John 10:14-18

14–18. Further description of the True Shepherd. (1) His intimate knowledge of His sheep; (2) His readiness to die for them. This latter point recurs repeatedly as a sort of refrain, like ‘I will raise him up at the last day,’ in chap. 6. The passage, especially John 10:14-15, is remarkable for beautiful simplicity of structure: the parallelism of Hebrew poetry is very marked. There should be no full stop at the end of John 10:14 : I know Mine, and Mine know Me, even as the Father knoweth Me and I know the Father. So intimate is the relation between the Good Shepherd and His sheep that it may be compared and likened (not merely ὥσπερ, but καθώς) to the relation between the Father and the Son. The same thought runs through the discourses in the latter half of the Gospel: John 14:20; John 15:10; John 17:8; John 17:10; John 17:18; John 17:21. Note that γίνωσκω, not οἷδα, is used: it is knowledge resulting from experience and appreciation. Contrast Matthew 7:23, ‘I never knew you’ (ἔγνων) with Luke 4:34, ‘I know Thee who Thou art’ (οἶδα).