John 10:8Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

He is not speaking here about the prophets, as the heretics claim, because people listened to them, and through them all who believed in Christ came to believe. Rather, He is speaking about Theudas, Judas, and other rebels.

Moreover, the words “the sheep did not listen” are spoken in praise of the sheep. But nowhere does He praise those who did not listen to the prophets. On the contrary, everywhere He strongly rebukes and condemns them.

From this it is clear that the expression “the sheep did not listen” refers to those rebels.

"All who came." He did not say this of the prophets, as the Manichaeans foolishly claim.

They use this saying to prove that the Old Testament is not from God, and that the prophets were not sent by God.

"Behold," they say, "the Lord said that all who came are thieves and robbers."

But He said this not of the prophets, but of Theudas and Judas and the other rebels.

That He spoke of them is clear from what He added: "The sheep did not listen to them."

For the sheep did not listen to those rebels, but they did listen to the prophets. All who believed in Christ believed through them.

And again: "The sheep did not listen to them." He said this as praise.

But nowhere does He praise those who did not listen to the prophets. On the contrary, He strongly condemns and rebukes them.

Wishing in every way to tame the wild heart of the Pharisees and turn them to sound understanding, He strives to show how useless and dangerous it is to dare to assume leadership.

This is so when it is not through ordination from above, nor through a divine command, but when one imagines, by human folly, that authority can be possessed even if the Giver of it does not will this.

Therefore, having clearly called Himself the door, since He alone brings the worthy to leadership, He immediately sets forth the attempts of old. He does this so that, as though seeing the end of such attempts depicted on a tablet, they might understand clearly.

All who came are thieves and robbers. What is this, Lord: all who came? Did You not come? But understand: "All who came," I said, "apart from Me." In the Latin text praeter means "except" or "besides." Blessed Augustine understands the phrase to mean those who came not from God and without God, and did not proclaim Christ.

Let us recall, then. Before His coming, the prophets came. Were they thieves and robbers? By no means. They did not come without Him, because they came with Him. When He was about to come, He sent heralds, yet He possessed the hearts of those whom He sent.

Do you wish to know that they came with Him, who always abides? He assumed flesh at a definite time. But what does it mean that He always abides? "In the beginning was the Word" (Jn 1:1). Therefore those who came with the Word came with Him.

"I am," He says, "the way, and the truth, and the life" (Jn 14:6). If He Himself is the truth, then those who were truthful came with Him. Therefore all who came without Him are thieves and robbers. They came to steal and to kill.

But the sheep did not listen to them. This is a very weighty question: the sheep did not listen to them. Before the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, when He came humbly in the flesh, righteous men came who believed in Him who was to come.

They believed in Him as we believe in Him who has already come. The times differ, but not the faith. The verbs themselves change according to their grammatical tense when they are uttered differently. One sounds thus: "He will come." Another sounds thus: "He has come."

The sound changes: "will come" and "has come." Yet one faith unites both groups. It unites those who believed that He would come and those who believe that He has come. Though in different times, both entered through the one door of faith.

We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin, came in the flesh, suffered, rose, and ascended into heaven. We believe that all these things, as you yourselves hear from the past-tense verbs, have already been fulfilled.

In the unity of this faith those fathers stand with us. They believed that He would be born of the Virgin, would suffer, would rise, and would ascend into heaven. The apostle pointed to them when he said: "Since we have the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, 'I believed, and therefore I spoke,' we also believe, and therefore speak" (2 Cor 4:13).

The prophet said: "I believed, and therefore I spoke" (Ps 115:1). So that you may know this is one faith, hear the apostle declare: "having the same spirit of faith, we believe." Likewise elsewhere: "I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. And all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. And all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink" (1 Cor 10:1-4).

The Red Sea signifies Baptism. Moses, who led through the Red Sea, signifies Christ. The people crossing the sea signifies believers. The death of the Egyptians signifies the destruction of sinners. One and the same faith is expressed by different signs.

It is expressed by different signs, just as by different verbs. Verbs change their sound according to times, but those verbs are nothing other than signs. Words exist in order to signify. Remove meaning from a word, and only meaningless noise remains.

Therefore all these things have meaning. Did those through whom those signs were given, and through whom what we believe was prophetically foretold, believe anything other than we do? Certainly they believed this. But they believed it would happen, while we believe it has already happened.

For this reason he says: "they drank the same spiritual drink." The same spiritual drink, not the same bodily drink. It was spiritually the same, though physically a different drink. For what did they drink? "They drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ" (1 Cor 10:4).

Behold, then: while faith remains, the signs change. There the rock was Christ. Among us, Christ is what is placed upon the altar of God. There, as a great mystery of the same Christ, they drank water poured forth from the rock.

What we drink, the faithful know. If you look at the visible form, it is another thing. If you consider the intelligible form, they drank the same spiritual drink.

Thus all who believed in that time, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, the patriarchs, and the prophets who foretold Christ, were sheep and listened to Christ. They listened not to a stranger's voice, but to His voice.

The Judge was in the herald. Even when a judge speaks through a herald, the clerk does not write, "The herald said," but, "The judge said." Yet there were others whom the sheep did not hear. In them there was no voice of Christ.

These were the erring, who spoke falsehood, babbled nonsense, devised empty things, and led the wretched astray.

Why, then, did I say that this is a very weighty question? What is hidden and hard to understand here? Listen, I beg you. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself came and preached. The voice of the Shepherd was far stronger when it sounded from the Shepherd's own mouth.

If the Shepherd's voice had previously sounded through the prophets, how much more powerfully did the Shepherd's voice resound through the Shepherd's own tongue. Yet not all heard it. What, then, are we to think? Were those who heard it sheep?

Consider: Judas heard, and proved to be a wolf. He followed Him, but, clothed in sheep's clothing (cf. Mt 7:15), he plotted against the Shepherd. Meanwhile some of those who crucified Christ did not listen to the Shepherd's voice, yet became sheep.

He saw them in the crowd when He said: "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He" (cf. Jn 8:28). How, then, is this question resolved? Those who were not sheep listened, while those who were sheep did not listen.

Some who were wolves followed the Shepherd's voice, while some who were sheep spoke against Him. At last, sheep killed the Shepherd. This question finds its resolution. Someone may answer and say this.

"When they did not listen to the Shepherd's voice, they were not yet sheep, but were then wolves. When they heard the voice, it changed them and made sheep out of wolves. Once they became sheep, they listened, found the Shepherd, and followed the Shepherd.

They began to hope in the Shepherd's promises, because they submitted to His commandments." In one way or another, the question has been resolved. Perhaps this solution is enough for someone. Yet something still troubles me, and I will share what troubles me with you.

Thus, by seeking together with you, I may deserve, through His revelation, to find the solution together with you. Listen, then, to what troubles me. Through the prophet Ezekiel He rebukes the shepherds and says of the sheep: "You did not call back the sheep that had gone astray" (cf. Ezek 34:4).

He uses two words: both "gone astray" and "sheep." If, when it went astray, it remained a sheep, whose voice did it hear, so that it went astray? Without doubt, it would not have gone astray if it had listened to the shepherd's voice.

But it went astray because it heard a stranger's voice. It heard the voice of a thief and robber. Certainly sheep do not listen to the voice of robbers. "Those who came," He says, and we have understood that they came without Him, that is, "those who came without Me," "are thieves and robbers. But the sheep did not listen to them" (cf. Jn 10:8).

Lord, if the sheep did not listen to them, how did the sheep go astray? If the sheep listened to no one except You, and You are the truth, then everyone who listens to the truth certainly does not err. Yet they went astray, and still they are called sheep.

If they were not called sheep in their error, Ezekiel would not have said: "You did not call back the sheep that had gone astray." How, then, did it both go astray and remain a sheep? Did it listen to a stranger's voice? Yet it is clear that the sheep did not listen to them.

Finally, many are now gathered into Christ's sheepfold and become Orthodox from heretics. They abandon thieves and return to the Shepherd. Sometimes they murmur and resent the One who calls them, and they do not know the one who was killing them.

Yet when those who are sheep come into the fold, even not without resistance, they recognize the Shepherd's voice. They rejoice that they have come, and they are ashamed that they had erred.

When, however, in that error they boasted as though in the truth, and certainly did not listen to the Shepherd's voice, and for that reason followed another, were they sheep? If they were sheep, how did they listen to other sheep? If they were not sheep, why were those rebuked to whom it was said: "You did not call back the sheep that had gone astray" (cf. Ezek 34:4)?

Likewise, among those who have already become Orthodox and believe in the good hope, evil sometimes arises. They turn aside into error, and afterward they return from error. When they turned aside into error and were baptized again, were they sheep or not?

Or when, after dwelling in the Lord's sheepfold, they returned again to their former error, were they sheep or not? Certainly they were Orthodox. If they were faithful Orthodox, they were sheep. If they were sheep, how could they listen to a stranger's voice, when the Lord says, "the sheep did not listen to them" (Jn 10:8)?

You sense the weight of the question, brethren. Behold, I say: "The Lord knows His own" (2 Tim 2:19). He knows those whom He foreknew. He knows those whom He predestined. For it is said of Him: "Those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. And those whom He predestined, He also called. Those whom He called, He also justified. Those whom He justified, He also glorified. If God is for us, who is against us?" Add to this: "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things?" (Rom 8:29-32).

But to whom does "us" refer? To the foreknown, the predestined, the justified, the glorified, of whom it is then said: "Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?" (Rom 8:33). "The Lord knows His own" (2 Tim 2:19). They are the sheep.

Sometimes they do not know themselves, but the Shepherd knows them. He knows them according to this predestination, according to this foreknowledge of God, according to the election of the sheep before the foundation of the world.

The apostle also said this: "He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world" (Eph 1:4). Thus, according to God's foreknowledge and predestination, how many sheep are outside the sheepfold. How many wolves are inside. How many sheep are inside. How many wolves are outside.

What do I mean by saying that many sheep are outside the sheepfold? How many are now gluttonous, yet will be chaste. How many blaspheme Christ, yet will believe in Christ. How many give themselves to drunkenness, yet will be sober. How many seize what belongs to others, yet will give away their own.

For the present they listen to a stranger's voice and follow strangers. In the same way, how many inside the fold praise Christ, yet will blaspheme. They are chaste, yet will give themselves to fornication. They are sober, yet later will bury themselves in wine.

They stand, yet will fall. They are not sheep, for we are speaking of the predestined. We are speaking of those whom the Lord knows as His own. Yet while they behave righteously, they listen to Christ's voice.

So these listen, and those do not listen. Yet according to predestination, these are not sheep, and those are sheep.

The question still remains. As it now seems to me, it can be resolved in this way. There is a certain voice. I say, there is a certain voice of the Shepherd, in respect to which those who are sheep do not listen to strangers.

"All who came before Me are thieves and robbers." This means all who came of themselves, not through the door mentioned above, such as Judas, Theudas, and men like them.

But the prophets did not come of themselves. They were sent by God, and they did not enter by some other place, but through the door.

One should bear in mind that Sacred Scripture often uses general expressions to convey only a particular thought.

So here the word "all," πάντες, does not simply mean all those who came before Jesus Christ.

There are similar sayings in David: "All have turned aside; together they have become useless" (Ps 13:3). Yet the true worshipers of God at that time were not such.

And in Solomon: "All is vanity" (Eccl 1:2). Yet virtue is not such.

They are like ravenous wolves in sheep’s clothing. They enslave their neighbors, turning free men into slaves. They are sweet-spoken deceivers of souls, crafty men, yet hidden.

It is difficult to expose them in their craftiness, because they use all their malice and all their strength to capture by their skill those who are inexperienced in it.

The saying, "All who came before Me are thieves and robbers," was not spoken of the Prophets or of the law.

Those who reject the Old Testament would wish this, though through it we too were guided to faith when we believed by listening to Christ.

For in both the Prophets and the law He points to the Scriptures, since they bear witness to Him.

Rather, this was spoken of the false prophets, concerning whom He Himself said, "I did not send them, yet they ran" (Jer 23:21).

For He did not say, "All who were sent," but, "All who came." The Prophets, however, were sent.

It was said to Moses, "Come, I will send you to Egypt" (Ex 3:10). And Isaiah heard God saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go to this people?"

He said, "Here am I, send me" (Is 6:8).

When the hearers did not understand the meaning of the parable, Jesus Christ began to explain it. He does not explain what is self-evident: that by the sheepfold is meant the kingdom of God, the people of Israel (cf. v. 16).

Nor does He explain that by the sheep are meant the members of this kingdom. He directly designates Himself as the door into the sheepfold.

That is, He is the mediator between God and man, the only way into the kingdom of the Messiah and the realm of salvation. Only through faith in Him and submission to Him can one become a member of this kingdom (cf. 14:6).

After this, Jesus Christ says: “All who came before Me” (προ Εμου) “are thieves and robbers.” Earlier He called Himself the only door for the sheep.

The Pharisees did not understand Jesus. Yet the thought underlying this figurative saying had not yet been fully expressed by Him.

Therefore, continuing His discourse, He said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. Whoever enters through Me will be saved."

Now it became clear that He was speaking about the Kingdom of God founded by Him on earth.

It is the Kingdom of people united by faith in Him and by love for their neighbors.

He likens this Kingdom to a sheepfold. But since one must pass through a door into a fold, and one can enter the Kingdom of God only by believing in Him, He calls Himself that door which leads into this Kingdom.

Other teachers also tried to guide these sheep, but many of them were like thieves and robbers who climbed over the wall into the sheepfold.

Such, precisely, were those rabbis who were hostile to the true Shepherd. They refused to enter through this door and rejected Christ. But the true flock of God, spiritual Israel, did not listen to them.

"All who came," and so forth. Above, the Lord called those thieves and robbers who do not enter by the door, but climb up elsewhere.

Therefore, if here He calls by the same names all who came before Him, He means not those who came through the door, but those who slipped in elsewhere.

In other words, He does not mean the true, God-appointed guides of the people, the prophets and the hierarchy, who acted in the true spirit (cf. Chrysostom and Theophylact).

He means all false guides of the people, whoever they may have been: false prophets, false messiahs, and here especially the Pharisees.

They were enemies of Christ and of His spirit, while nevertheless considering themselves guides of the people.

“Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.” In contending with the unbelief and distrust of men, the Savior presents Himself under another image and calls Himself the door.

He is either the door for the sheep, so that they can enter only through Him, as Chrysostom understood it. Or He is the door into the sheepfold, as in v. 4, so that the rulers of the Church can enter only through Him.

But there is no need to separate one meaning from the other here. He is the door both for the sheep and for the shepherds.

St. Hermas wrote: “The Son of God is the new door, because all who are saved will enter the kingdom of God through this door.”

In the first part of the parable (vv. 1-6), the Lord speaks of Himself as both the Door and the Shepherd together. Then the Lord explains each meaning separately.

At the beginning (vv. 7-10), He speaks of the meaning of the Door: “I am the Door.” Below (from vv. 11-16), He speaks of the meaning of the Shepherd: “I am the good Shepherd.”

In relation to the whole Christian world, He is the Door. In relation to each member of Christ’s community, He is the good Shepherd.

“I Myself will seek My sheep,” says the Lord through Ezekiel (Ezek 34:11). He Himself, in the image of a shepherd, spoke of how He seeks the lost sheep in the mountains (Matt 18:12).

At the beginning He commanded the Apostles to go “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt 10:6).