Chapter 10
Starts with these verses:
1 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. [Jhn 10:1-2 ESV] So is this about usurpers? About false religions? Or is it about those who will claim to be Messiah and are not? MSB says this discourse by Jesus in Chapter 10 is a response to the Pharisees who claimed to be "shepherding" the spiritual lives of the Jews, but were in fact leading them away from the truth. Jesus declares himself the only true shepherd. Jesus says the sheep know the voice of the shepherd and follow only him. His disciples follow him. John then tells us that those listening did not understand the metaphor.
2020 - So it was a metaphor. If MSB is correct, there is a full break here between 9 and 10. We have moved to something completely different from healing people born blind, and are now discussing the role of and identification of, true shepherds. Fundamentally, we can say that sheep know their own shepherd's voice. Who is this "gatekeeper" that opens the gate and lets the shepherd in? Is the point that the Pharisees are supposed to be gatekeepers, to recognize that the "Shepherd" has arrived, and open the gate while standing aside and present him to his sheep? Hmm...that seems to work pretty well so far...And once in the pen, some sheep recognize that this is their Shepherd, and they follow him. And they don't stray from following him. Jesus "saved" those chosen and given to him by God, and Jesus will never lose them. And those Gatekeepers should be helping with this by giving this shepherd access to the sheep instead of crawling over the fence and stirring everybody up. But John says "they" did not understand his meaning. So next...
2021/22 - The subject has not changed at all from Chapter 9. There, the teachers are blind and cannot find their own way, much less lead others. Their reinterpretation of the Law is leading people away from God's plan, not toward it. 2022 - That is, they are indeed false shepherds/teachers, who have "broken into" the sheep pen and intend to lead the sheep. But, knowingly or not, these would-be shepherds are bringing the wrong message and rather than saving souls, they are ensuring condemnation for the sheep. They are stealing souls in service to Satan (it is in this sense that they are thieves and robbers), while believing they are the pinnacle of religious learning, while patting themselves on the back for their great service to God. You have to be blind to not see that you have it all wrong - and blindness is Jesus' whole point! These Pharisees, who are so certain that they see, are blind, and the sheep - when approached by the true shepherd - recognize which is which! When Jesus showed up, the people in the villages and towns knew who he was. They knew it right away, as sheep always know the shepherd and recognize his voice. So they are turning to follow Jesus in great numbers, they are abandoning the Pharisees and their teaching, because the true shepherd has come in through the gate and is saying "Follow me!". 2022 - This 21/22 interpretation works so very well if we tie it back to the question the Pharisees asked in 9:40, and we say that Chapter 10 is a continuation of Jesus' answer, which began in 9:41.
This might be a good continuation of last Thursday's post.
2023 - The gatekeepers are the teachers, the proclaimers, the ones we look to for wisdom, explanation and direction. They tell us what is true and right and they identify the false and they don't let them in. They protect us from them. If a false teacher gets past the gatekeepers, if the gatekeepers allow danger to enter, or if some bypass the gatekeepers and sneak in another way, then those who enter are thieves and robbers, bent on "stealing" the sheep from their true owner. And when the true shepherd does arrive, and speaks, his own sheep know immediately who he is, and they will follow him, right out of the pen, past the gatekeepers, because HE is the ONE TRUE SHEPHERD. They will know that for all the goodwill and help and protection of the gatekeepers, it is the SHEPHERD that we are to follow.
2023 - This is the first time I've noticed, but there were also gatekeepers assigned to the temple by David - in 24 shifts, so that there was always someone checking those who entered the temple. Thieves and robbers would have been turned away. Those with any ulterior purpose would have been turned away. Just as here. Just as in heaven.
2023 - So some of the Pharisees set themselves up as discerners of who was legitimately teaching and who was not. Brother John from Bethsaida is teaching as we do, he is worth listening to, and we will have him as our special guest on Sunday. These same gatekeepers though, said Jesus was in league with the devil, that he cast out demons by the power of Satan, that he made himself God and was a blasphemer. The gatekeepers did NOT recognize the true shepherd. So when Jesus says "If you knew the Father, you would know me", he is saying they completely lack discernment, and are unqualified even to be gatekeepers much less shepherds. To recognize the Son, you would first know the Father. Is that right? Or is it backwards? That they cannot know the Father if they do not first know the Son? How could they recognize the Father since they have never seen him? But the Son has seen the Father, and can testify to them ABOUT the Father, and teach them what the Father says. Because Jesus is no gatekeeper. Jesus is the Shepherd.
2023 - That whole thing about getting in another way...That makes you think this is about salvation, but it is not. It is about false teachers. They bypass the gatekeepers because they know their teaching is wrong, or they know they will be recognized as thieves so they try to bypass the gatekeepers. So...are the gatekeepers the Pharisees after all? Or are the Pharisees the ones climbing over the fences or tunneling under them so that they can steal some sheep? In this metaphor, the gatekeepers are also "right". They know the true shepherd and let him in to get his own sheep. They recognize him always. It is the Pharisees, who are terrible shepherds, so bad at it that they actually are a harm to the sheep, who are coming in the "wrong" way, and bringing harm to the sheep - stealing them. Don't make the gatekeepers correspond to any group. They are part of the metaphor.
2022 - This verse:
3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. [Jhn 10:3 ESV]. Who is this gatekeeper? Do we need an explanation, or is this just part of the metaphor in that in those days, there was always a "guard" at the gate of the sheep pen, and who's job it was to open only to the shepherd? MSB talks about the role of the gatekeeper in Jesus' day. He was an undershepherd who opens the gate for the shepherd, assists in the care of the sheep, and especially guards them at night. MSB goes on to say that the shepherds would stand around at different locations and each had a unique call, to which the sheep belonging to that shepherd would respond by gathering near where that shepherd stood. I suppose a shepherd come to retrieve his sheep would then lead them around to the gate and collect them. MSB goes on to talk about how the shepherd also had a name for each individual sheep that was his, and he recognized them, and they recognized him, though there might be many different flocks and many different shepherds.
So. In this sense, we might want to see that gatekeeper as Theos. God has chosen, and has "destined" them. The Gatekeeper most certainly knows the shepherd - since he sent that shepherd to collect those sheep that the Gatekeeper has given him. Maybe...2023 - No. Theos is not the gatekeeper. See three 2023 notes above this for a better interpretation.
2022 - In vs 6 John sort of comes in as narrator again, as he has done several times before to explain what Jesus meant by something he said. This time, John introduces a "complementary" explanation of his meaning, since they didn't understand what he meant the first time. This will be another metaphor, a different metaphor, with the same underlying meaning as the sheep in the pen metaphor.
Then he says he is the door. Only Jesus had entered by the door, as only he was the shepherd. The others had come in another way. They were thieves and robbers because they hadn't used the door. But now Jesus is saying that he not only entered by the door, but that he is himself the door, and the only door. He says his sheep go in and out the door, and find good pasture.
2020-He definitely switches metaphors because they didn't understand the first one. The second metaphor goes from vs 7-9. Jesus now seems to say that he is the very door. Not the shepherd, but the door to the pen. Not the gatekeeper who decides to open or close the gate, but the gate itself. And then it breaks down. In and out? I see that Jesus is the only way...but how does this connect with the first metaphor?
2022 - There is only one door. Jesus is that door. The sheep pen has a door. That door stays closed to false shepherds - they can only enter by another way. False shepherds may break in another way, and then leave the same way, but they cannot "steal" the sheep from the pen. Furthermore, that gate serves both to corral the sheep safely behind this gate until such time as the shepherd chooses to collect them, and then to allow them freedom to roam and eat and drink. To live more abundantly. I think I finally understand what Jn 10:10 means! It can only be understood in the context of these sheep being released from the pen to find pasture! The false teachers cannot let the sheep out, cannot steal them out, cannot offer them ANYTHING of pasture. In freedom, rather than locked always inside the pen because the false shepherds have no access to the gate. The sheep in this pen are the saved - they are only the sheep that belong to the true shepherd, and Jesus is the gate - the door that opens a better life, an abundant life, and not just the muddy pen all the time and a little hay. This gate opens to green pastures, sunshine, and running water. 10 also contrasts the intention of the good shepherd with the intentions of the false. I think he is indicting the Pharisees on a very fundamental level here. Jesus is not allowing that they may have good intentions but have chosen a bad methodology. Jesus is saying they are thieves and robbers. You don't steel sheep by accident. Your intent is evil. Jesus is saying that these Pharisees KNOW they are misleading - probably because they have heard and rejected Jesus' message! He is standing there telling them the right way, and they are stubbornly refusing to embrace it, fearing the consequences to themselves in this world - the loss of prestige and income and so on - more than they fear the spiritual repercussions of their actions in the next. Jesus does not mean that ALL the Pharisees are bad - perhaps that is why we have the story of Nicodemus, to show us that the Pharisees had ample information to understand that Jesus was the good shepherd, that he was the gate, but they KNOWINGLY rejected that knowledge. It was this decision that turned them from well intentioned but misinformed to thieves and robbers. So now THAT makes sense to me also!
This next group is pretty old, 2020 I think...I really wasn't seeing it right back then:
In vs 10, he seems to start a new metaphor...Contrasting himself with thieves. (2022 - No...in vs 10 the metaphor is over, and Jesus is applying both metaphors to real life.)
In vs 11, he says he is the good shepherd. Another switching of metaphors? I cannot keep up. The good shepherd will die for the sheep, the hired hand will run when the wolf approaches.
Then Jesus says there are other sheep (besides the Jews he is talking to. At least this seems like the most reasonable way to listen to what he says.) He has to bring those sheep also.
vs 3 - he calls his own sheep by name. They recognize his voice.
vs 14 - I know my own, my own know me.
vs 16 - I have other sheep. They will listen. (But do they also know him, or just listen?)
2020 - I am bogged down. Next year, read through 9 and focus on 10. But for today, I'm going to read on out of 10.
2021 - This year, a different reading plan, so I only have this one chapter. I think it is key that John tells us the Pharisees didn't understand, and then vs 7 starts with "So, Jesus again said..." He is most definitely explaining to them with a different metaphor. Just look at these verses:
9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. ... Not the same door he went through in 1. Here, Jesus isn't going through the door, he IS the door, the only door into pasture.
11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ... This is the difference between the Pharisees - any false teachers - and Jesus. None of them is going to die so others may live. There is only one Good Shepherd, and the Pharisees are not him.
14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, ... This is election. We choose because we know. God knows what we will choose because He has put in us the ability to recognize Him. We have eyes to see the Spiritual. And we choose Him, because we are able to recognize Him. This is why it is still choice, even though He knows how we will choose. We will choose because of irresistible grace. We hear his voice- we recognize it - and we respond.
16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. [Jhn 10:9, 11, 14, 16 ESV] Here is maybe "the" verse on racism. Not Jews, but still his sheep. They hear, just as the Jews hear, and the flocks are combined. There is not a Jew flock and a Samaritan flock, and an African flock...no separate pens in heaven depending on what color you were or where you were from on earth. We will all follow the same shepherd. Quit looking around to see who's here and watch the Shepherd, so you don't get yourself lost!
Many possible FB posts here.
2022 - Vs 11 is like a thunderclap. "The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep". Jesus is not prophesying as to his future, his role, his purpose. He gives himself the title "Good Shepherd". Beginning in 12 he contrasts the actions of a good shepherd with a hired hand. Again, I think we need to see the hired hands as those who truly understand who Jesus is and what he represents but have chosen to keep the flock locked in the pen. They want captive sheep. And their unwillingness to assent even to the kind of changes that Jesus is calling for shows how unlikely they would ever be to even die for their flock. Jesus says he is willing, and in fact will die for the sheep, but what Pharisee would ever die for the flock? Vs 12 tells us still more insight into the minds of the Pharisees. They see the wolf coming. They understand things so absolutely clearly that they KNOW that if the sheep continue to follow them, then the wolf will get them. They will be fodder for the evil one. And even so, as hirelings, they choose to hold on to the past. Vs 14 is another I am, again Jesus names himself the Good Shepherd. I wonder if Cullman is going to show me how that ties back to something in the OT?
In vs 17, Jesus shows us that this is all done by the Father and the Son. The Son is carrying out the will of the Father, in order to save these sheep. Jesus is willing to lay down and take up his life for the sheep. The Father is willing to sacrifice the Son for the sheep. NEITHER OF THEM has to do what He is choosing to do. Jesus points this out in so many words in vs 18.
2022 - Ok, I did pretty well this year I think on 10:1-21. Reading through the rest.
2024 - Continuing with the whole unique dispensation idea, I note a couple of possibilities. John here uses the word "paroimia", and it is translated figure of speech. John uses this phrase 4 times in his gospel and it shows up once in 2 Peter. Nowhere else. Noteworthy is that John does not call this story a parable - a symbolic, illustrative story to make a point. He calls it by this different name, which, according to BLB is this:
a saying out of the usual course or deviating from the usual manner of speaking
a current or trite saying, a proverb
any dark saying which shadows forth some didactic truth
esp. a symbolic or figurative saying
speech or discourse in which a thing is illustrated by the use of similes and comparisons
an allegory
extended and elaborate metaphor
Also interesting is that John never once uses the word parable in his writings. The possibility here, to me, is that this stuff about climbing over fences and trying to mislead the sheep and sheep hearing the voice of the shepherd and following and never being snatched, and very hugely importantly vs 16 which speaks of another flock that will hear his voice....all points to the possibility that Jesus is again talking specifically and uniquely to just the people who physically saw and heard him WHILE he was on earth. He is here contrasting himself to the Pharisees who were not Pharisees to shepherd the sheep and show them the way and sacrifice and die for the sheep - these Pharisees were the "hired hands at that specific time - but self-serving, self-honoring abandoners of the duties and responsibilities of a true shepherd. Those who were to hear the true shepherds voice WOULD hear it, and those, like the Pharisees, who were NOT to hear the voice, never can, never do. The other flock, the Gentiles - the whole church age - are another flock, and they too will hear his voice but in a completely different way than those living in Jesus day who heard his literal voice. They are a diff flock in that they will also "hear" differently, and yet nevertheless be a part of the one flock of all those who hear.
This is getting to be a bigger and bigger deal to me. It is also a worry because it seems so far removed from anything I have ever heard before. Why wouldn't things be different, a "unique dispensation", during the most unusual period in the history of mankind? God was present with Adam. God, as Christ, was present in the first century. The relationship was comprised of the direct physical presence of God with man in both those cases, and only those cases. In the first case, no sacrifices were needed because no sin was present. In the second case, the sacrifice was present and walking and talking and calling his own to him.
This needs a big, deep study. I need to find a way to research this and see if anyone has explored it to the end. I need to find out if it is a heresy! I need to look at the dispensational writers and see if they talk about it.
Point is, a lot of the very confusing things Jesus says - which all seem to be characterized by inclusion of some form of "hear my voice", fall better into place if we confine his audience to those who physically at that time DID hear his actual voice and DID see the miracles. It needs more study!
((2021 - Look at this wording:
21 Others said, "These are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?" [Jhn 10:21 ESV] Always the proof of Jesus' claims to be from God comes back to these miracles. These were unprecedented even in Israel where they knew the Red Sea had parted, that the dead had been raised, that foreign invaders had died overnight in the thousands. These people knew about miracles, and knowing this, they knew that the things Jesus was doing were unprecedented. Interesting that the dead coming to life had been done before, but no one blind since birth had been made to see. I believe the scale of the miracles performed was also unprecedented. Elijah did miracles here and there, Jesus healed EVERYONE who came to him, and did so on more than one occasion.
Possible FB post. The age old argument - Was this man really who he said he was? Here is the conclusion of it:
25 Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me, [Jhn 10:25 ESV] The miracles are the key. And he finishes this up with an unmistakable claim to be God:
30 I and the Father are one." 31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. [Jhn 10:30-31 ESV]
It has always seemed to me like Jesus avoided the question of whether he was Messiah. There is no mistaking this answer, and he is not avoiding anything. Oh my...now look at these verses. They UNDERSTOOD what he meant!
33 The Jews answered him, "It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God." [Jhn 10:33 ESV]
2022 - I think the way this is all laid out, from back in 9 where we are talking about the blind, through the first part of 10 about sheep, and now into 10:22 and beyond, must have all come very close together chronologically. Jesus seems to just build and build on this theme. Here again, in vs 26, Jesus tells his "accusers" that they are not his sheep. His sheep know him by his voice. These people see miracles yet do not believe. The only possible explanation is that they are "choosing to be blind", as discussed above, or they belong to some other shepherd's flock. They are still sheep, but they follow a different shepherd. This would bother me, except that we know from earlier that Jesus has said they "see", but their guilt remains, he said they understand and choose status quo, that they see the wolves coming for the sheep, yet they will not intervene. They are not his sheep, but have in great measure refused to be his sheep.
36 do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, 'You are blaspheming,' because I said, 'I am the Son of God'? [Jhn 10:36 ESV]. He surely admits his claim to be the Son of God. There is no doubt. Were there no witnesses from this time when they got to Caiaphas' garden?
Again, the summary argument that Jesus uses as proof of who he is:
37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 38 but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father." [Jhn 10:37-38 ESV]
Did the miracles happen? If they did, Jesus is doubtless who he says he is, and he plainly says he is the Son of God. ))
2023 - And if you want to disprove who Jesus was, you have to take the position that these miracles did not happen. You must take that because even today the miracles - as described - do not and cannot happen. If someone showed up today and started healing every disease, fixing lame limbs, curing cancer people had for years, curing those with diabetes and alcoholism, and he just cured them right and left without exception and in a way demonstrable to still be in effect in the long term, how would we take him? Would we know that he came from God and his message was therefore true? Or would we call him a charlatan...AHHHH! That's the thing! They ALL KNEW that the miracles were real! You can bet the Pharisees DID follow up on those "cured" by Jesus, especially the lepers - which was a completely incurable thing in those days. They DID check, and that is why they NEVER accuse him of faking the miracles. They try to claim the miracles are from Satan and not from God - see how lame that sounds! - but they never accuse him of fake miracles. Why wouldn't they????
This is a good FB post using vs 37!
Vs 22 switches to the Feast of Dedication. It was winter. Have we moved ahead in time now from the feast of booths to dedication? Yes. This feast is Hanukkah, and is about the Hasmoneans, during the 400 year intertestamentary period. They light candles.
2020 - But just how much time has elapsed here????
As Jesus walks in the temple, he is challenged by them to tell them in so many words that he is the Christ. This is his answer:
25 Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me, [Jhn 10:25 ESV]
Why answer the question again? Look at the miracles? Only the Messiah could do these things, and you don't believe these either.
2020 - And here is this theme again:
26 but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. [Jhn 10:26 ESV] Again with the "you are precluded from believing because you are not my sheep". You shouldn't expect to be able to understand. Did Jesus say this to whole crowds of people? Is it only John who puts it so abruptly????
vs 27, My sheep hear my voice, I know them. Jesus is telling the questioners that if they were his sheep, they'd know who he was. He is telling them that they are doomed to hell. That they are blind and that they can't learn the truth because they are NOT his sheep. The Father chooses, the Spirit draws, the Son redeems. But if they are not the sheep - not chosen - then the Spirit won't draw and the Son won't redeem.
This would be very difficult for the Pharisees, who believed that by their own works and compliance with the law, they were good enough to get themselves in. Jesus tells them no amount of learning and good deeds will suffice if they are not chosen of God. If they are not his sheep, they will never see.
What were they to do? I have been asked this question recently. I said expose yourself to the word, study, read, listen. Plant the seed. Try. If you don't try you can never see.
Jesus says "I and my Father are one", and the Jews start grabbing rocks to stone him. Jesus asks which of his miracles they are stoning him for? They say it is not for his works, but for his blasphemy in making himself God. Who can deny that Jesus claimed to be God? They must deny this verse, this chapter, this book, this Bible. Jesus claimed to be God, not just a prophet, not just a preacher, not just a man of great understanding and wisdom. He said he was God.
2020-They were going to stone him in Chapter 8, now again in 10.
2023 - Possible FB post above, applied to disbelievers today. Look at what the Pharisees are like. They refuse to believe because they want to depend on their own works, their own ability. They do not want to trust - more than that they do not want to FOLLOW anyone or anything besides their own ideas, their own constructs. And Jesus makes it worse when he says "You are not called" or you would already KNOW! This is a tough one, but could be quite powerful.
2022 - This verse:
41 And many came to him. And they said, "John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true." [Jhn 10:41 ESV]. John the Baptist never did a miracle, not one. They believed John was a prophet of God though, even without miracles. Now here is Jesus, doing miracles, and some still will not believe. They are confirming that John's testimony was true, that everything John prophesied is coming to pass.
If we are still to understand the gospel of John as a polemic against the Sect of John the Baptist, then we need to read this verse and the next one as the Apostle showing once again that the Baptist himself pointed to Jesus as Messiah, to Jesus as the greater of the two. And then the last verse:
42 And many believed in him there. [Jhn 10:42 ESV]. John is telling the Sect that many believed in Jesus. That many set Jesus in the greater position BECAUSE OF what John had said about Jesus. John is again making the Baptist a follower of Jesus, and NOT the other way around, as the Sect claimed.
2022 - What an awesome chapter this is.