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6. Ταύτην τὴν παροιμίαν εἶπεν αὐτοῖς ὁ “Ingots: ἐκεῖνοι δὲ ovKkixvi.25. 2
ἔγνωσαν τίνα ἦν ἃ ἐλάλει αὐτοῖς. ς
7. Εἶπεν οὖν πάλιν αὐτοῖς 6 ἐγώ εἰμι ἤ θύρα τῶν προβάτων.
3 A Ιησοῦς,
Pet. ii. 22
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δ. πάντες ὅσοι πρὸ ἐμοῦ ἦλθον,
, ~ κλέπται εἰσὶ καὶ λησταί: GAN’ οὐκ ἤκουσαν αὐτῶν τὰ πρόβατα. j Num.
XXVii. 17.
Q. ἐγώ εἶμι ἡ θύρα” δι ἐμοῦ ἐάν τις εἰσέλθῃ, σωθήσεται, ) Kalk Acts x. 13;
3 , PTE , \ ‘ eee | εἰσελεύσεται καὶ ἐξελεύσεται, καὶ νομὴν εὑρήσει. οὐκ ἔρχεται εἰ μὴ ἵνα κλέψῃ καὶ " θύσῃη καὶ ἀπολέσῃ: ἐγὼ ἦλθον
**Our guiding must be mild and gentle, else it is not duxisti, but traxisti, draw- ing and driving and no leading’’; the latter, of whom it was said that he ‘would never convince an opponent if he could suppress him”. See Ottley’s Andrewes, 159.—Ver.6. The application of the parable was sufficiently obvious ; but ταύτην . . . αὐτοῖ. 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. at παροιµίαι or παροιµίαι Σαλωμῶντος; and Aristotle, Rhetor., 3, 11, defines παροιµίαι as μεταφοραὶ am εἴδους em’ εἶδο. But mapoiuzta 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 Ο.Τ. terms ; see Ezek. xxxiv., Ps, Ixxx. 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, (ver. 7) εἶπεν οὖν πάλιν, Jesus therefore began afresh and explained it to them.—éyo εἰμι ἡ θύρα τῶν πρόβατων I, and no other, am the door of the sheep. [Cf. the Persian reformer who proclaimed himself the ‘‘ Bab,” the gate of life.] Through me alone can the sheep find access to the fold. Primarily uttered for the excommunicated man, these words conveyed the assurance that instead of being outcast by his attach- ment 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. —Ver. 8. In contrast to Jesus, πάντες «+. Ἀῃσταί, “all who came before
xi. 7. Lk XV. 23. 1 Μας, vii. 19.
10. 6 κλέπτης
me,” 2.¢., all who came before me, claiming to be what I am and to give to the sheep what I give. The prophets pointed forward to Him and did not arrogate to themselves His functions. Only those could be called ‘‘ thieves and robbers” who had come before the Shepherd came, as if in the night and without His authority. It must have been evident that the hierarchical party was meant. [The inexactness of con- trasting the “door” rather than the Shepherd with the ‘‘thieves and robbers ”’ who came before Jesus, only emphasises the fact that the reality was more pro- minent than the figure in the mind of the speaker.] Those, however, who had tried to assume the functions of the Shepherd had failed; because οὐκ ἤκουσαν αὐτῶν τὰ πρόβατα, the people of God had not listened to them. They no doubt assumed authority over the people of God and compelled obedience, but the true children of God did not find in their voice that which attracted and led them to pasture. — Ver. ο. ἐγώ . . . εὑρήσει.. With emphasis He reiterates: ‘‘I am the door: through me, and none else, if a man enter he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture”. Meyer and others supply “‘any shepherd” as the nomina- tive to εἰσέλθῃ, which may agree better with the form of the parabolic saying, but not so well with the substance. Jesus is the Door of the sheep, not of the shepherd; and the blessings pro- mised, σωθήσεται, κ. τ. Ἆ., are proper to the sheep. These blessings are three: deliverance from peril, liberty, and sustenance. For the phraseology see the remarkable passage Num. xxvii. 15- 21, which Holtzmann misapplies, neglect- ing the twenty-first verse. To “5ο out and in’ is the common Ο.Τ. expression to denote the free activity of daily life, Jer. xxxvii. 4, Ps. cxxi. 8, Deut. xxviii. 6.—Ver. το. The tenth verse intro- duces a new contrast, between the good