John 10:26

as I said unto you These words are omitted by some of the best authorities, including the Vatican and Sinaitic MSS. But they may possibly have been left out to avoid a difficulty. Ifthey are genuine they are best joined, as in our version, with what precedes. Nowhere in the Gospels does Christ make such a quotation from a previous discourse as we should have if we read, -As I said unto you, My sheep hear My voice, &c." The arrangement -Ye are not of My sheep, as I said unto you," is better, and the reference is to the general sense of the allegory of the sheep-fold, especially John 10:14. He and His sheep have most intimate knowledge of one another; therefore these Jews asking who He is prove that they are not His sheep. Comp. John 6:36, where there seems to be a similar reference to the general meaning of a previous discourse. It is strange that an objection should have been made to His referring to the allegory after a lapse of two months. There is nothing improbable in His doing so, especially if He had been absent from the city in the interval (see on John 10:22). Might not a speaker at the present time refer to a speech made two months before, especially if he had not spoken in public since then?