20:7; cf. Jas 2:23) was called a “friend of God.”