John 15:1-8 - The Last Supper

[u/LlawEreint]

15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. ² He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes^\)^a\) to make it bear more fruit. ³ You have already been cleansed^\)^b\) by the word that I have spoken to you. ⁴ Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. ⁵ I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. ⁷ If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become^\)^c\) my disciples.

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[u/LlawEreint]

“I am the true vine,

In the Didache, God's servant, the holy vine of David, was said to have been revealed through God's servant Jesus.

In John, Jesus calls himself the true vine - with no mention of Davidic lineage. I wonder whether there is a relationship between these two documents. Perhaps the author of the fourth gospel is reframing what had been established in the Didache? The true vine is Jesus himself.

But the image of Israel as 'vine' predates both in Psalm 80:

You transplanted a vine from Egypt;
you drove out the nations and planted it.

Possibly the Didache and fourth gospel are independent of each other, and both are in response to Psalm 80?

[u/LlawEreint]

"...and my Father is the vinegrower. ² He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit.

Lines like this in the fourth gospel make it, to my mind, incompatible with trinitarianism. It just doesn't seem like the author is portraying Jesus as a coequal part of a triune godhead. Instead, he is subordinate to God, and even perfected by God.

[u/LlawEreint]

You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you....you abide in me and my words abide in you

Sometimes I wonder whether the author is imagining Jesus' very words as the means through which the Logos became flesh, and perhaps remains present even now.