The Good Shepherd

Text and Content

The passage appears in John 10:1-18. Jesus addressed these words to the Pharisees after healing a man who had been blind from birth (John 9; Healing of the Man Born Blind). The text falls into three parts.

• The figure of the sheepfold (10:1-6): The one who enters by the door is the shepherd, while the one who climbs up some other way "is a thief and a robber." The sheep recognize the shepherd's voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out (John 10:3-4). John 10:6 calls this saying a "parable." The Greek word used there, paroimia, differs from the word used for the parables of the Synoptic Gospels (parabolē) and means "a figurative saying."
• The door of the sheep (10:7-10): Jesus says, "I am the door of the sheep" (John 10:7; see also John 10:9).
• The Good Shepherd (10:11-18): Jesus says, "I am the good shepherd" (John 10:11-15). The good shepherd "giveth his life for the sheep," unlike the hireling, who flees when the wolf comes. The shepherd and the sheep know one another. The shepherd also has "other sheep" that are "not of this fold," and these too will become part of "one fold, and one shepherd" (John 10:16).

The same theme resurfaces in a later exchange at the Feast of Dedication, where Jesus says that no one can pluck his sheep out of his hand (John 10:27-29).

Background

In ancient Palestine, raising livestock was fundamental to daily life. The sheepfold is commonly described as an enclosure surrounded by stone walls, and the relationship in which the shepherd knows and calls each sheep individually forms the background of this figure.

The Greek word translated "good," kalos, carries not only the sense of moral goodness but also the meanings "excellent," "true," and "exemplary." A "hireling" is a worker employed for wages. Because the sheep are not his own, the hireling is portrayed as one who abandons them when danger comes.

Significance in the Whole of Scripture

The Old Testament acknowledges God as the shepherd of Israel; Psalm 23 and Isaiah 40:11 are representative examples. Ezekiel 34 rebukes the leaders of Israel who exploited the sheep rather than caring for them, and God promises to seek out and tend his scattered sheep himself (Ezekiel 34:11-16). The same chapter says that God will set up "my servant David" as the shepherd to carry out this task. Many interpreters read Jesus' declaration that he is the Good Shepherd in light of this promise.

Other books of the New Testament also take up this imagery. Hebrews 13:20 calls Jesus "that great shepherd of the sheep," 1 Peter 2:25 calls him "the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls," and 1 Peter 5:4 calls him "the chief Shepherd." The risen Jesus entrusts Peter with the charge "Feed my sheep" (John 21:15-17). This scene is read as a basis for applying the shepherd image to the ministry of church leaders. The Good Shepherd declaration is one of the "I Am" sayings in the Gospel of John, and the expression "lay down my life" is interpreted as referring to Jesus' death on the cross and to the atonement.

Interpretation and Points of Debate

• Who are the "other sheep"? Most church traditions read this phrase as referring to believers among the Gentiles, that is, those who are not Jews. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints maintains, on the basis of the Book of Mormon, that the verse refers to peoples of the Americas. Protestant denominations do not accept this interpretation.
• "Neither shall any man pluck them out" (10:28-29): The Calvinist tradition cites this passage in support of the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, which holds that true believers remain in salvation to the end. The Arminian and Wesleyan traditions understand it as a promise that no external power can take believers away. These traditions emphasize the condition that the sheep are those who "hear" and "follow," and they hold that the passage does not rule out the possibility that believers may depart of their own accord.
• Distinction from the Parable of the Lost Sheep: The story of leaving the ninety-nine to seek the one, and the image of the shepherd carrying a sheep on his shoulders, appear in Luke 15 and Matthew 18, not in John 10. In early Christian art and in modern artwork, the two texts are often blended into a single image. A sermon illustration also circulates claiming that "a shepherd deliberately breaks the leg of a sheep that keeps straying and then nurses it." This story does not appear in the text, and some have pointed out that it has not been documented as an actual herding practice.

In the Korean Church

In the Korean church, the term moksa (牧師), used for a pastor, as well as mokhoe (牧會, pastoral ministry) and mogyang (牧羊, shepherding), all derive from the shepherd image of "tending sheep." Calling church members "sheep" and the church community "the flock" is also widespread. The contrast between the good shepherd and the hireling is frequently cited in sermons addressed to pastors and in ordination sermons. Together with Psalm 23, the Good Shepherd image is a common theme in hymns and gospel songs, and it also appears in church names.