Discovery BoxJohn 15:5-6 
Context15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains 1 in me – and I in him – bears 2 much fruit, 3 because apart from me you can accomplish 4 nothing. 15:6 If anyone does not remain 5 in me, he is thrown out like a branch, and dries up; and such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, 6 and are burned up. 7
1 tn Or “resides.”
2 tn Or “yields.”
3 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.
sn Many interpret the imagery of fruit here and in 15:2, 4 in terms of good deeds or character qualities, relating it to passages elsewhere in the NT like Matt 3:8 and 7:20, Rom 6:22, Gal 5:22, etc. This is not necessarily inaccurate, but one must remember that for John, to have life at all is to bear fruit, while one who does not bear fruit shows that he does not have the life (once again, conduct is the clue to paternity, as in John 8:41; compare also 1 John 4:20).
4 tn Or “do.”
5 tn Or “reside.”
6 sn Such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire. The author does not tell who it is who does the gathering and throwing into the fire. Although some claim that realized eschatology is so prevalent in the Fourth Gospel that no references to final eschatology appear at all, the fate of these branches seems to point to the opposite. The imagery is almost certainly that of eschatological judgment, and recalls some of the OT vine imagery which involves divine rejection and judgment of disobedient Israel (Ezek 15:4-6, 19:12).
7 tn Grk “they gather them up and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.”
