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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - John 10:11 - 10:11
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
I am the good shepherd (egō eimi ho poimēn ho kalos). Note repetition of the article, “the shepherd the good one.” Takes up the metaphor of Joh 10:2. Vulgate pastor bonus. Philo calls his good shepherd agathos, but kalos calls attention to the beauty in character and service like “good stewards” (1Pe 4:10), “a good minister of Christ Jesus” (1Ti 4:6). Often both adjectives appear together in the ancient Greek as once in the New Testament (Luk 8:15). “Beauty is as beauty does.” That is kalos.
Layeth down his life for his sheep (tēn psuchēn autou tithēsin huper tōn probatōn). For illustration see 1Sa 17:35 (David’s experience) and Isa 31:4. Dods quotes Xenophon (Mem. ii. 7, 14) who pictures even the sheep dog as saying to the sheep: “For I am the one that saves you also so that you are neither stolen by men nor seized by wolves.” Hippocrates has psuchēn katetheto (he laid down his life, i.e. died). In Jdg 12:3 ethēka tēn psuchēn means “I risked my life.” The true physician does this for his patient as the shepherd for his sheep. The use of huper here (over, in behalf of, instead of), but in the papyri huper is the usual preposition for substitution rather than anti. This shepherd gives his life for the sin of the world (Joh 1:29; 1Jo 2:2).