Johnchapter 10
42 verses · John, by tradition · AD 85 to 95 · The Gospels
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.
Introduction
John, by tradition, The Gospels, John Overview.
John wrote this chapter for readers who belonged to a flock of mixed origins and who needed to know who their true shepherd is. It follows straight on from the healing of the blind man and the leaders who had cast him out. Its pictures come from the daily work of shepherds and folds in the hill country. Listen for the contrast between the shepherd and the thief, the stranger and the hired hand. Notice the jump in time at the feast in winter, when the same argument returns in plainer words. Read it with Ezekiel 34 open beside it.
Context
- Who
- Readers who had watched shepherds work and knew what a hired hand was worth
- What
- Jesus' teaching on the sheepfold, the door and the good shepherd, and the debate at the Feast of Dedication over His claim to be one with the Father.
- Where
- Jerusalem, then Solomon's Colonnade in the temple, and at the end the far side of the Jordan where John had baptized.
- When
- From the autumn after Tabernacles to the Feast of Dedication in winter, about AD 29.
- Why
- To show Jesus as the true shepherd of God's people, who gives His life for the sheep and keeps them safe.
Historical context
Every detail of the shepherd picture is working practice. Village flocks were penned overnight in a common walled fold with a single opening and a doorkeeper; in the open country a shepherd slept across the gap himself, which is why Jesus can call himself both the shepherd and the door. Several flocks shared a fold, and each shepherd separated his own in the morning by calling, the sheep genuinely learned one voice. And Middle Eastern shepherds lead from the front rather than driving from behind.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
The hired hand is not a slur but a job description. A man working someone else's flock for a wage had no stake in the animals, and no wage was worth being mauled for. Wolves in that country hunted at dusk and scattered a flock before taking one.
The feast named is Dedication, Hanukkah, and the date it commemorates is why the question asked there is loaded. It marked the cleansing and rededication of the temple after Antiochus IV desecrated it in the second century BC, and the Maccabean fighters who won that freedom were the last men to be hailed as deliverers of the nation. Asking, at that feast, how long will you keep us in suspense, tell us plainly if you are the Messiah, was asking whether he intended to do it again.
Solomon's Colonnade ran along the eastern edge of the temple platform, a long covered walkway with a roof and columns. John says it was winter, the colonnade was the sheltered side, out of the wind coming up from the Judean hills, and the natural place to stand and talk in December.
Significance
The claim that would have stopped every conversation is that the shepherd lays down his life for the sheep, which no shepherd does, since a dead shepherd cannot protect anything. It only makes sense if the dying is the protecting.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The other sheep, not of this fold, that must also be brought, so there will be one flock and one shepherd, told mixed congregations exactly where they came from. And the sentence that triggered the stones was, I and the Father are one, with the hearers' own explanation attached: because you, being a man, make yourself God.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The Sheepfold, the Door, and the Voice They Know
John 10:1-3
climbs in some other way: The figure follows chapter 9 with no change of scene. The leaders had climbed into the fold another way, taking charge of God's flock while passing the gate. Lightfoot describes several flocks penned together overnight, each shepherd calling his own sheep out by name.
John 10:1
“He enters not by the door, as having no lawful cause of entry, but climbs up some other way, at a window, or some breach in the wall. How industrious are wicked people to do mischief!”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
John 10:1
“The chapter we have now begun is closely connected with the preceding one. The parable before us was spoken with direct reference to the blind teachers of the Jewish Church. The Scribes and Pharisees were the people our Lord had in view, when He described the false shepherd. The very men who had just said "We see," were denounced with holy boldness, as "thieves and robbers." We have, for one thing, in these verses, a vivid picture of a false teacher of religion.”
John 10:1
“Verily, verily - See the notes at Joh 3:3. I say unto you - Some have supposed that what follows here was delivered on some other occasion than the one mentioned in the last chapter; but the expression verily, verily, is one which is not used at the commencement of a discourse, and the discourse itself seems to be a continuation of what was said before. The Pharisees professed to be the guides or shepherds of the people.”
the one who enters by the gate: The shepherd is known first by how he comes in. Adam Clarke makes this the first mark of a true pastor, a lawful entrance by the inward call of Christ, sought for His glory. Bonaventure reads the gate as truth.
John 10:2
“He that entereth in by the door - Observe here the marks, qualities, and duties of a good pastor; The first mark is, that he has a lawful entrance into the ministry by the internal call of Christ, namely, by an impulse proceeding from his Spirit, upon considerations which respect only his glory, and upon motives which aim at nothing but the good of his Church, the salvation of souls, the doing the will of God, and the sacrificing himself entirely to his service, and to that of the meanest of his flock.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The gatekeeper opens the gate for him: Albert Barnes explains the gatekeeper as a man wealthier owners hired to keep the fold, and notes how readily a flock knows its shepherd's voice. Gregory of Nazianzus applies the figure to his own church. His sheep follow a voice they love to hear.
John 10:3
“These I call by name … and they follow me, for I herd them up beside the waters of rest. They follow every shepherd whose voice they love to hear.… But they will not follow a stranger. Instead, they will flee from him because they have a habit of distinguishing the voice of their own from that of strangers.”
Gregory of Nazianzus · written before 390 · Against the Arians and on Himself, Oration 33.16patristic
1 more voice on this verse
John 10:3
“To him the porter openeth - The porter is the doorkeeper. It seems that the more wealthy Jews who owned flocks employed some person to take charge of the flock. At first all shepherds attended their flocks personally by day and by night, and this continued to be commonly the practice, but not always. The sheep hear his voice - The voice of the shepherd. A flock will readily discern the well-known voice of one who is accustomed to attend them.”
John 10:4-5
he goes on ahead of them: The shepherd walks in front and the flock comes after him, held by a voice it knows. He brings out all his own before he goes ahead, so none is left in the fold. A stranger's voice sends the sheep away.
John 10:4
“And when He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before them, He leadeth them out from the darkness of ignorance into light, while He goeth before in the pillar of cloud, and fire.”
Glossa Ordinaria · written before 1274 · Catena Aurea by Aquinaspatristic
1 more voice on this verse
John 10:4
“He goeth before them - A sixth mark of a true pastor is, he gives them a good example: he not only preaches, but he lives, the truth of the Gospel; he enters into the depths of the salvation of God; and, having thus explored the path, he knows how to lead those who are entrusted to his care into the fullness of the blessings of the Gospel of peace.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
they will never follow a stranger: Theophylact of Ohrid thinks Jesus hints at Theudas and Judas, whom few followed and who fell away after their deaths. Albert Barnes reads the stranger as the proud and self-seeking teacher, such as the Pharisees had shown themselves. The man healed in chapter 9 had just refused their voice.
John 10:5
“And a stranger will they not follow,.... One that knows not Christ, is not sent by him, and who does not preach him: but will flee from him; shun him and his ministry, as not only disagreeable, but dangerous: for they know not the voice of strangers: they do not approve of their doctrine, nor take any delight in it, or receive any profit from it. The Persic version, as before, reads, "neither will the lambs ever go after strange sheep, and if they see them, they will flee from them".”
using this illustration: The Greek word here is paroimia, a proverb or a veiled saying, and John uses it where the other Gospels use parabole. The hearers miss it. Jesus opens the figure in two stages, the gate first and then the shepherd.
John 10:6
“Simple is the language of the saints, and far removed from the elaborateness of the Greeks: for God chose the foolish things of the world, according to the word of Paul, that He might put to shame them that are wise. He used therefore the name of proverb, for thus he designates the parable, perhaps because the distinction of the two words was always somewhat confused, and the signification is understood equally well whether both or either be used. Yet this we do say, that the inspired Evangelist marvels much at the Jews' want of understanding.”
Cyril of Alexandria · written before 444 · Commentary on the Gospel of John, Book 6patristic
I Am the Good Shepherd Who Lays Down His Life
John 10:7-8
I am the gate for the sheep: The figure turns, and the one who entered by the gate now is the gate itself. The thieves and robbers are the false messiahs and the self-appointed leaders, whose voice the flock had already refused. Jesus names Himself here for the third time in John.
John 10:7
“I am the door - I am the way by which ministers and people enter the true church. It is by his merits, his intercession, his aid, and his appointment that they enter. Of the sheep - Of the church.”
All who came before Me: Readers limit All who came before Me differently. Adam Clarke notes a rendering, those who came in His place, and names false messiahs such as Theudas and Judas from Acts 5:36 and 37. John Wesley thinks Jesus meant those who took the shepherd's office after His ministry began.
John 10:8
“Our Lord seems in particular to speak of those that had undertaken this office since he began his ministry, are thieves -Stealing temporal profit to themselves, and robbers - Plundering and murdering the sheep.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
John 10:8
“All that ever came before me - Or, as some translate, all that came instead of me, προ εμου, i.e. all that came as the Christ, or Messiah, such as Theudas, and Judas the Gaulonite, who are mentioned, Act 5:36, Act 5:37; and who were indeed no other than thieves, plundering the country wherever they came; and murderers, not only slaying the simple people who resisted them, but leading the multitudes of their followers to the slaughter.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
John 10:9-10
come in and go out and find pasture: Coming in and going out is the daily round of a flock, the fold at night and the pasture by day. Numbers 27:17 asks a shepherd to give Israel this life. Against the thief stands a life given in all its fullness, perissos in the Greek, over the ordinary measure.
John 10:9
“By faith in him, as the great Mediator between God and man, we come into covenant and communion with God. There is no entering into God's church but by coming into Christ's church; nor are any looked upon as members of the kingdom of God among men but those that are willing to submit to the grace and government of the Redeemer.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
3 more voices on this verse
John 10:9
“He is the Way, because he leads us through himself. He is the Door who lets us in, the Shepherd who makes us dwell in green pastures, bringing us up by waters of rest and leading us there. He protects us from wild beasts, converts the erring, brings back what was lost and binds up what was broken. He guards the strong and brings them together into the fold beyond with words of pastoral knowledge.”
Gregory of Nazianzus · written before 390 · On the Son, Theological Oration 4(30).21patristic
John 10:9
By me - By my instruction and merits. Shall be saved - See Joh 5:24. Shall go in and out ... - This is language applied, commonly to flocks. It meant that he shall be well supplied, and defended, and led “beside the still waters of salvation.”
John 10:9
“Jesus crucified is the door. Jesus resurrected is the shepherd. But if you want the resurrected Christ as your shepherd, you have to come by the crucified Christ, who is the door. Only those who come by the crucified Christ have the resurrected Christ as their shepherd.”
Derek Prince · The Door and the Shepherd (devotional)Pentecostal-Charismatic
ConnectionsGenesis 7:16
I have come that they may have life: Matthew Henry sets the life Jesus came to give in all its fullness against the death threatened at Genesis 2:17. It is life as a condemned man has it when pardoned, and a dead man when raised.
John 10:10
“But for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy - Those who enter into the priesthood that they may enjoy the revenues of the Church, are the basest and vilest of thieves and murderers. Their ungodly conduct is a snare to the simple, and the occasion of much scandal to the cause of Christ. Their doctrine is deadly; they are not commissioned by Christ, and therefore they cannot profit the people. Their character is well pointed out by the Prophet Ezekiel, Eze 34:2, etc. Wo be to the shepherds of Israel, that do feed themselves!”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
John 10:10
“He came to give life to particular believers. Life is inclusive of all good, and stands in opposition to the death threatened ( Gen. ii. 17 ); that we might have life, as a criminal has when he is pardoned, as a sick man when he is cured, a dead man when he is raised; that we might be justified, sanctified, and at last glorified.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
John 10:10
“I am come that they might have life, and . . . more abundantly--not merely to preserve but impart LIFE, and communicate it in rich and unfailing exuberance. Yet it is only an echo of all His teaching; and He who uttered these and like words must be either a blasphemer, all worthy of the death He died, or "God with us"--there can be no middle course.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
John 10:11-13
lays down His life for the sheep: The word for good here is kalos, a shepherd noble and fine to look at, beyond merely upright. The hired hand works for a wage, so he runs when the wolf comes and the flock scatters. Ezekiel 34 has the LORD shepherding the flock Himself.
John 10:11
“Will you think less of him … because to seek for what had wandered, the good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep came on the mountains and hills on which you used to sacrifice and found the wanderer. And having found it, he took it upon his shoulders, on which he also bore the wood. And having borne the wandering sheep, he brought it back to the life above. And having brought it back, he numbered it among those who have never strayed.”
Gregory of Nazianzus · written before 390 · On Holy Easter, Oration 45.26patristic
1 more voice on this verse
John 10:11
“He has all that care of his church, and every believer, that a good shepherd has of his flock; and expects all that attendance and observance from the church, and every believer, which the shepherds in those countries had from their flocks. (1.) Christ is a shepherd, and not as the thief, not as those that came not in by the door.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
ConnectionsEzekiel 34:11, Psalms 23:1
The hired hand is not the shepherd: John Wesley draws the line carefully: pay alone makes no man a hireling, since Scripture allows the worker his wage. The hireling loves the wage more than the work. Adam Clarke refuses to fix the charge on any one party, and says the danger grows where the provision is greatest.
John 10:12
“But he that is a hireling - Or, as my old MS. Bible reads it, the marchaunt, he who makes merchandise of men’s souls; bartering them, and his own too, for filthy lucre. Let not the reader apply this, or any of the preceding censures, to any particular class or order of men: every religious party may have a hireling priest, or minister; and where the provision is the greatest there the danger is most.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
John 10:12
“But the hireling - It is not the bare receiving hire, which denominates a man a hireling: (for the labourer is worthy of his hire; Jesus Christ himself being the Judge: yea, and the Lord hath ordained, that they who preach the Gospel, should live of the Gospel:) but the loving hire: the loving the hire more than the work: the working for the sake of the hire.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
is unconcerned for the sheep: The verse gives the reason behind the flight. Gregory the Dialogist says a man who loves gain and honour more than the sheep trembles to face danger, lest he lose what he loves. John Gill adds ownership: a man with a stake in the flock would stay and defend it.
John 10:13
“Hence it is soon added: "But the hireling flees, because he is a hireling, and the sheep do not pertain to him." For the sole reason why the hireling flees is because he is a hireling. As if it were said openly: He who in presiding over the sheep does not love the sheep but seeks earthly gain cannot stand firm in danger to the sheep. For while he embraces honor, while he rejoices in temporal advantages, he trembles to oppose himself against danger, lest he lose what he loves.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 14patristic
1 more voice on this verse
John 10:13
“The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling,.... And has no propriety in the sheep; had he, he would abide by them, and defend them; but because he has not, he will not expose himself to any danger, but leaves them: and careth not for the sheep; what becomes of them, providing only for his own safety.”
John 10:14-15
I know My sheep: The knowing runs both ways, the shepherd knowing His sheep and the sheep knowing Him. Verse 15 sets that knowing beside the Father and the Son, who know each other. Then comes the life laid down for the sheep.
John 10:14
“I - know my sheep - I know, τα εμα, them that are mine: I know their hearts, their wishes, their purposes, their circumstances; and I approve of them; for in this sense the word to know is often taken in the Scriptures. Homer represents the goatherds as being so well acquainted with their own, though mixed with others, as easily to distinguish them. Τους δ’, ὡς’ αιπολια πλατε’ αιγων αιπολοι ανδρες Ῥεια διακρινεωσιν, επει κε νομῳ μιγεωσιν. Iliad.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
John 10:14
“As the passage stands in the Authorized Version, it reads like a number of short sentences with scarcely any apparent connection. Even in that form it is precious, for our Lord's pearls are priceless even when they are not threaded together. But when I tell you that in the Greek the word, "and," is repeated several times and that the translators have had to leave out one of these, "ands," to make sense of the passage on their line of translation, you will judge that they are none too accurate in this case.”
I lay down My life for the sheep: Matthew Henry reads for the sheep as in their place, a reverse of the old sacrifices in which sheep died for their shepherds. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown find in the phrase a special relation between Christ's death and the Church. Wesley hears a present tense: His life went toward death.
John 10:15
“As the Father knoweth me ... - See the Mat 11:27 note; also Luk 10:22 note. I lay down my life for the sheep - That is, I give my life as an atoning sacrifice for their sins. I die in their place, to redeem them from sin, and danger, and death. See Joh 10:17-18.”
3 more voices on this verse
John 10:15
“As the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father - With such a knowledge as implies an inexpressible union: and I lay down my life - Speaking of the present time. For his whole life was only a going unto death.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
John 10:15
“Sheep appointed for the slaughter, ready to be sacrificed, were ransomed with the blood of the shepherd. He laid down his life, hyper ton probaton , not only for the good of the sheep, but in their stead. Thousands of sheep had been offered in sacrifice for their shepherds, as sin-offerings, but here, by a surprising reverse, the shepherd is sacrificed for the sheep.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
John 10:15
“It is the riches and the poverty of "the Word made flesh"--one glorious Person reaching at once up to the Throne and down even to the dust of death, "that we might live through Him." A candid interpretation of the words, "for the sheep," ought to go far to establish the special relation of the vicarious death of Christ to the Church.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
one flock and one shepherd: The other sheep are the Gentiles still to be gathered, and they listen to the same voice. Two Greek words stand here, aule for the fold and poimne for the flock, a difference Westcott draws out. Acts 10 shows it begin at Cornelius's house.
John 10:16
“I have also other sheep - Which he foreknew; which are not of this fold - Not of the Jewish Church or nation, but Gentiles. I must bring them likewise - Into my Church, the general assembly of those whose names are written in heaven.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
John 10:17-18
I lay down My life: The death and the rising stand as one act, laid down in order to be taken up. The Greek word for authority stands twice in verse 18, once over the laying down and once over the taking up. The charge came from the Father.
John 10:17
“Therefore doth my Father love me, that is, me, and all that by faith become one with me; me, and the mystical body, because I lay down my life. [ b. ] That his laying down his life was in order to his resuming it: I lay down my life, that I may receive it again. First, This was the effect of his Father's love, and the first step of his exaltation, the fruit of that love.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 more voices on this verse
John 10:17
“If we see ourselves in our own child, we are drawn to an intensity of love whenever we see that child. In the same way, I think God the Father is said to love his own Son, who lays down his own life for us and takes it again. For it is a work of love to have chosen to suffer—and to suffer shamefully—for the salvation of some.”
Cyril of Alexandria · written before 444 · Commentary on the Gospel of John, Book 6patristic
John 10:17
“I lay down my life that I may take it again - I cheerfully die to expiate the sins of men, to the end I may rise again for their justification.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
No one takes it from Me: Athanasius explains the authority. Men die by necessity and against their will, and the Word had power as God to leave the body and take it up again.
John 10:18
“He chiefly spoke of the Father, before his suffering: of his own glory, after it. Our Lord's receiving this commission as mediator is not to be considered as the ground of his power to lay down and resume his life. For this he had in himself, as having an original right to dispose thereof, antecedent to the Father's commission.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
John 10:18
“To be troubled was proper to the flesh, and to have power to lay down his life and take it again when he wanted was no property of people but of the Word's power. For human beings die not by their own power but by necessity of nature and against their will. But the Lord, being himself immortal but having mortal flesh, had power as God to become separate from the body and to take it again when he wanted to.”
Athanasius of Alexandria · written before 373 · Discourses Against the Arians 3.29.57patristic
John 10:18
“Here lay the glory of His sacrifice, that it was purely voluntary. The claim of "power to take it again" is no less important, as showing that His resurrection, though ascribed to the Father, in the sense we shall presently see, was nevertheless His own assertion of His own right to life as soon as the purposes of His voluntary death were accomplished.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
John 10:19-21
division among the Jews: The hearers split again, as they had at 7:43 and 9:16. One side calls Him demon-possessed and insane, a charge already made at 7:20 and 8:48. The other side answers from the opened eyes of the blind man.
John 10:19
“There was a division therefore again among the Jews,.... As there had been before; see Joh 7:12. For these sayings; concerning his being the good shepherd, and laying down his life for the sheep, and having both a power to lay it down, and take it up again.”
3 more voices on this verse
John 10:19
“There was a division . . . again among the Jews for these sayings--the light and the darkness revealing themselves with increasing clearness in the separation of the teachable from the obstinately prejudiced.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
John 10:19
“There was a division - Σχισμα, a schism, a rent. They were divided in their opinions; one part received the light, and the other resisted it. Again - There was a dissension of this kind before among the same people; see Joh 9:16.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
John 10:19
“Rents are sooner made than made up or mended. This division was occasioned by the sayings of Christ, which, one would think, should rather have united them all in him as their centre; but they set them at variance, as Christ foresaw, Luke xii. But it is better that men should be divided about the doctrine of Christ than united in the service of sin, Luke xi.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Adam Clarke notes the charge names two things, a demon and madness, and argues against those who take having a demon to mean only derangement. Bonaventure places the accusers among those Paul describes at 1 Corinthians 2:14. They could not perceive the things of God.
John 10:20
“He hath a devil, and is mad - So, then, a demoniac and a madman were not exactly the same in the apprehension of the Jews; no more than the effect is the same with the cause which produces it. Some will have it that, when the Jews told our Lord that he had a demon, they meant no more than that he was deranged; but here these matters are evidently distinguished.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
John Wesley notes that the Greek word for words also takes in deeds, so the reply weighs the whole man. The question looks back to the blind man of chapter 9. Albert Barnes lays the division at the door of unbelief and the passions of men.
John 10:21
“Not the words ... - His words are sober, grave, pious, full of wisdom. The preaching of Jesus always produced effect. It made bitter enemies or decided friends. So will all faithful preaching. It is not the fault of the gospel that there are divisions, but of the unbelief and mad passions of men.”
1 more voice on this verse
John 10:21
“These are not the words - The word in the original takes in actions too.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
At the Feast of Dedication: I and the Father Are One
John 10:22-23
the Feast of Dedication: is Hanukkah, kept from 164 BC for the cleansing of the temple after Antiochus Epiphanes defiled it. The Law of Moses commands no such feast, and Jesus keeps it in the temple courts. It was winter, which explains the roofed walk of Solomon's Colonnade.
John 10:22
“The feast of the dedication - This was a feast instituted by Judas Maccabeus, in commemoration of his purifying the temple after it had been defiled by Antiochus Epiphanes. This feast began on the twenty-fifth of the month Cisleu, (which answers to the eighteenth of our December), and continued for eight days.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
John 10:22
“It was the feast of the dedication - Instituted by Judas Maccabeus, 1 Macc. iv, 59, when he purged and dedicated the altar and temple after they had been polluted. So our Lord observed festivals even of human appointment. Is it not, at least, innocent for us to do the same?”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
in Solomon’s Colonnade: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown place the colonnade on the east side of the temple. John Wesley reports Josephus: Solomon filled part of the valley and raised a portico over it on a wall four hundred cubits high. It stood until after the death of Christ.
John 10:23
“It is called Solomon's porch, because Solomon went to pray there. The porches of a temple are usually named after the temple. If the Son of God walked in a temple where the flesh of brute animals was offered up, how much more will He delight to visit our house of prayer, in which His own flesh and blood are consecrated?”
Alcuin of York · written before 804 · Catena Aurea by Aquinaspatristic
1 more voice on this verse
John 10:23
“In Solomon's portico - Josephus informs us, that when Solomon built the temple, he filled up a part of the adjacent valley, and built a portico over it toward the east. This was a noble structure, supported by a wall four hundred cubits high: and continued even to the time of Albinus and Agrippa, which was several years after the death of Christ.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
If You are the Christ: The Jews gather around Him in the colonnade and demand a plain word: if You are the Christ, say so. The Greek idiom behind the question is to lift up the soul, to hold a man in suspense. A bare claim to Christ would carry a political rising.
John 10:24
For it may be observed as a trait of the character of Jesus, that He on all occasions avoided unnecessary talk about Himself; and on that account said, "If I speak of Myself, My witness is not true." And since He avoided unnecessary talk about Himself, and preferred to show by acts rather than words that He was the Christ, the Jews for that reason said to Him, "If Thou art the Christ, tell us plainly."
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · Against Celsus 1.48patristic
2 more voices on this verse
John 10:24
“How long dost than make us to doubt? - Or, How long dost thou kill us with suspense? Ἑως ποτε την ψυχην ἡμων αιρεις, literally, How long wilt thou take away our life? Mr. Markland would read αιωρεις for αιρεις, which amounts nearly to the same sense with the above.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
John 10:24
“The struggle was between their convictions, which told them he was Christ, and their corruptions, which said, No, because he was not such a Christ as they expected.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
John 10:25-26
The works I do in My Father’s name: The telling has already happened, and the works done in His Father's name carry the testimony. Verse 26 puts the belonging first: they refuse to believe because they are not of His sheep. The obstacle named is the will.
John 10:25
“I told you - It is not recorded that Jesus had told them in so many words that he was the Christ, but he had used expressions designed to convey the same truth, and which many of them understood as claiming to be the Messiah. See Joh 5:19; Joh 8:36, Joh 8:56; Joh 10:1. The expression “the Son of God” they understood to be equivalent to the Messiah. This he had often used of himself in a sense not to be mistaken.”
1 more voice on this verse
John 10:25
“Even Christ therefore considered it superfluous to say the same things over again to those who had often heard them and had not been persuaded by them. For every one's nature ought to be estimated from the quality of his works, and we ought by no means to look [solely] at his words.”
Cyril of Alexandria · written before 444 · Commentary on the Gospel of John, Book 7patristic
because you are not My sheep: Readers divide on what makes a man one of the sheep. John Gill reads it as the Father's gift and election, citing John 6:37 and Acts 13:48. Adam Clarke reads it as a disposition, the readiness of those who come to be taught.
John 10:26
“But ye believe not,.... In me, as the Messiah: because ye are not of my sheep; they were not among the sheep given him by his Father, were they, they would have come to him; that is, have believed in him, according to Joh 6:37, they were not the chosen of God, predestinated unto eternal life; for as many as are ordained of God to eternal happiness, do believe in God's own time, Act 13:48; but these not being the elect of God, had not the faith of God's elect.”
2 more voices on this verse
John 10:26
“Ye are not of my sheep - Ye have not the disposition of those who come unto me to be instructed and saved: see what follows.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
John 10:26
“The Pharisees supported themselves in their opposition to Christ with this principle, that they were the pastors of the church, and that Jesus, having no commission from them, was an intruder and an impostor, and therefore the people were bound in duty to stick to then, against him.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
John 10:27-29
My sheep listen to My voice: Three things mark the flock: it listens, it is known, it follows. The gift is eternal life, and no one can snatch the sheep out of the hand that holds them. Two hands close over them, the Son's and the Father's.
John 10:27
“A willing readiness to obey characterises the sheep of Christ, as disobedience marks those that are not His. For thus we understand the word "hear," as equivalent to "obey," namely, the words that are spoken: and they who thus hear God are known by Him, and "known" signifies "brought into friendly relationship:" for no one is altogether unknown by God. When therefore He saith: I know Mine, He saith this: "I will receive them and bring them into friendly relationship both mystically and firmly.”
Cyril of Alexandria · written before 444 · Commentary on the Gospel of John, Book 7patristic
1 more voice on this verse
John 10:27
“CHRISTIANS ARE HERE compared to sheep. Not a very flattering comparison you may say; but then we do not wish to be flattered, nor would our Lord deem it good to flatter us, While far from flattering, it is, however, eminently consoling, for of all creatures there are not any more compassed about with infirmity than sheep. In this frailty of their nature they are a fit emblem of ourselves; at least, of so many of us as have believed in Jesus and become his disciples.”
I give them eternal life: The verb give is present, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown observe: the eternal life is already given. Adam Clarke ties they will never perish to those who keep listening to His voice and following. Charles Spurgeon teaches that continuing in the faith is the proof of belonging to Christ.
John 10:28
“I give unto them eternal life--not "will give them"; for it is a present gift. It is a very grand utterance, couched in the language of majestic authority.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
John 10:28
SOME will say that this is a mixed congregation and that such a doctrine as this should not be advanced in the presence of ungodly men and women. This shows how little such objectors read their Bible, for this very text was spoken by the Savior, not to His loving disciples but to His enemies! Read the thirty-first verse of the chapter, and you will see the temper of the congregation to whom Jesus Christ preached upon this subject—"Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him."
is greater than all: Cyril of Alexandria notes that the hand in Scripture signifies power. Albert Barnes reads greater than all as greater than men, angels and devils, everything that could try to take the sheep away. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown rest the believer's safety on the power of God, above his own fidelity.
John 10:29
“The faithful also have the succour of Christ, the devil not being able to snatch them; and they who have an endless enjoyment of good things, remain in it, no one henceforth snatching them away from the bliss that is given to them into punishment or torments. For it is not possible that they who are in Christ's hand should be snatched away to be punished, because of Christ's great might; for "the hand," in the Divine Scripture, signifies "the power:" it cannot be doubted therefore that the hand of Christ is unconquerable and mighty to all things.”
Cyril of Alexandria · written before 444 · Commentary on the Gospel of John, Book 7patristic
1 more voice on this verse
John 10:29
“It is a general expression of an admitted truth, and what follows shows for what purpose it was uttered, "and none is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand." The impossibility of true believers being lost, in the midst of all the temptations which they may encounter, does not consist in their fidelity and decision, but is founded upon the power of God.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
One here is hen in Greek, the neuter form, which names one thing the Father and the Son hold together. The two hands of verses 28 and 29 stand behind the claim, the Son's hold and the Father's being one hold. The Jews answer with stones.
John 10:30
Our Savior and Lord in his relation to the Father and God of the universe is not one flesh or one spirit but something higher than flesh and spirit, namely, one God. The appropriate word when human beings are joined to one another is flesh. The appropriate word when a righteous person is joined to Christ is spirit. But the word when Christ is united to the Father is not flesh or spirit but more honorable than these—God. This then is the sense in which we should understand "I and the Father are one."
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · Dialogue with Heraclides 3-4patristic
3 more voices on this verse
John 10:30
“I and my Father are one - If Jesus Christ were not God, could he have said these words without being guilty of blasphemy?”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
John 10:30
“I and the Father are one - Not by consent of will only, but by unity of power, and consequently of nature. Are - This word confutes Sabellius, proving the plurality of persons: one - This word confutes Arius, proving the unity of nature in God.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
John 10:30
“I and my Father are one--Our language admits not of the precision of the original in this great saying. "Are" is in the masculine gender--"we (two persons) are"; while "one" is neuter--"one thing." Perhaps "one interest" expresses, as nearly as may be, the purport of the saying.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Stones Taken Up; He Withdraws Beyond Jordan
John 10:31-32
picked up stones to stone Him: This is the second stoning John records, after 8:59. The reach for stones is how they heard the claim of verse 30. Jesus answers with a question about the good works shown from the Father, asking which of them earns the stones.
John 10:31
“We should observe, in these verses, the extreme wickedness of human nature. The unbelieving Jews at Jerusalem was neither moved by our Lord's miracles, nor by His preaching. They were determined not to receive Him as their Messiah. Once more it is written that "they took up stones to stone Him." Our Lord had done the Jews no injury. He was no robber, murderer, or rebel against the law of the land. He was one whose whole life was love, and who "went about doing good." (Acts 10:38.) There was no fault or inconsistency in His character.”
2 more voices on this verse
John 10:31
“For not refraining themselves from Him, when He said that Himself was One with the Father, they rush to kill Him; although each of the works wrought by Him proclaimed that He was in His Nature God. And not only now, but on other occasions also when they took up stones to kill Him, they stood motionless through the power of Christ; so that it became evident from this also, that He would not suffer except He was willing.”
Cyril of Alexandria · written before 444 · Commentary on the Gospel of John, Book 7 (Fragments)patristic
John 10:31
“The Jews took up stones - Stoning was the punishment of a blasphemer, Lev 24:14-16. They considered him guilty of blasphemy because he made himself equal with God, Joh 10:33. Again - They had before plotted against his life Joh 5:16, Joh 5:18, and once at least they had taken up stones to destroy him, Joh 8:59.”
many good works from the Father: Adam Clarke reads I have shown you many good works as a Hebrew idiom for doing good freely. He lists them: the sick healed, the possessed set free, the poor fed. From the Father answers the charge of seizing divine rights.
John 10:32
“Many good works have I showed you - I have healed your sick, delivered those of you who were possessed from the power of demons; I have fed multitudes of your poor, and I have taught you in all places, at all times, without expense, with patience; and is this my reward? To show good works or good things is a Hebraism, which signifies to do them really, to give good things liberally. The phrase is similar to the following: Who will Show us any good? Psa 4:6; i.e. who shall give us good things.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
John 10:32
This He says to meet the imputation of unwarrantable assumption of the divine prerogatives [LUTHARDT]. for which of those works do ye stone me?--"are ye stoning (that is, going to stone) me?"
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The charge comes back plainly: blasphemy, a man declaring Himself to be God. Leviticus 24:16 set stoning as the penalty for blaspheming the Name, so the stones match the charge. The stones are for the words, and the works stand.
John 10:33
“But this also we must understand, in opposition to the Arians, that in His saying: I and the Father are One, there is signified, not the proof of sameness of will, but the Oneness of their Essence. For indeed the Jews understood that in saying this, He said that Himself was God and equal to the Father; and Christ did not deny that He had said this as they understood it.”
Cyril of Alexandria · written before 444 · Commentary on the Gospel of John, Book 7patristic
1 more voice on this verse
John 10:33
“For blasphemy - See the notes at Mat 9:3. Makest thyself God - See the notes at Joh 5:18. This shows how they understood what he had said. Makest thyself - Dost claim to be God, or thy language implies this.”
John 10:34-36
The quotation is Psalm 82:6, where Israel's judges are called elohim as men holding an authority given them by God. The argument runs from lesser to greater: if that word stood over judges, the One the Father sanctified and sent speaks within His right.
John 10:34
“I said, Ye are gods, ... Since therefore the Father called certain men gods, and of necessity the honourable name was something external, super-added to them, for He Who is God by Nature is One only; lest Jesus also should be deemed to be one |104 of that class----clothed in the glory of the Godhead, not as essentially His own, but rather as something external, super-added to Himself, in the same way as was the case with those others----He as a matter of necessity clearly distinguishes Himself from them.”
Cyril of Alexandria · written before 444 · Commentary on the Gospel of John, Book 7 (Fragments)patristic
3 more voices on this verse
John 10:34
“Is it not written in your law - The words which our Lord quotes are taken from Psa 82:6, which shows that, under the word law, our Lord comprised the Jewish sacred writings in general. See also Joh 12:34; Joh 15:25. Ye are gods? - That is, judges, who are called אלהים elohim. That judges are here meant appears from Psa 82:2, etc., and also from what follows here. And this is probably the only place where the word אלהים is applied to any but the true God. See Parkhurst under the root אלה.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
John 10:34
“If he (God) called them gods unto whom the word of God came, (that is, to whom God was then speaking,) and the Scripture cannot be broken - That is, nothing which is written therein can be censured or rejected.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
John 10:34
“It is never said of Christ that "the word of the Lord came to Him"; whereas this is the well-known formula by which the divine commission, even to the highest of mere men, is expressed, as John the Baptist (Lu 3:2).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Cross references
John 10:34
- QuotingPsalms 82:6“I have said, ‘You are gods; you are all sons of the Most High.’”
'I said, Ye are gods' ('is it not written in your law')
Bishop Pearce, cited by Adam Clarke, takes the word of God as the charge of judgment, comparing Jehoshaphat's judges at 2 Chronicles 19:6. Athanasius draws the contrast. Men were called gods by a word given to them, and the Son was God before He became man.
John 10:35
“Christ was not man [first], and then became God. Rather, he was [first] God, and then he became man, and that to deify us. When he became man, he was called Son and God, but before he became man, God had called the ancient people sons. In fact, he made Moses a god to Pharaoh, and Scripture says of many, "God stands in the congregation of gods." Since this is so, it is plain that he is called Son and God later than they are. How then are all things through him, and how is he before everything?”
Athanasius of Alexandria · written before 373 · Discourses Against the Arians 1.11.39patristic
1 more voice on this verse
John 10:35
“Unto whom the word of God came - Bishop Pearce thinks that “the word λογος, here, is put for λογος κρισεως, the word or matter of judgment, as in 2Ch 19:6, where Jehoshaphat, setting up judges in the land of Judah, says: Take heed what ye do: judge not for men, but for the Lord, who is with you in judgment - λογοι της κρισεως, in the words or matters of judgment, - Sept., which is nearly according to the Hebrew to בדבר משפט bedebar mishpat, in the word or matter of judgment.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the One whom the Father sanctified and sent: John Wesley notes the order: the Father sanctified the Son before He sent Him. This holiness belongs to His being and places Him far above the judges of the psalm. Cyril of Alexandria answers the objection that being sent makes the Son inferior to the Father.
John 10:36
“Say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world - This sanctification (whereby he is essentially the Holy One of God) is mentioned as prior to his mission, and together with it implies, Christ was God in the highest sense, infinitely superior to that wherein those Judges were so called.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
John 10:36
“But perhaps when the Divine Scripture saith that the Son was sent from the Father, the heretic straightway deems the expression a support to his own error, and will say in all probability: "Ye who refuse to speak of the Son as inferior to the Father, do ye not see that He was sent from Him, as from a superior and a greater one?" What then shall we say?”
Cyril of Alexandria · written before 444 · Commentary on the Gospel of John, Book 7 (Fragments)patristic
John 10:37-38
the works of My Father: Jesus puts the works forward as the test. Where the person is refused, the works themselves are still offered as the way in, so a man may begin there. The aim is the Father in the Son, and the Son in the Father.
John 10:37
“If I do not the works of my Father,.... Not only what the Father had given him to finish, and which he wrought by him as man, but such as were as great as the Father had done, and were equal to them; and which could not be done by any, but by the Father, or by one that is equal with him: believe me not: Christ appeals to his miracles as proofs of his deity, sonship, and Messiahship, and desires no other credit than what they demand; see Mat 11:3.”
2 more voices on this verse
John 10:37
“What He says is this. Though it is easy for any one to call God Father, yet to demonstrate the fact by works is hard and impossible to a creature. By works however of a God-befitting character, He says, I am seen to be equal to God the Father: and there is no defence for your unbelief since you have learnt that I am equal to the Father by the evidence of the God-befitting works which I do, although as regards the flesh I seemed to be one among you like an ordinary man.”
Cyril of Alexandria · written before 444 · Commentary on the Gospel of John, Book 7 (Fragments)patristic
John 10:37
“If I do not the works, etc. - I desire you to believe only on the evidence of my works: if I do not do such works as God only can perform, then believe me not.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
believe the works themselves: John Wesley reads this as the gloss on verse 30. Adam Clarke follows the argument through: the works prove the Father is in the Son, and so that the two are one. Wesley adds that knowledge comes before faith in some and after it in others.
John 10:38
“Believe the works - Though ye do not now credit what I have said to you, yet consider my works, and then ye will see that these works prove that I am in the Father and the Father in me; and, consequently, that I and the Father are one. This seems to be the force of our Lord’s argument; and every man must see and feel that it is conclusive.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
John 10:38
“That ye may know and believe - In some a more exact knowledge precedes, in others it follows faith. I am in the Father and the Father in me. I and the Father are one - These two sentences illustrate each other.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
John 10:38
“By the works he did in the body [he] showed himself to be not man but God the Word. But these things are said about him because the actual body that ate, was born and suffered belonged to none other but the Lord. And he had become a man; it was proper for these things to be predicated of him as a man in order to show that he really had a body, and not just one in appearance.”
Athanasius of Alexandria · written before 373 · On the Incarnation of the Word 18.1-3patristic
John 10:39-40
He escaped their grasp: The seizing fails and Jesus leaves. The place across the Jordan is the Bethany of John 1:28, where the Baptist first gave his testimony. He stays there, and the public ministry comes back to the ground it began on.
John 10:39
“Sought again to take him - They evidently understood him as still claiming equality with God, and under this impression Jesus left them. Nor can it be doubted that he intended to leave them with this impression; and if so, then he is divine. He escaped - See Joh 8:59.”
1 more voice on this verse
John 10:39
“THE unbelieving and infuriated Jews again and again took up stones to cast at our Lord and here they sought to take Him prisoner, but He escaped from them, apparently with the greatest possible ease. He did this on several occasions. When the men of Nazareth would have cast Him down, headlong, from the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, He passed through the midst of them and went His way. He made His escape, over and over again, in the same wonderful manner, thus proving that He was not in the power of any man.”
Charles Spurgeon · written before 1892 · The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2818: “Jesus and His Forerunner” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
where John had first been baptizing: Adam Clarke marks this place where John had first been baptizing off from Aenon at 3:23. Cyril of Alexandria reads the move as a figure. Jesus left Jerusalem for a place of waters, as the gospel would go to the Gentiles and their baptism.
John 10:40
“Beyond Jordan - Rather, to the side of Jordan, not beyond it. See the note on Joh 6:22, and Mat 19:1. Where John at first baptized - That is, at Bethabara: see Joh 1:28. Afterwards, John baptized at Aenon: Joh 3:23.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
John 10:40
“Leaving Jerusalem, the Saviour seeks a refuge in a place possessing springs of water, that He might signify obscurely as in a type how He would leave Judaea and go over to the Church of the Gentiles which possesses the fountains of Baptism: there also many approach unto Him crossing through the Jordan; for this is signified by Christ taking up His abode beyond Jordan.”
Cyril of Alexandria · written before 444 · Commentary on the Gospel of John, Book 7 (Fragments)patristic
John 10:41-42
John never performed a sign: The Baptist worked no sign, and his word about Jesus held true. The people say so at the place where he had baptized, weighing him by what he had said. Many there believed in Jesus.
John 10:41
“No miracle - He did not confirm his mission by working miracles, but he showed that he was a prophet by foretelling the character and success of Jesus. Either miracle or prophecy is conclusive proof of a divine mission, for no man can foretell a future event, or work a miracle, except by the special aid of God. It may be remarked that the people of that place were properly prepared by the ministry of John for the preaching of Jesus.”
many in that place believed in Jesus: Faith here answers the stones of Jerusalem. John Gill sees in it the reason Jesus left the city: there were others in these parts who would believe. Adam Clarke names two grounds of their faith, the testimony of John, whom they trusted, and the miracles they watched Jesus do.
John 10:42
“Many believed on him there - The people believed on him: 1. because of the testimony of John the Baptist whom they knew to be a good and a wise man, and a prophet of the Lord; and they knew he could neither deceive nor be deceived in this mater; and, 2. they believed because of the miracles which they saw Jesus work. These fully proved that all that John had said of him was true. The scribes and Pharisees with all their science could not draw a conclusion so just.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
John 10:42
“And many believed on him there., Through the doctrine he preached, the miracles he wrought, and through comparing these things with what John had said of him: this shows the reason of Christ's leaving Jerusalem, and coming into these parts; there were others that were to believe in his name: the word "there", is left out in the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Persic versions.”
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Places1
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Alcuin of York, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture, John; Athanasius of Alexandria; Bonaventure, Commentary on John, Chapter 10; Brooke Foss Westcott, The Gospel according to St. John; Charles Spurgeon; Cyril of Alexandria; Frederic Godet, Commentary on the Gospel of John; Gregory of Nazianzus, AGAINST THE ARIANS AND ON HIMSELF, ORATION 33.16; Gregory the Dialogist, Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 14; J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, John; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentary on the Gospel according to John; John Chrysostom, Homilies on St. John; John Gill; John Lightfoot, Horae Hebraicae et Talmudicae on John; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on John.