Church Fathers Commentary John 10

St. John Chrysostom: After our Lord reproached the Jews for their blindness, they might have said, “We are not blind; we avoid you as a deceiver.” Our Lord, therefore, gives the marks that distinguish a robber and deceiver from a true shepherd. First are the marks of the deceiver and robber: Truly, truly, I say to you, the one who does not enter by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs up some other way, is a thief and a robber.

There is an allusion here to the Antichrist and to certain false Christs who had come and were yet to come. He calls the Scriptures the door. They admit us to the knowledge of God, they protect the sheep, they shut out the wolves, and they bar the entrance to heretics. The one who does not use the Scriptures but “climbs up some other way”—that is, a self-chosen and unlawful way—is a thief. He says “climbs up,” not “enters,” as if describing a thief getting over a wall and running every risk. “Some other way” may also refer to the commandments and traditions of men that the Scribes taught while neglecting the Law.

When our Lord later calls Himself the Door, we should not be surprised. According to the office He bears, He is in one place the Shepherd and in another the Sheep. Because He introduces us to the Father, He is the Door; because He takes care of us, He is the Shepherd.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Or, to put it another way: many people go by the name of good men according to the world’s standard and observe the commandments of the Law to some degree, yet they are not Christians. These people generally boast of themselves, as the Pharisees did: “Are we blind also?” But since they do everything foolishly, without knowing the purpose to which it tends, our Lord said of them, Truly, truly, I say to you, the one who does not enter by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs up some other way, is a thief and a robber.

Let the Pagans, the Jews, and the Heretics say, “We lead a good life.” If they do not enter by the door, what good is it? A good life is profitable only if it leads to eternal life. Indeed, those cannot be said to lead a good life who are either blindly ignorant of, or willfully despise, the very purpose of good living. No one can hope for eternal life who does not know Christ, who is the life, and who does not enter the fold by that door.

Whoever wishes to enter into the sheepfold, let him enter by the door. Let him preach Christ; let him seek Christ’s glory, not his own. Christ is a lowly door, and he who enters by this door must be lowly if he wishes to enter with his head intact. The one who does not humble himself but exalts himself, who wishes to climb up over the wall, is lifted up only to fall. Such men generally try to persuade others that they can live well without being Christians. In this way, they climb up by some other way, so that they may rob and kill. They are thieves because they claim what is not theirs as their own; they are robbers because they kill what they have stolen.

St. John Chrysostom: You have seen His description of a robber; now see that of the Shepherd: But the one who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

St. Augustine of Hippo: He who enters by the door is the one who enters by Christ, who imitates Christ’s suffering, and who is acquainted with Christ’s humility, so that he feels and knows that if God became a man for us, a man should not think himself to be God, but only a man. The one who, being a man, wishes to appear as God does not imitate Him who, being God, became a man. You are not told to think of yourself as less than you are, but simply to know what you are.

St. John Chrysostom: The porter is perhaps Moses, for to him the oracles of God were committed.

Theophylact of Ohrid: Or, the Holy Spirit is the porter, by whom the Scriptures are unlocked to reveal the truth to us.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Or, the porter is our Lord Himself, since there is much less difference between a door and a porter than between a door and a shepherd. And He has called Himself both the Door and the Shepherd, so why not the Door and the Porter? He opens Himself—that is, He reveals Himself. If you seek another person for the porter, consider the Holy Spirit, of whom our Lord said later, He will guide you into all truth. The door is Christ, the Truth. Who opens the door but the One who will guide you into all Truth? Whoever you understand this to be, be careful not to consider the porter greater than the door, for in our houses, the porter holds a higher rank than the door, not the other way around.

St. John Chrysostom: Since they had called Him a deceiver and appealed to their own unbelief as proof (Which of the rulers believes in Him?), He shows here that it was because they refused to hear Him that they were excluded from His flock. The sheep hear His voice. The Shepherd enters by the lawful door, and those who follow Him are His sheep. Those who do not, voluntarily exclude themselves from His flock.

St. Augustine of Hippo: He knew the names of the predestinated, as He said to His disciples, Rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

St. John Chrysostom: He led out the sheep when He sent them not away from the wolves, but into their very midst. There seems to be a subtle allusion to the blind man. He called him out from the midst of the Jews, and he heard His voice.

St. Augustine of Hippo: And who is He who leads them out, but the same One who loosens the chains of their sins, so that they may follow Him with free, unfettered steps?

Glossa Ordinaria: And when He brings out His own sheep, He goes before them. He leads them out from the darkness of ignorance into light, just as He went before them in the pillar of cloud and fire.

St. John Chrysostom: Shepherds always go behind their sheep, but He, on the contrary, goes before them to show that He would lead all people to the truth.

St. Augustine of Hippo: And who is this that goes before the sheep, but He who, being raised from the dead, dies no more, and who said, Father, I will also that they, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am?

St. John Chrysostom: The strangers are Theudas, Judas, and the false apostles who came after Christ. So that He might not appear to be one of them, He gives many marks that distinguish Him from them. First, Christ brought people to Himself by teaching them from the Scriptures; they drew people away from the Scriptures. Second, the obedience of the sheep; for people believed in Him not only during His life but also after His death, whereas their followers vanished as soon as they were gone.

Theophylact of Ohrid: He alludes to the Antichrist, who will deceive for a time but will lose all his followers when he dies.

St. Augustine of Hippo: But here is a difficulty. Sometimes those who are not sheep hear Christ’s voice; for Judas, who was a wolf, heard it. And sometimes the sheep do not hear Him; for those who crucified Christ did not hear, yet some of them were His sheep. You might say that while they did not hear, they were not sheep, and that the voice, when they heard it, changed them from wolves into sheep. Still, I am disturbed by the Lord’s rebuke to the shepherds in Ezekiel: Neither have you brought again that which was driven away. He calls it a stray sheep, but a sheep all the while, even though, if it strayed, it must have heard the voice of a stranger and not the Shepherd.

What I am saying, then, is this: The Lord knows those who are His. He knows the foreknown; He knows the predestinated. They are the sheep. For a time they do not know themselves, but the Shepherd knows them, for many sheep are outside the fold, and many wolves are inside. He is speaking, then, of the predestinated.

And now the difficulty is solved. The sheep, and only the sheep, do hear the Shepherd’s voice. When is that? It is when that voice says, The one who endures to the end will be saved. His own people hear this word; the stranger does not.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Our Lord feeds us with plain words and challenges us with what is obscure. For when two people—one godly, the other ungodly—hear words from the Gospel that neither can understand, one says, “What He said is true and good, but we do not understand it.” The other says, “It is not worth paying attention to.”

The first person knocks in faith, and indeed, if he continues to knock, it will be opened to him. The other, however, will hear the words from Isaiah: If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established (Isaiah 7:9).

St. John Chrysostom: To awaken the attention of the Jews, our Lord unfolds the meaning of what He has said. Then Jesus said to them again, Verily, verily, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Behold, the very door that He had shut, He now opens. He is the Door; let us enter, and let us enter with joy.

St. John Chrysostom: He did not say this about the Prophets, as the heretics think, but about Theudas, Judas, and other agitators. So He adds in praise of the sheep, The sheep heard them not. He nowhere praises those who disobeyed the prophets; on the contrary, He condemns them severely.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Understand this to mean all who ever came in opposition to Me. The Prophets were not in opposition to Him. They came with Him, because they came with the Word of God and spoke the truth. He, the Word and the Truth, sent heralds before Him, but the hearts of those He sent were His own.

They came "with Him" because He has always existed, even though He took on flesh in time, as it is written: In the beginning was the Word. His humble advent in the flesh was preceded by righteous men who believed in Him as the one who was to come, just as we believe in Him who has come. The times are different, but the faith is the same. Our faith unites both those who believed He was about to come and those who believe He has come.

All who ever came in opposition to Him were thieves and robbers; that is, they came to steal and to kill. But the sheep did not hear them. They did not have Christ’s voice, but were wanderers, dreamers, and deceivers. He next explains why He is the Door: I am the Door; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.

Alcuin of York: It is as if He said, "The sheep do not hear them, but they hear Me, for I am the Door. Whoever enters by Me, not falsely but in sincerity, will be saved through perseverance."

Theophylact of Ohrid: The door admits the sheep into the pasture: And shall go in and out, and find pasture. What is this pasture but the happiness to come, the rest to which our Lord brings us?

St. Augustine of Hippo: What does this mean, "to go in and out"? To enter the Church through Christ the Door is a very good thing, but to go out of the Church is not. "Going in" must refer to inward thought, while "going out" refers to outward action, as it says in the Psalm, Man goes forth to his work.

Theophylact of Ohrid: Alternatively, "to go in" means to watch over the inner man, and "to go out" means to mortify the outward man—that is, our members which are on the earth. He who does this will find pasture in the life to come.

St. John Chrysostom: Or, He is referring to the Apostles, who went in and out boldly. They became masters of the world; no one could turn them out of their kingdom, and they found pasture.

St. Augustine of Hippo: But He Himself explains it more satisfactorily to me in what follows: The thief comes not, but for to steal, and for to kill... I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

By "going in" they have life—that is, by faith, which works by love. Through this faith they enter the fold, for as it is written, The just lives by faith. And by "going out," they will have life more abundantly. This means that when true believers die, they receive a more abundant life that never ends. Although there is no lack of pasture in this fold, they will then find the pasture that truly satisfies them, as when the Lord said, Today shall you be with Me in paradise.

St. Gregory the Great: To "go in" is to enter into faith; to "go out" is to pass from faith to sight; and to "find pasture" is to enjoy eternal fullness.

Alcuin of York: The thief comes not but for to steal, and to kill. It is as if He said, "And it is right that the sheep do not hear the voice of the thief, for he comes only to steal." He usurps another's office, forming his followers not according to Christ's precepts, but his own. And therefore it follows, "and to kill," that is, by drawing them away from the faith; "and to destroy," that is, by their eternal damnation.

St. John Chrysostom: The thief comes not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. This was literally fulfilled in the case of those who stirred up sedition, whose followers were nearly all destroyed and deprived by the thief even of this present life. But He came, He said, for the salvation of the sheep: that they might have life, and have it more abundantly in the kingdom of heaven. This is the third mark of difference between Himself and the false prophets.

Theophylact of Ohrid: Mystically, the thief is the devil. He steals through wicked thoughts, kills by the mind's assent to them, and destroys through the resulting actions.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Our Lord has made us aware of two things that were unclear before: first, that He is the Door, and now, that He is the Shepherd. I am the good Shepherd. He previously said that the shepherd entered by the door. If He is the Door, how does He enter by Himself? Just as He knows the Father by Himself and we know the Father through Him, so He enters the fold by Himself, and we enter by Him. We enter by the door because we preach Christ; Christ preaches Himself. A light shows both other things and itself as well.

There is only one Shepherd. For though the rulers of the Church—those who are her sons and not hirelings—are shepherds, they are all members of that one Shepherd. He has permitted His members to bear His office of Shepherd. Peter is a shepherd, as are all the other Apostles. All good Bishops are shepherds. But none of us calls himself the door. He could not have added the word “good” if there were not bad shepherds as well. They are thieves and robbers, or at least mercenaries.

St. Gregory the Great: And He adds what that goodness is, for our imitation: The good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep. He did what He commanded and set the example for what He instructed. He laid down His life for the sheep, so that He might transform His body and blood in our Sacrament and feed with His flesh the sheep He had redeemed. A path is shown to us on which to walk, despising death; a stamp is applied to us, and we must submit to the impression. Our first duty is to spend our outward possessions on the sheep; our last, if necessary, is to sacrifice our life for the same sheep. Whoever does not give his substance to the sheep, how can he lay down his life for them?

St. Augustine of Hippo: Christ was not the only one who did this. And yet if those who did it are His members, then the one and same Christ did it always. He was able to do it without them, but they could not do it without Him.

However, all these were good shepherds, not because they shed their blood, but because they did it for the sheep. For they shed it not in pride, but in love. If any among the heretics suffer trouble as a consequence of their errors and iniquities, they immediately boast of their martyrdom so that they may be better able to steal while under so fine a cloak, for they are in reality wolves.

But not all who give their bodies to be burned should be thought of as shedding their blood for the sheep, but rather against the sheep. For the Apostle said, Though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profits me nothing. And how can he have even the smallest charity, who does not love unity with Christians? To command this unity, our Lord did not mention many shepherds, but one: I am the good Shepherd.

St. John Chrysostom: Here our Lord shows that He did not undergo His Passion unwillingly, but for the salvation of the world. He then gives the difference between the shepherd and the hireling: But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep, and flees.

St. Gregory the Great: There are some who love earthly possessions more than the sheep, and they do not deserve the name of a shepherd. He who feeds the Lord’s flock for the sake of temporal payment, and not for love, is a hireling, not a shepherd. A hireling is one who holds the place of a shepherd but does not seek the gain of souls. He pants after the good things of the earth and rejoices in the pride of his position.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Therefore, in the Church, he seeks not God but something else. If he sought God, he would be chaste, for the soul has only one lawful husband: God. Whoever seeks anything from God besides God Himself, seeks unchastely.

St. Gregory the Great: But whether a man is a shepherd or a hireling cannot be known for certain, except in a time of trial. In tranquil times, the hireling generally stands watch just like the shepherd. But when the wolf comes, then everyone shows with what spirit he stood watch over the flock.

St. Augustine of Hippo: The wolf is the devil and those who follow him, according to Matthew: Which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves (Matthew 7:15).

Behold, the wolf has seized a sheep by the throat; the devil has enticed a man into adultery. The sinner must be excommunicated. But if he is excommunicated, he will become an enemy; he will plot and do as much harm as he can. Therefore, you are silent. You do not censure him. You have seen the wolf coming and have fled. Your body has remained, but your mind has fled. For just as joy is a relaxation of the mind, sorrow a contraction, and desire a reaching forward, so fear is the flight of the mind.

St. Gregory the Great: The wolf also comes upon the sheep whenever any plunderer or unjust person oppresses the humble believers. And the one who seems to be a shepherd, but leaves the sheep and flees, is he who does not dare to resist this violence, from fear of danger to himself. He flees not by changing his location, but by withholding comfort from his flock.

The hireling is inflamed with no zeal against this injustice. He looks only to his own outward comforts and overlooks the internal suffering of his flock. The hireling flees, because he is a hireling, and cares not for the sheep. The only reason the hireling flees is that he is a hireling. It is as if to say: he who is set over the sheep cannot stand at the approach of danger if he does not love them, but instead seeks earthly gain. Such a person does not dare to face danger, for fear that he might lose what he so deeply loves.

St. Augustine of Hippo: But if the Apostles were shepherds, not hirelings, why did they flee in persecution? And why did our Lord say, When they persecute you in this city, flee you into another (Matthew 10:23)? Let us knock, and then one will come who can explain.

A servant of Christ and a minister of His Word and Sacraments may flee from city to city when he is specially targeted by the persecutors, separate from his brethren, so long as his flight does not leave the Church destitute. But when all—that is, Bishops, Clergy, and Laity—are in danger together, let not those who need assistance be deserted by those who ought to provide it. Let all flee together if they can to some place of security. But if any are obliged to stay, let them not be forsaken by those who are bound to minister to their spiritual needs.

Therefore, under pressing persecution, Christ’s ministers may flee from the place where they are only when none of Christ’s people remain to be ministered to, or when that ministry can be fulfilled by others who do not have the same reason for flight. But when the people stay, and the ministers flee, and the ministry ceases—what is this but the damnable flight of hirelings, who do not care for the sheep?

On the good side are the door, the doorkeeper, the shepherd, and the sheep; on the bad side are the thieves, the robbers, the hirelings, and the wolf.

We must love the shepherd, beware of the wolf, and tolerate the hireling. For the hireling is useful as long as he does not see the wolf, the thief, and the robber. When he sees them, he flees.

Indeed, he would not be a hireling if he did not receive wages from his employer. Sons wait patiently for the eternal inheritance of their father, while the hireling looks eagerly for temporal wages from his employer. And yet, the tongues of both proclaim the glory of Christ. The hireling causes harm in that he does wrong, not in that he speaks rightly. The grape bunch hangs among the thorns; pluck the grape, but avoid the thorn. Many who seek temporal advantages in the Church still preach Christ, and through them Christ’s voice is heard. The sheep do not follow the hireling, but the voice of the Shepherd, which they hear through the hireling.

St. John Chrysostom: Two evil persons have been mentioned: one who kills and robs the sheep, and another who does not stop him. The first represents those who stir up rebellion; the other represents the rulers of the Jews, who did not take care of the sheep committed to them. Christ distinguishes Himself from both. From the one who came to do harm, He distinguishes Himself by saying, I am come that they might have life; and from those who overlook the plundering of the wolves, by saying that He gives His life for the sheep.

For this reason, He said again, as He had before, I am the good Shepherd. And since He had said above that the sheep heard the Shepherd's voice and followed Him, so that no one might have occasion to ask, "What, then, do you say of those who do not believe?" He adds, And I know My sheep, and am known of Mine. As Paul also said, God has not cast away His people, whom He foreknew.

St. Gregory the Great: It is as if He said, "I love My sheep, and they love and follow Me." For he who does not love the truth is still very far from knowing it.

Theophylact of Ohrid: This shows the difference between the hireling and the Shepherd. The hireling does not know his sheep because he sees them so little. The Shepherd knows His sheep because He is so attractive to them.

St. John Chrysostom: Then, so that you do not attribute the same measure of knowledge to the Shepherd and the sheep, He adds, As the Father knows Me, even so know I the Father; that is, "I know Him as certainly as He knows Me." This, then, is a case of equal knowledge, whereas the other is not; as He said, No man knows who the Son is, but the Father.

St. Gregory the Great: And I lay down My life for My sheep. It is as if to say, "This is why I know My Father and am known by the Father: because I lay down My life for My sheep." That is, through my love for my sheep, I show how much I love my Father.

St. John Chrysostom: He also gives this as a proof of His authority. In the same way, the Apostle defends his own commission against the false apostles by listing his dangers and sufferings.

Theophylact of Ohrid: For the deceivers did not expose their lives for the sheep but, like hirelings, deserted their followers. Our Lord, on the other hand, protected His disciples, saying, Let these go their way.

St. Gregory the Great: But as He came to redeem not only the Jews but also the Gentiles, He adds, And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold.

St. Augustine of Hippo: The sheep spoken of until now are those from the stock of Israel according to the flesh. But there were others from the stock of Israel according to faith—Gentiles, who were still outside the fold. They were predestined but not yet gathered together. They are not of this fold because they are not of the race of Israel, but they will be of this fold: Them also I must bring.

St. John Chrysostom: It is no wonder that these should hear My voice and follow Me when others are waiting to do the same. Both these flocks are dispersed and without shepherds, for it follows, And they shall hear My voice. And then He foretells their future union: And there shall be one fold and one Shepherd.

St. Gregory the Great: From two flocks He makes one fold, uniting the Jews and Gentiles in His faith.

Theophylact of Ohrid: For there is one sign of baptism for all and one Shepherd, namely, the Word of God. Let the Manichean take note: there is but one fold and one Shepherd declared in both the Old and New Testaments.

St. Augustine of Hippo: What does He mean, then, when He says, I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel? He means only that while He revealed Himself personally to the Jews, He did not go to the Gentiles Himself but sent others.

St. John Chrysostom: The word "must" in the phrase I must bring does not imply necessity, but only that it was certain to happen. He then says, Therefore does My Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I might take it again. This was in response to those who had called Him a stranger to His Father.

St. Augustine of Hippo: That is, "Because I die to rise again." There is great force in the words, I lay down. Let the Jews not boast, He says; they may rage, but if I did not choose to lay down My life, what could their raging accomplish?

Theophylact of Ohrid: The Father does not bestow His love on the Son as a reward for the death He suffered on our behalf. Rather, He loves Him because He beholds in the Begotten His own essence, from which such love for mankind proceeded.

St. John Chrysostom: Or, condescending to our weakness, He says this as if to mean, "Even if nothing else made Me love you, this would: you are so loved by My Father that by dying for you, I will win His love." This is not to say that He was not loved by the Father before, or that we are the cause of that love. For the same reason, He shows that He does not come to His Passion unwillingly: No man takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself.

St. Augustine of Hippo: In this, He showed that His death was not the consequence of sin in Him, but of His own will, which determined why, when, and how it would happen: I have power to lay it down.

St. John Chrysostom: Since they had often plotted to kill Him, He tells them their efforts will be useless unless He is willing. He has such power over His own life that no one can take it from Him against His will. This is not true of human beings; we do not have the power to lay down our own lives unless we kill ourselves. Our Lord alone has this power. And since this is true, it is also true that He can take His life again when He pleases: And I have power to take it again. These words declare a resurrection beyond any doubt. So that they might not think His death was a sign that God had forsaken Him, He adds, This commandment have I received from My Father—that is, to lay down My life and take it again. By this, we must not understand that He first waited to hear this commandment and had to learn His work. He only shows that the work He voluntarily undertook was not against the Father’s will.

Theophylact of Ohrid: He only means His perfect agreement with His Father.

Alcuin of York: For the Word does not receive a command verbally but contains within Himself all the Father’s commandments. When the Son is said to receive what He already possesses, His power is not lessened, but His divine origin is declared. The Father gave the Son everything in begetting Him. He begot Him perfect.

Theophylact of Ohrid: After declaring Himself the Master of His own life and death, which was a lofty claim, He makes a more humble confession. He thus wonderfully unites both characters, showing that He was neither inferior to nor a slave of the Father on the one hand, nor an antagonist on the other, but of the same power and will.

St. Augustine of Hippo: How does our Lord lay down His own life? Christ is the Word and man—that is, in soul and body. Does the Word lay down His soul and take it again, or does the human soul do so, or does the flesh? If it was the Word of God that laid down His soul and took it again, then that soul was at one time separated from the Word. But while death separated the soul and body, death could not separate the Word and the soul. It is even more absurd to say that the soul laid down itself; if it could not be separated from the Word, how could it be separated from itself? Therefore, the flesh lays down its life and takes it again, not by its own power, but by the power of the Word who dwells in it. This refutes the Apollinarians, who say that Christ did not have a human, rational soul.

Alcuin of York: But the light shined in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a division among the Jews for these sayings. And many of them said, He has a devil, and is mad.

St. John Chrysostom: Because He spoke as one greater than a man, they said He had a devil. But others proved from His works that He did not have a devil: Others said, These are not the words of him that has a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind? It is as if to say, "Not even the words themselves are those of one who has a devil; but if the words do not convince you, be persuaded by the works." Our Lord, having already given proof of who He was by His works, was silent. They were unworthy of an answer. Indeed, since they disagreed among themselves, an answer was unnecessary. Their opposition only brought out, for our imitation, our Lord’s gentleness and longsuffering.

Alcuin of York: We have heard of the patience of God and of salvation preached amidst insults. They obstinately preferred tempting Him to obeying Him.