A.T. Robertson Commentary John 10:6

"This parable spake Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them." — John 10:6 (ASV)

This parable (ταυτην την παροιμιαν). Old word for proverb from παρα (beside) and οιμος, way, a wayside saying or saying by the way. As a proverb in N.T. in 2 Peter 2:22 , as a symbolic or figurative saying in Joh 16:25,29, as an allegory in Joh 10:6. Nowhere else in the N.T. Curiously enough in the N.T. παραβολη occurs only in the Synoptics outside of Heb 9:9; 11:19. Both are in the LXX. Παραβολη is used as a proverb (Luke 4:23) just as παροιμια is in 2 Peter 2:22. Here clearly παροιμια means an allegory which is one form of the parable. So there you are. Jesus spoke this παροιμια to the Pharisees, "but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them" (εκεινο δε ουκ εγνωσαν τινα ην α ελαλε αυτοις). Second aorist active indicative of γινωσκω and note ην in indirect question as in 2:25 and both the interrogative τινα and the relative α. "Spake" (imperfect ελαλε) should be "Was speaking or had been speaking."