vineyards, and the illustration was very striking. Thus the Jewish people are compared to a vine which God had planted, Is. 5:1–7; Ps. 80:8–16; Joel 1:7; Je. 2:21; Eze. 19:10. When Jesus says he was the true vine, perhaps allusion is had to Je. 2:21. The word true, here, is used in the sense of real, genuine. He really and truly gives what is emblematically represented by a vine. The point of the comparison or the meaning of the figure is this: A vine yields proper juice and nourishment to all the