3. ἤδη ὑμεῖς
4. µείνατε ἐν ἐμοὶ, κἀγὼ ἐν ὑμῖν.
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καθαροί ἐστε, διὰ τὸν λόγον ὃν λελάληκα ὑμῖν. «χι. το, 11;
Xvil. 17.
καθὼς τὸ κλῆμα οὐ δύναται
ο , ~ Δ καρπὸν φέρειν ah ἑαυτοῦ, ἐὰν μὴ pelvy ἐν τῇ ἀμπέλῳ, οὕτως οὐδὲ
ὑμεῖς, ἐὰν μὴ ἐν ἐμοὶ µείνητε. κλήματα.
πολύν: ὅτι χωρὶς ἐμοῦ οὐ δύνασθε ποιεῖν οὐδέν. ἐβλήθη ἔξω ὡς τὸ κλῆμα, καὶ ἐξηράνθη, καὶ ἆ Mt. iii. το
µείνη 1 ἐν ἐμοὶ,
, «συνάγουσιν αὐτὰ καὶ εἰς πῦρ βάλλουσι, καὶ καίεται. 7. ’ > > λ ‘ % ερ 4 > (Pete ή a2 3δν θέλ µείνητε ἐν ἐμοὶ, καὶ τὰ ῥήματά µου ἐν ὑμῖν µείνῃ, ὃ ἐὰν θέλητε
5. ἐγώ εἶμι ἡ ἄμπελος, ὑμεῖς τὰ
ὅ µένων ἐν ἐμοὶ, κἀγὼ ἐν αὐτῷ, οὗτος Φέρει καρπὸν
6. ἐὰν py τις
ain and vii.19. EQY e iv. 36. Mt. Xiii. 47.
1 µενη is better authenticated, being found in *ABD.
especially the pruning requisit e for con- centrating the vigour of the tree on the one object, ἵνα πλείονα καρπὸν Φφέρῃ, that it may continually surpass itself, and yield richer and richer results. The vine-dresser spares no pains and no ma- terial on his plants, but all for the sake of fruit. [Cf. Cicero, De Senec., xv. 53.] The use of καθαίρει was probably deter- mined by the καθαροί of ver. 3.—Ver. 3. ἤδη ὑμεῖς καθαροί ἐστε: “ Already ye are clean”. καθαροί here means “ina condition fit to bear fruit”; in xiii. το, II, it is suggested by the feet-washing, and means “free from inward stain”. It is similarly used even in classical writers, διὰ τὸν λόγον ὃν λελάληκα ὑμῖν, “‘on account of the word which I have spoken unto you”. For διά in this sense as indicating the source, see vi. 67. The word which Jesus had spoken to them, i.e., the whole revelation He had made, had brought spiritual life, and, therefore, cleansing. But this condition they must strive to maintain, µείνατε ἐν ἐμοί, kayo ἐν ὑμῖν. pev@ must be understood after kayo. Maintain your belief in me, your attachment to me, your derivation of hope, aim, and motive from me: and I will abide in you, filling you with all the life you need to represent me on earth. All the divine energy you know to be in me will now pass through you.—Ver. 4. It is in and through you I live henceforth. καθὼς τὸ κλῆμα . . . µείνητε [or µένητε]; illustrating by the figure the necessity of the foregoing injunction. A branch that falls to the ground, and no longer abides in the vine as a living part of it, cannot bear fruit, so neither can ye except ye abide in me. That is, ye can- not bear the fruit my Father, the vine- dresser, looks for, and by which He will be glorified, νετ. 8.—Ver. 5. ἐγὼ... kAxjpata—‘‘I am the Vine, ye are the branches,” together forming one tree and
possessed by one common life. The stock does not bear fruit, but only
the branches; the branches cannot live without the stock. Therefore it follows 6 µένων . . . οὐδέ. The one
thing needful for fruit-bearing is that we abide in Christ, and He in us; that the branch adhere to the vine, and the life of the vine flow into the branch. xwpis ἐμοῦ, “in separation from me’’. See Eph. ii. 12. Grotius gives the equiva- lents ‘‘ seorsim,” ‘‘ separatim,” κατὰ µονάς, Kar αὐτό. οὐ δύνασθε ποιεῖν οὐδέν, “ye cannot do anything,” abso- lutely nothing according to i. 3,43; but here the meaning is, ‘“‘ye cannot do anything which is glorifying to God, anything which can be called fruit- bearing,” νετ. 8.—Ver. 6. ἐὰν µή τις µείνῃ, “if any one shall not have abided in me”. ἐβλήθη .. . ἐξηράνθη, the gnomic aorist, cf. 1 Peter i. 24; and see Burton, M. and T., 43, and Grotius: ‘* Hi aoristi sine designatione temporis signifi- cant quid fieri soleat, pro quo et praesens saepe usurpatur’’. The whole process undergone by the fruitless branch is described in these six verbs, αἴρει ver. 2, ἐβλήθη, ἐξηράνθη, cvvayovow, βάλλουσι, katerat, and each detail is thus given for the sake of emphasising the inevitable- ness and the completeness of the destruc- tion. ἐβλήθη ew ὡς τὸ κλῆμα, ‘is cast out,” i.e., from the vineyard, as the next words show; here this means hopeless rejection. The result is ἐξηράνθη, the natural capacity for fruit - bearing is destroyed. The figure derived from the treatment of the fruitless branch is con- tinued in συνάγουσιν . . . καίεται, cf, Mt. xiii. 49, 50; and 41, 42. On καίεται, Euthymius remarks οὐ μὴν κατακαίονται “but are not consumed”. And in Exod. iii. 2, the bush καίεται, but ov κατε- καίετο “' burns, but was not consumed’”’, But this only shows that without the