Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - John 10:9 - 10:9
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Joh_10:9. Ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ θύρα ] τῷ διπλασιασμῷ τοῦ ῥητοῦ βεβαιοῖ τὸν λόγον , Euth. Zigabenus.
διʼ ἐμοῦ ] emphatically occupying the front place, excluding every other mediation.
εἰσέλθῃ ] namely, to the sheep in the fold. Comp. Joh_10:1; Joh_10:7. The subject is therefore a shepherd ( τὶς ), who goes in to the sheep through the door. Others, on the contrary (Chrysostom, Euth. Zigabenus, Maldonatus, Bengel, and several others; also Fritzsche, Tholuck, De Wette, B. Crusius, Maier, Baeumlein, Hengstenberg, Godet, and several others), regard the sheep as the subject, and the θύρα as the gate for the sheep. But there is no ground for such a change of figure, seeing that both the word εἰσέρχεσθαι in itself after Joh_10:1-2, and also the singular and masculine τὶς , can only refer to the shepherd; besides, another mode of entrance than through the door is for the sheep quite inconceivable; consequently the emphatic words διʼ ἐμοῦ , so far as the ἐγώ is the door, would be without any possible antithesis.
σωθήσεται ] is not to be understood directly of the attainment of the Messianic redemption (compare especially 1Co_3:15), as Luthardt and older commentators suppose, after 1Ti_4:16, for that would be foreign to the context (see what follows); but means: he will be delivered, i.e. he will be set free from all dangers by the protecting door;—the interpretation of the figure intended by Jesus does undoubtedly signify safety from the Messianic ἀπώλεια , and the guarantee of future eternal redemption. This happy σωθήσεται is then followed by unrestrained and blessed service, which is graphically set forth by means of the words εἰσελ . κ . ἐξελ ., as in Num_27:17, as an unhindered entering in and going out of the fold, at the head of the flock, whilst engaged in the daily duty of tending it; and by νομὴν εὑρήσει , as the finding of pasture for the flock ( ποιμνίων νομάς , Soph. O. R. 760; compare Plat. Legg. iii. p. 679 A: νομῆς γὰρ οὐκ ἦν σπάνις ). That this νομή in the interpretation of the allegory is ψυχῆς νομή (Plat. Phaedr. p. 248 B), which works for the eternal life of those who are fed through the evangelical grace and truth which they appropriate (comp. Joh_10:10), does not need further urging.