Home
John Chapter 15

John Chapter 15

(Underlining marks a quotation/allusion. [Brackets] mark a textual variant.fnWhen two (or more) different copies of an original manuscript disagree on any given word or phrase — addition, omission, word order, etc. — the disagreement is called a "textual variant". ~99% of existing textual variants are either minor (like spelling), obviously not original (often appearing only in a few late manuscripts), or don't affect meaning (like "Jesus Christ" vs. "Christ Jesus"). The ~1% that remain do not affect any central doctrine of Christianity. The BOS Bible only marks significant textual variants that affect the meaning; smaller variants that do not affect meaning won't be marked for readability.  "Love" with a caret ("^love") is agapé.fn"agapé" The Greek words ἀγάπη (agapé, noun), and ἀγαπάω (agapaó; verb) are typically translated "love".  However, unlike our English word "love" – which primarily speaks of affection and feelings — agapé centers on choice and behavior.  It’s the "love" based on will, choice, behavior, and action; not feelings.  (Feelings-based love is the Greek word φιλέω (phileó), which properly means "brotherly love/affection".)  Thus, you could hate someone passionately and still treat him with "agapé".  Agapé "love" is best understood as the pursuit of what is most beneficial to someone or something, regardless of the cost to yourself or the type of response received from the person or thing.  It can also indicate a preference for someone or something over other things. An asterisk (*) indicates a verb in the Greek perfect tense.fnThe Greek perfect tense signifies a completed action in the past with a result and/or an ongoing state that extends into the present. For example, Hebrews 12:2 says in part: "He *sat down at the right hand of the throne of God"; the verb for "sat" is in the perfect tense, indicating that He sat down once (completed action in the past), and also that He remains seated until the present moment (ongoing state).)

Glossary

Note: this glossary is currently a work in progress; entries that do not expand will be added as time permits

Ages/of ages
“ages” and “of ages” are the Greek words “αἰών” (aión, noun form) and “αἰώνιος” (aiónios, adjective form) respectively.  The adjective form is typically translated “eternal”, as in “eternal life”. The noun form refers to a whole time period, (Keizer, “Life Time Entirety”) such as a person’s lifetime (an older Greek sense), an age/epoch (e.g., 2 Cor 4:4), or even time in its entirety, making its meaning similar to “forever” (e.g., John 14:16). The adjective form is similarly context-dependent, and the New Testament context often dictates a meaning similar to “forever” (but not always: e.g. 2 Tim 1:9).  Alternately or additionally, it can indicate the quality of a time period — indicating greatness/severity — like the English idiom “of ages” (e.g. “battle of the ages”). Thus, “of ages” was chosen for the adjective form so that both the time and quality senses remain visible.

Clean/unclean

Covenant

Faith

Flesh

Forgive/forgiveness

Grace
The Greek word is “χάρις” (charis), most often translated “grace”, “gift”, or “thanks”. It was a technical term in the 1st century, referring to the Patronage system in place. The Patron (from “pater” = “father”) would give gifts or do favors (both called a charis). A charis was always given/done freely to anyone who would be grateful for it, and this person then became a “client” of the patron. The clients were expected to reciprocate by telling everyone what the patron had done, and offering their services to the patron whenever the patron needed them. This reciprocal act was also called “charis”, and the ones who reciprocated were “being faithful” by giving thanks in this way. Both were done out of gratitude, not legal obligation. A client who wasn’t faithful and grateful probably wouldn’t receive any more charis from his patron, or any other patrons. The patron was responsible for taking care of all his clients, and making sure their needs were met. New Testament usage typically casts God the Father as a Heavenly Patron, to whom Christians should be grateful and faithful because of the gifts He has given us. (e.g. salvation, provision, protection, etc.)

Holy

Justification

Law (Torah)

Make purification

Pure/Impure

Purification offering
In the Old Testament, this is typically the Hebrew “חַטָּ֖את” (khat-tat); in the New Testament, it’s typically “περὶ ἁμαρτίας” (peri hamartias), which is what the Septuagint (an ancient translation of the Old Testament into Greek) used to translate the Hebrew. It’s traditionally translated “sin offering”, but that translation has less support in high-level scholarship. The Hebrew word can mean “sin”, but it can also mean “purification” (e.g. Numbers 8:7). This offering was used to purify uncleanness, whether or not a sin was committed. Thus, it was required even when no sin was committed, such as after childbirth (Leviticus 12:1-8), for certain diseases (Leviticus 14), etc. High-level, peer-reviewed scholarship dedicated to the field (e.g. Milgrom, Levine, Gane, Sklar, Wright, Gorman, etc.) is largely united on the “purification offering” understanding. The BOS Bible has aligned itself with that high-level, peer-reviewed scholarship in its translation.

Ransom

Redemption

Repent/repentance

Righteous/righteousness

Salvation/save

Soul
“soul” is the Greek word “ψυχή/psuché” and Hebrew word “נֶפֶשׁ/nephesh”. The BOS Bible translates these words as “soul” for consistency, and so the full meaning of “soul” isn’t obscured by different translations in different places. They closely overlap in meaning and are typically translated “soul” or “life”. They refer to the animating force of a living thing, and thus can also refer to its life, or to the whole of any person or creature, including animals (e.g. fish in Revelation 8:9 and Genesis 1). They are frequently used as an emphatic reference to a person’s whole self, including longings, deep emotions, and inner life. (e.g. Ps 42:11) Note: while “soul” has significant overlap in meaning with “spirit”, the words have distinct meanings and usages throughout scripture. For example, lions tear apart a soul in Psalm 7:2, and a “dead soul” is mentioned in Leviticus 21:11; “spirit” has no analogous usages, and it returns to God at death (Ecc 12:7; Acts 7:59). The adjective forms of soul and spirit are contrasted in 1 Corinthians 2:14-15; see also: Hebrews 4:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:23.

Sin

Click to Collapse the Glossary
Vines and branches
  1. “I am the true vine and My Father is the vinegrower.
  2. “Every branch that’s in Me but not bearing fruit, He removes it.  And every branch bearing fruit, He cleans it by pruningfn“cleans… …by pruning” is one word in Greek, which means to clean something by purging it of anything unclean, and was thus applied to pruning. so it might bear more fruit.
  3. “You are already clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.
  4. “Remain in Me, and I in you.  Just as the branch isn’t able to bear fruit from itself if it doesn’t remain in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me.
  5. I am the vine, you are the branches.  The man remaining in Me and I in him; this man bears much fruit because without Me, you are able to do nothing.
  6. “If someone doesn’t remain in Me, he was cast out like a branch and was withered.  And they collect them and cast them into the fire and they’re burned.fn“they’re burned” is literally “it’s burned” (singular), referring to the branch (singular) in the first half of the verse.
  7. “If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you desire and it will happen for you.
  8. “My Father is glorified in this, that you might bear much fruit, and you will become My disciples.
Love one another
  1. “Just as the Father ^loved Me, I also ^loved you; remain in My ^love.
  2. “If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My ^love, just as I have kept the commandments of My Father and I remain in His ^love.
  3. “I have told you these things so My joy might be in you, and your joy might be full.
  4. “This is My commandment, that you should ^love one another just as I ^loved you.
  5. “No one has greater ^love than this: that someone lays down his life for his friends.
  6. “You are My friends if you do what I command you.
  7. “I no longer call you slaves because a slave doesn’t *know what his master is doing.  But I *call you friends because I declared to you all things that I heard from My Father.
  8. “You didn’t choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you, so that you might go and bear fruit and your fruit might remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He might give it to you.
  9. “These things I command you so that you might ^love one another.
The world will hate you
  1. “If the world hates you, you know that it *hated Me before you.
  2. “If you were of the world, the world would love its own.  But because you aren’t of the world but I chose you from the world, the world hates you because of this.
  3. “Remember the word that I told you: A slave isn’t greater than his master.  If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.  If they kept My word, they will also keep yours.
  4. “But they will do all these things to you because of My name, because they don’t *know the One who sent Me.
  5. “If I hadn’t come and spoken to them, they wouldn’t have sin, but now they don’t have an excuse for their sin.
  6. “The man hating Me also hates My Father.
  7. “If I hadn’t done works among them that no other man did, they wouldn’t have sin.  But now they have both seen and hated both Me and My Father.
  8. “But this happened so the word *written in their law might be fulfilled: “They hated Me without cause.”fnquotation/allusion to Psalm 69:4 and/or Psalm 35:19
  9. “When the Advocate whom I will send to you from the Father comes – the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father – He will testify about Me.
  10. “And you also testify because you are with Me from the beginning.”

 

Next: John chapter 16

Previous: John chapter 14

Up: The Book of John

Up: BOS Bible Index

 

Note: If you think a word, phrase, or passage could be better translated - or is wrong - then Please Say Something. This is an open source Bible that's accountable to all Christians. See this link for details.

Legal Use: Please feel free to quote the BOS Bible, but follow the guidelines on the Legal Use page when doing so. They are easy and mostly common sense.