prune
The fifteenth chapter of the Gospel According to John (NABRE) describes the work of Jesus Christ building his Church using the image of pruning a vine. This powerful and significant image addresses the idea of qualifying or earning a place in God’s kingdom. Within this image, the Greek text contains a fascinating and important double meaning that’s lost in translation.The word translated as “prune,” καθαίρω (kathaireo), comes from a root meaning “to cleanse.” This root can refer specifically to pruning, though more broadly it refers to any sort of cleansing. The same root is used to describe any Old Testament concepts of cleanness or purity. With that in mind, the statement in the Gospel According to John 15:2 (NABRE), “… and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit,” takes on a double meaning of either pruning or cleansing. Note that this pruning or cleansing is not about removing branches but rather about helping those branches bear more fruit. Any branch, then, that bears any fruit Jesus refines through a process of cleansing or pruning, and the double meaning here suggests that that cleansing is based on Old Testament purity rules and practices.
you also may like our study of the Gospel According to John
The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth, a 25-lesson Catholic Bible study with an imprimatur, examines the Fourth Gospel’s view of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, with special emphasis on the institution of the sacraments of the Church as the means by which Christians are purified and made holy. This recently revised study includes maps and additional commentary, and takes a closer look at the way in which Jesus relates to individual men and women. Click on the book’s cover to view a sample lesson.
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