Psalms 92:14-15

92:14 They bear fruit even when they are old;

they are filled with vitality and have many leaves. ¹ 

92:15 So they proclaim that the Lord, my protector,

is just and never unfair. ² 

Isaiah 60:21

60:21 All of your people will be godly; ³ 

they will possess the land permanently.

I will plant them like a shoot;

they will be the product of my labor,

through whom I reveal my splendor. ⁴ 

Isaiah 61:3

61:3 to strengthen those who mourn in Zion,

by giving them a turban, instead of ashes,

oil symbolizing joy, ⁵  instead of mourning,

a garment symbolizing praise, ⁶  instead of discouragement. ⁷ 

They will be called oaks of righteousness, ⁸ 

trees planted by the Lord to reveal his splendor. ⁹ 

Isaiah 61:11

61:11 For just as the ground produces its crops

and a garden yields its produce,

so the sovereign Lord will cause deliverance ¹⁰  to grow,

and give his people reason to praise him in the sight of all the nations. ¹¹ 

Matthew 5:16

5:16 In the same way, let your light shine before people, so that they can see your good deeds and give honor to your Father in heaven.

John 15:4-5

15:4 Remain ¹²  in me, and I will remain in you. ¹³  Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, ¹⁴  unless it remains ¹⁵  in ¹⁶  the vine, so neither can you unless you remain ¹⁷  in me.

15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains ¹⁸  in me – and I in him – bears ¹⁹  much fruit, ²⁰  because apart from me you can accomplish ²¹  nothing.

John 15:1

The Vine and the Branches

15:1 “I am the true vine ²²  and my Father is the gardener. ²³ 

Colossians 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, ²⁴  an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

Ephesians 2:10

2:10 For we are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we may do them. ²⁵ 

Colossians 1:6

1:6 that has come to you. Just as in the entire world this gospel ²⁶  is bearing fruit and growing, so it has also been bearing fruit and growing ²⁷  among you from the first day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth.

Colossians 1:2

1:2 to the saints, the faithful ²⁸  brothers and sisters ²⁹  in Christ, at Colossae. Grace and peace to you ³⁰  from God our Father! ³¹ 

Colossians 1:12

1:12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share ³²  in the saints’ ³³  inheritance in the light.

Hebrews 13:15-16

13:15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, acknowledging his name. 13:16 And do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, ³⁴  for God is pleased with such sacrifices.

Hebrews 13:1

Final Exhortations

13:1 Brotherly love must continue.

Hebrews 2:5

Exposition of Psalm 8: Jesus and the Destiny of Humanity

2:5 For he did not put the world to come, ³⁵  about which we are speaking, ³⁶  under the control of angels.

Hebrews 2:9

2:9 but we see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, ³⁷  now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, ³⁸  so that by God’s grace he would experience ³⁹  death on behalf of everyone.

Hebrews 2:12

2:12 saying, “I will proclaim your name to my brothers; ⁴⁰  in the midst of the assembly I will praise you.” ⁴¹ 

Hebrews 4:10-11

4:10 For the one who enters God’s ⁴²  rest has also rested from his works, just as God did from his own works. 4:11 Thus we must make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by following the same pattern of disobedience.

Hebrews 4:14

Jesus Our Compassionate High Priest

4:14 Therefore since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession.

[92:14]  ¹ tn Heb “they are juicy and fresh.”

[92:15]  ² tn Heb “so that [they] proclaim that upright [is] the Lord, my rocky summit, and there is no injustice in him.”

[60:21]  ³ tn Or “righteous” (NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “just.”

[60:21]  ⁴ tn Heb “a shoot of his planting, the work of my hands, to reveal splendor.”

[61:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “oil of joy” (KJV, ASV); NASB, NIV, NRSV “the oil of gladness.”

[61:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “garment of praise.”

[61:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “a faint spirit” (so NRSV); KJV, ASV “the spirit of heaviness”; NASB “a spirit of fainting.”

[61:3]  ⁸ tn Rather than referring to the character of the people, צֶדֶק (tsedeq) may carry the nuance “vindication” here, suggesting that God’s restored people are a testimony to his justice. See v. 2, which alludes to the fact that God will take vengeance against the enemies of his people. Cf. NAB “oaks of justice.”

[61:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “a planting of the Lord to reveal splendor.”

[61:11]  ¹⁰ tn Or perhaps, “righteousness,” but the context seems to emphasize deliverance and restoration (see v. 10 and 62:1).

[61:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and praise before all the nations.”

[15:4]  ¹² tn Or “Reside.”

[15:4]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ tn Or “resides.”

[15:4]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ tn Or “you reside.”

[15:5]  ¹⁸ tn Or “resides.”

[15:5]  ¹⁹ tn Or “yields.”

[15:5]  ²⁰ 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]  ²¹ tn Or “do.”

[15:1]  ²² sn I am the true vine. There are numerous OT passages which refer to Israel as a vine: Ps 80:8-16, Isa 5:1-7, Jer 2:21, Ezek 15:1-8, 17:5-10, 19:10-14, and Hos 10:1. The vine became symbolic of Israel, and even appeared on some coins issued by the Maccabees. The OT passages which use this symbol appear to regard Israel as faithless to Yahweh (typically rendered as “Lord” in the OT) and/or the object of severe punishment. Ezek 15:1-8 in particular talks about the worthlessness of wood from a vine (in relation to disobedient Judah). A branch cut from a vine is worthless except to be burned as fuel. This fits more with the statements about the disciples (John 15:6) than with Jesus’ description of himself as the vine. Ezek 17:5-10 contains vine imagery which refers to a king of the house of David, Zedekiah, who was set up as king in Judah by Nebuchadnezzar. Zedekiah allied himself to Egypt and broke his covenant with Nebuchadnezzar (and therefore also with God), which would ultimately result in his downfall (17:20-21). Ezek 17:22-24 then describes the planting of a cedar sprig which grows into a lofty tree, a figurative description of Messiah. But it is significant that Messiah himself is not described in Ezek 17 as a vine, but as a cedar tree. The vine imagery here applies to Zedekiah’s disobedience. Jesus’ description of himself as the true vine in John 15:1 ff. is to be seen against this background, but it differs significantly from the imagery surveyed above. It represents new imagery which differs significantly from OT concepts; it appears to be original with Jesus. The imagery of the vine underscores the importance of fruitfulness in the Christian life and the truth that this results not from human achievement, but from one’s position in Christ. Jesus is not just giving some comforting advice, but portraying to the disciples the difficult path of faithful service. To some degree the figure is similar to the head-body metaphor used by Paul, with Christ as head and believers as members of the body. Both metaphors bring out the vital and necessary connection which exists between Christ and believers.

[15:1]  ²³ tn Or “the farmer.”

[1:1]  ²⁴ tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[2:10]  ²⁵ tn Grk “so that we might walk in them” (or “by them”).

[1:6]  ²⁶ tn Grk “just as in the entire world it is bearing fruit.” The antecedent (“the gospel”) of the implied subject (“it”) of ἐστιν (estin) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:6]  ²⁷ tn Though the participles are periphrastic with the present tense verb ἐστίν (estin), the presence of the temporal indicator “from the day” in the next clause indicates that this is a present tense that reaches into the past and should be translated as “has been bearing fruit and growing.” For a discussion of this use of the present tense, see ExSyn 519-20.

[1:2]  ²⁸ tn Grk “and faithful.” The construction in Greek (as well as Paul’s style) suggests that the saints are identical to the faithful; hence, the καί (kai) is best left untranslated (cf. Eph 1:1). See ExSyn 281-82.

[1:2]  ²⁹ tn Grk “brothers,” but the Greek word may be used for “brothers and sisters” or “fellow Christians” as here (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 1, where considerable nonbiblical evidence for the plural ἀδελφοί [adelfoi] meaning “brothers and sisters” is cited).

[1:2]  ³⁰ tn Or “Grace to you and peace.”

[1:2]  ³¹ tc Most witnesses, including some important ones (א A C F G I [P] 075 Ï it bo), read “and the Lord Jesus Christ” at the end of this verse, no doubt to conform the wording to the typical Pauline salutation. However, excellent and early witnesses (B D K L Ψ 33 81 1175 1505 1739 1881 al sa) lack this phrase. Since the omission is inexplicable as arising from the longer reading (otherwise, these mss would surely have deleted the phrase in the rest of the corpus Paulinum), it is surely authentic.

[1:12]  ³² tn BDAG 473 s.v. ἱκανόω states, “τινὰ εἴς τι someone for someth. Col 1:12.” The point of the text is that God has qualified the saints for a “share” or “portion” in the inheritance of the saints.

[1:12]  ³³ tn Grk “the inheritance of the saints.” The genitive noun τῶν ἁγίων (twn Jagiwn) is a possessive genitive: “the saints’ inheritance.”

[13:16]  ³⁴ tn Grk “neglect doing good and fellowship.”

[2:5]  ³⁵ sn The phrase the world to come means “the coming inhabited earth,” using the Greek term which describes the world of people and their civilizations.

[2:5]  ³⁶ sn See the previous reference to the world in Heb 1:6.

[2:9]  ³⁷ tn Or “who was made a little lower than the angels.”

[2:9]  ³⁸ tn Grk “because of the suffering of death.”

[2:9]  ³⁹ tn Grk “would taste.” Here the Greek verb does not mean “sample a small amount” (as a typical English reader might infer from the word “taste”), but “experience something cognitively or emotionally; come to know something” (cf. BDAG 195 s.v. γεύομαι 2).

[2:12]  ⁴⁰ tn Here, because of its occurrence in an OT quotation, τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς (tois adelfois) has been translated simply as “brothers” rather than “brothers and sisters” (see the note on the latter phrase in the previous verse).

[2:12]  ⁴¹ sn A quotation from Ps 22:22.

[4:10]  ⁴² tn Grk “his”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.