John 10:9-10

10:9–10. Barrett (pp. 371–373) provides an impressive list of ‘gate’ expressions in Jewish, Christian and hellenistic sources. But the lavishness of the list defeats its purpose. All that is demonstrated is that ‘gate’ is a common metaphor in various religions. What significance it has in any particular passage must be determined by the contextual and conceptual parameters of the text at hand. Here, the idea is not that Jesus the shepherd draws out his own flock from a rather mixed fold (vv. 1–5), but that Jesus the gate is the sole means by which the sheep may enter the safety of the fold (v. 9a) or the luxurious forage of the pasture (v. 9b). The thought is akin to 14:6: ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me.’ While the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy, Jesus comes that they may have life, and have it to the full. This is a proverbial way of insisting that there is only one means of receiving eternal life (the Synoptics might have preferred to speak of entering the kingdom, although entering into life is also attested there), only one source of knowledge of God, only one fount of spiritual nourishment, only one basis for spiritual security—Jesus alone. The world still seeks its humanistic, political saviours—its Hitlers, its Stalins, its Maos, its Pol Pots—and only too late does it learn that they blatantly confiscate personal property (they come ‘only to steal’), ruthlessly trample human life under foot (they come ‘only … to kill’), and contemptuously savage all that is valuable (they come ‘only … to destroy’). ‘Jesus is right. It is not the Christian doctrine of heaven that is the myth, but the humanist dream of utopia.’

Within the metaphorical world, life … to the full suggests fat, contented, flourishing sheep, not terrorized by brigands; outside the narrative world, it means that the life Jesus’ true disciples enjoy is not to be construed as more time to fill (merely ‘everlasting’ life), but life at its scarcely imagined best, life to be lived. It is tempting to see here an allusion to Psalm 118:20 (This gate of the Lord, Into which the righteous shall enter.), ‘This is the gate of the Lord through which the righteous may enter.’ Certainly the subsequent verses (118:22–24) are happily applied to Christ elsewhere in the New Testament (Mt. 21:42; 2 Pet. 2:7).

“All who have come before me were thieves and robbers” (see commentary at 10:1 and at 10:10). The OT prophet Ezekiel refers to the “shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves” and “do not take care of the flock” (Ezek. 34:2–4 [see the entire chapter]). “All who have come before me” hints at impostors who promised their followers freedom but instead led them into armed conflict and doom (Meyer 1956). Jesus’ statement also may have more overtly political overtones, evoking reminiscences of then-recent events in Jewish history.

The spectrum of “thieves and robbers” may also encompass pseudoprophets such as the ones mentioned by Luke and Josephus (cf. Acts 5:36–37; 21:38; Ant. 20.5.1 §§97–98; 20.8.5 §§169–72; 20.8.10 §188; J.W. 7.11.1 §§437–40; see commentary at 7:12), the Zealots, and even the high-priestly circles that controlled Judaism in Jesus’ day. Sadducees in particular were known to use temple religion for their own profit, and elsewhere both the Pharisees (Luke 16:14) and the scribes (Mark 12:40) are denounced for their greed. Perhaps the closest connection in the present context is with the Pharisees, whose attitude toward the man born blind exemplifies a blatant usurpation of religious authority and a perversion of godly leadership (cf. John 9).

Acts 5:36-37, “36 For before these days rose up Theudas, boasting himself to be somebody; to whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves: who was slain; and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered, and brought to nought. 37 After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him: he also perished; and all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed.”

Acts 21:38, “38 Art not thou that Egyptian, which before these days madest an uproar, and leddest out into the wilderness four thousand men that were murderers?”