Father Augustus Bisping's Commentary on John 10:1-10

 

Augustus Bisping: Commentary on John 10:1–10

Jn 10:1-2. The following parable of the Good Shepherd (vv. 1–18) connects immediately with the preceding words which the Lord spoke to the Pharisees, so that a new section does not begin with verse 1. For our Savior had just said (9:39) that He had come into the world for judgment, so that those who do not see might see, and those who think they see might become blind. The Pharisees considered themselves precisely to be the seeing leaders and shepherds of the people, and yet they were the blind—because of their egoistic pride—leaders of the blind. Therefore Jesus here holds before them, with solemn earnestness (ἀμὴν ἀμήν), the image of a true and genuine shepherd.

Although the Evangelist expressly notes in verse 6 that the Pharisees did not understand the words of Jesus, nevertheless the image as such could not have been entirely unintelligible to them, since it is already found in the Old Testament (cf. Jer. 23:1 ff.; Ezek. 34; Zech. 11:4 ff.), and the Jews were accustomed to call their two great men, Moses and David, "the good shepherds."

"Truly, truly, I say to you: He who does not enter by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs in another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep"—and no thief or robber.

The αὐλὴ τῶν προβάτων (sheepfold) in the Orient was a large space enclosed by a low wall, into which the shepherd drove his flock in the evening. Before its door, a subordinate shepherd (θυρωρός, v. 3) kept watch at night with his crook or even armed, in order to ward off the intrusion of robbers and wild animals. It is an image of the kingdom of Christ on earth, the Church, which is also delimited and separated from the rest of the world. The sheep are the true believing members of this kingdom (cf. Ps. 77:21; 95:7; 100:3); the Chief Shepherd and Lord of the whole flock is Christ, and the genuine shepherds are His legitimate successors and representatives. The door through which the true shepherds enter into this fold, into the kingdom of Christ, is Christian truth; only he who has grasped this livingly in faith can be regarded as a true shepherd. Without believing apprehension of this one Christian truth, there is no entrance; whoever forces his way into the Church by another path and presents himself as teacher and leader of the faithful is a false, a destructive shepherd.

It might appear striking at first glance that Jesus in what follows calls Himself both "the good shepherd" (v. 11) and "the door of the sheepfold" (v. 7). But the striking nature of this double designation disappears when we consider the matter more closely. For Christ was the teacher of truth, and as such He was and is the good shepherd, who leads His believers, nourishes and protects them. But Christ is also, as the divine Logos, the truth itself; He Himself was the object of His teaching; and as the truth κατ' ἐξοχήν (par excellence), He is the door through which man enters into His kingdom.

ἀναβαίνων ἀλλαχόθεν literally: "climbing up from elsewhere," namely onto the wall, in order to get into the fold.

Jn 10:3-5.: "To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice; but a stranger they will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers."

If we only note that in the East several flocks customarily spent the night in one common fold, we easily understand the individual details. In the morning the shepherds of the individual flocks come; the doorkeeper opens the gate for each shepherd. He enters, and all the sheep hear his calling voice as a voice known to them. But the sheep that belong to his flock he calls each by its name, leads them all out of the fold, and going before them guides them to the pasture. To give individual animals of their flock names was also nothing unusual among the shepherds of antiquity.

Concerning the θυρωρός (doorkeeper), Jesus says nothing in the interpretation of the allegory; the question therefore arises: who is to be understood by this? Many think that in the image he is merely a subsidiary detail, which ought not to be further interpreted. But this assumption clashes with the idea that Jesus in this beautiful allegory should have spoken something idle, entirely insignificant. The Greek interpreters (Chrysostom, Theodoret of Mopsuestia, and others) understood by the doorkeeper Moses, who with his Law was the παιδαγωγὸς εἰς Χριστόν (tutor unto Christ) (Gal. 3:24). Augustine interpreted the expression as referring to Christ Himself. But to regard Christ as the shepherd, as the door, and at the same time as the doorkeeper, does not sit well. Still others, appealing to the sayings of the Lord in 6:44 f.: "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me," and further to Acts 14:27: ὁ θεὸς ἤνοιξε τοῖς ἔθνεσιν θύραν πίστεως ("God opened to the Gentiles a door of faith"), wish to understand by the doorkeeper God the Father. But best of all we interpret the expression as referring to the Holy Spirit, who makes the hearts of men receptive for the reception of Christian truth, leads them into all truth (16:13), and chooses the true teachers of the Church. Cf. Acts 13:2.

Jn 10:4-5 serve only to portray further the intimate relationship that exists between the true shepherd and his flock.

Jn 10:6. The expression παροιμία (from οἶμος, "way, path") designates every discourse that deviates from the ordinary way of speaking, thus: proverb, similitude, allegory, parable. Since it belongs to the essence of a parable that an event is narrated as a fact (see on Matt. 13:3), we have here not a parable but an allegory. As familiar in general to the hearers the image of the shepherd and the flock was, nevertheless the reference of this image to the new kingdom of God and the interpretation of the individual details remained enigmatic to them: "But they did not understand what it was that He was saying to them." Hence the following authentic explanation of the allegory.

Jn 10:7: "Truly, truly, I say to you: I am the door of the sheep." The expression ἡ θύρα τῶν προβάτων is ambiguous; it can mean: "the door for the sheep," thus the door through which the sheep enter into the fold, and: "the door to the sheep." Christ as the truth is the door through which individual men in faith enter into the Church, and He is the door through which the true teachers and leaders of the Church enter, insofar as they receive their qualification and authority only through Him. Since the discourse here is principally about the true shepherds, we take the expression best in the latter sense.

Jn 10:8: "All who have come before Me are thieves and robbers; but the sheep did not listen to them." πάντες ὅσοι ἦλθον πρὸ ἐμοῦ κ.τ.λ. The verb ἔρχεσθαι frequently stands specifically for the appearance of teachers (cf. Matt. 11:18; 17:10 ff.; John 1:7). Difficult here are the words πάντες and πρὸ ἐμοῦ. For it seems as if Jesus thereby declared all teachers who appeared before Him, thus also the Old Testament prophets, to be thieves and robbers. The Gnostics and Manichaeans therefore did not fail to appeal chiefly to this passage for their rejection of the Old Testament; and recent critics wish to find therein a strong proof of the Evangelist's anti-Judaism and thus also of the inauthenticity of the Gospel. Already very early one sought to remove the apparent harshness of this passage by omitting either πάντες or πρὸ ἐμοῦ. For πάντες is lacking in Codex D, and πρὸ ἐμοῦ in E, F, G, M, S, U, 1, in minuscules, versions (also in the Vulgate), and in some Fathers. But the weight of the counter-witnesses is too strong for one not to seek in these omissions merely the interest of a hermeneutical simplification.

Some now think that these words of Jesus refer only to the false leaders of the people of that time, who appeared before Christ as the door to the sheep had appeared, and who now formed the hierarchical, especially Pharisaic, opposition against Him. But with this reference of the words to the contemporary generation of teachers, the πάντες ὅσοι remains in any case very harsh; nor does one see why Jesus should have designated them precisely from the standpoint of the time when they appeared.

Chrysostom, Cyril, Maldonatus, and others refer these words to the false Messiahs: "All who have appeared before Me as Messiahs." But that people appeared before Christ who gave themselves out as Messiahs cannot be historically demonstrated.

Still others take πρό in the sense of ἀντί, "instead of"; then the same thought results again.

Still others (Wolf, Olshausen) finally take πρό in the meaning of χωρίς, "apart from"; and this is probably the only correct interpretation. It is true that πρό is nowhere directly synonymous with χωρίς; but well can the sentence to which πρό belongs include the concept of χωρίς: "All who have come before Me, i.e., before I have come, thus also apart from Me." One must only here understand the coming of Christ not merely from the beginning of His teaching office nor yet merely from His being born, but from His spiritual coming and working in the hearts of men as divine Logos. Whoever has appeared as teacher of the people before the Logos has called him and prepared him as teacher, has also appeared apart from Him, is thus a false teacher. In essential sense, the interpretation of Jerome, Augustine, Euthymius Zigabenus, and others agrees with this, who take ἦλθον pregnantly, so that it expresses the self-willed appearance.

By τὰ πρόβατα (the sheep) here are to be understood the true believers, the genuine members of the people of God.

Jn 10:9-10.: "I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and go out, and will find pasture."

Some (Chrysostom, Euthymius Zigabenus, Maldonatus) understand these words of the sheep, and take ἡ θύρα as the door for the sheep; others interpret them as referring to the shepherd and the sheep simultaneously, since also the right shepherd in his relationship to Christ is himself again a sheep. But to assume such a shifting of the image is unfounded. According to the whole context, the shepherd is the subject; this is already indicated by the word εἰσέρχεσθαι after vv. 1 and 7, and also by the singular and the masculine τις. Accordingly, then, ἡ θύρα, as in v. 7, is the door to the sheep.

δι' ἐμοῦ is placed first with emphasis: through Him, the only door to the sheep, must the entrance take place. The σώζεσθαι is in the image: to be protected from robbers and beasts of prey; in reality: to be saved from eternal destruction, to attain salvation. Cf. 1 Cor. 3:15; 1 Tim. 4:16. The εἰσέρχεσθαι and ἐξέρχεσθαι mean in the image: the unhindered going into the fold and going out from it at the head of the flock in the daily tending; in reality: the unhindered and prosperous discharge of the office of shepherd of souls.

νομὴν εὑρήσει, namely for the flock; without the image: "he will satisfy the spiritual needs of those entrusted to him."

Jn 10:10: "The thief, who does not enter by the door (v. 1), comes only to steal and to slaughter and to destroy; I, I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly."

ἵνα ζωὴν ἔχωσι κ.τ.λ. stands in contrast to ἵνα θύσῃ κ. ἀπολέσῃ, thus designating in the image: that the sheep may not be slaughtered and perish, but may have abundant pasture. Without the image, the Lord wishes to say: the illegitimate teacher seeks only his thievish advantage to the harm of those entrusted to him; but I, on the contrary, have only the eternal welfare of men in view, and have come to dispense to them a rich fullness of spiritual goods.

The Vulgate has: et abundantius habeant, as if not περισσόν but περισσότερον stood there; and accordingly some explain: "and to have something more than life," namely eternal blessedness.

CONTINUE