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10. Just as Joh 10:9 refers back to Joh 10:2, so this refers back to Joh 10:1. It is the same allegory more fully expounded. Note the climax; κλέψῃ, steal and carry off; θύσῃ, slaughter as if for sacrifice (LXX. in Isa 22:13; 1Ma 7:19); ἀπολέσῃ utterly consume and destroy. In what follows ζωὴν ἔχ. is opposed to θύσῃ κ. ἀπολέσῃ, περισσὸν ἐχ. to κλέψῃ: instead of taking life, He gives it; instead of stealing, He gives abundance.
ἐγὼ ἧλθον. I came that they may have life, and that they may have abundance. Ἐγώ is in emphatic contrast to ὁ κλέπτης. This is the point of transition from the first part of the allegory to the second. The figure of the Door, as the one entrance to salvation, is dropped; and that of the Good Shepherd, as opposed to the thief, is taken up; but this intermediate clause will apply to either figure, inclining towards the second one. In order to make the strongest possible antithesis to the thief, Christ introduces, not a shepherd, but Himself, the Chief Shepherd. The thief takes life; the shepherds protect life; the Good Shepherd gives it.