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Joh_10:11. Ἐγώ ] Repeated again with lively emphasis. It is no other.
ὁ ποιμὴν ὁ καλός ] the good, the excellent shepherd, conceived absolutely as He ought to be: hence the article and the emphatic position of the adjective. In Christ is realized the ideal of the shepherd, as it lives in the Old Testament (Psalms 23; Isa_40:11; Ezekiel 34; Jeremiah 23; Zechariah 11; also Mic_5:3). With the conception of καλός compare the Attic καλὸς κἀγαθός (also Tob_7:7; 2Ma_15:12), and the contrary: πονηρός , κακός , ἄδικος .
In the following specification of the things in which the good shepherd proves himself to correspond to his idea, ὁ ποιμ . ὁ καλός is solemnly repeated.
τιθέναι τ . ψυχήν ] As to substance, though not as to the meaning of the words, equivalent to δοῦναι τ . ψ . (Mat_20:28). It is a Johannean expression (Joh_13:37 f., Joh_15:13; 1Jn_3:16), without corresponding examples in Greek classical writers (against Kypke, I. p. 388); and must be explained, neither from the simple ùÒåÌí , Isa_53:10 (Hengstenberg), nor from ùÒåÌí ðÆôÆùÑ áÌÀëÇó (Jdg_12:3; 1Sa_19:5), where áëó is essential; but from the idea of the sacrificial death as a ransom that has been paid (Mat_20:28; 1Ti_2:6). Its import accordingly is: to pay down one’s soul, impendere, in harmony with the use of τιθέναι in the classics, according to which it denotes to pay (so frequently in Demosthenes and others; see Reiske, Ind. Dem. p. 495, ed. Schaef.; Dissen, ad Dem. de Cor. p. 271). Compare Nonnus: καὶ ψυχῆς ἰδίης οὐ φείδεται , ἀλλὰ ἑθήσει λύτρον ἑῶν ὀΐων .
ὑπέρ ] for the good of, in order to turn aside destruction from them by his own self-sacrifice. Compare Joh_11:50 f. It is less in harmony with this specific point of view, from which the sacrifice of the life of Jesus is regarded throughout the entire New Testament, to take τιθέναι , with De Wette, Ebrard, Godet, as denoting merely lay down (as in Joh_13:4); or to assume the idea which is foreign to the passage, “to offer as a prize for competition” (Ewald).