New insights into the pruning of John 15

The best I can understand the info on pruning my Muscadines is this:

* the vine should be reduced to a single trunk;

* the trunk should be reduced to one or two arms, or "cordons" which are attached to a wire (other vines are pruned to be one trunk with two pairs of cordons, one upper and one lower);

* each cordon (arm) should be pruned to grow about 15 shoots, all on the upper part of the cordon. The ones that are pointing down will not do well and should be snipped off;

* each shoot grows into a long new growth the first year, with many buds that will bear fruit the following year. When they are long dormant, as spring approaches, snip them back until there are only one or two buds remaining. The ones on either end should have only one, as well as any that appear weak, while the others should have two;

* any shoots that look sick or damaged should be cut off completely;

The goal of all of this is to:

* cause the grapes to grow in round clusters, rather than individually along the shoot;

* make more energy available to the remaining clusters;

* make more light and air available to the plant to discourage disease and encourage fruitfulness;

This all leads me to identify the "branches" as the "shoots" from which the fruit appears rather than the trunk or cordons (arms). I see that the weak, damaged or diseased shoots are completely eliminated, such as Judas. The others are snipped back from a long shoot with many buds to a short shoot (or "spur") with few, but fruitful, buds. "Clean" may refer to the elimination of all of those elements of the branch that obstruct light and air movement or divert the resources for maximum, concentrated fruit production. It might not be a stretch to see this "cleaning," in the context of John 15, as referring to "cleaning" the branch of Judaism.