John 10:14-16

“ As for me, I am the good shepherd; and I know my sheep, and I am known by my sheep; 15 as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I give my life for the sheep. 16. And I have other sheep which are not of this fold; these also I must bring; and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one flock, one shepherd. ”

The repetition of these words of John 10:11: I am the good shepherd, is introduced through the contrast with the figure of the hireling (comp. John 10:9); and the epithet good is explained here by a new point, that of the relation full of tenderness which unites Jesus and His sheep. It is on this second point that the first the self-devotion thus far described rests. The word to know does not mean: I distinguish them from the rest of the Jews (Weiss). The import of this word is much more profound; and the meaning distinguish is not suitable in the three following sayings. Jesus penetrates with the eye of His loving knowledge the entire interior being of each one of the sheep, and perfectly discerns all which He possesses in them. For there is a close relation between this verb “ I know,” and the possessive “ my sheep.” This knowledge is reciprocal. The believers also know what their shepherd is, all that He feels and all that He is willing to do for them. They thus live in the untroubled light of a perfect mutual knoweldge.

From this intimate relation between Him and His sheep, Jesus goes back to that which is at once the model and source of it: His relation to the Father. The term καθώς, as (literally, according as) does not express a simple comparison, as ὥσπερ, as, would do. This word characterizes the knowledge which unites Jesus with his sheep as being of the same nature as that which unites Him to God. It is as if the luminous medium in which the heart of the Son and the heart of the Father meet each other, were enlarged so as to become that in which the heart of Jesus and that of His sheep meet each other. The καί signifies: “And consequently.” It is in virtue of this relation of such intimate knowledge that He consents to give Himself for them. The words: I give my life for the sheep, form a sort of refrain (comp. John 10:7; John 10:11; John 10:18), as we have found several similar refrains in our Gospel, in moments when the feeling is exalted (John 3:15-16; John 4:23-24; John 6:39-40; John 6:44; John 6:54). In the context, the expression for the sheep must be applied to believers only; but yet this phrase does not contradict that according to which “ Jesus is the propitiation, not only for our sins, but for those of the whole world ” (1Jn 2:2). For the death of Jesus, in the divine intention, is for all, although in reality it profits only believers. Jesus knows full well that the ὑπέρ, on behalf of, will be realized only in these latter.

From these two points by which Jesus characterizes Himself as the perfect shepherd, springs the third, John 10:16. It would be impossible that the holiest and most devoted work of love should have for its object only these few believers, such as the disciples and the one born blind, who consented to separate themselves from the unbelieving people. The view of Jesus extends more widely (John 10:16), in proportion as He penetrates both the depth and the height (John 10:15). The death of a being like the Son must obtain an infinite reward. The other sheep, the possession of whom will compensate Him for the loss of those who to-day refuse to follow Him, are evidently the believing Gentiles. Jesus declares that He has them already (ἔχω, I have), and not merely that He will have them, for all that are of the truth, throughout the entire body of mankind, are His from before His coming. The question is not, I think, of a possession by reason of the divine predestination. We find here again rather one of the most profound and habitual thoughts of our Gospel, a thought which springs directly from the relation which the Prologue establishes between the Logos and the human soul (John 10:4 and John 10:10).

The life and the light of the world, the Logos did not cease, even before His incarnation, to fill this office in the midst of the sinful world; and, among the heathen themselves, all those who surrender themselves and yield obedience to this inner light, must infallibly recognize in Jesus their ideal and give themselves to Him as His sheep as soon as He shall present Himself; comp. John 11:52 (“the children of God who are scattered abroad”); John 8:47 (“he that is of God hears the words of God”); John 18:37 (“he that is of the truth ”); John 3:21 (“he that does the truth, comes to the light”). The demonstrative adjective ταύτης, placed as it is after the substantive: “This fold,” implies, according to de Wette, that Jesus regards the heathen nationalities also as a sort of folds, of preparatory groupings divinely instituted in order to prepare for the Gospel. But perhaps Meyer, Weiss, etc., are right in thinking that there is here a notion introduced into the text. However, it is incorrect to set John 11:52 in opposition to this idea, which verse by no means declares the contrary of this. The believing heathen may very well be scattered throughout their respective nationalities, as the believing Jews are in their own (answer to Weiss). Meyer, committing here again the error which he committed in the explanation of the first allegory that of explaining the figures of one similitude by those of another understands the expression ἀγαγεῖν in the sense of feed, according to the figure of John 10:4; John 10:9, and he is followed by Luthardt and Weiss.

But the end of the verse (καί, “ and so there shall be”) shows clearly that the Lord's idea is an altogether different one; it is that of bringing these sheep, to join them with the former ones. The Vulgate, therefore, rightly translates adducere. The parallel passage John 11:52: συναγαγεῖν εἰς ἕν, leads likewise to this explanation. When the historical application of the first similitude is missed, the meaning of the whole discourse is lost. The work of St. Paul, with the workings of the missionaries who have followed him even to our own days, is essentially what this term bring describes. This third similitude, announcing the call of the Gentiles, corresponds thus to the first, which described the going forth of the believers from the Synagogue. The words: They will hear my voice, recall the expression of the end of the Acts: “The salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles and they will also hear it” (Acts 28:28). There is a solemnity in the last words simply placed in juxtaposition: one flock, one shepherd. They contain the thought which forms the text of the Epistle to the Ephesians: the breaking down of the old wall of separation between Jews and Gentiles by the death of Christ (Ephesians 2:14-17). This prophetic word is accomplished before our eyes by the work of missions in the heathen world. As to the final conversion of Israel, it is neither directly nor indirectly indicated.

These so new ideas of the death of the Messiah and of the call of new non-Jewish believers to participation in the Messianic salvation were fitted to raise many doubts in the minds of the hearers. Jesus clearly perceives it; this is the reason why He energetically affirms that the good pleasure of God rests upon this work and upon Him who executes it, and that it is the true aim of His mission to the world.