The True Vine

Sed quaeritur hic de hoc quod dicit: Ego sum vitis vera. Obiicit Augustinus: Si vitis de Christo dicitur, sicut dicitur leo, lapis; et ista dicuntur non per proprietatem , sed per simiUtudinem ; et illa dicuntur vera, quae dicuntur per proprietatem: non videtur, quod deberet dicere: Ego sum vitis vera, sed similitudinaria. Et respondet Augustinus, quod addens vera, ab illa se discernit, cui dictum est: Quomodo conversa es in amaritudinem, vitis aliena? leremiae secundo: Quomodo conversa es in pravum, vinea aliena? Unde non dicitur vera, quia non per similitudinem; sed vera, quia non aliena. Potest tamen dici, quod sicut vinum verum est, quod habet operationem vini; sic vitis vera, quae habet operationem vitis. Vitis igitur ad litteram, tunc est vera, quando vinum producit ; non vera, quae non fructificat. Sic et simililudinaria dicitur vera , quae habet actum vitis ; non vera, quae non habet. Sic et Christus, quia verum abet actum vilis, veravilis est. Sed synagoga non, de qua Isaiae quinto: Exspectavit, ut faceret uvas, fecit autem spinas. Sanctus Bonaventura, Commentarius In Evangelium Ioannem, Caput XV Source: Here, p448

But question may be asked about this which He says: 'I am the true vine.'1 Augustine objects. 'If the vine is spoken of concerning Christ as it is with 'lion' and 'rock', then these things are not said properly but as a likeness, yet those things are spoken of as true which are said properly, therefore it does not seem He should have said: 'I am the true vine,' but a likeness. And Augustine answers: 'True' is added to distinguish Himself from that about which it has been said; 'How you have turned to bitterness, foreign vine?' in the second chapter of Jeremiah, 'How you have become wicked, O foreign vine?' Whence 'true' is not said because it is not a likeness, but 'true' because it is not foreign. 2 3 However, it is possible to say that as He is the true vine He has the work of the vine, just as a true vine is one which functions as a vine. A vine therefore literally is 'true' when it produces wine, and is 'not true' when it does not give its fruit. So even a likeness is called true when it has the work of the vine, and not true when it does not have it. So indeed Christ who has the true work of the vine is the true vine. But not the synagogue, concerning which it is said in the fifth chapter of Isaiah, 'He hoped that it would give grapes, but it gave thorns.' 4 Saint Bonaventura, Commentary On The Gospel Of Saint John, Chapter 15 1 Jn 15.1 2 Jerem 2.21 3 Aug Trac Jn 80.1 4 Isaiah 5.2