Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.. These words being inserted in the discourse concerning the vine and branches, and the pruning and purging them to make them fruitful, are thought, by the learned Dr.
Lightfoot, to be an allusion to the law in Le 19:23; by which the fruit of trees, for the first three years, were accounted uncircumcised or unclean, and in the fourth year fit for use; concerning which the Talmudists have a whole tract, called hlre, "Orla"; the apostles having enjoyed the ministry of Christ, and been his disciples about such a time.
Though the "now" seems to refer to the removal and taking away of that withered and unfruitful branch, Judas.