He takes away every branch that does not bear fruit in me.^[1]  I would like to say that I was blindsided by the suggestion that takes away may not be the best translation of αἴρει (a form of αἴρω) here.  But a quarterback searching downfield for an open receiver knows when he has been tackled from behind.  This was more like being blindsided by a gnat, annoying, but insufficient to shake the well established truth that poor job performance is just cause for termination.

Matthew 3:10 (NET)	Matthew 7:19 (NET)	Luke 3:9 (NET)
Even now[2] the ax is laid at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good (καλὸν, a form of καλός) fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.	Every tree that does not bear good (καλὸν, a form of καλός) fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.	Even now the ax is laid at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good (καλὸν, a form of καλός) fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

Nothing clicked until I examined the meaning of καθαίρει (a form of καθαίρω), translated he prunes in: He prunes every branch that bears fruit so that it will bear more fruit.^[3]  I chuckled then, and quipped, “The translators seem to have been a little too enamored with a gardening metaphor and a little too careless with the meaning of the words.”  The gnat was buzzing around my face then.

It wasn’t until later that day, walking and praying, that it dawned on me that I wasn’t merely accusing the Johnny-come-lately translators of the NET (my contemporaries) of carelessness, but the translators of the KJV as well, not to mention anyone else who ever translated John 15:2 into English.  This gnat was not about to be easily brushed away.  It deserved to be entertained or crushed.

Here are the first two occurrences of αἴρει in the New Testament.

Matthew 9:16 (NET)	Mark 2:21 (NET)
No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, because the patch will pull away (αἴρει) from the garment and the tear will be worse.	No[4] one sews[5] a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment;[6] otherwise, the patch pulls away from[7] it, the new from the old, and the tear becomes worse.

The KJV rendered it: else the new piece that filled it up taketh away (αἴρει) from the old,^[8] virtually identical to Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away (αἴρει).^[9]  So can I crush this pesky gnat?  Actually, it slipped through my fingers.

Here is a table comparing Mark 2:21b to John 15:2a.

Mark 2:21b		John 15:2a
NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus
αἴρει τὸ πλήρωμα ἀπ᾿ αὐτοῦ τὸ καινὸν τοῦ παλαιοῦ	αιρει το πληρωμα αυτου το καινον του παλαιου	πᾶν κλῆμα ἐν ἐμοὶ μὴ φέρον καρπὸν αἴρει αὐτό	παν κλημα εν εμοι μη φερον καρπον αιρει αυτο
NET	KJV	NET	KJV
the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old	the new piece that filled it up taketh away from the old	He takes away every branch that does not bear fruit in me.	Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away:

In the NET the patch was a very clever and concise translation of τὸ πλήρωμα relative to the accurate but somewhat awkward the..piece that filled..up in the KJV.  The translators assumed here that τὸ πλήρωμα was in the nominative case rather than the accusative case: the patch pulls away from it (NET), the..piece that filled it up taketh away (KJV) rather than “he pulls away the patch from it” or “he taketh away the piece that filled it up.”  The translators assumed the Greek word αὐτοῦ, translated it, was an adverb referring back to the old garment (ἱματίῳ παλαιῷ in the Setphanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text; see Table2 below).

Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away [from me], the KJV translators left me to assume.  The NET translators simply made it explicit: He takes away every branch that does not bear fruit in me.  But what does αυτο mean here?

Surely, it’s not to be understood in the nominative case.  Jesus didn’t refer to the gardener (ὁ γεωργός) his Father with a neuter pronoun.  Surely He (KJV: he) was derived from the 3^rd person singular verb αἴρει, and αυτο then was to be understood in the accusative case referring back to every branch that does not bear fruit in me or Every branch in me that beareth not fruit.

So in the NET it was redundant: He takes [it] away every branch that does not bear fruit in me.  The NET translators didn’t translate αυτο in the second clause either: He prunes [αυτο] every branch that bears fruit so that it will bear more fruit.  The KJV translators did, however, translate αυτο in the second clause: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it (αυτο), that it may bring forth more fruit.^[10]  So what’s up with the first clause?  Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh [it] away, is not that bad.

I compared this construction to the first occurrence of another form of αἴρω.  The devil said to Jesus (Matthew 4:6 NET):

“If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.  For it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you’ and ‘with their hands they will lift you up (ἀροῦσιν, another form of αἴρω), so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

Here is a table comparing Matthew 4:6b to John 15:2a.

Matthew 4:6b		John 15:2a
NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus
ἐπὶ χειρῶν ἀροῦσιν σε	επι χειρων αρουσιν σε	πᾶν κλῆμα ἐν ἐμοὶ μὴ φέρον καρπὸν αἴρει αὐτό	παν κλημα εν εμοι μη φερον καρπον αιρει αυτο
NET	KJV	NET	KJV
with their hands they will lift you up	in their hands they shall bear thee up	He takes away every branch that does not bear fruit in me.	Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away:

Here the future tense 3^rd person plural verb ἀροῦσιν was translated they will lift…up (NET) and they shall bear…up (KJV).  The 2^nd person accusative pronoun σε, translated you (NET) or thee (KJV), is what they will lift up with or in their hands.  The main reason ἀροῦσιν was translated will lift or shall bear up here instead of “will take away” was because it is itself a translation in the Septuagint of ישׁאונך (nâśâʼ) from Psalm 91:12.  But I also noticed that there is no place mentioned anywhere near the verb where you might be taken away from, only a reason given why they will lift you up, so that (μήποτε) you will not strike your foot against a stone.

This caused me to wonder if ἐν ἐμοὶ, translated in me, in John 15:2 was really a place to be taken away from, or a description of πᾶν κλῆμα, translated every branch.  Perhaps, a better way to frame the question is: does the gardener prune every branch that bears fruit or only those ἐν ἐμοὶ that bear fruit?  The phrase πᾶν κλῆμα ἐν ἐμοὶ wasn’t repeated in the second clause, only the word πᾶν a form of πᾶς, “every, all.”  So did Jesus say that every branch that bears fruit will be pruned by the gardener (his Father) so that it will bear more fruit whether that branch is ἐν ἐμοὶ or not?

The answer to that question seems fairly obvious a couple of verses later: Remain in me (ἐν ἐμοί), and I will remain in you.  Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me (ἐν ἐμοὶ).^[11]  That means that the text should be understood a little differently than it might be read literally.

John 15:2 read literally…	John 15:2 understood…
πᾶν κλῆμα ἐν ἐμοὶ μὴ φέρον καρπὸν αἴρει αὐτό, καὶ πᾶν τὸ καρπὸν φέρον καθαίρει αὐτὸ ἵνα καρπὸν πλείονα φέρῃ	πᾶν κλῆμα ἐν ἐμοὶ μὴ φέρον καρπὸν αἴρει αὐτό, καὶ πᾶν [κλῆμα ἐν ἐμοὶ] τὸ καρπὸν φέρον καθαίρει αὐτὸ ἵνα καρπὸν πλείονα φέρῃ
He takes away every branch that does not bear fruit in me.  He prunes [anything] that bears fruit so that it will bear more fruit.	He takes away every branch that does not bear fruit in me.  He prunes every branch [in me] that bears fruit so that it will bear more fruit.

So if ἐν ἐμοὶ was meant to distinguish πᾶν κλῆμα from all branches in both clauses, the gardener does two different things for every branch that is ἐν ἐμοὶ, depending on whether it bears fruit (τὸ καρπὸν φέρον) or does not bear fruit (μὴ φέρον καρπὸν) presently.

It seemed unlikely then to me that the gardener’s action could be to remove the branch from the modifier (ἐν ἐμοὶ) that distinguished it from all branches in the first place.  But then, I don’t know Greek as well as those who have translated the New Testament into English.  So I continued.

Jesus explained a parable:

Mark 4:15 (NET)	Luke 8:12 (NET) Table
These are the ones on the path where the word is sown: Whenever they hear, immediately[12] Satan comes and snatches (αἴρει) the word that was sown in[13] them.[14]	Those along the path are the ones who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away (αἴρει) the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.

There is a third account of this explanation which didn’t contain the word αἴρει: When anyone hears the word about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches what was sown in his heart; this is the seed sown along the path.^[15]  The Greek word translated snatches was ἁρπάζει (a form of ἁρπάζω) here: “to seize, snatch, catch, pluck, pull, take (by force); to plunder, rob, steal, carry off, raven; to tear away, forcibly remove, drag away; to seize, grab hold; to captivate, allure.”

Here is a comparison of Mark 4:15b to John 15:2a.

Mark 4:15b		John 15:2a
NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus
εὐθὺς ἔρχεται ὁ σατανᾶς καὶ αἴρει τὸν λόγον τὸν ἐσπαρμένον εἰς αὐτούς	ευθεως ερχεται ο σατανας και αιρει τον λογον τον εσπαρμενον εν ταις καρδιαις αυτων	πᾶν κλῆμα ἐν ἐμοὶ μὴ φέρον καρπὸν αἴρει αὐτό	παν κλημα εν εμοι μη φερον καρπον αιρει αυτο
NET	KJV	NET	KJV
immediately Satan comes and snatches the word that was sown in them.	Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.	He takes away every branch that does not bear fruit in me.	Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away:

The first clause begins with an adverb, εὐθὺς in the NET parallel Greek text and ευθεως in the Stephanus Textus Receptus, both translated immediately.  Next is a verb ἔρχεται, translated comes (NET) or cometh (KJV).  The subject, who comes or cometh, follows that verb: ὁ σατανᾶς, translated Satan.

The beginning of the second clause is marked by the conjunction καὶ, translated and.  This lets me know that Satan comes and snatches (NET) or Satan cometh…and taketh away (KJV).  There is no need to derive or supply he as a subject for the second 3^rd person singular verb αἴρει.  The direct object, what Satan snatches or taketh away, follows that verb: τὸν λόγον, translated the word.

That direct object is modified by τὸν ἐσπαρμένον, translated that was sown, pointing back to: The sower sows the word (ὁ σπείρων τὸν λόγον σπείρει).^[16]  Finally, εἰς αὐτούς (NET: in them) or εν ταις καρδιαις αυτων (KJV: in their hearts) specifies where the word was sown, and consequently from where Satan snatches or taketh it away.

The parallel account in Luke 8:12 is very similar:

Luke 8:12b		John 15:2a
NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus
εἶτα ἔρχεται ὁ διάβολος καὶ αἴρει τὸν λόγον ἀπὸ τῆς καρδίας αὐτῶν, ἵνα μὴ πιστεύσαντες σωθῶσιν	ειτα ερχεται ο διαβολος και αιρει τον λογον απο της καρδιας αυτων ινα μη πιστευσαντες σωθωσιν	πᾶν κλῆμα ἐν ἐμοὶ μὴ φέρον καρπὸν αἴρει αὐτό	παν κλημα εν εμοι μη φερον καρπον αιρει αυτο
NET	KJV	NET	KJV
then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.	then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.	He takes away every branch that does not bear fruit in me.	Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away:

The beginning of the clause is marked by an adverb εἶτα, translated then.  The verb ἔρχεται (translated comes or cometh) is the same as in Mark’s account, but the subject here is ὁ διάβολος, translated the devil.  The next clause begins identically to Mark’s account: conjunction, verb, direct object, καὶ αἴρει τὸν λόγον.  Then things change a bit.

Rather than τὸν ἐσπαρμένον specifying which τὸν λόγον, Luke’s Gospel narrative is explicit where the devil takes away the word from: ἀπὸ τῆς καρδίας αὐτῶν, translated from or out of their hearts.  A reason follows that, why the devil does this: ἵνα μὴ πιστεύσαντες σωθῶσιν, so that they may not believe and be saved (NET) or lest they should believe and be saved (KJV).

I had to admit that compared to Mark 4:15b and Luke 8:12b, the construction of the Greek in John 15:2a was more like Matthew 4:6b above.  It nudged me further along the path to considering that αἴρει in John 15:2a should have been translated some other way than takes away or taketh away.  But Paul wrote believers in Rome, Then you will say, “The^[17] branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.”^[18]

I’ll pick this up in another essay.  Tables comparing Matthew 3:10; Mark 2:21; 4:15 and Romans 11:19 in the NET and KJV follow.

Matthew 3:10 (NET)	Matthew 3:10 (KJV)
Even now the ax is laid at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.	And now also the ax is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
ἤδη δὲ ἡ ἀξίνη πρὸς τὴν ρίζαν τῶν δένδρων κεῖται· πᾶν οὖν δένδρον μὴ ποιοῦν καρπὸν καλὸν ἐκκόπτεται καὶ εἰς πῦρ βάλλεται	ηδη δε και η αξινη προς την ριζαν των δενδρων κειται παν ουν δενδρον μη ποιουν καρπον καλον εκκοπτεται και εις πυρ βαλλεται	ηδη δε και η αξινη προς την ριζαν των δενδρων κειται παν ουν δενδρον μη ποιουν καρπον καλον εκκοπτεται και εις πυρ βαλλεται

Mark 2:21 (NET)	Mark 2:21 (KJV)
No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and the tear becomes worse.	No man also seweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment: else the new piece that filled it up taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
Οὐδεὶς ἐπίβλημα ράκους ἀγνάφου ἐπιράπτει ἐπὶ ἱμάτιον παλαιόν· εἰ δὲ μή, αἴρει τὸ πλήρωμα ἀπ᾿ αὐτοῦ τὸ καινὸν τοῦ παλαιοῦ καὶ χεῖρον σχίσμα γίνεται	και ουδεις επιβλημα ρακους αγναφου επιρραπτει επι ιματιω παλαιω ει δε μη αιρει το πληρωμα αυτου το καινον του παλαιου και χειρον σχισμα γινεται	και ουδεις επιβλημα ρακους αγναφου επιρραπτει επι ιματιω παλαιω ει δε μη αιρει το πληρωμα αυτου το καινον του παλαιου και χειρον σχισμα γινεται

Mark 4:15 (NET)	Mark 4:15 (KJV)
These are the ones on the path where the word is sown: Whenever they hear, immediately Satan comes and snatches the word that was sown in them.	And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
οὗτοι δέ εἰσιν οἱ παρὰ τὴν ὁδόν· ὅπου σπείρεται ὁ λόγος καὶ ὅταν ἀκούσωσιν, εὐθὺς ἔρχεται ὁ σατανᾶς καὶ αἴρει τὸν λόγον τὸν ἐσπαρμένον εἰς αὐτούς	ουτοι δε εισιν οι παρα την οδον οπου σπειρεται ο λογος και οταν ακουσωσιν ευθεως ερχεται ο σατανας και αιρει τον λογον τον εσπαρμενον εν ταις καρδιαις αυτων	ουτοι δε εισιν οι παρα την οδον οπου σπειρεται ο λογος και οταν ακουσωσιν ευθεως ερχεται ο σατανας και αιρει τον λογον τον εσπαρμενον εν ταις καρδιαις αυτων

Romans 11:19 (NET)	Romans 11:19 (KJV)
Then you will say, “The branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.”	Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
ἐρεῖς οὖν· ἐξεκλάσθησαν κλάδοι ἵνα ἐγὼ ἐγκεντρισθῶ	ερεις ουν εξεκλασθησαν οι κλαδοι ινα εγω εγκεντρισθω	ερεις ουν εξεκλασθησαν κλαδοι ινα εγω εγκεντρισθω