Bible Commentaries

CHAPTER 10

John 10:3. καλεῖ] A. B. D. L. X. א. Curss. Cyr.: φωνεῖ. Recommended by Griesb., accepted by Lachm. and Tisch. Correct; the following κατʼ ὄνομα was the occasion of writing the more definite word alongside, whence it was then introduced into the text.

John 10:4. τὰ ἴδια πρόβατα] Lachm. and Tisch.: τὰ ἴδια πάντα, after B. D. L. X. א.** Cursives, Copt. Sahid. Cyr. Lucif. Cant. πάντα, after the preceding occurrence of the word, passed mechanically over into πρόβατα.

John 10:5. ἀκολουθήσωσιν] Lachm. and Tisch.: ἀκολουθήσουσιν, after preponderating testimony; the Indicat. was displaced by the usual conjunct.

John 10:8. πάντες] is omitted in D. Cant. 10 :Foss. Didym., and πρὸ ἐμοῦ is absent from E. F. G. M. S. U. Δ. א.* Cursives, Verss. the Fathers. The omission of πάντες is to be explained from its being superfluous; and that of πρὸ ἐμοῦ, which Tisch. has deleted, from the Gnostic and Manichaean misuse of the passage in opposition to the Old Testament.

The place of πρὸ ἐμοῦ after ἦλθον is decisively attested (Elz., Scholz.: before ἦλθον).

Instead of τίθησιν, John 10:11, διδωσιν (Tisch.) is too feebly attested. So also δίδωμι, John 10:15.

John 10:12. τὰ πρόβατα after σκορπ. is wanting in B. D. L. א. Cursives, Verss. Lucif.; bracketed by Lachm. and suppressed by Tisch. But why should it have been added? Appearing as it would altogether superfluous, it might easily be passed over.

John 10:13. ὁ δὲ μισθωτ. φεύγει] wanting in B. D. L. א. Cursives, Verss. Lucif.; bracketed by Lachm., rejected even by Rinck, and deleted by Tisch. But how easily might the eye of a copyist pass at once from ὁ δὲ μισθ. to ὅτι μισθ., so that ὁ δὲ μισθ. φεύγει was omitted. This explanation is suggested further by A.*, which omits μισθ. φεύγει ὅτι.

John 10:14. γινώσκομαι ὑπὸ τῶν ἐμῶν] B. D. L.א., most of the Verss. Cyr. Epiph. Nonn.: γινώσκουσίν με τὰ ἐμά. Recommended by Griesbach, accepted by Lachm. and Tisch. This active turn is a transformation in harmony with the following verse, in which also there is no passive expression.

John 10:16. The position δεῖ με (Lachm. and Tisch.) is strongly supported, but would easily suggest itself as the more usual instead of με δεῖ.

γενήσεται] B.D.L.X. and some Verss.: γενήσονται. Mechanically introduced after the preceding plural form.

John 10:18.αἴρει] Tisch.: ἦρεν, only after B. א.*

John 10:26. Instead of οὐ γάρ we must read, with Tisch., ὅτι οὐκ, after B. D. L. X. א. Curss. Or. Cyr. Chrys.

καθὼς εἶπον ὑμῖν] wanting in B. K. L. M.* א. Curss. Verss. and Fathers. Bracketed by Lachm. The apparent incongruity caused the omission.

John 10:29. ὅς δέδωκε] D.: ὁ δεδωκώς. A stylistic alteration. B. L. א.* Copt. Sahid. Vulg. It. Goth. Tert. Hil.: ὅ δέδωκεν. A. B. X. It. Vulg. read μεῖζον afterwards. The latter is to be regarded as original, and because the neuter was not understood relatively to ὁ πατήρ as the source of the alteration, ὅ δέδωκεν

John 10:33. λέγοντες] is, with Lachm. and Tisch., after preponderating testimony, to be deleted.

John 10:38. πιστεύητε] Tisch.: πιστεύετε, after inadequate evidence for this irregularity, especially as πιστεύετε precedes and follows; for instead of the following πιστεύσατε, decisive evidence renders it necessary, with Tisch., to read πιστεύετε.

ἵνα γνῶτε καὶ πιστεύσητε] Lachm. and Tisch.: ἵνα γνῶτε κ. γινώσκητε, after B. L. X. Curss. Copt. Sahid. Arm. Aeth. and some Fathers. Correctly; not being understood after γνῶτε, γινώσκ. was altered into πιστεύσ.

αὐτῷ] B. D. L. X. א. Curss. and most of the Verss., also Or. Athan. and others, have τῷ πατρί. Recommended by Griesbach, accepted by Lachm. and Tisch. With such decided witnesses in its favour, justly; for the emphasis lying in the repetition of the word might easily escape the copyists.

John 10:42. ἐκεῖ] Decisive evidence assigns it its place after αὐτόν. So also Lachm. and Tisch.

John 10:1.[58] The new chapter ought to have begun with John 9:35; for John 10:1-21 constitute one act with John 9:35-41, as is evident both from the circumstance that John 10:1 ff. follow immediately without the slightest indication of a change having taken place, and also from John 10:6 (comp. John 9:41). The parable is therefore still addressed to the Pharisees of chap. 9; as John 10:21 also shows by the reference which it contains to the healing of the blind man.

ἀμὴν ἀμὴν, etc.] After the punitive words of John 9:41, Jesus now, with solemn earnestness, and through the medium of a parable, unveils to them how their hostile relation to Him, in rejecting Him, whilst at the same time regarding themselves as the leaders of the people of God, necessarily made them the corrupters of the nation. His discourse proceeds, however, without any objection or contradiction being raised by His opponents; for they did not understand the figure, John 10:6; many also fail to understand the explanation, and despise the speaker as crazy (John 10:20); whilst others, again, yield to the impression made by the penetrating truth of His words (John 10:21). It happened, accordingly, that Jesus was able to carry out the beautiful allegory (John 10:6) in all its detail, without interruption, as it were in one breath; and had therefore, at its close, nothing further to do than to let the words spoken produce their natural impression. Their primary effect was a division among His hearers (John 10:19), in accordance with John 9:39; such as had already showed itself in John 9:16.

ὁ μὴ εἰσερχόμενος, etc.] The flocks of sheep spent the night in a fold (αὐλή, גְּדֵרָה) surrounded by a wall, at whose gate an under-shepherd (ὁ θυρωρός, John 10:3) kept watch during the night. See especially Bochart, Hieroz. I. p. 482, ed. Rosenm. Opposed to the ΕἸΣΕΡΧΌΜ. ΔΙᾺ Τ. ΘΎΡΑς (the emphasis lies on the last word) is the ἈΝΑΒΑΊΝΩΝ ἈΛΛΑΧΌΘΕΝ, who gets up (on to the wall, for the purpose of coming into the αὐλή, over it) from elsewhere, i.e. from another direction than that indicated by the gate. There is only one gate. On ἀλλαχόθεν, which is equivalent to the old classical ἄλλοθεν, see Ael. H. A. 7. 10; V. H. 6. 2; 4Ma 1:7.

κλέπτ. κ. λῃστής] Thief and robber; a climactic strengthening of the idea (Bornemann, Scholia in Lucam, p. xxx.; Lobeck, Paralip. p. 60 f.); the individual features, however, of the soul-destroying, selfish procedure thus indicated (Ezekiel 34:8; Malachi 2:8; Jeremiah 23:1) are not to be dissevered.

For the explanation of the figure we must note,—(1) The αὐλὴ τῶν προβάτων is the Church of the people of God, whose members are the πρόβατα (comp. Psalms 23, Ps. 77:21, Psalm 95:7, Psalm 100:3), conceived in their totality as the future community of the Messianic kingdom (John 21:16 f.); comp. Matthew 25:32, consequently as to their theocratic destination (ideally). It is in itself correct, indeed, as to substance, to assume a reference to the predestinated (Augustine, Lampe) (though not in the Augustinian sense); but in form it introduces something foreign to the context. (2) The ΘΎΡΑ is not to be left without its proper signification (Lücke, De Wette); nor to be taken as denoting in general the legitimus ordo, the divine calling, the approach ordained by God, and the like (Maldonatus, Tholuck, Luthardt, Brückner, Hengstenberg, Godet, and several others); but Christ Himself is the door; indeed, He Himself in John 10:7 expressly thus interprets the point, because His hearers had failed to understand it.[59] The true leaders of the theocratic people can enter on their vocation in no other way than through Him; He must qualify and commission them; He must be the mediator of their relation to the sheep. Quite a different position was taken up by the Pharisees; independently of Him, and in an unbelieving and hostile spirit towards Him, they arrogated to themselves the position of the leaders of the people of God. It is thoroughly arbitrary to assume that Jesus did not here intend by the figure of the gate to denote Himself, notwithstanding the distinct declaration contained in John 10:9. Chrysostom, Ammonius, Theophylact, Euth. Zigabenus, and several others, have perversely interpreted the doors of the Holy Scriptures. “Ipse textus addit imagini interpretationem qua contenti simus,” Melancthon.

[58] On the parable, see Fritzsche in Fritzschior. Opusc. p. 1 ff.; Voretzsch, Diss. de John x. 1–18, Altenb. 1838.

[59] Comp. Ignat. ad Philad. 9, where Christ is termed θύρα τοῦ πατρός; also Herm. Past. 3; Sim. 9. 12.

John 10:2-3. Ποιμήν] Shepherd, without article qualitatively; it characterizes such a one, not specially as the owner (the antithesis to the hireling first appears in John 10:12), but in general, in opposition to the robber.

ὁ θυρωρὸς ἀνοίγει] belongs to the description of the legitimate mode of entering, and is not intended to have any special explanation; for which reason also no further notice is taken of it in John 10:7-8. It must not, therefore, be explained either of God (Calvin, Maldonatus, Bengel, Tholuck, Ewald, Hengstenberg, following John 6:44 f.); or of the Holy Spirit, Acts 13:2 (Theodoret, Heracleon, Ruperti, Aretius, Corn. a Lapide, and several others, also Lange); or of Christ (Cyril, Augustine); or of Moses (Chrysostom, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Euth. Zigabenus, Luther, following Deuteronomy 18:15); or of John the Baptist (Godet, after John 1:7). He enters into the fold, and the sheep hear His voice (His call, His address, His appeal); they listen to it as to the voice which is known to them (comp. John 10:4). Comp. the shepherd’s cry to his flock, “σίττα,” in Theocr. iv. 46, viii. 69.

τὰ πρόβατα] are the sheep in the fold generally. It was common for several flocks to pass the night in one fold; and their shepherds, because they come every morning to lead out the individual flocks, are known to all the sheep in the fold. On the contrary, τὰ ἴδια πρόβατα are the sheep which belong to the special flock of him who has entered;[60] these he calls κατʼ ὄνομα, i.e. not merely ὀνομαστί (that would be merely ὄνομα, or ὀνόματι, or ἐπʼ ὀνόματος, Polyb. 5. 35. 2, 11. 15. 1), but distributively—by their names, each by its name, ἐκ τῆς εἰς ἕκαστον ἄκρας φροντίδος, Euth. Zigabenus. To give to the individual animals of their flock a name was not an unusual custom among the shepherds of ancient times. See Interpp. ad Theocr. 5. 101; Pricaeus on the passage. In Lange’s view (Leben Jesu, II. p. 955) the ἴδια πρόβ. are the favourite sheep (image of the elect), the bellwethers, which are followed by the whole flock (τὰ πρόβατα, John 10:4). This is incorrect; for, on the one hand, ἴδια alone would not sufficiently support this notion (comp. John 10:12); and on the other, ἔμπροσθεν πορεύεται and ἀκολουθεῖ, John 10:4, are so completely correlate, that αὐτῶν and τὰ πρόβατα must necessarily be the same: at all events, αὐτοῖς must otherwise have been used instead of αὐτῷ, John 10:4.

ἐξάγει] to pasture, John 10:9-10. Looking back to John 9:34; John 9:22, Godet imports into the words the idea of separation from the old theocracy, which is devoted to ruin.[61] Such a thought is contained neither in the words (Pollux, i. 250) nor in the context.

[60] Into the beautiful general figure of τὰ πρόβατα, the word ἴδια introduces a special, individual element, which makes it all the richer and more telling. It has been incorrectly maintained (by Bengel, Luthardt, Hengstenberg, and others), that although ἰδία is first associated with πρόβατα when it occurs for the second time, the πρόβατα which hear must necessarily be the same as those which are afterwards described as τὰ ἴδια πρόβατα. These latter are no doubt among the πρόβατα which hear; but it is only τὰ ἴδια that the shepherd calls by name, and so forth. Thus the particular Church belongs to the Universal.

[61] Similarly even Luther: “It denotes the Christian freedom from the law and judgment.”

John 10:4. And when he has brought out all his own sheep (those belonging to his flock), and so forth. He leaves none behind (πάντα, see the critical note). ἐκβάλῃ pictures forth the manner of the ἐξάγειν. He lays hold on the sheep which he has called to him, and brings them out to the door.

The idea, which is symbolically set forth in John 10:3-4, is that of the living, loving fellowship which subsists between the leaders of the people of God, whom Christ has appointed, and Christ Himself, for the satisfaction of the spiritual needs of the Church, both in general and in particular.

John 10:5. Ἀλλοτρίῳ δὲ, etc.] A stranger, however, who does not belong to them as their shepherd. It is not exclusively the ἀναβαίνοντες ἀλλαχ. of John 10:1 who are here intended, but every other one in general who is not their shepherd. The fellowship referred to in John 10:3-4 is portrayed according to its exclusive nature.

οὐ μὴ ἀκολουθήσουσιν] future (see the critical note), as in John 8:12. It is not prophetical (Lampe: of the “cathedra Mosis plane deserenda,” comp. Luthardt), but describes what will be the result of the intervention of a stranger. The sheep will certainly not follow, but flee from him.

John 10:6-7. Παροιμία] Every species of discourse that deviates from the common course (οἶμος); hence in the classical writers especially—proverb (Plat. Soph. p. 261 B; Soph. Aj. 649; Ael. N. H. 12. 22; Lucian, Nigr. 1. 37; comp. 2 Peter 2:22). It denotes here, as corresponding to the Hebrew משׁל, if we define the conception more exactly, not parable (because it is not a history), but allegory (see Wilke, Rhetor. p. 109). Suidas: ἡ παροιμία ἐστὶ λόγος ἀπόκρυφος διʼ ἑτέρου προδήλου σημαινόμενος.

The Pharisees do not understand the meaning of what He thus allegorically delivered to them, and therefore (οὖν, John 10:7) Jesus sees Himself compelled to begin again (πάλιν), and to explain to them, first of all, the main point on which the understanding of the whole depended, namely, how the door in John 10:1 is to be understood. It is incorrect, accordingly, with most recent commentators (also Hengstenberg and Godet), to say that we have a second parable with a different turn; if Christ had not intended even in John 10:1 to describe Himself as the θύρα, He would only have confused His hearers in John 10:7, instead of clearing matters up.

ἐγώ] with great emphasis.

τῶν προβάτων] to the sheep, as is required by John 10:1; not, through which the sheep enter into the fold (Chrysostom, Euth. Zigabenus, Wolf, Lampe, Fritzsche, Ebrard, Hengstenberg, Baeumlein, Godet, and others), so that Jesus characterizes Himself as the tutorem ac nutritorem of the sheep (Fritzsche). Christ, however, is the door to the sheep, so far as the true spiritual leaders of the people of God receive through Him the qualification and appointment to their vocation. See on John 10:1.

John 10:8. See Ewald, Jahrb. ix. p. 40 ff. The actual antithesis to the ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ θύρα is formed by the many who had come forward to be the teachers and leaders of the people of God, without connecting their working with Christ. He describes them from the point of view of the time at which they came forward before me; they came forward before Christ had appeared as the door to the sheep; they had developed their power and activity since the time of the second temple, in a way that gradually grew more and more pernicious, and they formed now the party of hierarchical, specially Pharisaical, antagonists of Christ. The members of this hierarchical caste are intended; the expression used by Christ, however, is popular, and not to be pressed as hard and unhistorical (Hase); the use of the present εἰσί, moreover, gives it a living relation to the leaders of the people, as they then actually were before his eyes. On the other hand, passages like John 7:19, John 5:39; John 5:45, John 4:22, exclude even the possibility of a reference to Moses and the prophets; hence the inadmissibility of Hilgenfeld’s idea that the saying is “very harshly anti-Judaistic,” as also that it refers to the entire Old Testament past, i.e. to all the pre-Christian leaders of the people of God,—an application which he tries to justify by bringing in the Gnostic dualism. It is also inadmissible to set aside in any way the temporal meaning of πρό, whether it be made to mean, with Calovius: in advance of me (antequam mitterentur); or, with Brückner (after Stier): before they have sought and found me as the door; or, with Wolf, to convert it into χωρίς,—a view which comes substantially to that of Olshausen (“without connection with the Logos”); or, with Tittmann and Schleusner, to take it for ὑπέρ, loco, and with Lange to import into this view, “instead of me,” the further notion of absolute pre-eminence, as though the one who advances forward designed completely to set aside the one who was put in the background. πρό, in the sense of instead, is foreign to the New Testament, and rare also in Greek writers. But when ἦλθον, with a view to the removal of everything objectionable, is taken pregnantly, making it express an arbitrary or unauthorized[62] coming forward (Hieronymus, Augustine, Isidore, Heracleon, Euth. Zigabenus, Luther, Melancthon, Jansen, and several others; also Luthardt, Ebrard), a meaning is imported into the word, which in itself, indeed, may be regarded as a matter of course, but which, at the same time, must have been distinctly expressed (say, as in John 10:42), if it were to be emphatical.[63] This also against B. Crusius, who lays the stress on the intention expressed in ἦλθον (“in order to give the people a new time”). The explanation, finally, of false Messiahs (Chrysostom, Cyril, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Euth. Zigabenus, Theophylact, Grotius, Maldonatus, Hammond, Tittmann, Schleusner, Klee, Weizsäcker, and several others), is unhistorical, as they first began to come forward after Christ’s day; a circumstance on which B. Bauer, however, grounds a charge of anachronism against John. De Wette considers the discourse to be out of harmony with the wisdom and gentleness of Jesus. But the worthless men, to whose entire class He alludes, stood actually in His presence, and had surely done enough to call forth His severity and wrath.

κλέπται εἰσὶ κ. λῃσταί] namely, of the sheep, John 10:1. Comp. the wolves in sheep’s clothing. Instead of ΠΆΝΤΕς ὍΣΟΙ, ἍΠΑΝΤΕς ὍΣΟΙ would have been still stronger, Strabo, p. 18, 1. 11, Isocr. Loch. 12.

ἀλλά]. The want of success which attends this predatory (soul-destroying) procedure.

ΟὐΚ ἬΚΟΥΣΑΝ] did not listen to them. For their adherents did not belong to the true people of God (τὰ πρόβατα).

[62] Nonnus takes it in the sense of creeping in secretly: πάντες ὅσοι πάρος ἦλθον ὑποκλέπτοντι πεδίλῳ.

[63] In ἦλθον by itself, so far as it precedes πρὸ ἐμοῦ, it is impossible to find, as Luthardt does, the thought “on his own responsibility,” or “so that he places Christ after himself.” ἦλθον denotes neither more nor less than the simple venerunt; as in ver. 10. ἐγὼ ἦλθον is equal to the simple ego veni; the emphasis rests primarily on πάντες ὅσοι, omnes quotquot, and then on πρὸ ἐμοῦ, which is placed at the end.

John 10:9. Ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ θύρα] τῷ διπλασιασμῷ τοῦ ῥητοῦ βεβαιοῖ τὸν λόγον, Euth. Zigabenus.

διʼ ἐμοῦ] emphatically occupying the front place, excluding every other mediation.

εἰσέλθῃ] namely, to the sheep in the fold. Comp. John 10:1; John 10:7. The subject is therefore a shepherd (τὶς), who goes in to the sheep through the door. Others, on the contrary (Chrysostom, Euth. Zigabenus, Maldonatus, Bengel, and several others; also Fritzsche, Tholuck, De Wette, B. Crusius, Maier, Baeumlein, Hengstenberg, Godet, and several others), regard the sheep as the subject, and the θύρα as the gate for the sheep. But there is no ground for such a change of figure, seeing that both the word εἰσέρχεσθαι in itself after John 10:1-2, and also the singular and masculine τὶς, can only refer to the shepherd; besides, another mode of entrance than through the door is for the sheep quite inconceivable; consequently the emphatic words διʼ ἐμοῦ, so far as the ἐγώ is the door, would be without any possible antithesis.

σωθήσεται] is not to be understood directly of the attainment of the Messianic redemption (compare especially 1 Corinthians 3:15), as Luthardt and older commentators suppose, after 1 Timothy 4:16, for that would be foreign to the context (see what follows); but means: he will be delivered, i.e. he will be set free from all dangers by the protecting door;—the interpretation of the figure intended by Jesus does undoubtedly signify safety from the Messianic ἀπώλεια, and the guarantee of future eternal redemption. This happy σωθήσεται is then followed by unrestrained and blessed service, which is graphically set forth by means of the words εἰσελ. κ. ἐξελ., as in Numbers 27:17, as an unhindered entering in and going out of the fold, at the head of the flock, whilst engaged in the daily duty of tending it; and by νομὴν εὑρήσει, as the finding of pasture for the flock (ποιμνίων νομάς, Soph. O. R. 760; compare Plat. Legg. iii. p. 679 A: νομῆς γὰρ οὐκ ἦν σπάνις). That this νομή in the interpretation of the allegory is ψυχῆς νομή (Plat. Phaedr. p. 248 B), which works for the eternal life of those who are fed through the evangelical grace and truth which they appropriate (comp. John 10:10), does not need further urging.