15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains 17 in me – and I in him – bears 18 much fruit, 19 because apart from me you can accomplish 20 nothing.
1 tn Or “I have many things to pronounce in judgment about you.” The two Greek infinitives could be understood as a hendiadys, resulting in one phrase.
2 tn Grk “the one”; the referent (the Father) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
3 tn Grk “true” (in the sense of one who always tells the truth).
4 tn Grk “and what things I have heard from him, these things I speak to the world.”
5 tn Or “works.”
6 tn Or “so that you may learn.”
9 tn Or “keeps.”
10 tn Grk “obeys them, that one is the one who loves me.”
11 tn Grk “And the one.” Here the conjunction καί (kai) has not been translated to improve the English style.
12 tn Or “will disclose.”
13 tn Or “Reside.”
14 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.
15 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.
16 tn Or “resides.”
17 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).
18 tn Or “you reside.”
17 tn Or “resides.”
18 tn Or “yields.”
19 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.
20 tn Or “do.”
21 tn Grk And I.” The conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has not been translated here in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use shorter sentences.
22 tn The context indicates that this should be translated as an adversative or contrastive conjunction.
23 tn Or “protect them”; Grk “keep them.”
24 tn Or “by your name.”
25 tn The second repetition of “one” is implied, and is supplied here for clarity.
25 tn The words “I pray” are repeated from the first part of v. 20 for clarity.