Digging Deeper

The “True Vine”

Welcome to this week’s Digging Deeper. This is where we explore some concepts and viewpoints a little more in depth. I hope you enjoy it. In this post we will discuss the vine imagery from John15:1-17

There are a few ways to understand Jesus’ statement, “I am the true vine.” In the first, Jesus makes reference to the Old Testament imagery of the vine representing the nation of Israel. A number of Old Testament references include this vine imagery. While not an exhaustive list, these include, Psalm 80:7-8 and 14-17, Isaiah 5:1-7, Isaiah 27:2, Jeremiah 2:21, and Ezekiel 15:1-8.

Let’s briefly look more closely at Psalm 80:7-8 and 14-17.

“7 Restore us, O God of hosts;

let your face shine, that we may be saved!

8 You brought a vine out of Egypt;

you drove out the nations and planted it.”

14 “Turn again, O God of hosts!

Look down from heaven, and see;

have regard for this vine,

15 the stock that your right hand planted,

and for the son whom you made strong for yourself.

16 They have burned it with fire; they have cut it down;

may they perish at the rebuke of your face!

17 But let your hand be on the man of your right hand,

the son of man whom you have made strong for yourself!”

The common reference to the vine, especially that brought out of Egypt, convincingly suggests that in 15:1 Jesus intends His statement to be taken in this way. Indeed, of the vine imagery Milne writes, “it was the supreme symbol of Israel. A great golden vine trailed over the temple porch, and the coinage minted in Israel during the revolt against Rome (AD 68–70) also bore a vine symbol.”¹

Taking a moment to examine the other passages referenced reveals that during the times in which punishment falls upon the vine or the vineyard, scripture is speaking of periods in which the Hebrew people have turned away from God, embracing idolatry and iniquity. They reject the covenant to their peril.

In a second example, one that is certainly not exclusive from the first, Brown asks if Jesus’ reference to being the “true vine” is used as an objection to the, “false vine represented by the Jewish Synagogue?”² Such a position would be consistent with similar Synoptic uses. For instance, Mark 12:1-11 tells of Jesus speaking to the religious leaders in a parable. He uses familiar vineyard imagery to display their failure to live up to their covenant with God and their rejection first of God’s prophets and ultimately of the Son of God.

In the end the parable finishes with those who had been given responsibility for the vineyard, stripped of this role and destroyed. Brown writes, “Such a motif would fit in with one of the main purposes for which the Gospel was written, namely, apologetic against the Synagogue.”³

1. Bruce Milne, The Message of John: Here Is Your King!: With Study Guide, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 219

2. The Anchor Bible Series. The Gospel According to John I-XII. Raymond E. Brown. 1966. 674

3. Ibid.