《Lange’s Commentary on the Holy Scriptures – John (Ch.15~Ch.21》(Johann P. Lange)

15 Chapter 15

Verses 1-15

III

GLORIFICATION OF THIS PRESENT WORLD. BROUGHT ABOUT BY MEANS OF JUDGMENT, BY THE CONTINUING OF THE DISCIPLES IN THE LOVE OF CHRIST, AND BY THEIR INFLUENCE UPON THE WORLD, IN ORDER TO WHICH HE WILL SEND THEM HIS SPIRIT. AMID THE BURNING VINEYARD-FIRES IN THE VALLEY OF KIDRON. CHRIST THE VINE. GLORIFICATION OF THE NOBLE PLANT, AND OF HUBANDRY. GLORIFICATION OF FRIENDSHIP AND JOY. THE HOLY EXCOMMUNICATEDNESS (BANISHMENT) OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD. CONFIRMATION OF THEIR SPIRITUAL LIFE IN FACE OF THE HATRED OF THE WORLD. THE HOLY SPIRIT‘S VICTORY IN THEM OVER THE WORLD. DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIANITY THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT

John 15:1– John 16:15

(Pericope for Exaudi Sunday John 15:26– John 16:4; John 16:5-15 Pericope for Cantate Sunday)

1. The love of Jesus as the source of love to Him ( John 15:1-10)

1I am the true vine,[FN1] and my Father is the husbandman 2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away [αἴρει, cutteth off]: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth [χαθαιρει, cutteth partially, pruneth, cleanseth] it, that it may bring forth [bear] more fruit 3 Now ye are clean through [Ye are clean already because of, by reason of] the word which I have spoken unto you 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more [so neither] can ye, except ye abide in me 5 I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth6[beareth] much fruit; for without [apart from] me ye can do nothing. If a man [any one] abide not in me, he is cast forth as a [the] branch, and is withered; and men [they] gather them, and cast them into the fire,[FN2] and they are burned [they burn (quickly and readily). 7If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall [may][FN3] ask what [whatsoever] ye will, and it shall [will] be done unto you 8 Herein [Therein] is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be [and ye will become (thus for the first time truly)[FN4]] my disciples.

9As the Father hath loved me, so [thus also] have I loved you: continue [abide] ye in my love 10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall [will] abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.

2. Joy ( John 15:11-17)

11These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain [may be][FN5] in you, and that your joy might be full [may be made full, filled up]. 12This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have [omit have] loved you 13 Greater love hath no man [no one] than this, that a man [he] lay down his life for his14,15 friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever [what][FN6] I command you. Henceforth I call you not [No longer do I call you] servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of [which I heard from] my Father I have [omit have] made known unto you 16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you [Ye did not choose me, but I chose you], and ordained [appointed] you, that ye should [may] go and bring forth [bear] fruit, and that your fruit should [may] remain; [in order] that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you 17 These things I command you, [in order] that ye [may] love one another.

3. Steadfastness in view of the hatred of the world ( John 15:18-25)

18If the world hate you, ye [omit ye] know that it [hath] hated me before it hated 19[omit it hated] you.[FN7] If ye were of the world, the world would love his [its] own [in you]; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you 20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have [omit have] persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying [if they kept my word] they will keep yours also 21 But all these things will they do unto you[FN8] for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me 22 If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin [would have no sin[FN9]]; but now they have no cloak [pretext, excuse] for their sin 23 He that hateth me hateth my Father also 24 If I had not done among them the works which none [no] other man did,[FN10] they had not had [they would have no] sin: but now have they [they have] 25both seen and hated both me and my Father. But this cometh to pass, that [But in order that] the word might [may] be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause ( Psalm 35:19; Psalm 69:4).

4. Promise of the Holy Ghost as the strength of martyrdom ( John 15:26 to John 16:6)

26But[FN11] when the Comforter. [Paraclete] is come, whom I will [shall] send unto you from the Father, even [omit even] the Spirit of truth, which [who] proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify [will bear witness, μαρτυρήσει] of me: 27And ye also shall bear witness [But ye also bear witness, or, are witnesses, χαὶύμεῖςδὲμαρτυρεῖτε][FN12]John 16:1 because [for] ye have been [are] with me from the beginning. These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should [may] not be offended [fall 2 through offence]. They shall [will] put you out of the synagogues [excommunicate you]: yea the time [hour] cometh, that whosoever [when every man that] killeth you will think that he doeth God service [a sacrificial service, or, that he is offering service to God]. 3And these things will they do unto you [omit unto you],[FN13] because they have not known the Father, nor me [they neither know the Father nor me]. 4But these things have I told you [But I have spoken these things unto you], that when the time shall come [when the (their)[FN14] hour cometh], ye may remember that I told you of them [ye may remember them as I told you, or, ye may remember that I myself told you of them].[FN15] And these things I said not unto you [I told you not] at the beginning, because I was with you 5 But now I go my way [ὑπάγω, see John 15:7] to him that sent me; and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou? 6But [Yet] because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart.

5. The Holy Ghost as the strength of the victory over the world ( John 15:7-11)

7Nevertheless [But] I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away [depart, ἀπέλθω]; for if I go not away [do not depart], the Comforter [the Paraclete] will not come unto you; but if I depart [go, shall have gone, πορευθῶ],[FN16] I will send him unto you 8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment [he will convince and convict the world, or, bring conviction to the world concerning, or, in regard to sin, and to righteousness, and to judgment, ἐλέγξειτὸνκόσμονπερὶἁμαρτίαςκαὶπερὶδικαιοσύνηςκαὶπερὶκρίσεως].[FN17] 9Of [In regard to] sin (that it is rooted and essentially consists in the fact), because10[that[FN18]] they believe not on me; Of [In regard to] righteousness (that it becomes manifest in the fact), because [that] I (glorified) go to my [the] Father, and ye see 11 me no more (whereby grace and judgment are indicated); Of [In regard to] judgment, because [that] the prince of this world is [hath been] judged (in the work of redemption).

6. Promise of the Holy Ghost as the Spirit of the glorification of Christ, and the revelation of the future ( John 15:12-15.)

12, 13I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. How beit [But] when Hebrews, the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth [all the truth, or, the whole truth, εἰςτὴνἀλήθειανπᾶσαν[FN19]]: for he shall [will] not speak of [from] himself; but whatsoever he shall hear [he heareth],[FN20]that shall he speak [he will speak about]: and he will shew you [tell you, proclaim to you] things to 14 come. He shall [will] glorify me: for he shall receive of mine [he will take of what is mine, ἐκτοῦἐμοῦλήμψεται], and shall shew [will tell, proclaim] it unto you 15 All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I [for this cause I said], that he shall take of mine [he taketh of what is mine, ἐκτοῦἐμοῦλαμβἀνει],[FN21] and shall shew [will tell, proclaim] it unto you.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

[The parabolic discourse or allegory of the Vine and the Branches is the second of the two παροιμίαι recorded in the Gospel of John; the other being the parable of the Good Shepherd, John 10. See the remarks p317 f. It illustrates, under the figure of the noblest of fruit-bearing plants, the precious truth of the organic life-union of Christ with believers: He is the only source of their spiritual life and fruitfulness; they live in Him and of Him; and apart from Him they must inevitably wither and die, like the branches cut off from the parent stem, although they may retain for a little while a deceitful greenness and appearance of life. The same truth is set forth by Paul under the similitude of the head and the members, Ephesians 5:30; Colossians 1:23; Colossians 2:19; Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 10:17; 1 Corinthians 12:20; 1 Corinthians 12:27. In Archbishop Trench’s Studies on the Gospels, pp273–286, there is a suggestive exegetical essay on John 15:1-6.—P. S.]

John 15:1. I am the true vine, etc. [Ἐγώεἰμιἡἄμπελοςἡἀληθινή, καὶὁπατήρμουὁγεωργόςἐστι].—The new meditation takes for granted a preceding pause; the figure chosen by the Lord presupposes a particular inducement to its selection. Various conjectures as to the inducement:

1. It was presented by the golden vine on the door of the temple (Josephus Ant. XV:11, 3; De bello Jud. V:5, 4), viewed during a stay in the temple (Jerome, Rosenmüller), or seen from a distance in the moonlight (Lampe). [This golden vine was one of the chief ornaments of Herod’s temple and no doubt a symbol of the theocracy which is called ‘a noble vine’ ( Jeremiah 2:21; comp. Isaiah 5:1 ff.; Ezekiel 19:10 ff.; Psalm 80:8-19); yet Christ would scarcely set Himself over against a dead image of man’s workmanship.—P. S.]

2. The sight of the wine-cup at the Lord’s supper (see Matthew 26:28; Grotius, Nösselt, Meyer). [Ewald, Trench. The Communion wine, the γέννηματοῦἀμπέλου ( Matthew 26:28), which He had declared to be the symbol of His blood shed for the remission of sins, presented undoubtedly the nearest motive for this discourse on the closest union between Christ and His people, which is embodied in the sacrament of union with Christ and His people. Yet this does not exclude an external occasion such as is suggested by Lange, sub 6.—P. S.]

3. A vine which, from the house, had shot its tendrils into the guest-chamber (Knapp, Tholuck).

4. The view of vineyards reposing outside in the full moon (Storr).

5. Only the mental recollection of the Old Testament figure ( Isaiah 5:1; Jeremiah 2:21; Ezekiel 15:2; Ezekiel 19:10; Psalm 80:8; Lücke, Baumg-Crusius. [Alford who, however, combines with this the second conjecture] considered as relating to Christ and the disciples who were about Him (Hofmann).

6. The walk down to Kedron through the vineyards (Lampe, Lange) [in his Leben Jesu, followed by Godet (II:406), who supposes that Christ, seeing a vine with branches, stopped on the way, gathered His disciples around Him and spoke this parable.—P. S.]

We, however, in upholding this latter view, proceed from the supposition that there were burning along the sides of the valley of Kedron nocturnal vineyard-fires,—for the burning of the cut-off branches is a principal point of consideration. It was1. the time of year for the vineyard-fires, 2. for the cleansing of the vine, 3. for the burning of the offal from the Paschal lamb; this last was strictly commanded ( Exodus 12:10; Numbers 9:12) and might easily have been performed in connection with the duties appertaining to vine-dressing (see Leben Jesu II:3, p1425). The Easter-fires which the Gallic and British Churches caused to be kindled in the night following Maundy-Thursday, point to the celebration of the Lord’s Supper as obtaining in Asia Minor and, through this, back to the Jewish Paschal-fires.

Jesus’ discourse concerning the vine is neither an allegory nor a parable, but a parabolic discourse, and that a symbolical one (see chap10).

The essential Vine, not the “real.” [Comp. on ἀληθινός the first Textual Note.—P. S.] That which the earthly vine is figuratively as a symbol, that which the people of Israel was as a type ( Psalm 80:8; Jer. ii21), Christ is in radical essentiality; He is the trunk-root and stem of the kingdom of love, of its invigorating and inspiriting fruit and effect: festive joy doth the vine represent in an earthly figure, more a child of the heavenly sun than of earthly soil. [The comparison with the O. T. theocracy (defended also by Ebrard and Hengstenberg who find in ἀληθινή an antithesis to the unfruitful vine of the Jewish theocracy) is not so natural here, since Christ represents Himself, and not His Church, as the true Vine, i.e. the reality of the idea which is figuratively represented in the natural vine.—P.S.]

Ye the branches [ὑμεῖςτὰκλήματα, John 15:5.—P. S.] 1. Christ the principle of discipleship, bearing and quickening all through His Spirit; 2. they an organic whole with Him, through the communion of His Spirit.

The husbandman. [γεωργοίς, the owner of the vineyard as well as the laborer, is a more dignified term than ἀμπελουργός, i.e. the vine dresser or actual cultivator of the vine. King Uzziah is called γεωργοίς, 2 Chronicles 26:10, and the leaders of the Jewish theocracy γεωργοί, Matthew 21:31-41. Trench: “Not that the γεωργοίς need be assumed to ‘purge’ or prune only by the hand of others. The labor of the vineyard is exactly of that lighter kind, in which the proprietor might be well pleased himself to take a share.” Wordsworth: “He tills our hearts with the ploughshare of His word, and scatters the seeds of His precepts there, and sends us the dew and rain of the Spirit, that He may reap the fruits of holiness.”—P. S.] God’s rule over the world Isaiah 1. a personal government; 2. a teleological government: establishment, culture, perfection of the kingdom of love; 3. a government exercised upon Christ as the centre of the world and upon His disciples as His organs; a strict and wise government corresponding with the noble nature of the Vine; a government realizing the destiny of the Vine, partly through a cutting off of the useless, partly through a pruning of the serviceable, branches (judgments and purifyings). [Arians used this passage, as implying that the Son was a creature and entirely subordinated to the Father. But Christ calls Himself the true Vine, not in His eternal divine nature, but in His historical mediatorial character and work. Augustine: Quamvis autem Christus vitis non esset, nisi homo esset, tamen istam gratiam palmitibus non præberet, nisi etiam Deus esset.—P. S.]

John 15:2. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away [ΙΙᾶνκλῆμαἐνἐμοὶμὴφέρονκαρπόν, αἳρειαὐτσ́].—In Me; namely in organic intimacy, ἐνἐμοί.[FN22] Antithesis of the non-fruit-bearing and fruit-bearing branches. The circumstance that the fruit-bearing branches are not placed in the fore-ground, is indicative of the occasion which suggested the figure: the view of the vineyard-fires. The ground of unfruitfulness is declared in the following, John 15:4. The natural degeneracy of the proud shoots (Luther) which are not governed by the noble impulse of the vine, but are common, useless wood, is made a figure of the moral misconduct of such of Christ’s members as stand in the external connection of discipleship, without, however, remaining internally connected with Him. [The fruits of the Spirit are enumerated Galatians 5:22.—P. S.]

Every (branch) that beareth fruit, he pruneth (cleanseth) it [καθαίρειαὐτό].—Seeming to attack their lives also with the knife, as is indicated by the similarity of sound: αἴρει, καθαίρει.[FN23] The purgings here mentioned are to be referred to the providences of the Father. Chrysostom calls them πειρασμοί; Augustine: castigationes dei (“sunt emendatoriæ, non interfectoriæ”). [Bengel: afflictiointerna et externa; Trench and others refer the purging to the whole process of sanctification which includes temptations and afflictions.—P. S.] The purging itself is not, indeed, accomplished without the co-operation of the internal judgment of the Spirit ( Galatians 2:19); here, however, Christ has in view those divine judgments, such as overtook the disciples in the Passion-night.—That it may bear more fruit [ἳνακαρπο͂νπλείοναφέρῃ].—The relation between Christ and His disciples is here indicated in such general terms as to render it impossible for the branches to denote only the Apostles, or the fruits official fruits merely. The general fruits of spiritual fellowship with Christ, particularly as fruits of love, constitute the meaning. Such fruits were, doubtless, to make their first appearance as results of the ministry of the Apostles, there being, indeed no true official fruits independent of the fruits of their labors.

John 15:3. Ye are clean already [Ἤδηὑμεῖςκαθαροίἐστε, clean by virtue of your connection with the root and stem, and yet in need of being cleansed as branches, John 15:2 (καθαίρει);mundi atque mundandi…quis enim in hac vita sic mundus, ut non sit magis magisque mundandus? (Augustine). Clean objectively, as being justified in Christ, in need of cleansing subjectively, as to sanctifieation.—P. S.]—See John 13:10. It is a question whether the idea presented is that of men already purified in antithesis to those whose purification is yet future (Meyer), or that of an internal principial purification, which they already possess, in antithesis to the external purification which they still lack and must now receive (Leben Jesu, Tholuck). We regard the latter antithesis as the one intended and agreeing with the context.—The noble vine-branch is clean in respect of its inward vitality, but, nevertheless, it must be purged from wild outgrowths, shoots and appendicles. The purifying word of Jesus that made the disciples clean from within (see John 6:57), must be supplemented from without by the Father’s school of suffering; the latter, however, was not to give them the principle of purity, but to strengthen it and free it from the danger of degeneration. In this school of suffering their purification must be rendered complete through their abiding in Him.