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Joh_10:12 f. In opposition to the idea of the good shepherd, we have here that of the hireling. The term μισθωτός must not be taken to refer to the conduct of the Pharisees in their leadership of the people (Baeumlein and older writers, also my own view previously), as these hierarchs are included in the characteristic designation of Thieves and Robbers (Joh_10:8; Joh_10:2), with which the description of the hireling, who is cowardly, and careth not for the sheep, would not harmonize. Nor can it be directed against the mode in which the legitimate priesthood lead the people, as Godet thinks; for the priesthood consisted to a large extent of Pharisees, and formed with these latter, as far as antagonism to Christ was concerned, one great party (Joh_7:32; Joh_7:45; Joh_11:47; Joh_11:57; Joh_18:3). The expression ὁ μισθωτός rather represents those leading teachers of the people of God, who, instead of being ready to sacrifice their lives for the community, flee from danger, and forsake, with feelings of indifference and disregard, their charge. Under the figure of the μισθωτός , there rise to the view of Christ the many cross-forsaking teachers, who would arise even in the apostolic age (Gal_6:12; Php_3:18), and to whom the Apostle Paul forms the most brilliant historical contrast. The question by whom the μισθωτός is to be regarded as hired, leads beyond the purpose of the allegory, which is to set forth, in contrast to the good shepherd, the idea of a shepherd who, influenced solely by self-interest, takes charge of a flock, which is not his own property.
καὶ οὐκ ὢν ποιμήν ] is closely connected with ὁ μισθ . δέ : he, however, who is a hireling (hired for wage) and is not a shepherd,—shepherd in the sense of being owner of the sheep which he leads out to pasture; hence the words οὗ οὐκ εἰσὶ , etc., are added for the purpose of more emphatically expressing the meaning. Note that Christ possesses a Church (flock) even before His death; partly, according to the old theocratic idea, namely, that of the old people of God as His ἴδιοι , Joh_1:11; partly in reality, namely, the totality of those who believed on Him, whom the Father has given Him (Joh_6:37); partly proleptically (Joh_10:16); though, as far as He is concerned, they are first purchased (compare Act_20:28; Tit_2:14) by Him through His death, after which event began the extension of His shepherd’s functions to all, by the drawing of His Holy Spirit (Joh_12:32).
There is no justification for interpreting the wolf specially, either of the devil (Euth. Zigabenus, Aretius, Olshausen, and several others; admitted even by Chrysostom); or of heretics, after Act_20:20 (Augustine, Jansen, and several others). It is a general image of every sort of power, opposed to the Messiah, and bent on destroying the kingdom of God, which may make its appearance; this power, however, as such, has its causal and ruling principle in the devil, Joh_12:31; Joh_14:30; Mat_10:16.
ἁρπάζει αὐτὰ κ . σκορπίζει τὰ πρόβ .] he snatches them (namely, the individuals on which he falls), and scatters the sheep, i.e. the mass of them, the flock; hence the word πρόβατα is neither superfluous nor harsh (De Wette).
ὅτι μισθωτ . ἐστι ] nothing else. This and what follows supplies the ethical key to the behaviour described.
Notice further, that whilst in verse 12 we read ὁ μισθ . δέ , here we have ὁ δὲ μισθ .; because the antithesis of the hireling was first brought forward in Joh_10:12, and greater emphasis was secured by the immediate connection of μισθ . with ὁ . Comp. Klotz, ad Devar. p. 378.