The Door of the Sheep

Biblical Text

The saying appears in John 10. It belongs to the controversy with the Pharisees that follows the healing of the blind man in chapter 9 and continues into chapter 10. In 10:1-5 Jesus uses the sheepfold as a figure of speech. The one who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep, while the one who climbs up some other way is "a thief and a robber." When the porter opens the door to the shepherd, the sheep recognize the shepherd's voice and follow him out (John 10:3-4). When his hearers do not understand this saying (10:6), Jesus speaks again: "I am the door of the sheep" (10:7). He continues, "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture" (John 10:9), and says that he has come "that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (10:10). Immediately afterward comes the saying "I am the good shepherd" (10:11).

Background

The Greek word translated "door," thyra, is an ordinary word for the entrance of a house or an enclosure. The saying is one of the "I am" sayings in the Gospel of John, which take the form "I am ..." (egō eimi). Sheepfolds in Palestine at the time are thought to have been enclosures surrounded by stone walls or similar barriers, with a single entrance. At night the sheep were brought inside to protect them from wild animals and thieves. The porter is sometimes explained as a person who guarded a fold in which the flocks of several shepherds were kept together.

Significance in Scripture as a Whole

The Old Testament frequently portrays the leaders of God's people as shepherds. Ezekiel 34:11-16, after rebuking the false shepherds, declares that God himself will seek out his sheep and feed them. Some interpreters also read John 10 in connection with the phrase "which may lead them out, and which may bring them in" in Numbers 27:17, or with "this gate of the LORD" in Psalm 118:20. In the New Testament, the saying connects with the broader theme of Christ as the only way of access to God. Examples include "I am the way" in John 14:6 and the "new and living way" through the veil spoken of in Hebrews 10:19-20.

Interpretation and Issues

• For whom is the door?: Many interpreters understand the door as the entrance through which the sheep, that is, believers, enter into salvation. Others, noting that 10:1-2 depicts the shepherd entering by the door, also find the point that true leaders must come to the sheep through Christ.
• Thieves and robbers: "All that ever came before me" (10:8) is generally understood to refer not to the earlier prophets but to the false leaders or false messiahs of Jesus' day.
• Exclusivity: Many denominations in the evangelical tradition cite 10:9 as grounds for the confession that salvation is through Christ alone. Some theologians sympathetic to religious pluralism regard the saying as confessional language internal to the community of faith and decline to read it as a judgment on other religions.
• Abundant life: Proponents of prosperity theology sometimes link 10:10 to material blessing. Critics of this view hold that, in context, this life is the life enjoyed in Christ.
• A popular embellishment: The explanation that the shepherd lay across the entrance of the fold at night and so became the door himself is widely used as a sermon illustration. The text, however, does not say this, and 10:3 mentions a separate porter.
• Distinction from the "Sheep Gate": The "sheep gate" of Nehemiah 3:1 and the "sheep market" of John 5:2 refer to a gate in the walls of Jerusalem. This is distinct from the figurative expression in John 10 (see Pool of Bethesda).

In the Korean Church

Both the New Korean Revised Version (Gaeyeok Gaejeong) and the Korean Revised Version (Gaeyeok Hangeul) render the verse as "I am the door of the sheep." In preaching, the saying is commonly treated together with the good shepherd saying, or as one topic in a sermon series that works through the "I am" sayings of John's Gospel in turn.