ampelos

BDAG and LSJ agree that ἄμπελος denotes the cultivated grapevine, the plant itself rather than the planted vineyard (ἀμπελών) or its shoots (κλῆμα); Zohary's handbook of biblical flora confirms the botanical identification and the plant's central place in the agriculture of the region. In the Septuagint ἄμπελος is the standard equivalent of Hebrew גֶּפֶן, which imports into the Greek word the prophetic vine imagery of Isaiah 5:1-7, Psalm 80:8-16, Jeremiah 2:21, Hosea 10:1, and Ezekiel 15, 17, and 19, where the vine the LORD plants and tends stands for Israel and for its failure to yield fruit. The TDNT article and the major commentaries on John treat that Old Testament background as the controlling context for the "I am" saying of John 15:1-8, while differing over how much weight to give the secondary parallel in Sirach 24:17, where Wisdom says she budded forth like a vine; Brown and Barrett canvass the proposed backgrounds (Israel, Wisdom, sacramental readings) without treating any of them as displacing the prophetic vine. The Synoptic phrase τὸ γένημα τῆς ἀμπέλου in the cup saying (Matthew 26:29; Mark 14:25; Luke 22:18) reflects the customary Jewish blessing over wine, which names the drink by its plant. In Revelation 14:18-19 ἡ ἄμπελος τῆς γῆς belongs to the grape-harvest imagery of Joel 3:13, read by Beale and most commentators as the gathering of the unrepentant for judgment. None of these discussions touches the lexical question: the referent of the noun is not in doubt.