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Joh_10:2-3. Ποιμήν ] Shepherd, without article qualitatively; it characterizes such a one, not specially as the owner (the antithesis to the hireling first appears in Joh_10:12), but in general, in opposition to the robber.
ὁ θυρωρὸς ἀνοίγει ] belongs to the description of the legitimate mode of entering, and is not intended to have any special explanation; for which reason also no further notice is taken of it in Joh_10:7-8. It must not, therefore, be explained either of God (Calvin, Maldonatus, Bengel, Tholuck, Ewald, Hengstenberg, following Joh_6:44 f.); or of the Holy Spirit, Act_13:2 (Theodoret, Heracleon, Ruperti, Aretius, Corn. a Lapide, and several others, also Lange); or of Christ (Cyril, Augustine); or of Moses (Chrysostom, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Euth. Zigabenus, Luther, following Deu_18:15); or of John the Baptist (Godet, after Joh_1:7). He enters into the fold, and the sheep hear His voice (His call, His address, His appeal); they listen to it as to the voice which is known to them (comp. Joh_10:4). Comp. the shepherd’s cry to his flock, “ σίττα ,” in Theocr. iv. 46, viii. 69.
τὰ πρόβατα ] are the sheep in the fold generally. It was common for several flocks to pass the night in one fold; and their shepherds, because they come every morning to lead out the individual flocks, are known to all the sheep in the fold. On the contrary, τὰ ἴδια πρόβατα are the sheep which belong to the special flock of him who has entered;[60] these he calls κατʼ ὄνομα , i.e. not merely ὀνομαστί (that would be merely ὄνομα , or ὀνόματι , or ἐπʼ ὀνόματος , Polyb. 5. 35. 2, 11. 15. 1), but distributively—by their names, each by its name, ἐκ τῆς εἰς ἕκαστον ἄκρας φροντίδος , Euth. Zigabenus. To give to the individual animals of their flock a name was not an unusual custom among the shepherds of ancient times. See Interpp. ad Theocr. 5. 101; Pricaeus on the passage. In Lange’s view (Leben Jesu, II. p. 955) the ἴδια πρόβ . are the favourite sheep (image of the elect), the bellwethers, which are followed by the whole flock ( τὰ πρόβατα , Joh_10:4). This is incorrect; for, on the one hand, ἴδια alone would not sufficiently support this notion (comp. Joh_10:12); and on the other, ἔμπροσθεν πορεύεται and ἀκολουθεῖ , Joh_10:4, are so completely correlate, that αὐτῶν and τὰ πρόβατα must necessarily be the same: at all events, αὐτοῖς must otherwise have been used instead of αὐτῷ , Joh_10:4.
ἐξάγει ] to pasture, Joh_10:9-10. Looking back to Joh_9:34; Joh_9:22, Godet imports into the words the idea of separation from the old theocracy, which is devoted to ruin.[61] Such a thought is contained neither in the words (Pollux, i. 250) nor in the context.
[60] Into the beautiful general figure of τὰ πρόβατα , the word ἴδια introduces a special, individual element, which makes it all the richer and more telling. It has been incorrectly maintained (by Bengel, Luthardt, Hengstenberg, and others), that although ἰδία is first associated with πρόβατα when it occurs for the second time, the πρόβατα which hear must necessarily be the same as those which are afterwards described as τὰ ἴδια πρόβατα . These latter are no doubt among the πρόβατα which hear; but it is only τὰ ἴδια that the shepherd calls by name, and so forth. Thus the particular Church belongs to the Universal.
[61] Similarly even Luther: “It denotes the Christian freedom from the law and judgment.”