What Does John 15:1 Mean in the King James?

I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

John 15:1 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

The Father is named by his work: he is not distant from the vine, but the one tending its growth.

THE MEANING

Jesus is the genuine vine, the living source, and the Father is its cultivator. The image places your growth within a relationship of source and care, rather than solitary self-production.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The belief that life must be generated alone, or that the Father stands apart from its growth, loses its footing here.

THE ROOT

γεωργός

geōrgos

GROWS FROM

⁨γεωργ-⁩ (geōrg-), from ⁨γῆ⁩ (gē, earth) + ⁨ἔργον⁩ (ergon, work)

Earth-worker; cultivator.

The husbandman is literally an earth-worker, one whose labor tends what grows. A related word calls God’s people his cultivated field, showing cultivation as hands-on care rather than distant ownership.

ALSO GROWS

geōrgeō: To cultivate or till.

γεωργέω

This related verb names the ongoing work of tending growth that the noun assigns to the Father.

geōrgion: Cultivated field; husbandry.

γεώργιον

In 1 Corinthians 3:9, the community is called God’s cultivated field, extending the image of care to people.

THE PATTERN

Life bears fruit through a living source that is planted and tended.

Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it.

Psalm 80:8 · KJVThe vine’s life begins through being brought out and planted, not through standing alone.

And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.

Isaiah 5:2 · KJVThe vineyard’s growth is held within deliberate tending, and its fruit reveals what that care has brought forth.

For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.

1 Corinthians 3:9 · KJVThe image of cultivation extends to people as God’s field, held within the work of the cultivator.

THE THREAD

For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.

1 Corinthians 3:9 · KJV

The Greek word translated “husbandman” shares its ⁨γεωργ-⁩ word family with “husbandry” here. John names the Father as cultivator; this verse describes the people as the field under God’s care.

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