Luke 13:9

13:9 cut it down: A stump or fallen tree was an image of judgment or destruction (cp. 3:9; see also Isa 6:13; 10:34; 11:1; Jer 46:22; Dan 4:23; Matt 3:10; 7:19).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Luk 13:9. Κἂν, and if) The Apodosis is to be understood: It is well, or I will leave it to stand; or else, let it bear fruit. It comes to the same.—ἐκκόψεις, thou shalt cut it off [down]) The Vine-dresser does not say, I will cut it off (down); comp. Luk 13:7; but refers the whole case to the Lord of the vineyard: however, He ceases to intercede for the fig-tree, that it should be spared.—μέλλον) viz. ἔτος, in the year to come, in antithesis to this year (τοῦτο τὸ ἔτος), Luk 13:8.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 13:9 . εἰς τὸ μέλλον : if it bear the coming year well ( εὖ ἔχει understood). ἐκκόψεις , if not, thou shalt cut it down thou, not I. It depends on the master, though the vinedresser tacitly recognises that the decision will be just. He sympathises with the master’s desire for fruit. Of course when the barren tree is removed another will be planted in its place. The parable points to the truth taught in Luk 13:29 .

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

if . . . fruit, well--Genuine repentance, however late, avails to save (Luk 23:42-43).

after that, &c.--The final perdition of such as, after the utmost limits of reasonable forbearance, are found fruitless, will be pre-eminently and confessedly just (Pro 1:24-31; Eze 24:13).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(9) And if it bear fruit.—Some of the better MSS. have, if it bear fruit in the time to come . . . With either reading the sentence is elliptical, and the insertion of “well,” as in the English, is needed to convey its meaning.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9. if it bear fruit, well] The ‘well’ is not in the original, the idiom being a common but striking aposiopesis: i.e. the conclusion of the sentence is left to the speaker’s imagination. The phrase implies, If, as is at least possible, it bears fruit; but if not, as thou supposest, then, &c.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And if it bear fruit, well,.... If hereby barren professors, as the Jews, become fruitful, it is well, a good thing is done; it is well for themselves, they shall eat the fruit of their doings; it is well for the churches where they are, for good works are profitable to men; and it is well for the owner of the vineyard, and the dresser of it too, for when Christ has his fruit from his churches, his ministers have theirs also:

and if not, then

after that; "for the time to come", as the Vulgate Latin; or "year following", as the Persic version renders it:

thou shall cut it down; do with it as thou pleasest, nothing more will be said or pleaded in its behalf; full consent shall be given, and no more intercession used: any trees might not be cut down, only barren ones; there is a law in Deu 20:19 about cutting down trees, and which the Jews explain thus (m);

"they may not cut down trees for meat without the city, nor withhold from them the course of water, that so they may become dry; as it is said, "thou shall not destroy the trees"; and whoever cuts any down is to be beaten, and not in a siege only, but in any place: whoever cuts down a tree for meat, by way of destroying it, is to be beaten; but they may cut it down if it hurts other trees, or because it hurts in the field others, or because its price is dear; the law does not forbid, but by way of destroying. Every barren tree it is lawful to cut down, even though a man hath no need of it; and so a tree for meat, which does hurt, and does not produce but little fruit, and it is not worth while to labour about it, it is lawful to cut it down: and how much may an olive tree produce, and it may not be cut down? the fourth part of a "Kab" of olives; and a palm tree which yields a "Kab" of dates, may not be cut down.''

Much such a parable as this is formed by the Jews, upon Moses's intercession for the people of Israel (n).

"Says R. Abin, in the name of R. Simeon ben Josedech, a parable, to what is it like? to a king that hath an uncultivated field; he says to his gardener, go and manure it, and make it a vineyard: the gardener went and manured that field, and planted it a vineyard; the vineyard grew, and produced wine, and it turned to vinegar; when the king saw that the wine turned to vinegar, he said to the gardener, go, , "and cut it down", why should I seek after a vineyard that brings forth that which is sour? the gardener replied, my lord, the king, what expense hast thou been at with this vineyard before it was raised? and now thou seekest to cut it down; and shouldst thou say because its wine turns sour; the reason is, because it is young, therefore its wine turns sour, and it does not produce good wine: so when Israel did that work (of the golden calf), the holy blessed God sought to consume them; said Moses, Lord of the world, hast thou not brought them out of Egypt from a place of idolatry, and now they are young, or children, as it is said, Hos 11:1 wait a little for them, and go with them, and they will do good works in thy presence.''

(m) Maimon. Hilch. Melacim, c. 6. sect. 8, 9. (n) Shemot Rabba, sect. 43. fol. 141. 2.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

9 And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.

Ver. 9. Then after that thou shalt cut it down] The fig tree, they say, if it bear not the fourth year after it is planted, will never bear at all. If good be not done at first coming of the gospel to any place, seldom is any good ever done there.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And if happily it bear fruit. It is a way of speaking, when a sentence is left imperfect; yet what is not expressed, may be easily understood; as here we may understand, well and good, or the like. (Witham)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

9. And if… and if not—Upon these two ifs hangs eternity. God may surround and ply him with means; but he leaves it at the last to the man himself to decide, by his own free will, between these two ifs. If God has indeed predetermined the matter, if the barrenness of the tree is the secured consequent of his own previous decree, then the events of the entire parable become a farce, and the lesson becomes an enigma.

Cut it down— The echo of the owner’s words in Luk_13:7. Cut it down, says divine justice; and in due time, still more fatally, Cut it down, responds divine mercy. The nation and the man may, like Jerusalem after the crucifixion, survive a few abandoned years after the sentence has gone forth Cut it down But the day of doom without mercy at last arrives, a type and prelude of a more terrible wrath in the world of retribution.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9. κἂν μὲν ποιήσῃ καρπὸν εἰς τὸ μέλλον. The “well” (καλῶς ἔχει) is not in the original, the idiom being a common but striking aposiopesis: i.e. the conclusion of the sentence is left to the speaker’s imagination. The phrase implies, If, as is at least possible, it bears fruit;—but if not, as thou supposest, then, &c. (See Winer p. 751.)

εἰ δὲ μήγε. In these antitheses a conditional clause with ἐὰν (if, as may be the case) is often followed by another with εἰ (assuming that) (si fructum tulerit … sin minus, si non fert); comp. Act 5:38-39 ἐὰν ᾖ ἐξ ἀνθρώπων … εἰ δὲ ἐκ Θεοῦ ἐστιν.

ἐκκόψεις. “Non dicit vinitor ‘exscindam’ (Luk 13:7). Sed rem refert ad dominum; desinit tamen pro ficu deprecari.” Bengel.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9.] After καρπόν, λείπει, τὸ εὖ ἔχει, ; but not without reason: to fill up the aposiopesis did not belong to the purpose of this parable.

εἰς τὸ μέλλον, not ἔτος (Meyer), but indefinite (see reff.), hereafter:—and purposely so;—because, in the collective sense, the sentence lingered.

ἐκκόψεις, Thou shalt cut it down—not ἐκκόψω; and I find in this an additional proof of the correctness of the foregoing interpretation. It is the κύριος τ. ἀμπελῶνος who ὅταν ἔλθῃ, κακοὺς κακῶς ἀπολέσει αὐτούς.

All judgment is committed to the Son:—it is not the work of the Holy Spirit to cut down and destroy, for He is the Giver of life.

The above interpretation is partially given by Stier, who has however in my view (in his 2nd edn. also) quite missed the ἀμπελουργός, understanding by him the husbandmen in Mat_21Mat_21, forgetting that they are destroyed in the sequel of that parable, and that their position, that of the tenants of the vineyard, does not appear at all in this, any more than does the ἀμπελουργός in that.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9. εἰς τὸ μέλλον. In the true text (א B L 33, Boh. Aeth.) this expression precedes εἰ δὲ μήγε, and we have an aposiopesis as in Act 23:9; Rom 9:22-24. Comp. Exo 32:32, where LXX supplies the apodosis. The ellipse of καλῶς ἔχει occurs in class. Gk. It is perhaps possible to make εἰς τὸ μέλλον the apodosis: “if it bear fruit, we may postpone the question; but if not,” etc. That εἰς τὸ μέλλον may mean “against next year” is clear from Plutarch’s use of it for magistrates designate: e.g. τὸν Πείσωνα κατέστησεν ὕπατον εἰς τὸ μέλλον (Cæs. 14.); and perhaps it may mean “next year (Syr-Sin.),” the prep. being redundant, as in εἰς τὴν τρίτην: comp. Jos. Ant. i. 11, 2. But that ἔτος need not be understood, and that the prep. need not be redundant, is clear from 1Ti 6:19, where εἰς τὴν τρίτὴν means “against the time to come.” Only if the prep. be made redundant is the transfer of εἰς τὸ μέλλον to ἐκκόψεις (A D) possible; for “against next year thou shalt cut it down” would here make no sense; but the external evidence is conclusive against the transfer. Comp. Act 13:42; Hom. Od. xiv. 384.

For the change from ἐάν to εἰ (κἃν … εἰ δὲ μήγε) comp. Act 5:38, Act 5:39. It occurs in class. Grk.; and in most cases of this kind either conjunction might just as well have been used twice. Here it is possible that the first alternative is given as more problematical than the second.

ἐκκόψεις αὐτήν. “Thou shalt (have) it cut down,” shalt give the order for it. The vine-dresser will not even then cut it down without express command. He does not say ἐκκόψω. Comp, the Baptist’s warning, in which this same verb (ἐκκόπτεται) is used (3:9). Trench gives a striking parallel in an Arabian recipe for curing a barren palm tree (Par. p. 359, 10th ed.).

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And if it bear fruit, well; and if not, then after that. Join after that with bear fruit. "If it bear fruit for the future (eijv to mellon, Rev., thenceforth), well; but if not, thou shalt cut it down." Trench (" Parables ") cites an Arabian writer's receipt for curing a palm - tree of barrenness. "Thou must take a hatchet, and go to the tree with a friend, unto whom thou sayest, 'I will cut down this tree, for it is unfruitful. ' He answers, 'Do not so, this year it will certainly bear fruit. ' But the other says, 'It must needs be - it must be hewn down; ' and gives the stem of the tree three blows with the back of the hatchet. But the other restrains him, crying, 'Nay, do it not, thou wilt certainly have fruit from it this year, only have patience with it, and be not overhasty in cutting it down; if it still refuses to bear fruit, then cut it down. ' Then will the tree that year be certainly fruitful and bear abundantly." Trench adds that this story appears to be widely spread in the East.

Thou shalt cut it down. The vine - dresser does not say, "I will cut," but refers that to the master.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.