John 10:6

Joh 10:6-8. This parable spake Jesus: but they understood not, &c. — In this symbolical way Jesus taught the Pharisees the difference between true and false teachers; but they did not understand the meaning of what he said: therefore he added, by way of explication, Verily, verily, I say unto you — I solemnly assure you of it, as an undoubted and most momentous truth; I am the door of the sheep — That is, the door by which the sheep- fold is entered. Or his meaning may be, I am not only the door by which the shepherds must enter; not only the person whose right alone it is to admit men to the office of shepherds, and who alone can qualify them for that office and dignity, but I am also the door of the sheep; it is by the knowledge of, and faith in me, by an interest in my merits, and by a participation of my Spirit, and in no other way, that men must or can enter into the truly spiritual enclosure of my church. All that ever came before me — Assuming the character of the Messiah, or any part thereof, or pretending, like your elders and rabbis, to a power over the consciences of men, attempting to make laws in and for the church, and teaching their own traditions as necessary to be observed, or other methods of obtaining salvation than by me; all those, who in former times assumed the character of teachers of religion, without a commission from me, and all those teachers and preachers of God’s word that enter not by the door into the sheep-fold, but run before I send them by my Spirit, and before they themselves are my true disciples, subjects, and servants, or are in me new creatures; (our Lord seems in particular to speak of those that had undertaken this office since he began his ministry;) are thieves and robbers — Persons influenced by improper motives, who had and have no warrant from above for assuming any such character, pretending to any such power, or undertaking any such office, and whatsoever their pretences have been or are, the administration of such persons had, and always will have, a tendency to destroy the souls they should watch over and feed: for they are not only thieves, stealing temporal profit to themselves, but robbers, plundering and murdering the sheep. But the sheep — My true people; did not hear them — Did not attend upon, relish or regard their doctrine.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh 10:6. Οὐκ ἔγνωσαν, they understood not) Thus they might have perceived, that they were blind; ch. Joh 9:41, “Now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.”

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh_10:6-7. Παροιμία] Every species of discourse that deviates from the common course (οἶμος); hence in the classical writers especiallyproverb (Plat. Soph. p. 261 B; Soph. Aj. 649; Ael. N. H. 12. 22; Lucian, Nigr. 1. 37; comp. 2Pe_2:22). It denotes here, as corresponding to the Hebrew משׁל, if we define the conception more exactly, not parable (because it is not a history), but allegory (see Wilke, Rhetor. p. 109). Suidas: ἡ παροιμία ἐστὶ λόγος ἀπόκρυφος διʼ ἑτέρου προδήλου σημαινόμενος.

The Pharisees do not understand the meaning of what He thus allegorically delivered to them, and therefore (οὖν, Joh_10:7) Jesus sees Himself compelled to begin again (πάλιν), and to explain to them, first of all, the main point on which the understanding of the whole depended, namely, how the door in Joh_10:1 is to be understood. It is incorrect, accordingly, with most recent commentators (also Hengstenberg and Godet), to say that we have a second parable with a different turn; if Christ had not intended even in Joh_10:1 to describe Himself as the θύρα, He would only have confused His hearers in Joh_10:7, instead of clearing matters up.

ἐγώ] with great emphasis.

τῶν προβάτων] to the sheep, as is required by Joh_10:1; not, through which the sheep enter into the fold (Chrysostom, Euth. Zigabenus, Wolf, Lampe, Fritzsche, Ebrard, Hengstenberg, Baeumlein, Godet, and others), so that Jesus characterizes Himself as the tutorem ac nutritorem of the sheep (Fritzsche). Christ, however, is the door to the sheep, so far as the true spiritual leaders of the people of God receive through Him the qualification and appointment to their vocation. See on Joh_10:1.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh 10:6 . The application of the parable was sufficiently obvious; but ταύτην … αὐτοῖς . παροιμία [ παρά , οἶμος , out of the way or wayside] seems more properly to denote “a proverb”; and the Book of Proverbs is named in the Sept [73] αἱ παροιμίαι or παροιμίαι Σαλωμῶντος ; and Aristotle, Rhetor. , 3, 11, defines παροιμίαι , as μεταφοραὶ απʼ εἴδους επʼ εἶδος . But παροιμία and παραβολή came to be convertible terms, both meaning a longer or shorter utterance whose meaning did not lie on the surface or proverbial sayings: the former term is never found in the Synoptic Gospels, the latter never found in John. [Further see Hatch, Essays in Bibl. Greek , p. 64; and Abbot’s Essays , p. 82.] This parable the Pharisees did not understand. They might have understood it, for the terms used were familiar O.T. terms; see Eze 34 , Psa 80 . But as it had been spoken for their instruction as well as for the encouragement of the man whom they had cast out of the fold, (Joh 10:7 ) εἶπεν οὖν πάλιν , Jesus therefore began afresh and explained it to them. ἐγὼ εἰμι ἡ θύρα τῶν πρόβατων . I, and no other, am the door of the sheep. [ Cf. the Persian reformer who proclaimed himself the “Bâb,” the gate of life.] Through me alone can the sheep find access to the fold. Primarily uttered for the excommnuicated man, these words conveyed the assurance that instead of being outcast by his attachment to Jesus he had gained admittance to the fellowship of God and all good men. Not the Pharisees but Jesus could admit to or reject from the fold of God.

[73] Septuagint.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

This word (parable) which the Evangelist useth here, signifieth a dark kind of speech, when words are taken from their natural meaning, to signify another thing to us.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

6. This parable. This is the reason why, proudly vaunting of their wisdom, they rejected the light of Christ; for in a matter not very obscure they are exceedingly dull of apprehension.

But they did not understand what things they were which he spoke to them. In this clause the Greek manuscripts differ. Some copies might be literally rendered, they did not understand what he said Another reading, which I have followed, is more full, though it amounts to the same meaning. The third reading is, that they did not know that he who spoke of himself was the Son of God; but this is not much approved.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(6) This parable spake Jesus unto them.—Better, this allegory spake Jesus unto them. The word rendered “parable” is the wider word (παροιμία, paroimia) which includes every kind of figurative and proverbial teaching, every kind of speech, as the etymology reminds us, which departs from the usual course (οῑμος, oimos). St. John nowhere uses the word “parable.” The word paroimia occurs again in Joh_16:25; Joh_16:29, and once besides in the New Testament; this is in 2Pe_2:22 (“according to the true proverb”), in a quotation from the Greek version of Pro_26:11, where the Hebrew word is mâshal. (Comp. Note on Mat_13:3, and Trench On the Parables, pp. 8-10.) The discourse of this chapter differs from the true parable, which is a story in which the outer facts are kept wholly distinct from the ideal truths that are to be taught; whereas here the form and the idea interpenetrate each other at every point. It is so in the other so-called “parable” in this Gospel (John 15). Strictly speaking, neither the “Good Shepherd” nor the “True Vine” is a parable. Both are “allegories,” or rather, they are, as there is every reason to think, allegorical interpretations of actual events in the material world, which are thus made the vehicle of spiritual truths. It will follow from this that the interpretation of every point in the history of the material facts (e.g., “the porter” in Joh_10:3) is not always to be pressed. In the parable the story is made to express the spiritual truth, and with greater or lesser fulness every point in it may have its spiritual counterpart. The outer facts which are allegorised exist independently of the spiritual truth. The fact that they express it at some central points is all that is necessary for the allegory, and greater caution should attend the use of any addition to the interpretation which is given.

But they understood not what things they were . . .—They of course understood the outer facts, then passing before their eyes, or, in any case, well known to them. What they did not understand was the spiritual truths underlying these phenomena. They must have known His words had some spiritual meaning. They were accustomed to every form of allegorical teaching, and they could not have thought that He was simply describing to them the everyday events of the shepherd’s life. But they who think that they see (Joh_9:41) are spiritually blind, and cannot understand the elements of divine truth.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6. This parable] Better, This allegory. The word which the Synoptists use for ‘parable’ (parabolê) is never used by S. John; and the word here used by S. John (paroimia) is never used by the Synoptists. This should be brought out in translation; both are rendered by our translators sometimes ‘parable’ and sometimes ‘proverb.’ Paroimia occurs again Joh_16:25; Joh_16:29 and 2Pe_2:22, and nowhere else in N.T. Everywhere but here it is translated ‘proverb.’ Paroimia means something beside the way; hence, according to some, a trite ‘way side saying;’ according to others, a figurative ‘out-of-the-way saying.’ On parabolê see on Mar_4:2.

understood not] Did not recognise the meaning.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

This parable spake Jesus unto them,.... To the Pharisees, who were with him, Joh 9:40;

but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them; the things spoken by him being delivered in a parabolical way, though in lively figures, and in terms plain and easy to be understood; yet what through the blindness of their minds, and the hardness of their hearts, and their prejudices in favour of themselves, and against Christ, they did not understand what were meant by them; see Mat 13:13.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

6 This parable spake Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them.

Ver. 6. But they understood not] So thick brained and incapable we are, till that vail be rent, Isa 25:7. Those that have a blemish in their eye, the more wishly they look into anything the less they see of it, as Vives hath it. So it is here. Lusciosi, si quando oculorum aciem intendunt, minus vident. (Vives in Aug. Civ. Dei. lxxxi. 6.)

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

This parable - See the notes at Mat 13:3.

They understood not ... - They did not understand the meaning or design of the illustration.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Our Saviour was wont to instruct them in the mysteries of the kingdom of God by parables, that is, similitudes taken from reasonable actions of men, which might be, and were, proper to express spiritual things by. Wherefore he used this method in teaching, we are told, Mat 13:10-13. They well enough understood the words in which those parables were delivered; but the inward sense, the spiritual mysteries shadowed out in those similitudes, these they understood not; neither the common sort of his disciples understood them, nor did the better sort of his disciples understand them without a further explication of them. Our Lord therefore, in the following verses, comes to give them a large explication of the parable.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

6. Parable—Our Lord here uses the ordinary Greek not for parable, but for any allegorical composition. See remarks on page 227. The present passage might easily be made a parable by being put into a narrative form.

They understood not—The simile of a shepherd was common in the Old Testament; but our Lord had put the case so indefinitely that they were able to overlook its suitableness to their own persons. Jesus proceeds to apply by avowing himself to be the door; but still leaves them to infer who are the thieves and robbers.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

This parable spake Jesus unto them. The word paroimia occurs only in this place and in Joh_16:25-29 2Pe_2:22. It is the LXX rendering of lvm proverb, in Pro_1:1, a similitude or didactic saying. The Greek word means any speech (ethos) deviating (para) from the common way (Lange). It may deviate by its sententious or parabolical form, which conceals under a closed metaphor a variety of meanings. But they, the Pharisees, who were confident of their own position, and gloried in their influence over men, and whose moral nature was steeled and armed to resist even a possible reference to themselves as "thieves," or "robbers," or "aliens," and who would not admit any of Christ"s claims to their own disparagement, understood not what things they were which he was saying to them. The blind man had heard Ms voice, obeyed, found healing, advanced step by step from a bare knowledge of "a man Jesus" to a confession of him as one empowered by God; to a belief that he was a "Prophet," able to relax Mosaic Law; and finally to a ready acknowledgment that he was the Son of God. The Pharisees were conscious of neither need, nor blindness, nor desire of salvation, nor of the Shepherd"s care or grace. They will not go to him for life. They can make nothing of his enigmatic words. They take counsel against him. Their misconception contrasts strongly with the susceptibility of the broken-hearted penitents. So far the parable or proverb corresponds with the parables of the kingdom in the synoptic Gospels, and is open to many interpretations.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They - The Pharisees, to whom our Lord more immediately spake, as appears from the close of the foregoing chapter.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

6. This parable spake Jesus unto them. The Greek word rendered here “parable” is not so rendered elsewhere. It is rather a simile.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

6. παροιμίαν. Allegory or similitude. The Synoptists never use παροιμία; S. John never uses παραβολή; and this should be preserved in translation. A.V. renders both words sometimes ‘parable’ and sometimes ‘proverb.’ In LXX. both are used to represent the Hebrew mashal; in the title to the Book of Proverbs, Pro 1:1; Pro 25:1, παροιμίαι; elsewhere almost always παραβολή. The two words appear together in Sir 39:3; Sir 47:17. In A.V. we have ‘parable’ and ‘proverb’ indifferently for mashal. In N.T. παροιμία occurs only here, Joh 16:25; Joh 16:29, and 2Pe 2:22. It means something beside the way (οἷμος); hence, according to some, a trite ‘way-side saying;’ according to others, a figurative ‘out-of-the-way saying.’ For παραβολή see on Mar 4:2.

ἐκεῖνοι. The pronoun (Joh 7:45) separates them from the Teacher.

οὐκ ἔγνωσαν. Did not recognise the meaning. The idea that they were strangers, or even robbers, instead of shepherds to the sheep did not come home to them at all.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6.] παροιμία is not = παραβολή, as so generally set down. This is not properly a parable: but rather a parabolic allegory. The parable requires narrative to set it forth; and John relates no such. The right word for παροιμία would be allegory: etymologically it is, any saying diverging from the common way of speech (παρʼ οἶμον): cf. Meyer. We have other examples in ch. 15:1 ff. and in Mat 9:37, Mat 9:38.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6. ταύτην τὴν παροιμίαν εἶπ. κτλ. παροιμία occurs again in N.T. only in Joh 16:25, Joh 16:29 (as well as in 2Pe 2:22, where it introduces a quotation from Pro 26:11). On the other hand, παραβολή does not occur outside the Synoptists, except at Heb 9:9, Heb 11:19. In the LXX both words are used to translate מָשָׁל: in Eze 12:23, Eze 12:18:2, Eze 12:3, the LXX having παραβολή and Symmachus παροιμία. In Ecclus. 47:17 we find Solomon’s ᾠδαί and παροιμίαι and παραβολαί all mentioned together.

Etymologically παραβολή suggests the placing of one thing beside another (παραβάλλειν) or a comparison, while παροιμία is derived from παρʼ οἶμον, something said “by the way.” But the distinction sometimes put forward, that παραβολή always stands for a fictitious narrative, intended to instruct the hearer, as in the “parables” of Christ, while παροιμία is a “proverb,” a terse saying of wisdom, cannot be sustained. Thus in the passage now under consideration, παροιμία is the description of the allegory of the Shepherd and the Sheep, while at Luk 4:23 the proverbial taunt, “Physician, heal thyself,” is called a παραβολή (cf. Luk 5:36). And in Ezekiel παραβολή is sometimes descriptive of an allegory (17:2f.), and sometimes signifies a “proverb” (16:44, 18:2). Cf. Ecclus. 8:8, 39:3, for the παροιμίαι of the wise and their hidden meaning.

All that can be said about these two Greek words here is that Jn. uses παροιμία, while the Synoptists prefer παραβολή, both doubtless going back to the Hebrew מָשָׁל, a saying or discourse which, either from its terseness or its veiled significance, may need explanation before it can be fully understood.

This παροιμία of the Shepherd and the Sheep was addressed to the Jews (see v. 25): εἶπεν αὐτοῖς ὁ Ἰησοῦς. They, however (ἐκεῖνοι, for clearness as to the persons indicated; see on 1:8), did not understand its application; and accordingly Jesus proceeds to explain how it bears on what he had told them (v. 26). The idea of a shepherd as a spiritual leader was, of course, quite familiar to them (see on v. 26), as were also the ordinary habits of shepherds and sheep. But what they did not realise was the appositeness of the allegory in vv. 1-5, in relation to their question, “Art thou the Messiah?” (v. 24). In particular, what was the Door through which Jesus said the true shepherd must come?

Jesus is Not Only the Shepherd, He is the Door (vv. 7-10)

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Parable [παροιμιαν] . The word occurs but once outside of John's writings (2Pe 2:22). The usual word for parable is parabolh, which is once rendered proverb in the A. V. (Luk 4:23, changed to parable by Rev.), and which occurs nowhere in John. For the distinction see on Mt 13:3.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 6. “Jesus spoke this similitude to them; but they did not understand what that meant which he spoke to them.”

The word, παροιμία, similitude, properly designates a by-path, hence an enigmatical discourse. It is sometimes used in the translation of the LXX. to render maschal; it is taken in the sense of proverb in 2Pe 2:22. The idea of a comparison is not so expressly brought out in this term as in the term παραβολή (see Westcott). The forcible expression τίνα ἦν, what was, for what meant, is derived from the fact that the true essence of a word is its meaning. They did not understand; because it was morally impossible for them to apply to the Pharisees the figure of thieves and robbers.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.