John 2:8

2:8 Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the head steward,” ¹  and they did.

John 15:2

15:2 He takes away ²  every branch that does not bear ³  fruit in me. He ⁴  prunes ⁵  every branch that bears ⁶  fruit so that it will bear more fruit.

John 4:33

4:33 So the disciples began to say ⁷  to one another, “No one brought him anything ⁸  to eat, did they?” ⁹ 

John 21:10

21:10 Jesus said, ¹⁰  “Bring some of the fish you have just now caught.”

John 20:27

20:27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put ¹¹  your finger here, and examine ¹²  my hands. Extend ¹³  your hand and put it ¹⁴  into my side. Do not continue in your unbelief, but believe.” ¹⁵ 

John 15:8

15:8 My Father is honored ¹⁶  by this, that ¹⁷  you bear ¹⁸  much fruit and show that you are ¹⁹  my disciples.

John 18:29

18:29 So Pilate came outside to them and said, “What accusation ²⁰  do you bring against this man?” ²¹ 

John 19:39

19:39 Nicodemus, the man who had previously come to Jesus ²²  at night, ²³  accompanied Joseph, ²⁴  carrying a mixture of myrrh and aloes ²⁵  weighing about seventy-five pounds. ²⁶ 

John 12:24

12:24 I tell you the solemn truth, ²⁷  unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains by itself alone. ²⁸  But if it dies, it produces ²⁹  much grain. ³⁰ 

John 15:4-5

15:4 Remain ³¹  in me, and I will remain in you. ³²  Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, ³³  unless it remains ³⁴  in ³⁵  the vine, so neither can you unless you remain ³⁶  in me.

15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains ³⁷  in me – and I in him – bears ³⁸  much fruit, ³⁹  because apart from me you can accomplish ⁴⁰  nothing.

John 21:18

21:18 I tell you the solemn truth, ⁴¹  when you were young, you tied your clothes around you ⁴²  and went wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and others will tie you up ⁴³  and bring you where you do not want to go.”

John 15:16

15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you ⁴⁴  and appointed you to go and bear ⁴⁵  fruit, fruit that remains, ⁴⁶  so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.

[2:8]  ¹ tn Or “the master of ceremonies.”

[15:2]  ² tn Or “He cuts off.”

[15:2]  ³ tn Or “does not yield.”

[15:2]  ⁴ 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.

[15:2]  ⁵ 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.

[15:2]  ⁶ tn Or “that yields.”

[4:33]  ³ tn An ingressive imperfect conveys the idea that Jesus’ reply provoked the disciples’ response.

[4:33]  ⁴ tn The direct object of ἤνεγκεν (hnenken) in Greek is understood; “anything” is supplied in English.

[4:33]  ⁵ tn Questions prefaced with μή (mh) in Greek anticipate a negative answer. This can sometimes be indicated by using a “tag” at the end in English (here it is “did they?”).

[21:10]  ⁴ tn Grk “said to them.”

[20:27]  ⁵ tn Or “Extend” or “Reach out.” The translation “put” or “reach out” for φέρω (ferw) here is given in BDAG 1052 s.v. 4.

[20:27]  ⁶ tn Grk “see.” The Greek verb ἴδε (ide) is often used like its cognate ἰδού (idou) in Hellenistic Greek (which is “used to emphasize the …importance of someth.” [BDAG 468 s.v. ἰδού 1.b.ε]).

[20:27]  ⁷ tn Or “reach out” or “put.”

[20:27]  ⁸ tn The word “it” is not in the Greek text but is implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[20:27]  ⁹ tn Grk “and do not be unbelieving, but believing.”

[15:8]  ⁶ tn Grk “glorified.”

[15:8]  ⁷ tn 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.

[15:8]  ⁸ tn Or “yield.”

[15:8]  ⁹ tc Most mss (א A Ψ Ë¹³ 33 Ï) read the future indicative γενήσεσθε (genhsesqe; perhaps best rendered as “[and show that] you will become”), while some early and good witnesses (Ì^66vid 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.

[18:29]  ⁷ tn Or “charge.”

[18:29]  ⁸ sn In light of the fact that Pilate had cooperated with them in Jesus’ arrest by providing Roman soldiers, the Jewish authorities were probably expecting Pilate to grant them permission to carry out their sentence on Jesus without resistance (the Jews were not permitted to exercise capital punishment under the Roman occupation without official Roman permission, cf. v. 31). They must have been taken somewhat by surprise by Pilate’s question “What accusation do you bring against this man,” because it indicated that he was going to try the prisoner himself. Thus Pilate was regarding the trial before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin as only an inquiry and their decision as merely an accusation.

[19:39]  ⁸ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[19:39]  ⁹ sn See John 3:1-21.

[19:39]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “came”; the words “accompanied Joseph” are not in the Greek text but are supplied for clarity.

[19:39]  ¹¹ sn Aloes refers to an aromatic resin from a plant similar to a lily, used for embalming a corpse.

[19:39]  ¹² sn The Roman pound (λίτρα, litra) weighed twelve ounces or 325 grams. Thus 100 Roman pounds would be about 32.5 kilograms or 75 pounds.

[12:24]  ⁹ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[12:24]  ¹⁰ tn Or “it remains only a single kernel.”

[12:24]  ¹¹ tn Or “bears.”

[12:24]  ¹² tn Grk “much fruit.”

[15:4]  ¹⁰ tn Or “Reside.”

[15:4]  ¹¹ 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.

[15:4]  ¹² 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.

[15:4]  ¹³ tn Or “resides.”

[15:4]  ¹⁴ 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).

[15:4]  ¹⁵ tn Or “you reside.”

[15:5]  ¹¹ tn Or “resides.”

[15:5]  ¹² tn Or “yields.”

[15:5]  ¹³ 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.

[15:5]  ¹⁴ tn Or “do.”

[21:18]  ¹² tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[21:18]  ¹³ tn Or “you girded yourself.”

[21:18]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “others will gird you.”

[15:16]  ¹³ sn You did not choose me, but I chose you. If the disciples are now elevated in status from slaves to friends, they are friends who have been chosen by Jesus, rather than the opposite way round. Again this is true of all Christians, not just the twelve, and the theme that Christians are “chosen” by God appears frequently in other NT texts (e.g., Rom 8:33; Eph 1:4ff.; Col 3:12; and 1 Pet 2:4). Putting this together with the comments on 15:14 one may ask whether the author sees any special significance at all for the twelve. Jesus said in John 6:70 and 13:18 that he chose them, and 15:27 makes clear that Jesus in the immediate context is addressing those who have been with him from the beginning. In the Fourth Gospel the twelve, as the most intimate and most committed followers of Jesus, are presented as the models for all Christians, both in terms of their election and in terms of their mission.

[15:16]  ¹⁴ tn Or “and yield.”

[15:16]  ¹⁵ sn The purpose for which the disciples were appointed (“commissioned”) is to go and bear fruit, fruit that remains. The introduction of the idea of “going” at this point suggests that the fruit is something more than just character qualities in the disciples’ own lives, but rather involves fruit in the lives of others, i.e., Christian converts. There is a mission involved (cf. John 4:36). The idea that their fruit is permanent, however, relates back to vv. 7-8, as does the reference to asking the Father in Jesus’ name. It appears that as the imagery of the vine and the branches develops, the “fruit” which the branches produce shifts in emphasis from qualities in the disciples’ own lives in John 15:2, 4, 5 to the idea of a mission which affects the lives of others in John 15:16. The point of transition would be the reference to fruit in 15:8.