This teaching is quite similar to what the Synoptic evangelists recorded Jesus giving in His parables, but there is a significant difference. John called this teaching a figure of speech (Gr. paroimian) rather than a parable (Gr. parabole). Parables generally stress one point of comparison, but the sustained metaphors that follow develop many similarities. John did not include any Synoptic-style parables in his narrative.
Jesus evidently chose the figure of a good shepherd to contrast Himself with the bad shepherds who were misleading God's sheep. Many Old Testament passages castigated Israel's shepherds who failed in their duty (cf. Isa. 56:9-12; Jer. 23:1-4; 25:32-38; Ezek. 34; Zech. 11). God was Israel's Shepherd (cf. Ps. 23:1; 80:1; Isa. 40:10-11). The shepherd metaphor also was a good one to picture Jesus' voluntary self-sacrifice for His people.
"The shepherd was an autocrat over his flock, and passages are not lacking where the shepherd imagery is used to emphasize the thought of sovereignty. Jesus is thus set forth in this allegory as the true Ruler of his people in contrast to all false shepherds."356
10:1 Jesus again stressed the importance of this teaching with a strong introductory preface to it. He then proceeded to point out several things about first century sheep-herding that illustrated His ministry. John's original readers would have understood these similarities easily since shepherding was widespread.
Jesus described a flock of sheep in a fold or pen that had solid walls and only one door (gate). Evidently the fold in view was a large enclosure some distance from any human dwelling place. Customarily several families who owned sheep that fed close together hired a watchman to guard the gate to such an exposed enclosure. He would admit authorized individuals but would exclude the unauthorized who might want to steal or kill some of the sheep. The words "thief"(Gr. kleptes, stressing trickery) and "robber"(Gr. lestes, stressing violence) are quite close in meaning.
God frequently compared His relationship to Israel to that of a shepherd and his sheep in the Old Testament (e.g., Ps. 80:1; Isa. 40:11; Ezek. 34:10-16; cf. Ps. 23:1). He also called Israel's unfaithful leaders wicked shepherds of His people (e.g., Isa. 56:9-12; Jer. 23:1-4; 25:32-38; Ezek. 34:4; Zech. 11). Moreover He predicted that one day a descendant of David would shepherd the nation properly (Ezek. 34:23-25; 37:24-28). Thus these figures all had meaning to the Jews to whom Jesus first addressed this teaching.
In verse 1 the thieves and robbers clearly refer to the religious leaders who were unfaithful to God and were seeking to harm His sheep for personal gain (cf. 9:41). Their rejection of Jesus as the Shepherd whom God had sent marked them as what they were.
10:2 In contrast to these plunderers, an approved shepherd would enter the pen through its gate rather than over its wall. Jesus was implying that He came to Israel as God's authorized representative, the Messiah. The religious leaders on the other hand did not have divine sanction for their dealings with Israel that were essentially destructive as well as selfish.
10:3 The doorkeeper was the person hired to protect the sheep from their enemies. In the case of Jesus' ministry this person corresponded to John the Baptist. Normally there were sheep from several different flocks belonging to several different owners that stayed together in these large pens. The pen then symbolized Israel or Judaism. Upon entering the pen a shepherd would call his own sheep to come out from the others, and he would lead them out to pasture. Normally shepherds did this with a distinctive call or whistle. This shepherd, however, called each sheep by its own name, which some commentators claimed was not uncommon in Jesus' day.357The scene pictures Jesus' calling every individual whom the Father had given Him to follow Him out from the other non-elect Jews (cf. Num. 27:15-18; John 14:9; 20:16, 29; 21:16). Jesus' sheep listen to His voice and follow Him (cf. 5:24).
"The Pharisees threwthe beggar out of the synagogue, but Jesus ledhim out of Judaism and into the flock of God!"358
10:4-5 Many shepherds drove their sheep before them and some of them used sheep dogs to help them. However this shepherd, as many others did, went before his sheep and led them where he wanted to take them. This description reflects the style of Jesus' leadership. He led His disciples who followed Him.
His sheep follow Him because they know His voice. They recognize Him for who He is, namely their Shepherd. Conversely they will not follow false shepherds because their voice or teaching is strange to them. Jesus was describing what is typical behavior in such relationships, not that every individual sheep always behaves this way in every instance, as experience testifies.
The point of these verses is how God forms His flock. People come to Jesus because He calls them, and they follow Him because they belong to Him. Many of the Jews who heard Jesus' voice disregarded Him because they considered Abraham or Moses as their shepherd.
10:6 Many of the Jews who heard these words did not understand what Jesus was talking about. They did not respond to the Shepherd's voice. They could hardly have failed to understand the relationship between shepherds and sheep that was so common in their culture. Nevertheless they did not grasp Jesus' analogy of Himself as Israel's true Shepherd.
The Greek word paroimia("figure of speech") occurs elsewhere in John's Gospel (16:25, 29) but never in the Synoptics.
"It suggests the notion of a mysterious saying full of compressed thought, rather than that of a simple comparison."359
A similar word, parabole("parable"), appears often in the Synoptics but never in the fourth Gospel. Both words, however, have quite a wide range of meanings encompassing many kinds of figurative language.
