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Tractate 80
Complete historical editorial footnotes. These notes retain the original edition’s wording; individual note authors are unspecified.
English translation and editorial credits: James Innes.
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Hebrew סוּרֵי, pass. part. of רוּס, to depart [from God], and so, perhaps, “stragglers,” i.e. “straggling branches of [a strange vine];” or, as in English version, “degenerate branches,” rather than as in text, where Augustin gives, in amaritudinem, vitis aliena, following the LXX., which reads, “εἰς πικρίας ἡ ἄμπελος ἡ ἀλλοτρία.” The Vulgate is better: in pravum, vinea aliena.—Tr.
Editorial footnote · Tractates on the Gospel of John, Tractate 80, editorial note cite_note-2 · Original source
He intended to point them by the addition of “true”? For it is by similitude, and not by any personal propriety, that He is thus called a vine; just as He is also termed a sheep, a lamb, a lion, a rock, a corner-stone, and other names of a like kind, which are themselves rather the true ones, from which these are drawn as similitudes, not as realities. But when He says, “I am the true vine,” it is to distinguish Himself, doubtless, from that [vine] to which the words are addressed: “How art thou turned into sourness, as a strange vine?” For how could that be a true vine which was expected to bring forth grapes and brought forth thorns?