John 15 Bible study: I am the true vine

Jesus says, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the farmer" (15:1) (tap vine). By the WEB's quotation marks he speaks the whole chapter, and his words run on past 15:27. John's Gospel names no place for these words: the chapter before closes with "Arise, let’s go from here" (14:31), and the next place it names is "the brook Kidron" (18:1). Jesus gives the picture himself, and these notes explain it no further than his words. "Every branch in me that doesn’t bear fruit, he takes away. Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit" (15:2) (tap branch, prunes). "You are already pruned clean because of the word which I have spoken to you" (15:3). "Remain in me, and I in you. As the branch can’t bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in me" (15:4) (tap remain). "I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing" (15:5). "If a man doesn’t remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned" (15:6). "If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you will ask whatever you desire, and it will be done for you" (15:7). Then: "In this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; and so you will be my disciples" (15:8) (tap fruit).

Joshua 1:8→leads toJohn 15:7

The LORD tells Joshua, "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it" (1:8). Jesus told his disciples, "If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you will ask whatever you desire, and it will be done for you" (John 15:7), and "If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love" (John 15:10). Jesus doesn't cite Joshua 1, so setting the two side by side is a reading. Some hear the same call in both: words that are to stay with the one who hears them, and be done. Others read John 15:7 within Jesus' picture of the vine, where the first call is "Remain in me, and I in you" (John 15:4), about remaining in Jesus himself, and don't look back to Joshua 1.

μένωmenosay MEN-o

Strong's: "to stay (in a given place, state, relation or expectancy)". Thayer: "to remain, abide". "Remain in me, and I in you" (15:4). This chapter's Greek has the verb 12 times (counted in RP2018): three times in 15:4, once each in 15:5 and 15:6, twice in 15:7, once in 15:9, twice in 15:10, and once each in 15:11 and 15:16. Each time the WEB has remain or remains. Here is what almost everyone misses: it isn't only them remaining in him. "my words remain in you" (15:7), "that my joy may remain in you" (15:11), and "that your fruit should remain" (15:16) are the same verb. Favor's chapter on John 1 studies it where the two disciples ask Jesus, "where are you staying?" (1:38). John's Greek has it 41 times (counted in RP2018).