John 10:1

Jesus again stressed the importance of this teaching with a strong introductory preface to it. He then proceeded to point out several things about first-century shepherding that illustrated His ministry. John’s original readers would have understood these similarities easily since shepherding was widespread.

Jesus described a flock of sheep in a fold or pen that had solid walls and only one door (gate). Evidently the fold in view was a large enclosure some distance from any human dwelling place. Customarily several families who owned sheep that fed close together hired a watchman to guard the gate to such an exposed enclosure. He would admit authorized individuals but would exclude the unauthorized who might want to steal or kill some of the sheep. The words "thief" (Gr. kleptes, stressing trickery) and "robber" (Gr. lestes, stressing violence) are quite close in meaning.

God frequently compared His relationship to Israel to that of a shepherd and his sheep in the Old Testament (e.g., Psalms 80:1; Isaiah 40:11; Ezekiel 34:10-16; cf. Psalms 23:1). He also called Israel’s unfaithful leaders wicked shepherds of His people (e.g., Isaiah 56:9-12; Jeremiah 23:1-4; Jeremiah 25:32-38; Ezekiel 34:4; Zechariah 11). Moreover He predicted that one day a descendant of David would shepherd the nation properly (Ezekiel 34:23-25; Ezekiel 37:24-28). Thus these figures all had meaning to the Jews to whom Jesus first addressed this teaching.

In John 10:1 the thieves and robbers clearly refer to the religious leaders who were unfaithful to God and were seeking to harm His sheep for personal gain (cf. John 9:41). Their rejection of Jesus as the Shepherd whom God had sent marked them as what they were.