John 15:2-5

15:2 He takes away ¹  every branch that does not bear ²  fruit in me. He ³  prunes ⁴  every branch that bears ⁵  fruit so that it will bear more fruit. 15:3 You are clean already ⁶  because of the word that I have spoken to you. 15:4 Remain ⁷  in me, and I will remain in you. ⁸  Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, ⁹  unless it remains ¹⁰  in ¹¹  the vine, so neither can you unless you remain ¹²  in me.

15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains ¹³  in me – and I in him – bears ¹⁴  much fruit, ¹⁵  because apart from me you can accomplish ¹⁶  nothing.

¹ tn Or “He cuts off.”

² tn Or “does not yield.”

³ tn 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.

⁴ tn 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.

⁵ tn Or “that yields.”

⁶ sn The phrase you are clean already occurs elsewhere in the Gospel of John only at the washing of the disciples’ feet in 13:10, where Jesus had used it of the disciples being cleansed from sin. This further confirms the proposed understanding of John 15:2 and 15:6 since Judas was specifically excluded from this statement (but not all of you).

⁷ tn Or “Reside.”

⁸ tn 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.

⁹ sn The branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it remains connected to the vine, from which its life and sustenance flows. As far as the disciples were concerned, they would produce no fruit from themselves if they did not remain in their relationship to Jesus, because the eternal life which a disciple must possess in order to bear fruit originates with Jesus; he is the source of all life and productivity for the disciple.

¹⁰ tn Or “resides.”

¹¹ tn 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).

¹² tn Or “you reside.”

¹³ tn Or “resides.”

¹⁴ tn Or “yields.”

¹⁵ tn 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.

¹⁶ tn Or “do.”