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Fruit (2)

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

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FRUIT.—The consideration of this term as it is used in the Gospels divides itself into three parts: (1) The natural application of the word ‘fruit’ (καρπός) to the products of the field and the orchard; (2) other references to fruit under their specific names; (3) the spiritual lessons derived from these allusions.

1. In its natural sense the word ‘fruit’ is used: (a) in reference to grain-crops (Matthew 13:8, Mark 4:7, Luke 8:8; Luke 12:17); (b) physiologically, of the fruit of the womb (Luke 1:42); (c) of the fruit of (α) trees generally (Matthew 3:10, Luke 3:9); (β) the fig-tree (Matthew 21:9, Mark 11:14, Luke 1:36); (γ) the vine (Matthew 21:41, Mark 12:2, Luke 20:10).

2. Other references to fruits under their specific names, without the use of the word ‘fruit’: (a) grapes (Matthew 7:16, Luke 6:44); (b) figs (Matthew 7:16, Mark 11:13, Luke 6:44); (c) husks (Luke 15:16, probably the fruit of the carob or locust-tree); (d) mulberry (Luke 17:16; (e) olives (Matthew 21:1). Probably the ‘thorns’ (ἄκανθαι) alluded to in Matthew 7:16 are not the so-called ‘Apple of Sodom,’ but a generic term covering all sorts of prickly plants. The parallel use with ‘thistles’ (τρίβολοι) suggests that the fruit was inconsiderable.

3. Spiritual lessons.—Christ Himself is intimately associated with (a) the Divine quest of fruit; (b) the Divine creation of fruit; (c) the Divine suffering and sacrifice of fruit-production. The processes of agriculture and horticulture are also, in many ways, utilized as symbols of the Christian’s culture of the soul.

(a) Jesus descries Himself (Matthew 21, Luke 20) under the figure of the Son whom the Master of the Vineyard sends to ask fruit of the husbandman. Our life is a rich gift to us from God; it is a garden which God has designed with lavish care, endowed with unlimited possibilities, and handed over to our complete control. He has a right to expect that we should use our opportunities.

(b) Jesus uses the figure of the John 15) and the Branches to express the vital and mysterious connexion that exists between Himself and His disciples, and the necessity for our dependence upon Him and His continuous inspiration, if we are to bring forth fruit. It is our responsibility to ‘abide in Him’ by keeping His commandments. But it is His obligation to create the fruit. We who cannot so much as make a blade of grass grow without His co-operation, are not expected to accomplish the impossible and bring forth fruit of ourselves.

(c) Jesus manifestly alludes to His own death and sacrifice (John 12:24) under the allegory of the grain of wheat which falls into the ground and dies, and afterwards rises in the new life of the fruit. This figure betokens the utter consecration and determination of the holiness of God to our redemption. We are apt to shudder and tremble before the holiness of God, as a thing of terrible and inaccessible majesty associated with the Great White Throne. That is because we have not taken full views, but have isolated one part from the rest. God is glorious in His holiness (Psalms 145); it is such holiness as man praises when he sees it; it is hospitable, friendly, and devoted to our welfare. It is determined even unto death to share its joy and health and purity with us (John 12:24; John 17:19).

In the Museum of the Vatican there is a little glass relic, taken from the Catacombs; it was made as an ornament to be worn round the neck of a woman, and was found in her grave; it represents Christ bringing again the fruit of the Tree of Life.^{* [Note: See Rex Regum by Sir Wyke Bayliss.]} That relic summarizes the Divine aspects of the question of fruit as it is presented in the Gospels. It is Christ who loves fruit, and who desires to find it in us; and it is He who, in the inspiration and creation of the fruit, virtually gives Himself to us.

But, as in agriculture and horticulture the farmer and the gardener are co-operators with God in the production of the fruits of the earth and the fruit of the trees, so, in many ways, the Gospels lay upon us the injunctions of our duty.

(1) We are the ground which brings forth fruit, according as we receive the Word (Matthew 13:19 ff., Mark 4:15 ff., Luke 8:12 ff.). If our hearts be like the wayside, trampled over and hardened by the interests and engagements of the world, or if they be readily affected by the opinions of men, or if they be choked by the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches, there can be no fruitfulness. It is our duty to prepare the ground by thought and prayer and a regulated life for the reception of God’s truth. The harvest will correspond with the tillage.

(2) We are the branches which bear fruit according as we abide in the Vine (John 15). Just as the gardener prunes and purges a tree so that it may bring forth more fruit, so there are afflictions in this life which are only God’s way of increasing our fruitfulness. The branches which draw most sustenance from the vine are the most productive, so the soul which keeps most faithfully the Lord’s commandments abides the most in His love and is most fruitful.

(3) We are the grain of wheat which comes to fruit, if it dies (John 12:24-25). In the first place, the Master alludes to His own death. But the second reference of the figure is to the essential principle of ethical life—‘Die to live.’

To Hegel, ‘the great aphorism (of John 12:25), in which the Christian ethics and theology may be said to be summed up, is no mere epigrammatic saying, whose self-contradiction is not to be regarded too closely; it is rather the first distinct, though as yet undeveloped, expression of the exact truth as to the nature of spirit. The true interpretation of the maxim—“Die to live,”—is, that the individual must die to an isolated life,—i.e. a life for and in himself, a life in which the immediate satisfaction of desire as his desire is an end in itself,—in order that he may live the spiritual life, the universal life which really belongs to him as a spiritual or self-conscious being’ (Edward Caird, Hegel, p. 213).

(4) We are the husbandmen, who are expected to tend the Vineyard (Luke 20), and to make it fruitful, and to yield up a proportion of the fruit at rightful times to the Lord of the vineyard. The original application of the parable is, doubtless, to the scribes and the chief priests who rejected Jesus, but it is equally applicable to any who think they can do as they please with their life and ignore all obligations to the Giver and Lord.

(5) We are the trees which are known by their fruit (Matthew 7:20). Men do not gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles. A tree which is true to its nature and to its destiny brings forth its appropriate fruit. Man, who is by nature a child of God and by destiny an heir of Heaven, should produce the fruit of the Spirit of God.

Literature.—For 1 and 2 see Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible and Encyc. Bibl. art. ‘Fruit.’ For 3, Expos. Times viii. [1897] 403 f., ix. [1898] 211 ff.; Expositor ii. vii. [1884] 121 ff.; Maclaren, Holy of Holies, 168–189; Hull, Sermons, i. 51 ff.; A. Murray, Abide in Christ, 30 ff., 140 ff.; Macmillan, Bible Teachings in Nature, 174 ff.

H. Herbert Snell.