Psalms 1:3

1:3 He is like ¹  a tree planted by flowing streams; ² 

it ³  yields ⁴  its fruit at the proper time, ⁵ 

and its leaves never fall off. ⁶ 

He succeeds in everything he attempts. ⁷ 

Matthew 3:10

3:10 Even now the ax is laid at ⁸  the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

John 15:2-5

15:2 He takes away ⁹  every branch that does not bear ¹⁰  fruit in me. He ¹¹  prunes ¹²  every branch that bears ¹³  fruit so that it will bear more fruit. 15:3 You are clean already ¹⁴  because of the word that I have spoken to you. 15:4 Remain ¹⁵  in me, and I will remain in you. ¹⁶  Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, ¹⁷  unless it remains ¹⁸  in ¹⁹  the vine, so neither can you unless you remain ²⁰  in me.

15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains ²¹  in me – and I in him – bears ²²  much fruit, ²³  because apart from me you can accomplish ²⁴  nothing.

Galatians 5:22-23

5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit ²⁵  is love, ²⁶  joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²⁷  5:23 gentleness, and ²⁸  self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Philippians 1:11

1:11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

Jude 1:12

1:12 These men are ²⁹  dangerous reefs ³⁰  at your love feasts, ³¹  feasting without reverence, ³²  feeding only themselves. ³³  They are ³⁴  waterless ³⁵  clouds, carried along by the winds; autumn trees without fruit ³⁶  – twice dead, ³⁷  uprooted;

[1:3]  ¹ tn The Hebrew perfect verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive here carries the same characteristic force as the imperfect in the preceding verse. According to the psalmist, the one who studies and obeys God’s commands typically prospers.

[1:3]  ² tn Heb “channels of water.”

[1:3]  ³ tn Heb “which.”

[1:3]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew imperfect verbal forms in v. 3 draw attention to the typical nature of the actions/states they describe.

[1:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “in its season.”

[1:3]  ⁶ tn Or “fade”; “wither.”

[1:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “and all which he does prospers”; or “and all which he does he causes to prosper.” (The simile of the tree does not extend to this line.) It is not certain if the Hiphil verbal form (יַצְלִיחַ, yatsliakh) is intransitive-exhibitive (“prospers”) or causative (“causes to prosper”) here. If the verb is intransitive, then כֹּל (kol, “all, everything”) is the subject. If the verb is causative, then the godly individual or the Lord himself is the subject and כֹּל is the object. The wording is reminiscent of Josh 1:8, where the Lord tells Joshua: “This law scroll must not leave your lips! You must memorize it day and night so you can carefully obey all that is written in it. Then you will prosper (literally, “cause your way to prosper”) and be successful.”

[3:10]  ⁸ sn Laid at the root. That is, placed and aimed, ready to begin cutting.

[15:2]  ⁹ tn Or “He cuts off.”

[15:2]  ¹⁰ tn Or “does not yield.”

[15:2]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ tn Or “that yields.”

[15:3]  ¹⁴ 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).

[15:4]  ¹⁵ tn Or “Reside.”

[15:4]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ tn Or “resides.”

[15:4]  ¹⁹ 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]  ²⁰ tn Or “you reside.”

[15:5]  ²¹ tn Or “resides.”

[15:5]  ²² tn Or “yields.”

[15:5]  ²³ 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]  ²⁴ tn Or “do.”

[5:22]  ²⁵ tn That is, the fruit the Spirit produces.

[5:22]  ²⁶ sn Another way to punctuate this is “love” followed by a colon (love: joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control). It is thus possible to read the eight characteristics following “love” as defining love.

[5:22]  ²⁷ tn Or “reliability”; see BDAG 818 s.v. πίστις 1.a.

[5:23]  ²⁸ tn “And” is supplied here as a matter of English style, which normally inserts “and” between the last two elements of a list or series.

[1:12]  ²⁹ tn Grk “these are the men who are.”

[1:12]  ³⁰ tn Though σπιλάδες (spilades) is frequently translated “blemishes” or “stains,” such is actually a translation of the Greek word σπίλοι (spiloi). The two words are quite similar, especially in their root or lexical forms (σπιλάς [spila"] and σπίλος [spilos] respectively). Some scholars have suggested that σπιλάδες in this context means the same thing as σπίλοι. But such could be the case only by a stretch of the imagination (see BDAG 938 s.v. σπιλάς for discussion). Others suggest that Jude’s spelling was in error (which also is doubtful). One reason for the tension is that in the parallel passage, 2 Pet 2:13, the term used is indeed σπίλος. And if either Jude used 2 Peter or 2 Peter used Jude, one would expect to see the same word. Jude, however, may have changed the wording for the sake of a subtle wordplay. The word σπιλάς was often used of a mere rock, though it normally was associated with a rock along the shore or one jutting out in the water. Thus, the false teachers would appear as “rocks” – as pillars in the community (cf. Matt 16:18; Gal 2:9), when in reality if a believer got too close to them his faith would get shipwrecked. Some suggest that σπιλάδες here means “hidden rocks.” Though this meaning is attested for the word, it is inappropriate in this context, since these false teachers are anything but hidden. They are dangerous because undiscerning folks get close to them, thinking they are rocks and pillars, when they are really dangerous reefs.

[1:12]  ³¹ tc Several witnesses (A C^vid 1243 1846 al), influenced by the parallel in 2 Pet 2:13, read ἀπάταις (apatai", “deceptions”) for ἀγάπαις (agapai", “love-feasts”) in v. 12. However, ἀγάπαις has much stronger and earlier support and should therefore be considered original.

[1:12]  ³² tn Or “fearlessly.” The term in this context, however, is decidedly negative. The implication is that these false teachers ate the Lord’s Supper without regarding the sanctity of the meal. Cf. 1 Cor 11:17-22.

[1:12]  ³³ tn Grk “shepherding themselves.” The verb ποιμαίνω (poimainw) means “shepherd, nurture [the flock].” But these men, rather than tending to the flock of God, nurture only themselves. They thus fall under the condemnation Paul uttered when writing to the Corinthians: “For when it comes time to eat [the Lord’s Supper,] each one goes ahead with his own meal” (1 Cor 11:21). Above all, the love-feast was intended to be a shared meal in which all ate and all felt welcome.

[1:12]  ³⁴ tn “They are” is not in Greek, but resumes the thought begun at the front of v. 12. There is no period before “They are.” English usage requires breaking this into more than one sentence.

[1:12]  ³⁵ tn Cf. 2 Pet 2:17. Jude’s emphasis is slightly different (instead of waterless springs, they are waterless clouds).

[1:12]  ³⁶ sn The imagery portraying the false teachers as autumn trees without fruit has to do with their lack of productivity. Recall the statement to the same effect by Jesus in Matt 7:16-20, in which false prophets will be known by their fruits. Like waterless clouds full of false hope, these trees do not yield any harvest even though it is expected.

[1:12]  ³⁷ tn Grk “having died twice.”