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John

About this book
Chapter 15

1 “I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. 2 He takes away every branch that does not bear fruit in me. He prunes every branch that bears fruit so that it will bear more fruit. 3 You are clean already because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me—and I in him—bears much fruit because apart from me you can accomplish nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown out like a branch and dries up; and such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire and are burned up.⁠ 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want, and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is honored by this, that you bear much fruit and show that you are my disciples. 9 “Just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you; remain in my love. 10 If you obey my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. 11 I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete. 12 My commandment is this—to love one another just as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this—that one lays down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I no longer call you slaves because the slave does not understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends because I have revealed to you everything I heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that remains, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you. 17 This I command you—to love one another. 18 “If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you do not belong to the world, but I chose you out of the world, for this reason the world hates you.⁠ 20 Remember what I told you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they obeyed my word, they will obey yours too. 21 But they will do all these things to you on account of my name because they do not know the one who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. But they no longer have any excuse for their sin. 23 The one who hates me hates my Father too. 24 If I had not performed among them the miraculous deeds that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen the deeds and have hated both me and my Father. 25 Now this happened to fulfill the word that is written in their law, ‘They hated me without reason.’ 26 When the Advocate comes, whom I will send you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me, 27 and you also will testify because you have been with me from the beginning.

Texts in conversation

Compare Ezekiel 19:12 and John 15:6

Hebrew Bible · New Testament

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Summary

In John, Jesus’ description of dead branches being burned recalls Ezekiel’s language about a vine that once thrived but was torn up and left to dry out. In both, the vine may represent a community or people that have lost their strength and purpose.

Passages

Ezekiel 19:12

Hebrew Bible
10 “‘Your mother was like a vine in your vineyard, planted by water. It was fruitful and full of branches because it was well-watered. 11 Its boughs were strong, fit for rulers’ scepters; it reached up into the clouds. It stood out because of its height and its many branches. 12 But it was plucked up in anger; it was thrown down to the ground. The east wind dried up its fruit; its strong branches broke off and withered—a fire consumed them. 13 Now it is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land. 14 A fire has gone out from its branch; it has consumed its shoot and its fruit. No strong branch was left in it, nor a scepter to rule.’ “This is a lament song, and has become a lament song.”
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Ezekiel

John 15:6

New Testament
4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me—and I in him—bears much fruit because apart from me you can accomplish nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown out like a branch and dries up; and such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire and are burned up. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want, and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is honored by this, that you bear much fruit and show that you are my disciples.
90–110 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in John

References

"... John 15 describes judgment on the branches in terms similar to all three of Ezekiel’s vine metaphors. In John 15:6, the disconnected branches wither and are burned in the fire. In Ezekiel 15:4, the pruned branches serve only as fuel for the fire; in Ezekiel 17:9-10, the vine’s shoots wither and in Ezekiel 19:12-14 the branches and the “strong branch” wither and fire consumes the vine Why does John draw so heavily on Ezekiel’s vine metaphors? One possibility is that Ezekiel 17 so closely matches what John wishes to say about Jesus. Ezekiel 17 describes the royal house as a cedar cutting (17:3) that is planted in a good place so that it will become a great vine growing branches and bearing fruit ..."
Gary T. Manning Jr., “Shepherd, Vine, and Bones: The Use of Ezekiel in the Gospel of John,” in After Ezekiel: Essays on the Reception of a Difficult Prophet, ed. P. Joyce and A. Mein, LHBOTS (London: T&T Clark, 2010), 1–31.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Ezekiel 19:12 and John 15:6

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