Tool Beta
Hebrew and Greek Without Learning Either
A walk through Genesis, the Psalms, and John, plus the key Hebrew and Greek words worth knowing. Each card is a place the English Bibles part company, and what in the Hebrew or Greek made them.
John 15:2
Every branch that beareth not fruit he taketh away. The verb also means lifts up.
John 15:2, in every translation this tool compares.
He picked up the coat. He picked up the litter. Same verb, and one means raising something and the other means removing it. Only the object and the situation tell you which.
Because the two readings are pastorally opposite. One has God removing unfruitful branches, the other has Him lifting them off the ground so they can bear. One verb, and the difference is whether the verse is a threat or a rescue.
Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away.
Nearly every version reads takes away or cuts off. A minority of commentators and study notes argue for lifts up. No major version prints it.
αἴρω airo · G142
Airo means to lift, to raise, to carry, and also to take away or remove. It is the verb used for taking up a bed at John 5:8 and for taking away sin at John 1:29. Vinedressers did lift trailing branches off the ground so they could fruit, which is the practical case for the other reading.
No English verb means lift-and-therefore-carry-off. Pick up comes close, and reads too casual for the register.
When a verb covers both raising and removing, the choice is usually made by what the interpreter already thinks the passage is about. That is worth noticing in yourself before you settle it.
Takes away has the weight of usage, the parallel with the burning in verse 6, and nearly every translation. Lifts up has the horticulture and a kinder reading of the chapter. The lexicon permits both and the context leans toward the first.
- airo as lift or carry: John 5:8-12; Matthew 16:24
- airo as remove: John 1:29; 11:48; 19:31
- The burning in John 15:6 is the strongest contextual argument for takes away
