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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - John 10:1 - 10:1
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Verily, Verily (Amēn, amēn). Solemn prelude by repetition as in Joh 1:51. The words do not ever introduce a fresh topic (cf. Joh 8:34, Joh 8:51, Joh 8:58). So in Joh 10:7. The Pharisees had previously assumed (Vincent) they alone were the authoritative guides of the people (Joh 9:24, Joh 9:29). So Jesus has a direct word for them. So Jesus begins this allegory in a characteristic way. John does not use the word parabolē, but paroimia (Joh 10:6), and it really is an allegory of the Good Shepherd and self-explanatory like that of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15. He first tells it in Joh 10:1-5 and then explains and expands it in Joh 10:7-18.
Into the fold of the sheep (eis tēn aulēn tōn probatōn). Originally aulē (from aō, to blow) in Homer’s time was just an uncovered space around the house enclosed by a wall, then a roofless enclosure in the country where flocks were herded as here and Joh 10:16. It later came to mean the house itself or palace (Mat 26:3, Mat 26:58, etc.). In the papyri it means the court attached to the house.
Climbeth up (anabainōn). Present active participle of anabainō, to go up. One who goes up, not by the door, has to climb up over the wall.
Some other way (allachothen). Rare word for old allothen, but in 4Macc 1:7 and in a papyrus. Only here in N.T.
The same (ekeinos). “That one” just described.
Is a thief and a robber (kleptēs estin kai lēistēs). Both old and common words (from kleptō, to steal, lēizomai, to plunder). The distinction is preserved in the N.T. as here. Judas was a kleptēs (Joh 12:6), Barabbas a robber (Joh 18:40) like the two robbers (Mat 27:38, Mat 27:44) crucified with Jesus erroneously termed thieves like “the thief on the cross” by most people. See Mar 11:17. Here the man jumping over the wall comes to steal and to do it by violence like a bandit. He is both thief and robber.