Charles Ellicott Commentary John 10:1

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber." — John 10:1 (ASV)

At the Feast of Tabernacles there was a practice, one of those that testified to a sentiment broader than that of just those who participated in it, of offering seventy oxen for the seventy nations of the world, this number being taken partly from the list in Genesis and partly from a vague idea of its sanctity. The number seventy was thus brought before the people with the recognition of the heathen world as within the hope of salvation, and people's minds were prepared for the mission of the Seventy, which followed not long after.