This verse states negatively what was stated positively in verse 5. Whoever in Greek is literally “if someone,” but it also has the force of an indefinite relative pronoun in English (see 12.26).

The verbs translated is thrown out and dries up are in the aorist indicative tense in Greek. The aorist indicative (normally indicating completed action in past time) is used here for one of two reasons: (1) to indicate the certainty of the action, by speaking of a future action as though it were already accomplished; or (2) to indicate habitual or customary action. The context seems to suggest the first of these possibilities.

Like a branch must apply not only to being thrown out, but also to drying up. It may be necessary to say, therefore, “Whoever does not remain in me is thrown out and dries up, just as a branch would be thrown out and dry up.”

Are gathered up and thrown is literally “they gather them and throw (them).” But this Semitic use of the third person plural is the equivalent of a passive construction, and so a number of translations render in essentially the same way as Good News Translation. If a passive cannot be used, one may translate “people gather them up and throw them into the fire.” Since the fire has not been previously identified, and cannot be directly related to any specific aspect of judgment, it is better in some languages to translate “thrown into a fire.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .