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Joh_15:8. A further carrying out of this incitement to abiding on Him, and that by bringing out the great importance, rich in its results, of this granting of prayer, which is attached to the abiding required.
ἐν τούτῳ ] Herein, to this a forward reference is generally given, so that ἵνα , κ . τ . λ . is the contents of τοῦτο . But thus understood, since ἵνα is not equivalent to ὅτι , this ἵνα would express, that in the obligation (you ought, Joh_15:12, comp. on Joh_6:29), or in the destination to bear much fruit, the δόξα of the Father is given. This is not appropriate, as it is rather in the actual fruit-bearing itself that that δόξα must lie, and hence ὅτι must have been employed. To distinguish ἵνα , however, merely by supplying “as I hope” (Lücke) from ὅτι , does not satisfy the telic nature of the word.[164] Hence (and not otherwise in 1Jn_4:17) ἐν τούτῳ , as in Joh_4:37, Joh_16:30, is to be taken as a retrospective reference (so also Lange), and that not to the μένειν in itself, but to the immediately preceding Ὃ ἘᾺΝ ΘΈΛΗΤΕ ΑἸΤΉΣΑΣΘΕ Κ . ΓΕΝΉΣ . ὙΜῖΝ , so far, namely, as it takes place in him who abides in Christ. In this granting of prayer allotted to the μένειν ἐν ἐμοί , says Jesus, a twofold result—and this a high incentive to that ΜΈΝΕΙΝ —is given, namely, (1) when what you ask falls to your lot, then in this result my Father has been glorified ( ἔλλαχε τιμήν , Nonnus), that you—for that is God’s design in this His δοξάζεσθαι —may bear much fruit (which is just to be the actual further course of that granting of prayer, comp. Joh_15:16); and (2) you will, in virtue of the fulfilment of all your prayers, become, in a truly proper and specific sense, my disciples, who belong to no other (note the emphatic possessive ἐμοί , as in Joh_13:35), since this hearing of prayer is the holy characteristic simply and solely of my disciples (Joh_14:13-14).
The future γενήσεσθε may depend on ἵνα (comp. on ἸΆΣΟΜΑΙ , Joh_12:40, see also on 1Co_9:18; Eph_6:3), as Ewald connects it; independently, however, of ἽΝΑ , and therefore connected with ἘΝ ΤΟΎΤῼ , the words convey more weight in the independence appropriate to their distinctive contents. The Lord, however, does not say ἜΣΕΣΘΕ , but He sees the full development of His discipledom beginning with the ἐν τούτῳ .
[164] Cyril already rightly recognised that ἵνα cannot be an explanation of ἐν τούτῳ , but only a statement of the purpose of ἐδοξ . ὁ πατ . μ . But quite irrelevantly he referred ἐδοξ . ὁ πατ . μ . to the mission of the Son.