John 15:1

John 15:1 . I am, &c. — Our Lord having gone with his disciples to the mount of Olives, employed the remaining hours of his ministry in delivering to them a long and most excellent discourse, recorded in this and the following chapter. This discourse he began with the parable of the vine, taken probably from the vines that were growing around them on the mount of Olives. In this parable he shows them the excellence of his religion, and the nature of the relation in which they stood to him by the profession thereof. Moreover, he explains to them the advantages which would accrue to them from this relation. I am the true vine — I am to my church, and the real members thereof, what the vine is to its branches. As the branches of the vine draw nourishment from, and are made fruitful by, their union with the stock, and by the care of the dresser, so my disciples are made fruitful in all holiness and righteousness by faith in me, and in the truths and promises of my gospel, and by the influence of my Spirit. And my Father is the husbandman — Or, vine-dresser; he has planted this vine, his providence watches over it, and by him it is dressed and cultivated, and he views with peculiar delight the growth and fertility of its branches. In this passage our Lord seems to allude to Psalm 80:8 , &c.; Isaiah 5:3-7 ; where the Jewish Church is represented under the figure of a vine: and God’s peculiar care thereof is set forth by the care which a husbandman takes of his vineyard.

Wherefore, by calling himself, on this occasion, the true vine, Jesus intimated, that whereas the Jewish Church and people had hitherto been the peculiar care of God, they were to be so no longer. From this time forth, all such as became real partakers of the Christian religion, and who, perhaps, in allusion to this parable, were called by the apostle the body of Christ, were to be the true church of God, and the objects of his care, whatever nation or country they were of. See Dr. Samuel Clarke, and Macknight.

John 15:1 . Ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ἄμπελος ἡ ἀληθινή , “I am the true vine.” ἡ ἀληθινή suggests a contrast to other vines to which this title could not be applied: but not to a vine trailing across the window of the room where they were, nor to the golden vine on the Temple gate, nor to the vines on the slopes of Olivet; but to Israel, the stock which God had planted to bring forth fruit to Him, see Psalms 80, Isaiah 5, Jeremiah 2:21 . ἐγὼ δὲ ἐφύτευσά σε ἄμπελον καρποφόρον πᾶσαν ἀληθινήν . The vine was a recognised symbol also of the Messiah, see Delitzsch in Expositor , third series, iii., p. 68, and in his Iris , pp. 180–190, E. Tr. On the Maccabean coinage Israel was represented by a vine. It was the present situation which here suggested the figure. As Jesus rose to depart the disciples crowd round Him with anxiety on every face. Their helplessness and trouble appeal to Him, and He encourages them by reminding them that, although left to do His work in the world, they would still be united to Him as truly as the branches to the vine. He and His together are the true Vine of God. καὶ ὁ πατήρ μου ὁ γεωργός ἐστι , “and my Father is the vine-dresser”. What is now happening is the Father’s doing, and, therefore, tends to the well-being and fruitfulness of the vine. [“Pater qui cum diligit me, certe servabit totum fruticem.” Melanchthon.]

The true vine (ἡ ἄμπελος ἡ ἀληθινὴ) Literally, the vine, the true (vine). True, genuine, answering to the perfect ideal. See on John 1:9. The vine was a symbol of the ancient church. See the passages cited above, and Hosea 10:1; Matthew 21:33; Luke 13:6. Husbandman (γεωργός) From γῆ, the earth, and ἔργω, to work. The vine-dresser is ἀμπελουργός, occurring only at Luke 13:7; but the office of the vine-dresser is a subordinate one, while γεωργός may indicate the proprietor. See 2 Chronicles 26:10 (Sept.), where the word is applied to King Uzziah. So of Noah, Genesis 9:20. In Matthew 21:33-41, the γεωργοὶ represent the chiefs and leaders of the Jews. Wyc., an earth-tiller.

I {1} am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. (1) We are by nature dry and fit for nothing but the fire. Therefore, in order that we may live and be fruitful, we must first be grafted into Christ, as it were into a vine, by the Father's hand: and then be daily moulded with a continual meditation of the word, and the cross: otherwise it will not avail any man at all to have been grafted unless he cleaves fast to the vine, and so draws juice out of it.

CHAPTER 15 Joh 15:1-27. Discourse at the Supper Table Continued. 1-8. The spiritual oneness of Christ and His people, and His relation to them as the Source of all their spiritual life and fruitfulness, are here beautifully set forth by a figure familiar to Jewish ears (Isa 5:1, &c.).

I am the true vine—of whom the vine of nature is but a shadow. my Father is the husbandman—the great Proprietor of the vineyard, the Lord of the spiritual kingdom. (It is surely unnecessary to point out the claim to supreme divinity involved in this).John 15:1-11 Under the parable of a vine Christ sets forth God’sgovernment of his church, and exhorts his disciplesto abide in his faith and doctrine.John 15:12-17 He commands them to love one another, according tothe great love he had showed for them,John 15:18-25 forewarns them of the hatred and persecution of the world,John 15:26,27 and telleth them of the testimony which the HolyGhost, and they also, should bear to him.Chapter Introduction As our Saviour in the former chapter had chiefly spent his discourse for the relief of his disciples under their trouble for the want of his bodily presence, so he seemeth in this chiefly to bend his discourse for the comfort of them under their disturbance, for fear they should, together with the want of the comfort they had in his bodily presence, want also his spiritual influences; to prevent which, he compares himself to a vine, then to the branches; and showeth by that similitude the near union they had with him, and the influence he would and must have upon them, so long as they did abide with him.

1 . I am the true vine ] We have here the same word for ‘true’ as in John 1:9 , John 6:32 ; Revelation 3:14 . Christ is the true, the genuine, the ideal, the perfect Vine, as He is the perfect Light, the perfect Bread, and the perfect Witness (see on John 1:9 ). “The material creations of God are only inferior examples of that finer spiritual life and organism in which the creature is raised up to partake of the Divine nature” (Alford). Whether the allegory was suggested by anything external,—vineyards, or the vine of the Temple visible in the moonlight, a vine creeping in at the window, the ‘fruit of the vine’ ( Matthew 26:29 ) on the table which they had just left,—it is impossible to say. Of these the last is far the most probable, as referring to the Eucharist just instituted as a special means of union with Him and with one another. But the allegory may easily have been chosen for its own merits and its O.T. associations ( Psalm 80:8-19 ; Isaiah 5:1-7 ; Jeremiah 2:21 ; &c.) without any suggestion from without. The vine was a national emblem under the Maccabees and appears on their coins. the husbandman ] The Owner of the soil Who tends His Vine Himself and establishes the relation between the Vine and the branches. There is therefore a good deal of difference between the form of this allegory and the parable of the Vineyard ( Mark 12:1 ) or that of the Fruitless Fig-tree ( Luke 13:6 ).