“I am the good shepherd, and I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep’.

The relationship between Jesus and His own is likened to His relationship with the Father, and nothing could be closer than that. What an incredible privilege that is. The idea is of an intimate, personal two-way relationship which cannot be broken. He knows them. They know Him. It is like the relationship between the Father and the Son, the deepest relationship of which it is possible to conceive.

Then He emphasised that He will indeed lay down His life for the sheep. Such was His love for them that for their safety and their deliverance He must suffer and die, although they did not yet take that in.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Joh 10:14-15. Iknow my sheep, and am known, &c. Know here, as in many other passages of scripture, implies much more than a mere speculative knowledge;a knowledge of love and approbation. The force of the passage therefore is this: “Being the good Shepherd and owner of the sheep, I am so careful and solicitous in attending my flock, that Inot only know every particular sheep, but I know every thing relating to my sheep. I know the circumstances wherein they are placed, am well acquainted with their wants, and can judge of what aids they stand in need. Besides, I love them all with an ardent affection, and approve of their obedience to me. And as I know, love, and approve my sheep, so I am known and beloved by them in return: for they have just apprehensions of my dignity and character. In particular, they know that I am their Shepherd; that I am able to feed them with knowledge, to deliver them from the punishment of sin, and to bestow on them everlasting life. And this our knowledge and love of each other is like that which subsists between the Father and me. I know my sheep, and am known of mine, (Joh 10:15 even as the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father;for so the passage should be read;) and as a proof of the greatness of my love, I will lay down my life for the sheep, which no hireling will ever do.”

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Joh 10:14 f. After the description of the hireling, there now follows again that of the opposite , the characterization of Himself as the good shepherd, first specifying His intimate acquaintance with His sheep, and then repeating His readiness to sacrifice Himself on their behalf. The latter point constitutes the refrain of the characterization (Joh 10:17-18 ), being here concretely expressed (it is different in Joh 10:11 , where it was predicated of the good shepherd in abstracto ).

, etc.] The nature and mode , the holy nature of that reciprocal acquaintanceship. Compare Joh 14:20 , Joh 15:10 , Joh 17:8 ; Joh 17:21 . As between God and Christ, so also between Christ and His people, the reciprocal knowledge is a knowledge growing out of the most intimate fellowship of love and life, that fellowship which directly involves ; comp. on Mat 7:23 .

] near and certain future. The clause . . . is not dependent on .

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep , and am known of mine.

Ver. 14. And know my sheep ] With a knowledge of approbation and delight. Verba notitiae apud Hebraeos secum trahunt affectum, Psa 1:6 .

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

14, 15. ] The knowledge of His sheep here spoken of is more than the mere knowing by name: it is a knowledge corresponding to the Father’s knowledge of Him; i.e. entire, perfect, all-comprehensive: and their knowledge of Him corresponds to His of the Father, i.e. is intimate, direct, and personal: both being bound together by holy and inseparable Love. Beware of rendering [the former clause of] Joh 10:15 as in E. V. as an independent sentence, ‘ As my Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: ’ it is merely the sequel to Joh 10:14 , and should stand, as the Father knoweth me and I know the Father.

. . ] for those my sheep not, for all; that, however true , is not the point brought out here: the Lord lays down His life strictly and properly, and in the depths of the Divine counsel, for those who are His sheep .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Joh 10:14 . The second mark of the good shepherd is introduced by a repetition of the announcement: . And this second mark is not stated in general terms applicable to all good shepherds, but directly of Himself: , . There is a mutually reciprocal knowledge between Jesus and His sheep. And the existence of this knowledge is the proof that He is the Shepherd. The shepherd’s claim is authenticated by his knowledge of the marks and ways of the sheep, and by its knowledge of him as shown in its coming to his voice and submission to his hand. Augustine says: “They sometimes do not know themselves, but the shepherd knows them”.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

John

THE GOOD SHEPHERD

Joh 10:14 – Joh 10:15 .

‘I am the Good Shepherd.’ Perhaps even Christ never spoke more fruitful words than these. Just think how many solitary, wearied hearts they have cheered, and what a wealth of encouragement and comfort there has been in them for all generations. The little child as it lays itself down to sleep, cries-

‘Jesus, tender Shepherd, hear me,

Bless Thy little lamb to-night,’

and the old man lays himself down to die murmuring to himself, ‘Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of Death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me.’ ‘I am the Good Shepherd.’ No preaching can do anything but weaken and dilute the force of such words, and yet, though in all their sweet, homely simplicity they appeal to every heart, there are great depths in them that are worth pondering, and profound thoughts that need some elucidation.

There are three points to be noticed-First, the general force of the metaphor, and then the two specific applications of it which our Lord Himself makes.

I. First of all, then, let me say a few words as to the general application of the metaphor.

The usual notion of these words confines itself to the natural meaning, and runs out into very true, but perhaps a little sentimental, considerations, laying hold of what is so plain on the very surface that I need not spend any time in speaking about it. Christ’s pattern is my law; Christ’s providence is my guidance and defence-which in the present case means Christ’s companionship-is my safety, my sustenance-which in the present case means that Christ Himself is the bread of my soul. The Good Shepherd exercises care, which absolves the sheep from care, and in the present case means that my only duty is meek following and quiet trust. ‘I am the Good Shepherd’-here is guidance, guardianship, companionship, sustenance-all responsibility laid upon His broad shoulders, and all tenderness in His deep heart, and so for us simple obedience and quiet trust.

Another way by which we get the whole significance of this symbol is by noticing how the idea is strengthened by the word that accompanies it. Christ does not say ‘I am a Shepherd,’ but He says, ‘I am the good Shepherd.’ At first sight that word ‘good’ is interpreted, as I have said, in a kind of sentimental, poetic way, as expressing our Lord’s tenderness and love and care; but I do not think that is the full meaning here. You find up and down this Gospel of St. John phrases such as, ‘I am the true bread,’ ‘I am the true vine,’ and the meaning of the word that is here translated ‘good’ is very nearly parallel with that idea. The true bread, the true vine, the true Shepherd-which comes to this, to use modern phraseology, that Jesus Christ, in His relation to you and me, fulfils all that in figure and shadow is represented to the meditative eye by that lower relationship between the material shepherd and his sheep. That is the picture, this the reality. There is another point to be made clear, and that is, that whilst the word ‘good’ is perhaps a fair enough representation of that which is employed by our Lord, there is a special force and significance attached to the original, which is lost in our Bible. I do not know that it could have been preserved; but still it is necessary to state it. The expression here is the one that is generally rendered ‘fair,’ or ‘lovely,’ or ‘beautiful,’ and it belongs to the genius of that wonderful tongue in which the New Testament is written that it has a name for moral purity, considered as being lovely, the highest goodness, and the serenest beauty, which was what the old Greeks taught, howsoever little they may have practised it in their lives. And so here the thought is that the Shepherd stands before us, the realisation of all which that name means, set forth in such a fashion as to be infinitely lovely and perfectly fair, and to draw the admiration of any man who can appreciate that which is beautiful, and can admire that which is of good report.

There is another point still in reference to this first view of the text. Our Lord not only declares that He is the reality of which the earthly shepherd is the shadow, and that He as such is the flawless, perfect One, but that He alone is the reality. ‘I am the Good Shepherd; in Me and in Me alone is that which men need.’ And that leads me to another point which must just be mentioned, that we shall not reach the full meaning of these great words without taking into account the history of the metaphor in the Old Testament. Christ gives a second edition of the figure, and we are to remember all that went before. ‘The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want’; ‘Thou leddest Thy people like a flock, by the hand of Moses and Aaron.’ These are but specimens of a continuous series of utterances in the old Revelation in which Jehovah Himself is the Shepherd of mankind; and there is also another class of passages of which I will quote one or two. ‘He shall feed His flock like a shepherd, and carry them in His arms.’ ‘Awake, O sword, against the Man who is my fellow; smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.’ There were, we should remember, two streams of representation, according to the one of which God Himself was the Shepherd of Israel, and according to the other of which the Messiah was the Shepherd; and here, as I believe, Jesus lays His hand on both the one and the other, and says: ‘They are Mine, and they testify of Me.’ So sweet, so gracious are the words, that we lose the sense of the grandeur of them, and need to think before we are able to understand how great and immense the claim that is made here upon our faith, and that this Man stands before us and arrogates to Himself the divine prerogative witnessed from of old by psalmist and prophet, and says that for Him were meant the prophecies of ancient times that spake of a human shepherd, and asserts that all the sustenance, care, authority, command, which the emblem suggests meet in Him in perfect measure.

II. Now let us turn to the two special points which our Lord emphasises here, as being those in which His relation as the Good Shepherd is most conspicuously given.

The language of my text runs: ‘I am the Good Shepherd, and know My sheep, and am known of Mine. As the Father knoweth Me, even so know I the Father.’ Our Western ways fail to bring out the full meaning of the emblem; but all Eastern travellers tell us what a strange bond of sympathy and loving regard, and docile recognition, springs up between the shepherd and his sheep away there in the Eastern pastures and deserts; and how he knows every one, though to a stranger’s eye they are so like each other; and how even the dumb instincts and the narrow intelligence of the silly sheep recognise the shepherd, and will not be deceived by shepherd’s garments worn to deceive, and will not follow the voice of a stranger.

But we must further note that Christ lays hold of the dumb instincts of the animal, as illustrating, at the one end of the scale, the relation between Him and His followers, and lays hold of the communion between the Father and the Son at the other end of the scale, as illustrating the same thing. ‘I know My sheep.’ That is a knowledge like the knowledge of the shepherd, a bond of close intimacy. But He does not know them by reason of looking at them and thinking about them. It is something far more blessed than that. He knows me because He loves me; He knows me because He has sympathy with me, and I know Him, if I know Him at all, by my love, and I know Him by my sympathy, and I know Him by my communion. A loveless heart does not know the Shepherd, and unless the Shepherd’s heart was all love He would not know His sheep. The Shepherd’s love is an individualised love. He knows His flock as a flock because He knows the units of it, and we can rest ourselves upon the personal knowledge, which is personal love and sympathy, of Jesus Christ. ‘And My sheep know Me’-not by force of intellect, not by understanding certain truths, all-important as that may be, but by having our hearts harmonised in Him, and our spirits put into sympathy and communion with Him. ‘They know Me,’ and rest comes with the knowledge; ‘they know Me,’ and in that knowing is the best answer to all doubt and fear. They are exposed to danger, but in the fold they can go quietly to rest, for they know that He is at the door watching through all dangers.

III. Turn for a moment to the last point, ‘I lay down My life for the sheep.’

I have said that our Western ways fail to bring out fully the element of the metaphor which refers to the kind of sympathy between the shepherd and the sheep; and our Western life also fails to bring out this other element also. Shepherds in England never have need to lay down their life for the sheep. Shepherds in Palestine often did, and sometimes do. You remember David with the lion and the bear, which is but an illustration of the reality which underlies this metaphor. So, then, in some profound way, the shepherd’s death is the sheep’s safety. First of all, look at that most unmistakable, emphatic-I was going to say vehement, at any rate, intense-expression of the absolute voluntariness of Christ’s death, ‘I lay down My life,’ as a man might strip off a vesture. And this application of the metaphor is made all the stronger by the words which follow: ‘Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life that I might take it again. No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.’ We read, ‘Smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered,’ but here, somehow or other, the smiting of the Shepherd is not the scattering but the gathering of the flock. Here, somehow or other, the dead Shepherd has power to guard, to guide, to defend them. Here, somehow or other, the death of the Shepherd is the security of the sheep; and I say to you, the flock, that for every soul the entrance into the flock of God is through the door of the dying Christ, who laid down His life for the sheep, and makes them His sheep who trust in Him.

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

know . . . am known = get to know . . . am known. Greek. ginosko. App-132. Not the same as in verses: Joh 4:5. See note on Joh 1:10.

of = by. Greek. hupo. App-104.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

14, 15.] The knowledge of His sheep here spoken of is more than the mere knowing by name: it is a knowledge corresponding to the Fathers knowledge of Him;-i.e. entire, perfect, all-comprehensive: and their knowledge of Him corresponds to His of the Father,-i.e. is intimate, direct, and personal: both being bound together by holy and inseparable Love. Beware of rendering [the former clause of] Joh 10:15 as in E. V. as an independent sentence, As my Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: it is merely the sequel to Joh 10:14, and should stand, as the Father knoweth me and I know the Father.

. .] for those my sheep-not, for all; that, however true, is not the point brought out here: the Lord lays down His life strictly and properly, and in the depths of the Divine counsel, for those who are His sheep.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Joh 10:14

Joh 10:14

I am the good shepherd; and I know mine own, and mine own know me,-There is a recognition that certain persons, when they hear the truth, will accept and follow it. Jesus recognizes that these are his before they hear the gospel and accept it. In this sense he is known of his own and knows them. In verse 16 he speaks of those who are his own, but not of this fold. The Lord told Paul at Corinth, I have much people in this city (Act 18:10) before they had heard or believed the gospel. They loved the truth, and were of that frame of mind that when they heard it would accept and follow it.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

good: Joh 10:11

know: Joh 10:27, Psa 1:6, 2Ti 2:19, Rev 2:2, Rev 2:9, Rev 2:13, Rev 2:19, Rev 3:1, Rev 3:8, Rev 3:15

am: Joh 17:3, Joh 17:8, Isa 53:11, 2Co 4:6, Eph 1:17, Eph 3:19, Phi 3:8, 2Ti 1:12, 1Jo 5:20

Reciprocal: Gen 18:19 – For I Exo 33:12 – I know Psa 23:1 – my Psa 80:1 – O Shepherd Psa 95:7 – people Psa 100:3 – we are his Ecc 12:11 – given Eze 37:24 – one Hos 8:4 – set Mat 7:23 – I never Mat 25:32 – as Joh 8:18 – one Joh 8:19 – Ye neither Joh 10:3 – and he 1Co 8:3 – is Gal 4:9 – are known Heb 13:20 – that great Rev 7:17 – feed

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

INDIVIDUAL KNOWLEDGE

I am the Good Shepherd, and know, My sheep, and am known of Mine.

Joh 10:14

Few things come more closely home to true Christians than the shepherdly love which the Lord bestows upon them.

His word to us is this: I am the Good Shepherd, and know My sheep, and am known of Mine. And the Revised Version brings out a depth of meaning here. I know Mine own, and Mine own know Me, even as the Father knoweth Me, and I know the Father. So intimate is the knowledge between the shepherd and the sheep, between Christ and true Christians, that it is likened to that perfect knowledge which subsists in the Persons of the Holy Trinity.

I. Intimate individual knowledge.This personal relationship, this intimate individual knowledge, has great stress laid upon it by our Lord. He knows us, marks us, loves us, one by one. What is my soul among such a multitude of creatures? That is the question of one who wishes to be hid, and flatters himself that he is neither known nor observed. But there is another question, not asked in unbelief, but in wonder and humbleness of mind. What is man, that Thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that Thou visitest him? And there is an answer from the Lord, which tells of close acquaintanceship, of the most loving interest: I have called thee by name: thou art Mine.

II. A call to follow.It is no hollow voice, no flattering voice which they hear, but rather a call to go after the Shepherd, whithersoever He goeth. He calleth His own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before them, and the sheep follow Him; for they know His voice. And surely as to ourselves, if we love our Lord, and trust His word, we shall follow Him, even in darkness. For indeed it is no strangers voice that we should flee from it, but rather the voice of our best and greatest and most loving Friend. We know that His commandment is eternal life, and we know that to obey it here is present happiness. What a privilege it is for us to have this constant leading from our Lordto feel certain that when we honestly ask Him, Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? He will guide our feet into the way of peace, the path of duty, difficult but blessed!

III. Why doth He call?Let us ever remember that by this Good Shepherd our souls are fed, partly on the ordinary paths of Gods Providence and in the doing of our duty in common tasksin the ways, as the prophet sayspartly on all high places, by the Divinely ordered means of His glorious grace, and the assurance of His abiding Presence. In Him, the Incarnate Lord, all the promises of God are fulfilled, all the needs of men are satisfied. Whom He brings, He calls; and whom He calls, He loves; and whom He loves, He feeds. None is forgotten of Him. The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.

IV. But the love of the Shepherd goes further than this.Not of Him can it be said, as it can be of the hireling, that he careth not for the sheep. They are His inmost, constant, individual care. Their rest, their healing, their recall, their renewal, their preservation, their enlargementall these are dear to Him, all wrought by Him. The promise which begins, I will feed My flock, goes on, I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God. I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick. This truly it was which our Jesus, our most compassionate and patient Saviour, took upon Him.

Rev. Canon Jelf.

Illustration

That was the shepherd of the flock; He knew

The distant voice of one poor sheep astray;

It had forsaken Him, but He was true,

And listened for its bleating night and day.

Lost in a pitfall, yet alive it lay,

To breathe the faint sad call that He would know;

But now the slighted fold was far away,

And no approaching footstep soothed its woe.

A thing of life and nurture from above,

Sunk under earth where all was cold and dim;

With nothing in it to console His love,

Only the miserable cry for Him.

His was the wounded heart, the bleeding limb

That safe and sound He would have joyd to keep.

And still amidst the flock at home with Him,

He was the Shepherd of that one lost sheep.

Oh, would He now but come and claim His own!

How more than precious His restoring care!

How sweet the pasture of His choice alone,

How bright the dullest path if He were there!

How well the pain of rescue it could bear,

Held in the shelter of His strong embrace!

With Him it would find herbage anywhere,

And springs of endless life in every place.

And so He came and raised it from the clay,

Where evil beasts went disappointed by.

He bore it home along the fearful way

In the soft light of His rejoicing eye.

And, thou fallen soul, afraid to live or die

In the deep pit that will not set thee free,

Lift up to Him the helpless homeward cry,

For all that tender love is seeking thee.

(SECOND OUTLINE)

THE GENTLENESS OF CHRIST

I know My sheep. How does the Good Shepherd know His sheep? In three ways.

I. His Father gave them to Him (read Joh 6:37).All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me. Men may reject Him, men may scorn Him, men may hate Him, yet all His Father gave Him shall come to Him. Csar said, I came, I saw, I conquered. Christ will say the same of every one His Father gave Him. Only, Christ conquers by love. He attracts by His Cross.

II. The Good Shepherd knows His sheep because they are redeemed by His blood.For the Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep (Joh 10:11). He had each one in His heart when He died on the Cross. And by His atoning death His intention was to gather together in one the children of God which were scattered abroad. Behold, how He loved them! For that He was content to die.

III. The Good Shepherd knows His sheep by the gracious work of His Spirit in them.That gracious Spirit teaches them their need of Him. He puts the cry of the publican into their lips, God be merciful to me the sinner. He inclines them to trust Him. He constrains them to love Him. He enables them to work for Him, and as they work, to watch. And over all their heart, like a mantle of gold, the gracious Spirit spreads the gentleness of Christ. Let us ask ourselves, Are these marks on me?

Rev. F. Harper.

Illustration

Lady Somerset says that in a fishermans hut in the north-east of Scotland she saw a picture of the Saviour, and as she stood looking at it, the fishermen told her its story. I was away down with the drink, he said, when one night I went into a public, there hung this picture. I was sober then, and I said to the barman, Sell me that picture; this is no place for the Saviour. I gave him all the money I had for it, and took it home. Then, as I looked at it, the words of my mother came back to me. I dropped on my knees, and cried: O! Lord Jesus, will You pick me up again, and take me out of all my sin? No such prayer is ever unanswered. To-day, that man is the grandest man in that little Scotch village. Lady Somerset asked if he had no struggle to give up the drink. Such a look of exultation came over his face as he answered, Oh, madam, when such a Saviour comes into the heart, He takes the love of the drink right out of it.

(THIRD OUTLINE)

THAT I MAY KNOW HIM

The Good Shepherd as contrasted with (a) thieves and robbers, those who use the flock for their own selfish purposes; (b) hirelings, those who do their duty up to a certain point, but fail in time of danger, because the sheep are not their own. Then (c) an ideal Shepherd, embodying in Himself all that a shepherd should be; and (d) the fair Shepherd, attracting by His moral beauty the eyes of all to whom it is given to appreciate Him.

I. His characteristics.(Here note the mistaken punctuation at the end of Joh 10:14. The proper meaning destroyed by it. He teaches that there is a correspondence between the mutual knowledge between Christ and His people, and the mutual knowledge between the Father and the Son.) (a) He knows His sheep. This an individualising, not a mere general knowledge. It is something more than the knowledge of omniscience. It implies sympathy, approval, complacency, love. But His sheep also know Him. He is to them, not an abstraction, but a reality, a Person with whom they have real intercourse. There is, so to speak, an understanding between them. (b) This corresponds with the knowledge which exists between the Father and the Son. The delight of the Father is in the Son. Mine Elect in Whom My soul delighteth; I delight to do Thy Will, O My God. Then the Father showeth the Son all that He Himself doeth; there are no secrets between Them. So I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of My Father, I have made known unto you. Trace here the resemblance, the correspondence.

II. His work.This knowledge of His people leads up to and finds its culmination in His dying for them. I lay down My life for the sheep. All that He has done, and is doing, and will do for His sheepis suggested in this expression.

III. The mention of His death carries Him on to the thought of the result of His work. No doubt His adversaries thought, What a set He has gathered round Him; poor, ignorant, unlettered Galilans! and this wretched blind impostor! Fit flock for such a Shepherd. But Jesus looks over the ages and sees the hosts of the Gentiles coming in. I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me. And there shall be one flock (notice the mistranslation), one Shepherd.

IV. Practical application.To know about Christ is well. But we do know Him with personal acquaintance? Only so can we be His sheep.

Prebendary Gordon Calthrop.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

4

This mutual recognition is due to the affectionate relation between a shepherd and his flock, in which each sheep has its own name. See the comments on this point at verses 3 and 4.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Joh 10:14-15. I am the good shepherd, and I know mine own, and mine own know me, even as the Father knoweth me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. As the figure of Joh 10:7 was repeated in Joh 10:9, that it might receive a new and blessed application, so here we have a repetition of the figure presented in the 11th verse. The repetition removes from view the unworthy: we are brought once more into the presence of Jesus and His own. First and last in these two verses stand the two clauses of the former verse, altered only in so far that what there was said of the Good Shepherd is here said of Jesus Himself (I lay down). Between these two clauses are placed two other sayings, the first suggested at once by the figure used, the second rising higher than any earlier words of the parable. Since Jesus is the good Shepherd, His sheep hear His voice and He calleth His own sheep by name (Joh 10:3): hence He says that He knows (recognises) His own sheep and His own know (recognise) Him. But once more (see chap. Joh 8:38) He places in parallelism His own relation to the Father and the relation of His own to Him. He looks on the sheep and sees at once that they are His: they see Him and hear His voice and know that He is their Shepherd. So the Father looks on Him and sees in Him the Good Shepherd whom He sent: He looks on the Father, and constantly recognises His presence as the Father with Him. There is wonderful beauty and elevation in the comparison; no saying of our Lord goes beyond this in unfolding the intimacy of communion between Himself and His people which it reveals and promises. They are His, as He is the Fathers. It seems very probable that in these words there lies a reference to Joh 10:2, where we read that he who stands at the gate admits the true shepherd within the fold, recognising him, distinguishing him at once from those who falsely claim the name, just as the shepherd distinguishes his own sheep from those that are not of his flock.These two verses are remarkable for simplicity of structure. As in the simplest examples of Hebrew poetry, thought is attached to thought, one member is placed in parallelism with another. Yet, as in the Hebrew poetry of which this reminds us, a dependence of thought upon thought may be inferred, though it is not expressed. Thus we have seen that, if Jesus is the Good Shepherd, it must be true that He recognises His own sheep. So also (and it is to point out this that we call attention to the structure of the verse) the Fathers recognition of Him closely connects itself with His laying down His life, as the Shepherd for the sheep. In this the Father sees the highest proof of His devotion to the work He has accepted: in the spirit of constant readiness for this crowning act of love He recognises the Fathers constant presence and love (Joh 10:17). And, as the words of the verse bear witness to the Fathers care for man (not less truly and powerfully because this meaning does not lie on the surface of the words), it is easy to see once more with what fitness we here read the Father, and not simply my Father (see chap. Joh 8:27; Joh 8:38).

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Vv. 14-16. As for me, I am the good shepherd; and I know my sheep, and I am known by my sheep; 15 as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I give my life for the sheep. 16. And I have other sheep which are not of this fold; these also I must bring; and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one flock, one shepherd.

The repetition of these words of Joh 10:11 : I am the good shepherd, is introduced through the contrast with the figure of the hireling (comp. Joh 10:9); and the epithet good is explained here by a new point, that of the relation full of tenderness which unites Jesus and His sheep. It is on this second point that the firstthe self-devotion thus far described rests. The word to know does not mean: I distinguish them from the rest of the Jews (Weiss). The import of this word is much more profound; and the meaning distinguish is not suitable in the three following sayings. Jesus penetrates with the eye of His loving knowledge the entire interior being of each one of the sheep, and perfectly discerns all which He possesses in them. For there is a close relation between this verb I know, and the possessive my sheep. This knowledge is reciprocal. The believers also know what their shepherd is, all that He feels and all that He is willing to do for them. They thus live in the untroubled light of a perfect mutual knoweldge.

From this intimate relation between Him and His sheep, Jesus goes back to that which is at once the model and source of it: His relation to the Father. The term , as (literally, according as) does not express a simple comparison, as , as, would do. This word characterizes the knowledge which unites Jesus with his sheep as being of the same nature as that which unites Him to God. It is as if the luminous medium in which the heart of the Son and the heart of the Father meet each other, were enlarged so as to become that in which the heart of Jesus and that of His sheep meet each other. The signifies: And consequently. It is in virtue of this relation of such intimate knowledge that He consents to give Himself for them. The words: I give my life for the sheep, form a sort of refrain (comp. Joh 10:7; Joh 10:11; Joh 10:18), as we have found several similar refrains in our Gospel, in moments when the feeling is exalted (Joh 3:15-16; Joh 4:23-24; Joh 6:39-40; Joh 6:44; Joh 6:54). In the context, the expression for the sheep must be applied to believers only; but yet this phrase does not contradict that according to which Jesus is the propitiation, not only for our sins, but for those of the whole world (1Jn 2:2). For the death of Jesus, in the divine intention, is for all, although in reality it profits only believers. Jesus knows full well that the , on behalf of, will be realized only in these latter.

From these two points by which Jesus characterizes Himself as the perfect shepherd, springs the third, Joh 10:16. It would be impossible that the holiest and most devoted work of love should have for its object only these few believers, such as the disciples and the one born blind, who consented to separate themselves from the unbelieving people. The view of Jesus extends more widely (Joh 10:16), in proportion as He penetrates both the depth and the height (Joh 10:15). The death of a being like the Son must obtain an infinite reward. The other sheep, the possession of whom will compensate Him for the loss of those who to-day refuse to follow Him, are evidently the believing Gentiles. Jesus declares that He has them already (, I have), and not merely that He will have them, for all that are of the truth, throughout the entire body of mankind, are His from before His coming. The question is not, I think, of a possession by reason of the divine predestination. We find here again rather one of the most profound and habitual thoughts of our Gospel, a thought which springs directly from the relation which the Prologue establishes between the Logos and the human soul (Joh 10:4 and Joh 10:10).

The life and the light of the world, the Logos did not cease, even before His incarnation, to fill this office in the midst of the sinful world; and, among the heathen themselves, all those who surrender themselves and yield obedience to this inner light, must infallibly recognize in Jesus their ideal and give themselves to Him as His sheep as soon as He shall present Himself; comp. Joh 11:52 (the children of God who are scattered abroad); Joh 8:47 (he that is of God hears the words of God); Joh 18:37 (he that is of the truth); Joh 3:21 (he that does the truth, comes to the light). The demonstrative adjective , placed as it is after the substantive: This fold, implies, according to de Wette, that Jesus regards the heathen nationalities also as a sort of folds, of preparatory groupings divinely instituted in order to prepare for the Gospel. But perhaps Meyer, Weiss, etc., are right in thinking that there is here a notion introduced into the text. However, it is incorrect to set Joh 11:52 in opposition to this idea, which verse by no means declares the contrary of this. The believing heathen may very well be scattered throughout their respective nationalities, as the believing Jews are in their own (answer toWeiss). Meyer, committing here again the error which he committed in the explanation of the first allegorythat of explaining the figures of one similitude by those of anotherunderstands the expression in the sense offeed, according to the figure of Joh 10:4; Joh 10:9, and he is followed by Luthardt and Weiss.

But the end of the verse (, and so there shall be) shows clearly that the Lord’s idea is an altogether different one; it is that of bringing these sheep, to join them with the former ones. The Vulgate, therefore, rightly translates adducere. The parallel passage Joh 11:52 : , leads likewise to this explanation. When the historical application of the first similitude is missed, the meaning of the whole discourse is lost. The work of St. Paul, with the workings of the missionaries who have followed him even to our own days, is essentially what this term bring describes. This third similitude, announcing the call of the Gentiles, corresponds thus to the first, which described the going forth of the believers from the Synagogue. The words: They will hear my voice, recall the expression of the end of the Acts: The salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles and they will also hear it (Act 28:28). There is a solemnity in the last words simply placed in juxtaposition:one flock, one shepherd. They contain the thought which forms the text of the Epistle to the Ephesians: the breaking down of the old wall of separation between Jews and Gentiles by the death of Christ (Eph 2:14-17). This prophetic word is accomplished before our eyes by the work of missions in the heathen world. As to the final conversion of Israel, it is neither directly nor indirectly indicated.

These so new ideas of the death of the Messiah and of the call of new non-Jewish believers to participation in the Messianic salvation were fitted to raise many doubts in the minds of the hearers. Jesus clearly perceives it; this is the reason why He energetically affirms that the good pleasure of God rests upon this work and upon Him who executes it, and that it is the true aim of His mission to the world.

Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)

The mutual knowledge of the shepherd and the sheep is very important. Therefore Jesus stressed His identity as the Good Shepherd again. The sheep must know their Shepherd, and they can know Him as the Son knows the Father. The Son must know the Father to follow His will, and the sheep must know the Shepherd to follow Him faithfully. Jesus implied that the relationship the sheep enjoy with Himself is unique, as His relationship with His Father is unique. Yet each person maintains his own identity. Man does not become God, as the New Age movement, for example, teaches. The repetition of the Shepherd’s sacrificial death in this verse also stresses that knowing the Shepherd involves appreciating the extent of His love.

"’Know’ (ginosko) in this Gospel connotes more than the cognizance of mere facts; it implies a relationship of trust and intimacy." [Note: Tenney, "John," p. 109. See also Wiersbe, 1:330.]

John also used the word this way in 1 John (Joh 4:7-8; Joh 4:16; Joh 5:20) where he expounded the importance of not just believing in but abiding in Jesus Christ.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)