John 10:7-10

“ Jesus therefore spoke to them again, saying, Verily, verily I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. 8. All those who came before me are thieves and robbers; but the sheep did not listen to them. 9. I am the door: if any one enters in by me, he shall be saved; and he shall go in and go out, and shall find pasture. 10. The thief comes not but to steal and to kill and to destroy; I am come that they may have life, and that they may have it abundantly. ”

Jesus has described the simple and easy way in which the Messiah forms His flock, in contrast with the arbitrary and tyrannical measures by which the Pharisees had succeeded in getting possession of the theocracy; He now depicts, in a new allegory, which has only a remote relation in form to the preceding (comp. the two parables which follow each other in Mark; that of the sower and that of the ear of corn, John 4:3 ff., John 5:26 ff.) what He will be to His flock when once formed and gathered, the abundance of the salvation which He will cause them to enjoy, as opposed to the advantage taken of the old flock by those intruders and the destruction to which they are leading them. The word πάλιν, again (John 10:7), was wrongly rejected by the Sinaitic MS.; the copyist thought that this picture was only a continuation of the preceding (because of the analogy of the figures). This is likewise held by some modern interpreters, but, as we shall see, is untenable. Πάλιν indicates therefore, as in Luke 13:20 (where it is placed between the parables of the grain of mustard seed and of the leaven; comp. Matthew 13:44-45; Matthew 13:47), that Jesus adds still another parable to the preceding.

The picture John 10:1-5, which described the formation of the Messianic flock and its going forth from the theocratic inclosure, was borrowed from a morning scene; the second similitude, John 10:7-10, which describes the life full of sweetness of the flock when once formed and everything which it enjoys through the intermediation of the Messiah, places us at mid-day. In the pasturage is an inclosure where the sheep enter and whence they go out at will. If they seek for shelter, they retire to it freely. If hunger impels them, they go forth for the gate is constantly open for them and they find themselves in full pasturage. They have thus at their pleasure security and food, the two blessings essential to the prosperity of the flock. In this new figure, the person of the shepherd entirely disappears. It is the door which plays the principal part. The inclosure here no longer represents the old covenant; it is the emblem of the perfectly safe shelter of salvation. Lucke, Meyer, Luthardt, Weiss, Keil explain the words: I am the door of the sheep, in this way: I am the door for coming to the sheep, the door by which the true shepherds enter into the midst of the flock. But in this sense the words refer either to the shepherds of the old covenant or to those of the new. In the former case, we must suppose that the ἐγώ, I, designates the I of the Logos as a spirit governing the theocracy. Who can admit a sense like this? In the second, it has no fitness of any kind. Moreover, this sense is very forced. The term: door of the sheep, naturally means; the door which the sheep use for their own going in and going out (John 10:9).

The privilege, represented by the use which the sheep make of the door, is that which Jesus gives the believing Israelites to enjoy, by furnishing them, like the one born blind, everything which can assure their rest and salvation. Reuss himself, abandoning the relation established by him (John 10:1-2) between the two parables, says: “Yet once more Jesus calls Himself the door, but this time He is so for the flock itself” (thus: no longer for the shepherd, as in the first parable).

The persons designated in John 10:8 as thieves and robbers can only be the Pharisees (John 10:1). They are characterized here from the point of view, no longer of the manner in which they have established their power in the theocracy, but of the end in view of which they exercised it and of the result which they will obtain thereby. Not only had this audacious caste unlawfully taken possession, in the midst of the people of God, of the most despotic authority, but they were still using it only in a way to satisfy their egoism, their ambition and their cupidity. Hence follows the explanation of the expression, so variously interpreted: All those who are come before me. Whatever certain Gnostic writers may have said in former times or Hilgenfeld may even now say in his desire to make our Gospel a semi-Gnostic writing, Jesus certainly could not thus speak of Moses and the prophets, and of any legitimate theocratic authority. The constant language of the evangelist protests against such an explanation (John 5:39; John 5:45-47; John 6:45; John 10:34-35, etc.). The verb εἰσί (are), in the present tense, shows clearly that He has in view persons who were now living. If He says ἦλθον, came, and πρὸ ἐμοῦ, before me, it is because He found them already at work when He began His own working in Israel. The term come indicates with relation to them, as with relation to Jesus, the appearance with the purpose of exercising the government of souls among the people of God. The parable of the vine-dressers in the Synoptics is the explanation of this saying of Jesus.

This interpretation of the first words of John 10:8 follows from the context and enables us to set aside, without any long discussion, the numerous, more or less divergent, interpretations which have been proposed; that of Camerarius, who took πρὸ ἐμοῦ in a local sense: “passing before and outside the door,” that of Wolf and Olshausen, who gave to πρό the sense of χωρίς : “separating themselves from me, the true door;” those of Lange who understands πρό in the sense of ἀντί : “in my place,” and Calov, who makes the expression before me signify: “before I had sent them;” that of Gerlach: “before the door was opened in my person;” as well as that of Jerome, Augustine, Melanchthon, Luthardt: “came of themselves, without having received a mission;” finally, that of Chrysostom and many others even to Weizsacker : “came as false Messiahs.” History does not mention any case of a false Messiah before the coming of Jesus. There is no need of renouncing, with Tholuck and de Wette, the possibility of any satisfactory solution, and declaring, with the latter, that this saying does not answer to the habitual gentleness and moderation of Jesus. As to the variant which rejects the words πρὸ ἐμοῦ, before me (א and others), it is only an attempt to do away with the difficulty.

The present εἰσί, are, indicates with sufficient clearness that we need not go far to find these persons. The last words: The sheep did not hear, remind us of the profound dissatisfaction which was left in the hearts of a multitude of Israelites by the Pharisaic teaching. John 6:68: “ To whom shall we go? ” Matthew 11:28-30: “ Come unto me, all ye who labor and are heavy laden, learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart; my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. ” The man who was born blind was a striking example of these souls whom the Pharisaic despotism roused to indignation in Israel.

In opposition to these pretended saviours who will be found to be in reality only murderers, Jesus renews in John 10:9 His affirmation: I am the door; then He develops it. Meyer and Luthardt maintain here their explanation of John 10:7, according to which Jesus is the door by which the true shepherd enters into the presence of the flock. They do not allow themselves to be held back either by the σωθήσεται, shall be saved, which they understand in the sense of 1 Timothy 4:16: “Thou shalt both save thyself and them with thyself,” nor by the νομὴν εὑρήσει, shall find pasture, which they apply to the discovery by the shepherd of good pasturage for the flock! Weiss and Keil acknowledge the impossibility of such interpretations and, resting upon the omission in John 10:9 of the complement τῶν προβάτων, of the sheep (comp. John 10:7), they adopt a modification in the meaning of the word θύρα, door, and think that it is now the door by which the sheep themselves can go in and go out. But the repetition of this declaration: I am the door, is simply introduced by the antithesis presented in John 10:8, absolutely as the second declaration: I am the good shepherd, John 10:14 (comp. John 10:11) will be by the antithesis presented in John 10:13. This is shown by the two ἐγώ at the beginning of John 10:9; John 10:14.

There is here then no new idea. There is a more energetic reaffirmation of the same thought; and the omission of the complement of the sheep results quite naturally from the uselessness of such a repetition. By saying: If any one enters in by me, Jesus means to speak of the entrance into the state of reconciliation, of participation in the Messianic salvation by faith. Reuss: “Jesus is come to open to His own the door of refuge, by receiving them into His arms. The expression go in and go out does not mean that the sheep will go out of salvation to enter into it again. This is what Reuss would be obliged to hold, however, if he were consistent with the objection which he makes to the interpretation which we have given of John 10:3. These two verbs only develop the contents of the word σωθήσεται, shall be saved. To go in and go out is an expression frequently employed in the Scriptures to designate the free use of a house, into which one goes or from which one departs unceremoniously, because one belongs to the family of the house, because one is at home in it (Deuteronomy 28:6; Jeremiah 37:4; Acts 1:21). To go in expresses the free satisfaction of the need of rest, the possession of a safe retreat; to go out, the free satisfaction of the need of nourishment, the easy enjoyment of a rich pasturage (Psalms 23). This is the reason why the word shall go out is immediately followed by the words which explain it: and shall find pasture.