Theme · narrative
Vineyard
Isaiah's Song of the Vineyard tells of a vineyard lovingly planted and tended that produces only wild grapes — God looked for justice but found bloodshed, for righteousness but heard a cry. Jeremiah, Hosea, and Ezekiel continue the metaphor of Israel as a vine that failed to bear fruit. Jesus tells the parable of the wicked tenants who kill the owner's son, and warns that the vineyard will be given to others who produce its fruit. In John 15, Jesus himself is the true vine, and believers are the branches: 'Apart from me you can do nothing.'
Related doctrines
Passages expressing this theme
- Gen 9:20 — And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:
- Hos 10:1 — Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself: according to the multitude of his fruit he hath increased the altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images.
- Isa 5:1 — Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:
- Isa 5:2 — 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 brin
- Isa 5:4 — What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?
- Isa 5:7 — For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.
- Isa 27:2 — In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine.
- Jer 2:21 — Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?
- John 15:1 — I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
- John 15:2 — Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
- John 15:4 — Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
- John 15:5 — I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
- Matt 20:1 — For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard.
- Matt 21:28 — But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to day in my vineyard.
- Matt 21:33 — Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into
- Matt 21:43 — Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.
- Ps 80:8 — Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it.
- Ps 80:14 — Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts: look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine;
- Song 2:15 — Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.
The Church Fathers on Vineyard
These then are sent into the vineyard, Go ye also into my vineyard.
Let the vine give thanks to our Lord, the true vineyard.
The vineyard is also our type. For the husbandman is the Almighty Father, the vine is Christ, but we are the branches. (John 15:5.) Rightly are the people of Christ called a vine, either because it carries on its front the sign of the cross, or because its fruits are gathered in the latter time of the year, or…
Later on, a sacred vine put forth a cluster of grapes that was prophetic. To those who had been led by the Educator to a place of rest after their wanderings it was a sign, for the great cluster of grapes is the Word crushed on our account. The Word desired that the "blood of the grape" be mixed with water as a…
You are now being joined with the holy vine. If, then, you abide in the vine, you grow into a fruitful branch, but if you do not so abide, you will be burnt in the fire. Let us therefore bring forth worthy fruit. For let it not come about that it should happen to us what happened to the barren fig tree in the…
This is in accordance with what is said in Micah: Each one shall rest under his own vine and under his own fig tree, and there will be no one to terrify (1 Kings 4:25). This is the vine spoken of in the Gospel: I am the vine and you are the branches, and my Father is the vinedresser. Everyone who does not bear good…