João 10:1-21

VI

CHRIST THE FULFILMENT OF ALL SYMBOLICAL PASTORAL LIFE; THE TRUTH OF THE THEOCRACY AND THE CHURCH. A) THE DOOR OF THE FOLD IN ANTITHESIS TO THE THIEVES; B) THE FAITHFUL SHEPHERD IN ANTITHESIS TO THE HIRELING AND THE WOLF; C) THE CHIEF SHEPHERD OF THE GREAT DOUBLE FLOCK. (REFERENCE OF THE DOOR OF THE FOLD TO THE EXCOMMUNICATION, John 9:35. CHARACTERISTICS OF FALSE SHEPHERDS, THIEVES AND MURDERERS. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD. CHRIST, THEREFORE, NOT ONLY THE HIGHER REALITY OF THE EARTHLY, BUT ALSO THE TRUTH AND FULFILMENT OF THE SPIRITUAL PASTORAL OFFICE IN ISRAEL AND THE CHURCH, IN CONTRAST TO THE FEARFUL PERVERSIONS OF THE SYMBOLICAL OFFICE.) THE SYMBOLICAL COMMUNION AND THE REAL COMMUNION, OR SYMBOLICAL EXCOMMUNICATION AND REAL EXCOMMUNICATION.—THE COMMOTION AND DISAGREEMENT AMONG THE JEWS AT THEIR UTMOST HEIGHT

John 10:1-21

(John 10:1-11 pericope for Tuesday in Whitsun-week; John 10:12-16 pericope for Misericordias Domini.)

1Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by [through] the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. 2But he that entereth in by [through] the door is the [omit the] shepherd of the sheep. 3To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear [give heed to] his voice: and he calleth1 his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. 4And when he putteth forth his own sheep [when he hath put forth all his own],2 he goeth before 5them, and the sheep follow him: for [because] they know his voice. And [But] a stranger will they [they will] not follow,3 but will flee from him; for [because] they know not the voice of strangers.

6This parable spake Jesus [Jesus spoke] unto them; but they understood not what things they were which he spake [spoke] unto them.

7Then said Jesus unto them again [Jesus therefore said],4 Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. 8All that ever [All those who] came before me [or, instead of me, ἦλ ον πρὸ ἐμοῦ]5 are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. 9I am the door; by [through] me if any man enter in, he shall 10[will] be saved, and shall [will] go in and out, and [will] find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for [omit for] to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come [I came] that they might [may] have life, and that they might have it more abundantly [may have abundance].

11I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth [layeth down]6 his life for the sheep. 12But he that is an hireling, and not the [a] shepherd, whose own the sheep are not [nor the owner of the sheep], seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth; and the wolf catcheth [teareth] them, and scattereth the sheep.7 13The hireling fleeth,8 because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. 14I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine [and they know 15me9 even as]. As [as] the Father knoweth me, even so know I [and I know, κὰγώ] the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall [will] hear my voice; and there shall be [will become] one fold [flock, ποίμη, not αὐλή, Comp. John 10:16], and 17[omit and] one shepherd. Therefore [On this account, for this reason] doth my [the] Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might [may] take it again. 18No man [No one] taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment10 have I received of my Father.

19There was a division therefore again among the Jews for these sayings. 20And many of them said, He hath a devil [demon], and is mad; why hear ye him? 21Others said, These are not the words of him [of one] that hath a devil [demon]. Can a devil [demon] open the eyes of the blind?

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL11

[The parabolic discourse of John 10:0 is closely connected with the preceding miracle and suggested by the tyrannical and cruel conduct of the Pharisees—the blind guides and false shepherds—towards the blind man who had been restored to sight by Jesus—the Light of the world and the true Shepherd. It was no doubt spoken before the same audience, as may be inferred not only from the uninterrupted connection, but also from the express reference to the preceding miracle in John 10:21. We have here a divine pastoral taken from everyday life in Palestine and addressed mainly to ministers of the gospel. With the whole subject should be carefully compared the Old Testament descriptions of the false shepherds and the true Shepherd of Israel with prophetic reference to the Messiah, in Ezekiel 34:0.; Jeremiah 23:1-6; Zechariah 11:4-17. To these may be added, as a remoter parallel, the incomparable Psalms 23:0 which represents the Lord as the good Shepherd of the individual believer, who feeds and guides and protects him throughout life, and even through the dark valley of death.12—John omits the parables which form such a prominent and characteristic part of Christ’s teaching in the Synoptists (comp. especially Matthew 13:0), but he gives two parabolic discourses or parabolic allegories, extended similes (called παροιμία, John 10:6), one on the Good shepherd (John 10:0), and on the True Vine (John 15:0), which are not found in the other Gospels. A parable (παραβολή, from παραβάλλω, a comparison, similitude), in the strict technical sense derived from the synoptical parables, is a poetic narrative taken from real life for the illustration of a higher truth relating to the kingdom of heaven, which is reflected in, and symbolized by, the world of nature. As a conscious fiction, the parable differs from the myth, and the legend, which are unconsciously produced and believed as an actual fact (as children invent stories without doubting the reality); as a truthful picture of real life for the illustration of spiritual truth, it differs from the fable, which rests on admitted impossibilities (as animals thinking, speaking and acting like rational men), and serves the purpose of inculcating the lower maxims of worldly wisdom and prudence. John’s parables are extended allegories rather than parables; they present no narrative or completed picture, but simply one figure, either a man (the shepherd in relation to his flock), or an object of nature (the vine in relation to its branches), as a symbolic illustration of the character and relation which Christ sustains to His true disciples.13 Christ stands out here expressly as the object and meaning of the parable. In the parable before us we must distinguish two acts: in the one Christ appears as the Door of access to the church and to God, John 10:1-10; in the other as the true Shepherd of the flock, John 10:11 to John 18:14 A similar blending of images we find in Hebrews 9:10, where Christ is set forth both as the priest and the sacrifice, as the offerer and the offering (John 9:12; John 10:19). Bengel says: Christus est ostium et pastor et omnia.—P. S.]

Our section closes the period of undecided fluctuations and fermentations in the nation. It is not merely a continuation of the word of the preceding chapter (as Meyer, Tholuck, Besser suppose); in that light is the fundamental idea, in this the shepherd is the leading thought. The conversion of the man who was born blind to Christ and his excommunication by the Pharisees (it appears from this chapter also, that they acted as an official forum) induce the Lord to exhibit in His own person the truth and fulfilment of the earthly as of the spiritual pastoral office, and in believers on Him the truth and fulfilment of the theocratic communion. Hence, this discourse ripens the disagreement among the people to a point necessarily resulting in separation. The scene is undoubtedly unchanged, the auditors are the same, but there is no reason why we should on this account, in pursuance of the example of Meyer [to which Alford assents], begin the chapter with John 9:35. Even John 10:40-41 belong to the close of the foregoing chapter.

This figurative speech is in form a flowing parabolical discourse [παροιμία, together with παραβολή to be comprehended in the Hebrew מָשָׁל; according to Quinctilian: fabella brevior, as the saying, John 15:1), and not a completed similitude (a parable). There is no foundation for the assumption of Strauss, that what was originally a parable was transposed by the hand of the evangelist into this more fluent form, especially as flowing parabolic discourses are to be found in the Synoptists also. Tholuck after Wilke (Rhetorik [p. 109],): “It has the character of an allegory, which exhibits a relation and is technically significant in all its features, not that of a parable, the scope of which is the application of the fundamental thought.” Allegories and parables form, however, no true antithesis. See Comm. on Matthew, chap. 13.

John 10:1-9. First parabolic discourse.—Christ the Door of the fold for the true shepherds of the communion in antithesis to thieves and slaughterers. Introduced by the solemn formula, Verily, verily.—Certain knowledge of the true church-discipline in antithesis to that exercised by the hierarchy.

John 10:1. He that entereth not through the door, etc.—A figure borrowed from oriental pastoral life. The sheep needing protection and guidance, but, at the same time, submissive and gentle, pressing closely to its fellows in such wise as to form a flock, knowing and following its leader, symbolizes the pious, believing soul;15 the flock is a symbol of the Church;16 the shepherd, entering by the door, symbolizes the ministry in the Church (Psalms 100:3; Psalms 95:7; Psalms 77:20); the fold גְּדֵרָה αὐλή aula), i.e., an uncovered space, surrounded by a low wall and affording protection to the flock at night—is a symbol of the fenced-in and inclosed theocracy (φραγμός, Matthew 21:33); the door itself, as the necessary entrance to the fold, is the symbol of Christ. For the further features consult the sequel. The Entering in [εἰσερχόμενος] is brought forward as the leading thought in antithesis to the climbing up [ἀναβαίνων]. By itself it denotes authorized entrance with right purposes. Each, however, is characterized by the addition: Through the door. There should be no doubt as to the meaning of this, after the explanation of Christ, John 10:7, in reference to the Pharisees who did not understand Him, John 10:6 : I am the door.

The interpretation of the door as signifying the Holy Scriptures (Chrysostom, [Theophyl., Euth.-Zigab.] Ammon), is connected with the false discrimination of the parabolic discourses, in accordance with which the similitude changes as early as John 10:8 or 9; Tholuck approves of this discrimination. Patristic expositors since Augustine have therefore rightly comprehended the expression as having reference to the institution of the ministry by Christ; they were wrong only in limiting it to the historic Christ and the New Testament ministry. Luthardt wishes us to understand by the door, simply, the way ordained by God, without further definition, in contradiction to John 10:7. Tholuck, assenting to the opinion of Luthardt: the right, divinely ordained entrance, by which devoted love to the sheep is meant. De Wette: Only in His truth, in His way can one arrive at the condition of a true shepherd of the faithful. Approximately correct. But why is Christ spoken of in the Old Testament, and why is He in an especial manner the subject of this Gospel throughout? Christ is the principle of the Theocracy, the fundamental idea, fundamental impulse and goal of the Old Testament church of God, and hence the principle of every theocratico-official vocation from the beginning. Thus, He is the Door of the fold. He who enters not by Abrahamic faith in the promise, or through the spirit of revelation and in accordance with that, upon a theocratic office, has not entered into the fold through the door. Even Meyer says: Christ Himself is the door,—with the wonted, chiliastic reference, however, to the “future members of the Messianic Kingdom.”17

Climbeth up some other way [ἀναβαίνων ].—Climbeth over from some other side [than the one indicated by the door], in order to get in over the wall or over the hedge. The “Other whence [ἀλλαχόθεν, like the old classical ἄλλοθεν],” chiefly indicates the other place; it denotes likewise, however, the comer from some other direction, the stranger, who does not belong to the fold. Significant of the untheocratic mind, i.e., disbelief of the promise, and of untheocratic motives (according to Matthew 4:0 cupidity and sensuality, ambition, lust of power). The climbing over may denote a human, vain striving in scriptural learning, legalistic zeal, etc., in antithesis to the way of the Spirit.

The same is a thief and a robber.18 The false way is in itself indicative of treacherous designs. The λῃστής, robber, is not simply a climactic augmentation (Meyer); neither is it a downright murderer. But the robber readily becomes a murderer if he meet with resistance, and the sheep-robber in the like case becomes a slaughterer (in this respect also the translation: Murderer is incorrect, since it is a question of sheep). In the explanation, John 10:10, the thief is the leading idea; it is divided, however, into the stealing thief and the rapacious slaughterer and destroyer. Thus, false officials become thieves to those souls that submit themselves to them and confide in them, and worriers of those that maintain their independent faith, as. chap. 9 of the blind man whom they excommunicated. The antithesis presented by these thieves and true shepherds is of course (after Tholuck) the antithesis of selfishness (Ezekiel 34:8) and love (Jeremiah 23:4).

John 10:2. Is a shepherd of the sheep.—[ποιμήν without the article, in the generic sense, while in John 10:11-12; John 10:14 where it refers specifically to Christ, the article is used three times. The E. V. misses this difference by translating in all cases “the shepherd,” while Luther is equally inaccurate in using uniformly the indefinite article: “ein (guter) Hirte.” In tho first part of the parable, John 10:1-10, Christ appears as the Door; in the second as the Shepherd. He is indeed both, but the figures must not be mixed in the same picture.—P. S.] Only he who has become a shepherd through faith in the promise or through Christ, has a loving shepherd’s heart. The form of his entrance upon the office must have been pure, in accordance with his pure motive, and he will prove himself a shepherd. This True shepherd does but form a contrast to the robber; he is not yet, as the Good Shepherd, placed in antithesis to the hireling, or as the head Shepherd (John 10:16) to the under shepherds.

John 10:3. To him the porter [ὁ θυρωπός] openeth.—The porter watches in the night-time within the fold, and in the morning thrusts aside the bolt for the shepherd when he announces himself. Meyer (after Lücke, De Wette and others): “Ὁ θυρωρός is requisite to complete the picture of the lawful entering in, and is not designed for special exegesis; hence it is not taken into consideration again John 10:7. It is, therefore, not to be interpreted either as referring to God (Maldonat, Bengel [Tholuck, Ewald, Hengstenberg, with reference to John 6:44 f.] ), or to the Holy Spirit, Acts 13:2 (Theodor., Heracl., Rupert, Aret., Cornel, a Lap. and several others), or to Christ (Cyrill, Augustine), or to Moses (Chrysost., Theod. Mopsuest. and several others).” Tholuck interprets it as signifying The Father, in accordance with John 6:44-45. But as the porter is within, in the fold, we must undoubtedly, with Stier, apprehend the Holy Spirit in this feature of the parable, although qualified as the Spirit of the church; this view is contested by Luthardt without sufficient grounds.19

And the sheep [τὰ πρόβατα] give heed to his voice, and he calleth his own sheep [τὰἵδιαπρόβατα] by name.—The article τὰ πρόβατα is to be observed. According to most expositors, these are all the sheep of the fold, and are identical with the ἴδια προβατα. [Bengel, Luthardt, Hengstenberg, etc.—P. S.] This view is impugned by the fact that nothing is said of the πρόβατα in general, but that they hear his voice; the ἴδια however, he calls by name.20 According to Bengel, these ἴδια are distinguished from the great mass of the sheep by their special need. Meyer considers it necessary to make use of the circumstance that one fold often afforded shelter at night to several flocks, whose shepherds, coming every morning, were known to all the sheep. On the other hand, the ἴδια are the sheep belonging to the particular flock of the shepherd in question. It is, however, an unfree dependence [of Meyer] upon an archæological note to pretend to discover in this passage a portrayal of the driving together of a plurality of flocks, when the figure has reference to the unitous Old Testament Theocracy. The second misapplication of an archæological comment, according to which it, was customary for the shepherds to give names to the sheep (Pricæus on our passage), consists in the idea that the shepherd must call out all the sheep of his flock by their names (indulge in a very minute roll-call). The statement that the sheep hear his voice forms part of the ideal background of the figure, for in the enclosure of the Old Testament Theocracy there are some that are not true sheep, and these do not give ear to the voice of the shepherd (comp. the Prophets and Galatians, chaps. 3 and 4). But from the real sheep, i.e., the susceptible in general, Christ further distinguishes the ί̓δια πρόβατα, that the shepherd calls by name; the favorite sheep, the elect in a stricter sense [Leben Jesu, II., p. 995); in the symbol of pastoral life the bell-wethers which precede the flock and are followed by it.21

Meyer controverts this view in the text and ratifies it in the note (against Luthardt) in these words [p. 395]: “Only the ἴδια does the shepherd call by name.” The idea of the figure is very clear: among the sheep there are some that are on terms of closest intimacy with the shepherd; these he calls by name, and because these follow him, he is followed by the whole flock. But to τὰ πρόβατα, the others in the fold, do not here come under further consideration.

John 10:4. And when he hath put forth [ἐκβάλῃ] all his own [τὰἲδιαπάντα, according to the true reading, instead of τὰ ἴδια πρόβατα his own sheep.—P. S.] These come at his call. He Lays Hold Of Them and brings them out through the door. Comp. Acts 10:0. An intimation of the exode of the faithful from the old theocracy. He brings forth all the elect (see the reading πάντα), leaves not one behind.

[Ἐκβάλλειν illustrates the energetic mode of ἐξαγαγεῖν, and is appropriate to the employment of a shepherd who “drives” and “turns out” the sheep to pasture. It implies that the sheep hesitate and linger behind, and must be almost forced out of the enclosure. Dr. Lange first discovered in this passage an allusion to the approaching violent secession of the Christian church from the Jewish theocracy, although Luther already intimated that Christian freedom from legal bondage and judgment was here hinted at. It is supported by the term ἐκβάλλειν, by the true reading, πάντα, but especially by the preceding historical situation, the excommunication of the blind man, John 9:34, the threatening decree of the excommunication of Jesus with all His disciples (John 9:22) and the deadly hostility of the Jewish leaders, which made an ultimate violent rupture inevitable. Meyer objects without reason, but Godet adopts and expands Lange’s view, although he connects it more with ἐξάγει (John 10:3) than ἐκβάλῃ (John 10:4). “Jesus, he says (II. 280), charactérize par ces mots une situation historique determinée. Le moment est venu pour lui d’emmener son propre troupeau hors de la théocratic, dévouée à la ruine,” etc.—P. S.]

John 10:5. But a stranger.—The communion represented in John 10:4-5, is delineated in respect of its exclusive nature. By the stranger only the false prophets can here be understood, until the time of the pseudo-Messiahs.22

[They will not follow, but will flee from him. The future οὐ μὴ (the true reading instead of ἀκολουθήσωσιν), and φεύξονται is taken by Lampe as Prophetic, pointing to the cathedra Mosis plane deserenda, by Meyer simply as indicating the consequence.—This whole picture of John 10:4-5 is drawn from real life, and is to this day illustrated every day on the hills and plains of Palestine and Syria. Thomson, The Land and the Book, I. p. John 301: “I never ride over these hills, clothed with flocks, without meditating upon this delightful theme. Our Saviour says of the good shepherd, ‘When he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him.’…This is true to the letter. They are so tame and so trained that they follow their keeper with the utmost docility. He leads them forth from the fold, or from their houses in the villages, just where he pleases. Any one that wanders is sure to get into trouble. The shepherd calls sharply from time to time to remind them of his presence. They know his voice, and follow on; but, if a stranger call, they stop short, lift up their heads in alarm, and if it is repeated, they turn and flee, because they know not the voice of the stranger. This is not the fanciful costume of a parable; it is a simple fact.”—P. S.]

John 10:6-7. This parable spoke Jesus unto them, etc.—Παροιμία [not=παραβολή], any discourse deviating from (παρά) the common way (οἶμος). See above [and Meyer and Alford in loc.]. What has been said is totally incomprehensible to the Pharisees, in consequence of the idea entertained by them of their office; hence follows the direct explanation of Christ, see above. Tholuck remarks: The not understanding is not to be taken in a merely literal sense, any more than John 8:27; it means rather a state of being sealed up against that truth, which would affirm that they are not the true leaders of the people. Nevertheless it is here a question of an inability to understand, resting upon that evil basis, not simply of the unwillingness to understand.—The door to the sheep, i.e., here, the door of the shepherds; not yet primarily that of the sheep (Chrysostom, Lampe). [John 10:7. I am the door of the sheep. An expansion of the parabolic allegory and the key to its understanding. Ἐγώ, emphatic. τῶνπροβάτων not to the sheep (Lange and Meyer who thinks that John 10:1 requires this interpretation), but for the sheep, i.e., the door through which both the sheep and the shepherds (spoken of John 10:1-5 in distinction from the one true arch-shepherd, mentioned afterwards, John 10:11) must pass into the fold of the church of God (Chrysostom, Lampe, Hengstenberg, Godet, Alford, etc.).—P. S.]

John 10:8. All who came instead of me, ἧλθονπρὸἐμοῦ.—The expression is obscured by the failing to abide strictly by the figure, i.e., the door. In the first place, then, the meaning is: all who πρὸ τῆς θύρας ἧλθον. With the first idea of passing by-the door, this other is connected: the setting of themselves up for the door, i.e., all who came claiming rule over the conscience, as spiritual lords, instead of the Lord who is the Spirit. The time of their coming is undoubtedly indicated to be already past by the ἧλθον, not, however, by the πρό, forasmuch as the positive πρό does not coincide with the temporal one. Hence we must not only reject the interpretation of this passage as an antijudaistic utterance against Moses and the Prophets (Hilgenfeld23), but also the temporal construction of Meyer: the hierarchic, especially the Pharisaic opposition preceded Him.24 John the Baptist also came before Him, as did all the Prophets. The explanations of Camerarius: præter me (sine me, me neglecto), of Calov: before me (antequam mitterentur, instead of after me), of Tittmann, Schleussner: ὑπέρ, loco, in the place of, are correct; they are, however, imperfect and liable to misapprehension, since all the prophets came in a certain sense loco Christi. The instead of our text at once expresses the substitution of some one for Christ, the denial of Christ, the claim to absolute Messianic authority. And at the same time emphasis is given to the ἦλθον. They came as though the Messiah were come; there was no room left for Him (Jerome, Augustine, etc.). As a matter of course, they were false Messiahs, though without bearing that name. It is not necessary that we should confine our thought to those who were false Messiahs in the stricter sense of the term (Chrysostom, Grotius and many others), since the majority of these did not make their appearance until after Christ. Every hierarch prior to Christ was pseudo-Messianic in proportion as he was anti-christian, for pseudo-christianity involves anti-christianity, and the converse is also true. To covet rule over the conscience of men is pseudo-christian. Be it further observed that the thieves and robbers who climb over the wall, appear in this verse with the assumption of a higher power. They stand no longer in their naked selfishness; they lay claim to positive importance, and that not merely as shepherds, but as the Door itself. Thus, the hierarchs had just been attempting to exercise conscience-rule over the man who was born blind.

But the sheep did not heed them. Only those who were like-minded with them became their followers. But the true sheep remained constant to the good Shepherd.

John 10:9-10. I am the door; if any one enter in through me.—Conclusion of the antithesis.—Enter in through me, he will be saved; i.e., he shall find deliverance in the theocratic communion. The fence of the fold saves from destruction; so also does entrance into the true fastness of the church Through Christ.—He will go in, i.e., in the truth of the Old Testament he shall subordinate himself to the Law.—He will go out; i.e., he shall find in the fulfilment of the Old Testament, in Christ, the liberty of the New Testament faith.—And will find pasture. He who goes out through the door shall reach the true pasturage of faith, knowledge, peace. Already a new parabolical discourse announces itself: the true shepherd does indeed find the pasture for his sheep in the first place, but he also finds it for himself as a sheep (Augustine, Stier and others). Opposed to him stands the thief who arbitrarily makes a false door for himself, and finally himself counterfeits the door. He comes but, on the one hand, to steal, i.e., to rule over souls, and, on the other hand, to slay, i.e., to cast out spirits; in the one case, however, as in the other, to destroy.

The following words: I came that they may have life, and that they may have abundance (περισσόν), constitute the transition to the next parable. Two considerations here claim our attention. First, they are for the first time to receive true life; secondly, together with true life they are to receive abundance of true food (green meadows, fresh water-springs). [Comp. John 1:1 : “Of His fulness have we all received grace for grace.” The English Version (with the Vulg., Chrysostom, Grotius, etc.), renders περισσόν “more abundantly,” but this would require περισσότερον.—P. S.]

John 10:11. I am the good shepherd. Second parabolic discourse. Antithesis of the good Shepherd and the hireling, on the one hand; on the other hand, of the good Shepherd and the wolf, John 10:11-15. I, Ἐγώ, emphatically repeated. As The Shepherd (with the article), He is the true, real Shepherd, in antithesis to symbolical shepherds in the field and symbolical shepherds in the legal office (Hebrews 13:20 : ό ποιμὴν ὁ μέγας); as the Good Shepherd (ὁ καλός25). He is the ideal of the shepherd (Psalms 23:0; Isaiah 40:11; Ezekiel 34:11) in antithesis to bad shepherds (Ezekiel 37:0; Zechariah 11:0; Jeremiah 23:0), who first appeared in the form of the thief, and now branch out into the figures of the Hireling and the wolf. That this is at the same time indicative of the promised Shepherd, Ezekiel 34:23; Ezekiel 37:24, results from the foregoing passages, especially the: “I came,” “they came in my position.” “Comp. Tr. Berachoth, fol. Leviticus 1:0 : Three things God Himself proclaims; famine,, plenty and a פּרנם טוב i.e., a good shepherd or head of the congregation; פדנסים טובים of Moses and David in Vitringa, Syn. Vet., p. 636. As the leading consideration in the idea of the shepherd, sacrificing love for his sheep is brought forward in Hebrews 13:20.” Tholuck.

Layeth down his life for the sheep—Τιθέναι τὴν ψυχήν, a Johannean expression (John 13:37; John 15:13; 1 John 3:16). If we keep the figure in mind, this is here expressive neither of the sacrificial death, nor of the payment of a ransom for the slave, but of the heroic risking of life in combat with the wolf. The ὑπέρ, then, is here synonymous with ἀντί. The shepherd dies that the flock may be saved. [Alford: “These words are here not so much a prophecy, as a declaration, implying, however, that which John 10:15 asserts explicitly.”—P. S.]

John 10:12. But he that is an hireling [μισθωτός]. —He is characterized by two things: 1. he is not a real shepherd to the sheep, but a hired servant,—he has no affection for the sheep; 2. the sheep are not his own, are not united to him by appropriation and cannot confide in him. The inner vital bond is wanting on both sides. Characteristic of the Pharisaic leaders of the people. Whose own the sheep are not, does not denote the “owner,” but the own shepherd. In this very thing consisted the guilt of the hierarchical hirelings, that they constituted themselves “owners” of the flock. And in this very way also they became hirelings, i.e. under-shepherds, to whom the dishonestly increased wages were the principal thing, while they of course as hirelings had also the predicate of the official situation. [Christ sees here, prophetically, the long list of those selfish teachers who make merchandise of the ministry for filthy lucre and hate the cross, from the apostolic age (Galatians 6:12; Philippians 3:18) down to the present.—P. S.]

He beholdeth the wolf coming.26—That he perceives him while yet at a distance, is expressive of his fear, not of his watchfulness; this fear is manifested by his withdrawal at first to a place of security (ἀφίησι τὰ προβ.), and then by his downright flight (φεύγει). The wolf comes from without, from the wilderness; he is, however, connected with the hireling by the fact of his being an alien to the flock and by his treachery towards it. He has been interpreted as symbolizing the devil (Euthymius and others, Olshausen), heretics (Augustine and others), “every anti-theocratic power” (Lücke); “every anti-Messianic power, whose ruling principle, however, as such, is contained in the devil” (Meyer). According to Matthew 7:15 and Acts 20:29, wolves may also make their appearance in an official or pseudo-prophetic form. In such case, however, according to the first passage, they have disguised themselves in sheep’s clothing. The declared wolf is the enemy of the flock, displaying his enmity openly and boldly, while the apostasy of the hireling is still cloaked in cowardly friendship; hence the wolf is the antichristian adversary of the Church, as heretic or persecutor,—in any case the instrument of Satan (comp. the Wolf in Northern Mythology).

The wolf ravisheth them and scattereth.—Twofold pernicious effect. Individual sheep are ravished and torn to pieces, i.e. individual souls are destroyed, but the flock as a Whole, the Church, is confused and scattered.

John 10:13. The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, etc.—No repetition, but the explanation of the flight. As a hireling, he is solely and selfishly interested in pasturing himself; he has not the welfare of the sheep at heart. It is questionable in what degree this figure is illustrated by the conduct of the Jewish shepherds of that time. They did not seem to be wanting in bravery; at first they acted like havening wolves towards Christ, the Good Shepherd, and in the Jewish war they conducted themselves in a similar manner towards the Romans. The point illustrated by the figure is this: The hireling vanishes at the appearance of danger. There are two classes of shepherds to be found when destruction overtakes a church; the one class is composed of cowards who are secretly faithless, the other of bold and open apostates. It is, however, the cowardice of the former that enables the boldness of the latter class to excite consternation in the church. Such hirelings composed a good part of the Sanhedrin, and were especially numerous among the Scribes in the time of Jesus (John 12:42); they possessed a consciousness of the truth of Christ but no heart for it, and they delivered up the Good Shepherd to the wolf.

John 10:14. I am the good shepherd. I know my own, etc.—Explicit interpretation of the parabolic discourse just unfolded, as John 10:7. The proof of this character: I know them that are Mine, and the fact of the indissoluble connection with the flock, with true believers, whom the Father has given Him, here expressed by the relation of mutual acquaintance. True, this knowing does not mean loving; but it is still an emphatic expression by which a loving knowledge is implied. It is the expression of the personal, divine cognition of kindred personalities. The grace of Christ is such a cognition of His own on His part; faith, on the other hand, is a corresponding cognition of Christ on their part.

John 10:15. Even as the Father knoweth me.—[Belongs to the preceding verse. The E. V. wrongly treats this as an independent sentence.—P. S.] In the personal, spiritual communion of the Father with Christ, and of Christ with the Father, the mutual relationship between Christ and the faithful is rooted. The “as” denotes the similarity of manner as also of kind, inasmuch as the life imparted by Christ to His people is a divine one. A chief motive for the comparison, however, is that the cognition on the part of Christ is the cause of His recognition by believers in return, as the cognition of the Father is the foundation for the corresponding cognition of Christ (comp. chap, John 14:20; John 15:10; John 17:8; Joh 17:21; 1 John 5:1; Matthew 25:40). Tholuck: “The γινώσκειν τὰ ε̇μά corresponds with the καλεῖν κατ’ ὄνομα, the γινώσκομαι with the οἴδασι τὴν φωνὴν αὐτοῦ.”—And I lay down my life.—Expression and measure of the strength of His love towards His people. But the salvation of the heathen also is to be effected by His death (see John 11:52; John 12:24; Ephesians 2:14; Hebrews 13:20). Thus this thought leads to the following. Τίθημι. “Near and certain future,” Meyer.

John 10:16. And other sheep I have. [Other sheep, not another fold; for they are scattered throughout the world (John 11:52), while there is but one kingdom of Christ into which they will all ultimately be gathered, and to which they already belong in the counsel and love of God and His Son. Salvation comes from the Jews, but passes over to the Gentiles.—P. S.] Christ the chief Shepherd as Shepherd of the double flock of believers from the Jews and the Gentiles, John 10:16. The Jews resident out of Palestine (Paulus) are not meant, for they too belonged to the unitous Jewish fold; it is the heathen to whom Christ refers; they are not to be thought of as existing in a fold (De Wette), although subject to the guidance of God in another way (John 11:52; Acts 14:16). The heathen are His sheep in the manner stipulated, even as the Jews, i.e. those who hear His voice, who follow the drawing of the Father. Of these Christ says: I have them (ἔχω) with divine confidence. He must lead them (δεῖ); it is the decree of His Father’s love and of His own love. That He shall bring them into the fold of Israel (Tholuck), is not implied by the ἀγαγεῖν, which “means neither adducere, bring (Vulgate, Luther, Beza, Lutthardt [Hengstenb. Godet]), nor συναγαγεῖν (Euthymius, Casaubon and others), but to lead as a shepherd.” Meyer. Bengel: “Non opus est illis solum mutare.” Yet the form: ἀγαγεῖν certainly indicates that the imminent manifest leading of these sheep is a continuation of a secret leading, previously begun (gratia præveniens). Christ saw the restriction of His ministry to Israel (Matthew 10:5) abolished with His death (Matthew 21:43; chap. 28) As the exalted Christ He was made manifest as the Shepherd of the nations.

And they shall hear my voice.—Christ’s confidence in His mission to the Gentiles presupposes at the same time an assurance of their destination to salvation and of the divine guidance of grace exercised over them. They are already sheep, not merely proleptically speaking (Meyer), for the idea of the sheep which gives heed to the voice of the shepherd, and the idea of the regenerate child of God are not one and the same. The sheep is a symbol of the man who hears the voice of Christ; hence, he is shown to be a sheep by his calling, while regeneration occurs but in company with justification.

One shepherd, one flock [μία ποίμνη, εἷς ποιμήν].27—The asyndeton betokens the closer connection of the two members. On an analogous utterance of Zeno in Plutarch28 (Alex., chap. vi.), see Tholuck. The two flocks become one flock by means of the one Shepherd, in Him; not by entrance into the αὐλή of the Jews. On the contrary, the subject recently under consideration has been the leading of the Jewish flock out of the αὐλή to pasturage. Tholuck: “Since the Old Testament and the New Testament kingdom of God is but One kingdom, the latter being merely an outgrowth of the former, the Gentiles’ reception into it is pictured as a leading unto Zion (Isaiah 2:3; Zechariah 14:17), by Paul as a grafting into the trunk of the good olive-tree and, similarly, in this passage as a reception into the αὐλή of Israel.” See, against this view, the note to John 10:16. In connection with the unity of the Old and the New Testament kingdom of God, we must, however, not overlook the antithesis between the typical Old Testament theocracy and the real New Testament kingdom of heaven. See Daniel 7:14. The latter does not issue from the former, but the former goes before the latter shadow-wise. Christ is the principle of the kingdom of heaven; He is, therefore, also the principle of the unity of the two flocks, Romans 11:25. Inner relation to Christ being the grand point here, this promise has been fulfilled from the beginning of Christianity (one church); but, hence, it must also receive at last its perfect fulfilment in appearance. [Christ is, as Bengel remarks on εἶζ ποιμήν always the one Shepherd by right, but He is to become so (γενήσεται) more and more in fact. So it may be said, the unity of Christ’s flock exists virtually from the beginning and need not be created, but must be progressively realized and manifested in the world. The unity of the church, like its catholicity and holiness, are in a steady process of growth towards perfection. “It has not yet appeared what we shall be.” The nearer Christians draw to Christ, the more they will be united to each other. It is a shallow exegesis to say that this word of Christ was completely fulfilled in the union of Jewish and Gentile believers in the apostolic church. It was indeed fulfilled then; comp. Ephesians 2:11-22, which is a good commentary on the passage; but it is also in ever-expanding fulfilment, and, like His sacerdotal prayer for the unity of all believers, it reaches as a precious promise far beyond the present to the gathering in of the fulness of the Gentiles and such a glorious unity and harmony of believers as the world has never seen yet. Meyer says correctly: “The fulfilment of the sentence began with the apostolic conversion of the Gentiles; but it progresses and will only be complete with Romans 11:25 f.”—P. S.]

John 10:17. On this account doth the Father love me.—The freedom of Christ’s self-sacrifice, John 10:17-18. Various conceptions. 1. Διὰ τοῦτο—ὅτι significatively refers to the following: “By this doth the love of my Father appear, that I lay down My life only to take it again” (Bucer, Stier). This view may seem to be upheld by the fact that the love of the Father precedes the work of redemption, and is manifest in the exaltation of Christ. But the love which from eternity has flowed from Father to Son, the love modified by their Trinitarian relation, does not exclude a love to the God-Man, called forth by His historic accomplishment of the work of redemption, and by His moral conduct on earth. Comp. John 8:29; Philippians 2:9. Hence 2. Meyer: Διὰ τοῦτο—ὅτι is to be understood as in all passages in John (John 5:16; John 5:18; John 8:47; John 12:18; John 12:39; 1 John 3:1): on this account, because namely,—so that διὰ τοῦτο refers to the words preceding, and ὄτι introduces an exposition of διὰ τοῦτο. Consequently: “therefore, on account of this my pastoral relation of which I have been speaking (down to John 10:16), doth My Father love Me, because namely, I (εγώ with the emphasis of self-appointment, see John 10:18) lay down My life,” etc. Manifestly, the whole thought is contained in John 10:15-16 also, for the resurrection of Christ must of course precede the taking possession of the “other sheep” from the heathen-world.

Even the conclusion, in order that I may take it again (ἵνα πάλιν λάβω αὐτήν), is variously understood. 1. It denotes the simple consequence of the sacrifice of Christ expressed in the preceding clause (Theod. of Mopsuest., and many others); 2. it indicates the condition (hac lege ut, Calvin, De Wette); 3. the subjective purpose of Christ: because thus only could be fulfilled the ultimate design of the pastoral office John 10:16 (Stier, Meyer); 4. the divine appointment of the aim; namely, in order to take it again, in accordance with the purpose of God, 1Co 1:14; 1 Corinthians 7:29; Romans 8:17. This taking again, also, is comprehended in the divine ἐντολὴ τοῦ πατρός, John 10:18. Tholuck. Since the obedience of Christ is here represented as the object of the love of God, ἵνα must undoubtedly be understood as referring to the purpose of Christ; this purpose, however, is not merely subjective, but corresponds with the ἐντολή of the Father, which again, is an ἐντολή of personal life; this has not without reason, been urged by Calvin and De Wette.

The sense then is this: therefore doth My Father love Me, because I, dying, render a sacrificial obedience whose principle and motive is infinite trust in the resurrection of My personal life in the fellowship of His absolute personality; because I do not die despairingly, with the idea of annihilation, but in the assurance that I shall thus obtain the full revelation of life; or because I fall into the ground like a grain of wheat, in order to bear much fruit. In this victorious reliance on the new life in death contained in His sacrifice, Christ is the delight of the Father, as, in a similar spirit, the Christian is well-pleasing to God in Christ (see Isaiah 53:12; Luke 2:14; Matthew 3:17; John 17:5; John 12:28; John 17:1). “If the Father love the Son for this reason, this love contains also His love to the world, in the sense of John 3:16. Calvin: amorem unigenito debitum ad nos velut ad finalem causam refert.” Tholuck.

John 10:18. No one taketh it from me.—As on many other occasions Christ has here, by the solemn asseveration of His voluntary self-sacrifice, precluded any misconstruction of His death, as if He had succumbed to the hostile power of the world involuntarily and contrary to His expectations.29—I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. Different interpretations of ἐξουσία.

1. Ancient dogmatical opinion: the power of the Son of God, the power of the divine nature to render the human nature quiescent in death, and to rouse it again. Tholuck: “Like John 14:13 a dictum probans for the non posse mori of the Redeemer (Quenstädt, III. p. 420, also according to Beck, Christl. Lehrwissenschaft, 2. p. 513 and 517). But it is not the intrinsic, physical necessity of death that is denied, but the compulsive force of circumstances, as οὐδείς shows. Nothing is meant but what is contained in Matthew 26:53. Comp. John 14:30. Mortality, as also Luther rightly acknowledges, is to be imputed to Christ, inasmuch as He took upon Himself sin-infected [?] humanity; see my [Tholuck’s] Commentary on Romans 6:9.”

2. Meyer: “The authorization, in the first place of His self-sacrifice and secondly of His re-assumption of life, resting in the divine ἐντολή.” Probably a not altogether correct resumption of the views of Lücke and De Wette.

3. Lücke: “If the Father have given to the Son to have life in Himself (John 5:26), He has also given Him power to take it again. If that power be essentially a moral one, so too is this. But holy, moral power is at the same time always a power over nature. Forasmuch as Christ freely died as the Holy One, He likewise had power over death, but as a power in which the power of the Father is always present as absolute cause.”—There, however, the definite distinction: in Himself, John 5:26, is not adhered to.

4. Tholuck: “The human πνεῦμα of Christ did not die; His self-activity, gaining still greater freedom by His death, penetrates the bodily organ and admits it to the process of spiritualization; thus, according to John 5:0, Christ proceeds in the case of believers. Again, in John 2:19 it is the Son who effects His own resurrection.”

5. A separation of the divine and the human nature is unseasonable here. It was in His divine-human nature that Christ had life, as the principle of immortality and revivification, in Himself, i.e., in personal principial independence, though it was communicated by the Father. In this life-power, as the Man of spirit from heaven (1 Corinthians 15:45), He could pass immediately, by transformation, from the first earthly form of existence into the second heavenly one. But He also had power to let His pure and holy body assume the death-form of natural humanity (not by a quiescence of its immortality, but by suffering the natural conditions of death, by humbling Himself as a man even to die as men do). He might die, but He could not see corruption; for He had power to take His life again, i.e., to cause the transformatory energy reposing in His spirit, now modified into a resurrective energy, to operate within His organism from which life had been expelled. This fact is a re-animation on the part of the Father, since the physical conditions of life, the omnipresent healing powers of God in nature, forthwith meet the spirit returning to life; it is a spontaneous resurrection, because, at the actual life-call of the Father, Christ from the other world performs the wonder of His self-quickening. [Comp. John 9:19; John 11:25, ἐγώ εἱμι ἡ ; 1 Peter 3:19, ζωοποιῃθεὶς πνεύματι.]

This commandment, i.e., this known, universal law of life. Christ never has but one law of life, for holy life is perfect simplicity. This ἐντολή is the voice of God in unison with His situation and His consciousness. It has a peculiar form for each moment, John 12:49. Here, however, He has sketched it in respect of its ground-plan. It is the fundamental plan foretokened in the leading of all Old Testament saints through suffering to glory and reflected in the lives of all the faithful. This ἐντολή has reference not merely to dying (Chrysostom), nor is it to be understood simply as a promise of new life (many of the ancients); it embraces both considerations, their indissoluble connexion being precisely the main point.

John 10:19-21. There was a division therefore again. —The definite presentation of the characteristic features of Christ's redemptive work again occasions a division among the Jews, John 10:19-21; a division which is to be regarded as the final and most serious one, the foretoken of approaching separations. Be it observed that this division occurs among the “Jews” (not in the ὄχλος), i.e., among the Pharisaic hearers with whom the Lord’s last discussion was, John 9:40. Πάλιν refers to John 9:16.

The last words of Christ had indeed the effect of embittering and hardening the majority still more. They now advance the opinion: He hath a demon, etc.; still they dare not say it to His face. They propose, however, to treat Him as a madman and pay no more attention to Him. On the other hand, the friendly minority seem to be intimidated in this instance also. It is patent that they are themselves impressed by the words of Jesus (“these words are not the words,” etc.); but the only argument that they think will tell upon their adversaries is: Can a demon open the eyes of the blind? Meyer: The miracle seemed to them too great to have been performed by such agency, although it results from Matthew 12:24, that in former times even beneficent miracles may have been ascribed to demons. That passage, however, does not present a view prevalent among the Jews; it merely demonstrates that the spirit of blasphemy ventured to put an evil construction upon all the miracles of Jesus.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. Symbolism of the Theocracy, the Church and the Christian Pastorate. Christ the Door of the Fold, i.e., the fundamental condition of a true pastoral life for all time.

A. First Parable: His relation to the shepherds: He is the principle, the spirit and the goal of the pastoral office. They are either real shepherds, or, with the appearance of shepherds, thieves and murderers. a. Characteristics of genuine shepherds: In respect of their relation to Christ, to the porter, to the sheep. (They know the sheep; the sheep know them. They lead them out of the fold to the pasture, from forms into life.) b. Characteristics of false shepherds: In relation to Christ, to the porter, to the sheep. Pseudo-Christianity in the broader sense of the term: (1) Before the appearance of Christ. (2) After the appearance of Christ.

B. Second Parable: His relation to the sheep (to which the shepherds also belong). He the Good Shepherd, the Arch-Shepherd. Property of the Good Shepherd. Antithesis: the hireling and the wolf. False shepherds in collusion with declared enemies. Pseudo-Christianity in its transition to Anti-Christianity.

C. Third Parable: Christ the Head-Shepherd. The other sheep and their union with the sheep of the fold. The end: One Shepherd and One Flock. The condition: the sacrificial death of Jesus. The freedom of His self-sacrifice. The three periods of the divine pastoral office on earth; a. Christ the spirit and root of the pastoral office. Applied pre-eminently to the Old Testament time. b. Christ the Arch-Shepherd. Appearance, life and work of Jesus. c. Christ the Head-Shepherd. The New Testament Church.

2. The dechristianized official life. How the thief gradually branches out into the hireling and the wolf. The thief and the robber. The render and scatterer. How he neither knows, nor will know, any door of the fold, either for ingress or egress. How he at last vanishes from the scene, and there is but One Shepherd, One Flock. When the right motive is absent, there are always false motives (egotistical worldly ones); where the true means of entrance are not, there are always false ones (simony in the fullest sense); where true pastoral labor is not, a destructive influence over the flock invariably takes its place.3. Christ the Door of the Fold or Old Testament Theocracy: (1) For protection from without during the night-time, (2) for removal to the pasture in the New Testament morning.4. Church-life at the core a personal relation: (1) The Shepherd and the favorite sheep and the sheep in general; (2) the sheep which understand His call,—which at least know Him by the tone of His voice.5. Decisive mark of the true shepherd: Love to the sheep, faithfulness, devotion to them unto death. The death of the Arch-Shepherd, the preservation of the sheep.6. The end: One Shepherd, One Flock.7. The mystery of the resurrective power in the dying Christ.8. The opinion of enemies touching the shepherd’s call of the Lord. The disagreement between friends and enemies progressing towards separation.—See, moreover, in reference to particular details,—for example the doctrine of excommunication—the above Exegetical Notes.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Trial of the excommunication or ban-decree of the Pharisees on the part of the Lord—Trial of the spiritual administration of office by the symbol of pastoral life.—Earthly pastoral affairs an image of spiritual pastoral affairs.—The three parables of Christ concerning the marks of genuine shepherds: 1. They are called through the pastoral spirit of Christ (by Him, in Him, to Him); 2, they are themselves sheep in Him, the Arch-shepherd; 3, they rejoice at the union of the divided flock, the scattered sheep.—Christ’s conception of the pastoral office.

The first parable, or Christ the Door of the fold. 1. What the passing by imports: a, denial of the door; b, an arbitrary climbing in; c, denial of the sheep; d, stealing, strangling, destroying. 2. What the going in through the door imports; a. recognition of the door and the porter; b, a calling of the sheep; c, a leading of them out to the pasture; d, the proving one’s self to be a shepherd in the pasture also.—The voice of the shepherd and the voice of the stranger—What Christ understands by the voice of the pastor.—The door to the church and the door to the hearts (to the fold and to the sheep) one.—The cordial understanding between shepherd and flock.

The second parable, or Christ the Good Shepherd. 1. His pastoral aim, John 10:10; John 2:0. His pastoral mind, John 10:11; John 3:0. His pastoral zeal. He removes the hireling, opposes the wolf, John 10:12-13; John 4:0. His pastoral joy, John 10:14-15.—The hireling and the wolf in the flock of Christ: 1. In respect of their contrast; 2. in respect of their connection.—The sheep are His: 1. By original nature; 2. by divine appointment; 3. by virtue of His self-sacrificing fidelity.—The Good Shepherd knows His own: 1. By their attraction to Him; 2. by their tractableness.

The third parable: “And other sheep I have.” 1. Sheep without a fold, without pasture, without shepherds, and yet His sheep, or the wonders of gratia præveniens. 2. Attested as sheep; a, by His destination to die for them and to be exalted to glory in order to lead them; b, by the fact that they know His voice; c, by their becoming under Him, the Shepherd, One Flock with the former sheep.—“And there shall be one flock, one Shepherd.”—The death of the faithful Shepherd, the revelation of the divine pastoral fields; 1. The sign of true shepherds and true sheep; 2, the salvation of the flock; 3, their union under the one Shepherd’s staff of Christ.—The word of Christ: One Shepherd, one flock; 1. How it has already been invisibly fulfilled; 2. how its fulfilment shall one day be fully visible; 3. how it is continually being fulfilled more and more in great signs.—The One Shepherd is Christ alone, as believers alone constitute the One Flock.—The freedom in the self-sacrifice of Christ: l. As a power of love; 2, as a power of life; 3, as a power of hope.—The mark of genuine, pious submission to God unto death, is the hope of resurrection.—True joyfulness in sacrifice is always at the same time an assurance of resurrection.—The death of Christ the consummation of the good-will of God to mankind in Him.—The death of Christ the unique great deed, 1 John 4:9.—The communion of God a kingdom of personal life.—How the word of Christ concerning His faithfulness as a Shepherd itself severs the true members of His flock from His enemies (the prelude to the final future separation of sheep and goats).

Starke: The church (Theocracy) resembles a sheep-pen (a fold): 1. Unity of the sheep; 2. goats among them, hypocrites; 3. protection from cold, thieves, robbers; 4. of mean appearance; 5. in wildernesses yet fruitful places, (or rather in solitary but grassy pastures). Considered significant of separation from the world; riches of the Word of God, etc., (Ezekiel 34:1; Jeremiah 23:1; Matthew 9:36; Isaiah 40:11; Isaiah 1:23; Hosea 6:9, etc.)—Zeisius: The mask must finally be torn away from unfaithful shepherds, wicked teachers.—The door of faith, of the mouth, of heaven, etc. All such doors must be opened to us by the Holy Ghost.—Shepherds and sheep are together; preachers must not sunder themselves from their hearers.—Canstein: In all ages a true though invisible church has existed, which has not listened to seducers, but has followed Christ only.—Quesnel: We never know better what is meant by good shepherds and hirelings, than in times of persecution.—Men may flee not only in body, but also in spirit.—False prophets called dumb dogs, Isaiah 56:10; Ezekiel 13:5,—who, as shepherds, assume a very bold front, and yet flee when they should stand.—Zeisius: O gracious, cordial and blessed acquaintance of Christ and believers!—Who would count his life too dear when the honor and will of Christ demands it? Christ affords all men at all times, and in all places, an opportunity of becoming sheep of His flock.

Braune: Psalms 78:72; Ezekiel 34:0.—A hireling gradually becomes a thief and a murderer because he has not a shepherd’s heart.—Gossner: Where do the thieves climb in? How do they enter upon the office of teachers, into the churches? Ambition and avarice, etc.—The harmony existing between Christ and the Holy Ghost.—They flee from him (the sheep from the stranger). They do not in addition, however, use violence towards him.—Hence the world’s lamentations over the obscurity of the Bible: The porter does hot open to them because they are not sheep. But why do the simple understand? Because they are sheep.

Heubner: “He that entereth not in at the door.” General import: He who does not enter upon his work as a teacher in the open way, pointed out by God Himself. Special import: He who fails to enter upon the office of a teacher through the Messiah whom God has ordained, with faith in Him, in His strength and in fellowship with Him,—“But climbeth in some other way.” The general meaning of this is: He who seeks to gain access to the people and to obtain office and authority with them by unlawful means, without inward calling and with carnal views.—A soul-murderer is far more horrible than a body-murderer.—False preaching, wolf's preaching, as Luther calls it.—Poor fools, who seek to press into hearts by their strength, art or clamor.—Sheep, souls who already feel drawn to the Saviour, soon obtain a right discernment.—He calleth His sheep by name. In this see the special care of souls.—One’s life is more edifying than one’s doctrine.

John 10:6. How many thousands of hirelings have read this text without noticing how it touches them.—On the first pericope, John 10:1-11 : Comparison of false teachers and Christ.—How shall Christians learn to distinguish misleaders from true leaders?—The Good Shepherd. Love will run some risk.—The wolf. The devil and men resembling Satan.—An evil spirit has supplanted the old public spirit of faith.—The extent of the love of Christ.—Such a great, wide-embracing heart is proof of the wide-embracing spirit.—If we grow more like Jesus our hearts also expand.—In Christ is the centrum unitatis of the churches.—On the second pericope, John 10:11-21 (Misericordias): The mutual fidelity of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, and His flock.

John 10:18. The death of Jesus a voluntary self-surrender.

Schleiermacher: Those who are able to promote the outward prosperity of men should make use of this excellent gift; but they should neither believe themselves nor persuade others that they thereby give men the right and the true.—(Faithful following of Jesus:) The bond of faithfulness which has held the little troop of believers together through all seasons of disgrace and persecution.—Marheineke: The invisible rule of Christ over all human souls.—Höpfner: What relation does the Reformation sustain to the promise of the Lord: There shall be one flock and One Shepherd?—Burk: The acquaintanceship between Christ and believers.—Rautenberg: The dispersion of the flock of Christ.—Arndt: The Good Shepherd knows His sheep: 1, By their faith; 2, by the Holy Ghost; 3, by the renewal of their lives; 4, by prayer.—Florey:In the pastoral office of the Lord the glory of His divine love is revealed.—Ahlfeld: The Good Shepherd and His flock.

[Craven: Christ, the author and finisher of our faith: 1. the shepherd who seeks the unfolded sheep and guides them (John 10:16); 2. through Himself, the door; 3, to Himself, the governing, nourishing and protecting Shepherd.—Christ the door, denoting—1, His authority to admit and shut out; 2. His sacrifice, Hebrews 10:19-20.

John 10:19-21. The division occasioned by the revelation of unpleasant or mysterious truth. Unbelief ignores miracles because of difficulties; faith ignores difficulties because of miracles.—From Chrysostom: John 10:1. The Scriptures the door; they 1. admit to knowledge of God; 2. protect the sheep; 3, shut out wolves; 4, bar entrance to heretics.—(Our Lord calls Himself the door, John 10:7; He is the door as He introduces us to the Father, but the Scriptures are a manifestation of Christ, and in certain respects they are what He is.—E. R. C.)—Some other way (John 10:1), the commandments and traditions of the Scribes and Pharisees.—From Augustine: Christ a lowly door—he who enters through Him must be lowly, the proud climb up some other way.

John 10:3. He leadeth them out, implies that He looses the chains of their sins that they may follow Him.

John 10:6. Our Lord: 1. feeds by plain words; 2. exercises by obscure.

John 10:5; John 10:8. The times (before and after the advent) different; the faith, the same.

John 10:8. By going in, i.e., by faith, they have life; by going out, i.e, by death, they have life more abundantly.

John 10:7; John 10:9. How does He enter by Himself? We enter by the door because we preach Christ, He preaches Himself.

John 10:11. The good Shepherd; 1. not because He gave His life, but 2. because He gave His life for the sheep, 1 Corinthians 13:3.

John 10:18. He shows His natural death was the consequence; 1. not of sin in Him, but 2. of His own will, as to the (1) why, (2) when, (3) how.—From Theophylact: John 10:3. The Holy Spirit the porter, by whom; 1. the Scriptures are unlocked; 2. the truth revealed.

John 10:10. The thief is the devil, who 1. steals by wicked thoughts; 2. kills by the assent of the mind to them; 3. destroys by acts.

John 10:14. The good Shepherd knows His sheep (and is known by them.—E. R. C), because He is so attractive to them.—From Gregory: John 10:9. Shall go in, i.e., to faith; shall go out, i.e., to sight; find pasture, i.e., in eternal fulness.

John 10:11. He, 1. did what He bade; 2. set the example of what He commanded.

John 10:12-13. An hireling holds the place of a shepherd, but 1. seeks not the gain of the sheep; 2. pants after the good things of earth; 3. rejoices in the pride of station. The hireling flees; 1. not by changing place, but 2. by withholding consolation. The hireling does not face danger, lest he should lose what he loves. Whether one be a shepherd or an hireling cannot be told for certain except in time of trial.

John 10:15. By my love for my sheep, I show how much I love my Father.—From Alcuin: John 10:18. The Word does not receive a commandment by word, but contains in Himself all His Father’s commandments.—From Melanchthon: John 10:4. A picture of a true pastor; he shall 1. be saved himself; 2. go into intimate communion with God; 3. go forth furnished with gifts and be useful in the church; 4. find food and refreshment for his own soul.—From Musculus: John 10:9. Our Lord does not say; 1. if any learned, or righteous, or noble, or rich, or Jewish man, but 2. if any man.

John 10:12. Churches cannot keep together without (faithful) pastors, the wolf scattereth them.—From M. Henry: The similitude is borrowed from the custom of the country; similitudes should be taken from those things which are familiar, that the things of God be not clouded by that which should clear them.—The industry of the wicked to do mischief should sham us out of slothfulness and cowardice in the service of God (John 10:1).—The rightful owner enters in by the door as one having authority (John 10:2).—Good men have the good qualities of sheep; 1. harmless, 2. meek, 3. patient, 4. useful, 5. tractable to the Shepherd, 6. sociable, 7. much used in sacrifice.—The good Shepherd 1. knows His own sheep, 2. calls each one by name, 3. marks them, 4. leads them out to pasture, 5. makes them feed and rest, 6. speaks comfortably to them, 7. guards them, 8. guides them by going before.—Christ’s explication of the parable; whatever difficulties there may be in the sayings of Jesus, we shall find Him willing to explain, if we be willing to understand; one scripture expounds another.—Though it may be a solecism in rhetoric to make the same person to be both the door and the shepherd, it is no solecism in divinity to make Christ have His authority from Himself—Himself to enter by His own blood into the holy place.—Christ the door, 1. a door shut, to keep out thieves and robbers, 2. a door open, for passage and communication—(1) by Him we have our first admission into the flock, (2) by Him we go in and out in religious conversation, (3) by Him God visits and communicates with the church, (4) by Him we are at last admitted into heaven.—The mischievous design of the thief; the gracious design of the shepherd—(1) to give life to the sheep, (2) to give His life for the sheep.—A description of bad shepherds—1. then bad principles (as hirelings), (1) the wealth of the world their chief good, (2) the work of their place the least of their care; 2. their bad practices the effect of bad principles, (1) they desert the flock when danger threatens, (2)(they rob when in apparent safety. E. R. C.)—The acquaintance of Christ with those hereafter to be of His flock (John 10:16); Observe 1. the eye Christ had to the Gentiles, 2. the purposes of His grace concerning them (“them also I must bring”): (a) the necessity of their case required it, (4) the necessity of His own engagements required it; 3. The blessed effect of His purpose, (a) they shall hear my voice—not only shall my voice be heard among them but by them, (b) there shall be one fold (flock) and one Shepherd—Jews and Gentiles (all classes) being united to Christ, unite in Him.—Christ takes off the offence of the cross by four considerations (John 10:17-18), the laying down of His life was 1. in order to His receiving it again, 2. the condition of His exaltation—therefore doth My Father love Me, 3. voluntary, 4. by order and appointment of the Father.—Better that men should be divided about the doctrine of Christ than united in the service of sin (John 10:19).—From Burkitt: He calleth His own sheep by name (John 10:5)—this denotes, 1. a special love He bears them, 2. a special care He has over them, 3. a particular acquaintance with them.—He goeth before them (John 10:4), He treads out those steps which they take in their way towards heaven.—He does not say all that were sent before Me, but all that came before Me (John 10:8)—The properties of a good shepherd—1. to know all his flock, 2. to take care of them, 3. to lay down his life for them, 4. to take care for increasing his fold (John 10:16).—From Besser: John 10:14, Am known of Mine; a rebuke of those doubters who in voluntary humility refuse to be sure of their salvation.—From Stier: I. Concerning the true and false shepherd generally in order to a transition to Christ himself, who is in the fullest sense the Shepherd: 1. the fundamental difference, i.e. the entering in to the fold through the right door (John 10:1-2); 2. the difference as to result, the true shepherd, (1) is admitted by the porter, (2) is acknowledged by the sheep, (3) leads them out going before, (4) they follow—the stranger, they (1) follow not, (2) flee from (John 10:3-5). II. The medium of transition concerning Christ as the door: 1. to the sheep for all under-shepherds (John 10:7-8), 2. more comprehensively, of the shepherds and the sheep (John 10:9). III. The true and good shepherd in the sole and supreme sense, 1. in contrast with the enemy and his servants, with (1) the thief (John 10:10), (2) the hireling and the wolf (John 10:11-13), 3. independently (John 10:14-18).

John 10:3. Preaching is the calling of individuals, and finds its consummation in the special care of souls; the leading out requires the going before of the shepherd in life and example.

John 10:14. My sheep—mine, a plain indication that there are false sheep [?goats rather according to Scripture language] as well as false shepherds.—From Ryle: The use of a parable to convey indirectly a severe rebuke. John 10:2. If we would know the value of a man’s ministry we must ask—Where is the door? does he bring forward Christ and give him His rightful place?

John 10:3. The character of a true shepherd shown, 1. the porter knows by his manner of approach that he is a friend, 2. the sheep recognize his voice, 8. he calls each sheep by its own name, 4. he leads the sheep out. to pasture.

John 10:4-5. A spiritual instinct in believers which generally enables them to distinguish between true and false teaching, 1 John 2:20.

John 10:6. They understood not; if Christ was not understood, His ministers cannot wonder that they are often misunderstood.

John 10:9. Go in and out is a Hebraism, 1. implying a habit of using a dwelling as a home, 2. expressing the habitual and happy intercourse of a believer with Christ.

John 10:11-13. The great secret of a useful and Christ-Like ministry is to love men’s souls; he that is a minister merely to get a living, or to have an honorable position, is the hireling of the verses. The true pastor’s first care is for his sheep; the false pastor’s first thought is for Himself.

John 10:14. Christ knows all His believing people; He knows 1. their names, 2. their families, 3. their dwelling—places, 4. circumstances, 5. private history, 6. experience, 7. trials.

John 10:16. One flock (ποίμνη not αὑλὴ); there is only “One holy Catholic Church,” but there are many various visible churches.—From Barnes John 10:1-2. The only way of entering the Church is by the Lord Jesus, i.e. by, 1. believing on him, 2. obeying His commandments.

John 10:10. Life—more abundantly; they shall have, 1. not merely life, i.e. bare existence, but 2. all those superadded things which are needful to make life blessed and happy (both here and hereafter. E. R. C.)

John 10:21. The preaching of Jesus always produced effect—it made [bitter enemies, or decided friends. Not the fault of the gospel that there are divisions, but of the unbelief and mad passions of men.—From Owen: John 10:5. The blessings promised are twofold, 1. perfect safety (shall go in and out), 2. abundance of pasturage.

John 10:15. I lay down My life; the consequence and illustration of His love.

John 10:18. The fact that Christ’s death was voluntary shows that it was necessary.—From Webster and Wilkinson: John 10:9. There is no door between the soul and Christ.

John 10:16. Ephesians 2:11-22 a perfect commentary on the passage.]

Footnotes:

John 10:3; John 10:3.—Φωνεῖ, in accordance with A. B. D. L. [X., Sin., Lachm., Tischend., Alf], etc., instead of καλεῖ [text. rec.]. The former verb better corresponds with the figure. The sheep, as sheep, are not influenced by an understanding of the call, but by its warm, accustomed tone.

John 10:4; John 10:4.—Τὰ ἴδια πάντα a more expressive reading than the received text, in accordance with B. D. L. X. [Sin.], etc., Lachmann, Tischendorf. [Alford: The text. rec. reads καί at the beginning, andτὰ ἴδια πρόβατα, his own sheep, mechanically changing πάντα into πρόβατα—P. S.]

John 10:5; John 10:5.—In accordance with vastly preponderant authorities, A. B. D., etc., ἄκολουθήσ ο υσιν instead of θήσ ω σιν [The usual conjunct, was substituted for the indicat. and is sustained by Cod. Sin., which in this case agrees with the text. rec.—P. S.]

John 10:7; John 10:7.—[The text. rec. inserts αὐτοῖς with D. against preponderating testimony, πάλιν is better supported, but omitted by אּ* Tischend, ed. viii., reads simply εἶπεν οὖν ὁ ̓Ιησοῦς, Alf. retains πάλιν.—P. S.]

John 10:8; John 10:8.—Πάντες is wanting in D., etc., on account of the difficulty of the passage, and πρὸ ἐμοῦ in E. F. and some others, because the passage could be turned against the Old Testament by the Gnostics. See De Wette on the passage. [Tischendorf, Exodus 8:0, omits πρὸ ἐμοῦ in accordance with א.* E. F. G., etc.; Alt, Westcott and Hort retain it, and explain its omission, with De Wette, Meyer and Lange, from the fear of the Gnostic and Manichæan misuse of the passage against the O. T. On the different translations of πρὸ ἐμοῦ—before me, instead of me, without regard to me, etc.—see the Exeg.—P. S.]

John 10:11; John 10:11.—[τίθησιν, layeth down, is preferred by Tischend., Alt, W. and H. to δίδωσιν, giveth.—P. S.]

John 10:12; John 10:12.—[The last τὰ πρόβατα is omitted by א. B. D. L., Tischend., W. and H., bracketed by Lachm., Alf, defended. by Meyer and Lange, who regards it as “indispensable for the expression of the idea that the wolf is Indeed able to make individual sheep his prey, but not the flock as a whole which he can only scatter.”—P. S.]

John 10:13; John 10:13.—The words: ὁ δὲ μισθωτὸς φεύγει, the hireling fleeth, might appear to be a superfluous repetition or might be omitted; on this account they are wanting in B. D. L. Sin. (Tischendorf). They however serve as an introduction to the characterization of the hireling.

John 10:14; John 10:14.—Instead of γινώσκομαι ὑπὸ τῶν ἐμῶν [text, rec], B. D. L. [Cod. Sin.], etc., read γινώσκουσιν με τα ἔμά. So Lachmann, Tischendorf. Meyer justly remarks (following De Wette): This active turn is in conformation to the following.

John 10:18; John 10:18.—[Lange renders ἐντολήν rather freely: Lebensgesetz, law of life; Noyes: charge.—P. S.]

[11]Comp. Chr. Fr. Fritzsche: Commentatio de Tens janua ovium, eodemque pastore. In Fritzschiorum Opuscula. [Voretzsch: Dissert. de John 10:0. Altenb., 1838].

[12][Comp. also the description of eastern shepherd life in Dr. Thomson’s The Land and the Book (New York, 1859), vol. 1., p. 301 ff., which tends to confirm and illustrate many particulars in this parable]

[13][Similar brief parabolic allegories we find also in the Synoptists, Matthew 9:37-38; Matthew 24:4-45 Luke 15:4-5; Luke 17:7-9. John never uses, παραβολή, which occurs nearly fifty times in the Synoptists and twice in the Hebrews, but παροιμία four times, viz., John 10:6 (parable in the E. V.); John 16:25; John 16:29 [rendered proverbs]. Literally, παροιμία [from παρά and οἶμος way, course] means a by-word, an out of the way discourse, hence a figurative, enigmatic, pregnant speech, a dark saying [in opposition to, παῤῥησίᾳ λαλεῖν]; then also, and, like tho Hebrew maschal, a sententious maxim, proverb or also parable in the usual sense.—P. S.]

[14][Dr. Lange resolves it into three parables, by dividing the second act into two (John 10:16). Christ the Shepherd in relation to the sheep, and Christ the Arch-shepherd of Jews and Gentile3. Godet, less appropriately: First Parable: the shepherd (in general), 1–6; Second Par.: the door, 7–10; Third Par.: the Good Shepherd, 11–18.—P. S.]

[15][Augustine, Lampe, and Meyer correctly confine the sheep to the elect, or the true believer. Alford: “The sheep throughout this parable are not the mingled multitude of good and bad; but the real sheep, the faithful, who are, what all in the fold should be. The false sheep (the goats rather, Matthew 25:32) do not appear; for it is not the character of the flock, but that of the shepherd, and the relation between him and the sheep, which is here prominent.”—P. S.]

[16]That is the community of believers in the church; while the church as an organized institution (the theocracy in the Old, the visible church in the New economy), is represented by the fold, the αὐλὴ τῶν προβάτων. See below.—P. S.]

[17][Meyer quotes in illustration Ignatius Ad. Philad. c. 9, where Christ is called θύρα τοῦ πατρός, and Pastor Hermæ Sim. ix.12, to which may be added John 3:9 : “As no one can enter into a city but by its gate, so no one can enter into the kingdom of God but by the name of the Son of God.” The reference of the door to Christ is settled by the text itself (John 10:7) and should not be disputed, as Melanchthon says: “Ipse textus addit imagini interpretationem qua contenti simus.”—P. S.]

[18][Comp. John 10:8, where the same persons are meant by κλέπται καὶ λησταί, viz., the anti-messianic (Jewish) and anti-christian hierarchy, especially the Pharisees and their successors in the Christian church. In the Synoptists Christ speaks of them with equal severity; comp. Matthew 23:13; Mark 12:33-40; Luke 12:2.—P. S.]

[19][Alford agrees with Lange and Stier in referring the θυρωρός especially to the Holy Spirit. In the parallel passages, however, which he quotes, Acts 14:27 (how God had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles); 1 Corinthians 16:9 (no agent mentioned); 2 Corinthians 2:12; Colossians 4:3 (that God would open into us a door), there is no specific reference to the Holy Spirit, except in Acts 13:2, which ho omits. Godet understands the porter of John the Baptist (comp. John 1:7, but this would confine the parable to the. Old Testament theocracy, while it is equally applicable to the Christian church. Webster and Wilkinson: θυρωρός, as in Mark 13:34, signifies a minister, one who has charge of the house of God.—P. S.]

[20][κατ’ ὄνομα, distributively, each by its own name, not simply ὀνομαστί, or ὀνόματι, or ἐπ’ ὀνόματος. It denotes Christ’s individual interest in each soul. On the eastern custom to name sheep, individually, as we give names to horses and dogs, see the quotation in the next note.—P. S.]

[21][In favor of this interpretation may be quoted the following remarks from Dr. W. W. Thomson, The Land and the Book (N. Y., 1859), vol. I., p. John 302: “Some sheep always keep near the shepherd, and are his special favorites. Each of them has a name, to which it answers joyfully, and the kind shepherd is ever distributing to such choice portions which he gathers for that purpose. These are the contented, happy ones. They are in no danger of getting lost or into mischief, nor do wild beasts or thieves come near them. The great body, however, are mere worldlings, intent upon their own pleasures or selfish interests. They run from bush to bush, searching for variety or delicacies, and only now and then lift their heads to see where the shepherd is, or rather, where the general flock is, lest they get so far away as to occasion remark in their little community, or rebuke from their keeper. Others again are restless and discontented, jumping into every body’s field, climbing into bushes, and even into leaning, trees, whence they often fall and break their limbs. These cost the good shepherd incessant trouble. Then there are others incurably reckless, who stray far away, and are often utterly lost.”—P. S.]

[22][So also Alford: ἀλλότριος is not the shepherd of another section of the flock, but an alien: the λῃστής of John 10:1.—P. S.]

[23][And the anti-Jewish Gnostics and Manichæans, who used this passage as an argument against the Old Testament.—P. S.]

[24][So also Bengel (who presses εἰσί as indicating living opponents) and Lücke. Dean Alford likewise takes πρό in the sense of time, but includes in those false predecessors all the followers of the devil (comp. John 8:44), who was the first thief that clomb into God’s fold. His was the first attempt to lead human nature before Christ came. Wordsworth lays the stress on ἦλθον, came (i.e., in their own name), as opposed to being sent; but such a distinction is artificial and is set aside by the fact that Christ says of Himself ἐγὼ ἦλθον, John 10:10. Still others limit πάντες to false Messiahs and false prophets before Christ.—P. S.]

[25][Καλός, fair, beautiful, often in the moral sense, good, comp. the Attic καλὸς in opposition to πονηρός, κακὀς. Here it is almost identical with ἀληθινός, genuine, as set over against the imperfect, the inadequate; the model shepherd. Comp. John 1:9; John 6:32; John 15:1 (I am the true, genuine, ideal Vine).—P. S.]

[26][In the East the shepherds are well armed to defend their flock against fierce wolves, leopards, and panthers who prowl about the wild wadies and frequently attack the sheep in the very presence of the shepherd. And when the thief and the robber come, the faithful shepherd has often to risk his life for the flock. Dr. Thomson says (I. 302); “I have seen more than one case in which he had literally to lay it down in the contest.”—P. S.]

[27][Alford: “The μία ποίμνη is remarkable—not μία αὐλή, as characteristically, but erroneously rendered in the E. V.: not one fold, but one flock; no one exclusive enclosure of an outward church,—but one flock, all knowing the one shepherd and known of Him.” The Ε. V. followed the Vulgate (ovile), Cranmer’s and the Geneva Bible.—P. S.]

[28][Of a union of all men ὤσπερ . A stoic dream that can only be realized by Christianity,—P. S.]

[29][Olshausen: “John 10:18 shows that neither a compulsory decree of the Father, nor the power of the Evil One occasioned the death of the Son, but that it resulted only from the inward impulse of the love of Christ…. This view sets aside many objections derived from the argument that God, as love, could not deliver the Son to death. The death of Christ is the pure effluence of boundless love, which thus displays its very essence in the sublimest form.”—P. S.]