32-38. He defends his language by a quotation from their own Psaltery.

39-42. When they sought to take Him prisoner, He escaped from them, and crossed over to the east side of the Jordan, where many believed in him.

1. Amen, amen dico vobis: qui non intrat per ostium in ovile ovium, sed ascendit aliunde, ille fur est, et latro.1. Amen, amen, I say to you: he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up another way, the same is a thief and a robber.

1. This verse and those that follow down to the end of verse 18, are a continuation of the discourse directed to the Pharisees, and begun in ix. 39, with which verse this tenth chapter might more correctly have been commenced. The logical connection of the following parable with the close of the preceding chapter is not clear. Some, as St. Aug., say that Christ is proving that the Pharisees were blind, else they would recognise Him as the door through which the true fold must be entered, and as the true Shepherd. Others, as St. Chrys., think that He is replying to a tacit objection of the Pharisees, to the effect that they refused to recognise Him, not because they were blind, but because He was an impostor.

The parable, taken strictly, is a narrative of a probable but fictitious event, like that relating to the Prodigal Son (Luke xv. 11-32). Where, as [pg 177] in the present instance, there is continued or prolonged metaphor, without the description of any event, some would call it an allegory and not a parable; but we prefer not to interfere with a phrase so familiar as “the parable of the good Shepherd.” It will be noted that we speak of parables, and not merely of one parable, for we hold that the parable of Christ as door of the fold is distinct from that of Christ as Shepherd. Our reasons for this will appear as we proceed. To understand the grammatical sense of these two parables, we must bear in mind what were the relations of the shepherd to his sheep in eastern countries, and especially in Palestine.

In the Spring of the year the Jewish shepherd conducted his sheep to their pasture, and there they remained until the end of the following Autumn. At night they were enclosed in folds, the flocks of several shepherds being sometimes gathered in the same fold. The fold, open overhead, was surrounded by a wall, in which there was but one door, at which the doorkeeper (ostiarius) remained through the night, until the shepherd's return in the morning. A thief, wishing to steal sheep, would, of course, not attempt to enter by the door, but would climb the wall. On the shepherd's return in the morning the door of the fold was thrown open by the doorkeeper, and each shepherd entered and called his own sheep, which, knowing his voice, followed him to their own pasture. Throughout the whole day the shepherd remained with them, guarding them from wild beasts and robbers, and attending to the weak and maimed. Thus his relations with his sheep were very close and constant indeed, and must be carefully borne in mind, in order that we may rightly appreciate the full significance of these beautiful parables.

He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold. If we strip this language of its metaphorical character, the sense is: that the teacher who enters not into the Church through Christ as the door, that is to say, by believing in Christ, is a false teacher, as were therefore, the Scribes and Pharisees. Christ, then, is the door (see verse [7]); the Church is the sheepfold; and the Scribes and Pharisees, with all such, are the thieves and robbers who injure their fellow-men, sometimes secretly like [pg 178] thieves, sometimes with open violence like robbers. That Christ is signified by “the door,” is the view of SS. Aug., Cyril, Bede, Greg., and of A Lap.; and is, indeed, distinctly stated by Himself, in verse 7, after His hearers had failed to understand His words. Hence we unhesitatingly reject the view of Mald. and many others, who take “the door” in verse 1 to be different from that in verse 7; the latter, they say, being the door of the sheep, Christ Himself; the former the door of the shepherds, which Mald. understands of legitimate authority to teach. We have no doubt that the door in both verses is the same, because Christ begins to explain, in verse 7: “Jesus therefore said to them again” what He had said in verses 1-5.

2. Qui autem intrat per ostium, pastor est ovium.2. But he that entereth in by the door, is the shepherd of the sheep.

2. The sense is that he who entereth by faith in Christ, and by Christ's authority, is a true shepherd (ποιμήν, without the article). Such a pastor is contrasted with the Pharisees who blindly refused to enter by the only gate.

3. Huic ostiarius aperit, et oves vocem eius audiunt, et proprias oves vocat nominatim, et educit eas.3. To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.