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Joh_10:16. The repeated mention of His sacrificial death, by which the union of Jews and heathen into one community of believers was to be effected (see on Eph_2:14), raises His look to the future when He (as the good shepherd lifted up on high, compare Heb_13:20; 1Pe_2:25) shall be the guide also of the heathen, who have become believers, and whom he now prophetically terms His sheep. Compare Joh_11:52, Joh_12:32,[64] and prophetic utterances, such as Mic_4:2; Isa_49:1 ff; Isa_52:13 ff; Isa_53:10 ff. But the thought that He does not need the faith of the Jews (Hengstenberg after Ruperti) is arbitrarily imported into the passage as an intervening link of logical connection. The Jews outside Palestine (Paulus) are not intended, as they form part of the fold of the Jewish theocracy, to which the words ἐκ τῆς αὐλῆς ταύτης refer, and within which Jesus Himself lived and spake; hence also the demonstrative ΤΑΎΤΗς .
ἜΧΩ ] He is their owner. Comp. Act_18:10. “Hoc verbum habet magnam potestatem,” Bengel.
ἃ οὐκ ἔστιν ἐκ τῆς αὐλῆς ταύτης ] which are not out of this fold, which are not derived from it. This expression, however, does not imply that Jesus conceived the heathen as also in an αὐλή (in answer to De Wette); for the emphasis rests not on ΤΑΎΤΗς , but on Τῆς ΑὐΛῆς , and the characteristic feature of the heathen is the ΔΙΑΣΠΟΡΆ (Joh_7:35, Joh_11:52);[65] whilst the thought of a divine leading of the heathen (Act_14:17; Act_17:27) does not correspond at all to the figure of an αὐλή , of which the conception of theocratic fellowship constitutes an essential feature. Compare the figure of the olive tree in Rom_11:17; Eph_2:12; Mat_8:11.
ΔΕῖ ] according to the divine decree.
ἈΓΑΓΕῖΝ ] neither adducere, fetch (Vulgate, Luther, Beza, and many others; also Tholuck, Luthardt, Hengstenberg, Godet); nor συναγαγεῖν , Joh_11:52 (Nonnus, Euth. Zigabenus, Theophylact, Casaubon); but lead, as shepherd, who goes before the sheep, and whom they follow, Joh_10:4. Bengel’s remark is appropriate: “Non opus est illis solum mutare;” for the shepherd who leads also the heathen is the exalted Christ, πάντων κύριος , Act_10:36.
ΚΑῚ ΓΕΝΉΣΕΤΑΙ , etc.] and will become, inasmuch as I lead, besides my sheep out of the Jewish αὐλή , those other sheep of mine, also, one flock (consisting of the two parts, ἀμφοτέρωθεν , Nonnus), one shepherd. This is the happy issue; by the asyndetic collocation, all the conception of unity ( μία , εἷς ) is made to appear with more marked prominence. Compare 1Co_10:17; Eph_4:5. On ΕἿς ΠΟΙΜΉΝ , observe in reference to ΓΕΝΉΣΕΤΑΙ : “de jure Jesus semper unicus est pastor; de jure et facto igitur unus fict,” Bengel. The fulfilment of His declaration, which began with the conversion of the heathen by the apostles, is still advancing, and will be first completed with the realization of what is spoken of in Rom_11:25 f. The Stoic dream of the union of all men ὥσπερ ἀγέλης συννόμα νόμῳ κοινῷ συντρεφομένης (Plut. de fort. Alex. 6) has been dispelled; the idea, however, considered in itself, goes on realizing itself in Christ till the judgment day.
[64] The relation of ver. 16 to what precedes corresponds entirely to the New Testament idea, that salvation proceeds from the Jews to the heathen (comp. Joh_4:22, Joh_11:52). This advantage of the Jews is also to be recognised as acknowledged by John, to whom we are not to ascribe the idea of a perfect equality of the two (Lücke, B. Crusius; comp. also Messner, Lehre der Ap. p. 355). The heathen who are to be gained are, however, even before they are recipients of salvation, τέκνα τ . θεοῦ , and Christ has them as His sheep, according to the ideal view of the future, as an actuality so far as it is certainly fixed in the counsel of God (comp. Rom_11:28). It is therefore incorrect to explain the mode of expression from the fellowship with God realized through conscience (Luthardt); because, to be a child of God and an adherent of Christ presupposes regeneration. For this, however, they are destined by the divine election of grace, and fitted and prepared by the prevenient divine drawing.
[65] Correctly Bengel: “alias oves dicit, non aliud ovile; erant enim dispersae in mundo.”