John 10:8 - Printer Friendly

ESV: All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.

NIV: All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them.

NASB: All those who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.

CSB: All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn't listen to them.

NLT: All who came before me were thieves and robbers. But the true sheep did not listen to them.

KJV: All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them.

NKJV: All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.

Jesus is presenting the second of three metaphors for His ministry. These are related, but separate from each other. They are directed at the local religious leaders, who criticized Jesus for giving sight to a man born blind. In the first analogy, Jesus implied that those who reject Him do so because they are not part of "His" flock—they are following someone other than God.

In this example, Jesus builds on that prior idea. Sheep pens in that era were constructed with a narrow opening—and only one opening. This allowed the gatekeeper to easily control which animals came in or out. Anyone who tried to enter the pen by another path, or take animals out except through that door, was a thief by definition. To sleep or rest, the gatekeeper would lay across the opening, literally becoming the door. In the prior verse, Jesus claimed to fulfill that role in a spiritual sense, saying, "I am the door." This was the third time in the gospel of John that Jesus evokes the godly identity Moses heard from the burning bush in Exodus 3:14.

Here, Jesus continues to explain that, like the door—the gatekeeper—He is the one and only legitimate authority for the sheep. The religious leaders who have controlled Israel to that point are like those trying to sneak into the sheep pen, or calling to sheep which are not theirs. They are, spiritually, thieves and robbers.

John 10:1–21 continues directly from Jesus' encounter with local religious leaders, after giving sight to a man born blind (John 9). Jesus' references here to shepherds and shepherding are pointed barbs at these hypocritical, self-serving figures. In this section, Jesus actually creates three separate metaphors; these are not meant to be understood as a single analogy. The first comes in verses 1 through 6, the second in verses 7 through 9, and the third in verses 10 through 18. In doing so, Jesus explains how He differs from the corrupt leaders He confronts. He also delivers His third and fourth ''I am'' statements, out of seven in this gospel.

This passage continues Jesus' discussion with the religious leaders of Jerusalem, seen in chapter 9. Jesus lays out three separate analogies about His ministry, using the concept of sheep and shepherds. In those statements, Jesus explains why some people refuse to accept Him, declares Himself the only means of salvation, and again predicts His sacrificial death. This leads to controversy. Later, Jesus is cornered by a mob in the temple grounds. They once again try to stone Him as He repeats His divine claims, but He escapes in some way not fully described by the text. After this, Jesus leaves the area and returns to the region where John the Baptist had once preached.

Starting in chapter 7, the gospel of John describes Jesus' preaching at the Feast of Booths in Jerusalem. Through chapters 7 and 8, He debates with critics and attempts to explain spiritual truths. On the way out of the city, Jesus gives sight to a man born blind, as shown in chapter 9. That begins an extended debate which continues in this chapter. Jesus gives analogies of His mission using shepherding as a theme. Months later, He repeats those ideas when cornered by an aggressive mob in the temple. This sets the stage for His grandest miracle, the raising of Lazarus, seen in chapter 11.

The gospel of John was written by the disciple John, decades later than the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The author assumes that a reader is already familiar with the content of these other works. So, John presents a different perspective, with a greater emphasis on meaning. John uses seven miracles—which he calls “signs”—in order to prove that Jesus is, in fact, God incarnate. Some of the most well-known verses in all of the Bible are found here. None is more famous than the one-sentence summary of the gospel found in John 3:16.