Rob Colquhoun

Gospel of John

 

How is the Good Shepherd passage in Chapter 10 drawing on Old Testament themes and how is Jesus addressing some issues of his own time?

 

John depends heavily on the Old Testament pastoral imagery in his description of John as the Messianic shepherd in chapter 10. God is shown as the good shepherd and Israel as the people of God who are his flock. Further references show the neglectful rulers of Israel and later the shepherd who suffers death according to God’s will. Jesus addresses the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, the mutuality of Good shepherd and sheep, the Paschal mystery and the issue of leadership for the early Church.

 

God is portrayed metaphorically as the good shepherd[1] throughout the Old Testament. Yahweh is the only shepherd of his people Israel (cf. Gn 49:24). He has the office of Shepherd and gathers and feeds the scattered flock (cf. Jer 23:3, 31:10, Mi 4:6, Ez 34:11-22).God leads, protects and gathers his people. He solicitously and lovingly looks after them. He is the shepherd who brings together his flock.[2]

 

Before Israel settled in Canaan, individual tribes depended on constant wandering of herds and flocks. Flocks and agriculture were the basis of the economy. The shepherd had to care tirelessly for the helpless beasts. This was an important and responsible job (see 1 Sam 17:34-7). There were potential threats as a shepherd of wild beasts and other dangers. The memory of classical nomadic days were tied up with God’s action in salvation history. The shepherd’s task was sometimes done by a close member of the family, sometimes by daughters (see Exodus 2:16).[3] Throughout the Biblical tradition and Jewish literature we see one shepherd leading the one people of God.[4]

 

The imagery of shepherding is so frequent because of the importance of pastoral farming on Jewish consciousness.[5] Raymond Brown talks of ‘nostalgia for the pastoral.’[6] The Psalter has a large number of references to shepherds and flocks.[7] Psalm 23 compares the Lord to a shepherd restoring the soul, leading to green pastures and leading to still waters those in his care. This is a demonstration of God’s unlimited ownership and care of his flock and the manifestation of his spontaneous love. John draws heavily on all this in chapter 10.

 

The people of God are seen to be his sheep or his flock.[8] We read how “He will feed his flock like a shepherd, he will gather the lambs in his arms, he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.” (Is 40:11). In Psalm 100 we read “We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.” (v.3). “Yahweh’s flock” is referred to in Jer 13:17, Is 40:11 and Zech 10:3, and the “flock of his pasture” is mentioned in Ps 95:7. Ezekiel 34 is particularly striking as it describes the people of God as sheep left meandering and scattered as a prey for wolves. The Lord promises to gather his sheep, who are scattered throughout the lands and bring them to good pasture. In John 10, we see the image of the gate of the sheepfold[9] as protecting God’s sheep.

 

The shepherd is also a figurative term for the ruler of God’s people. The shepherd term in not used often to mention a ruling King. The monarchs of Israel could not have the title of shepherd as honour. However, David ‘tends’ Israel (2 Sm 5:2, 1 Ch 11:2 and Ps 78:11). As the monarchy disappeared prophets spoke of a Davidic figure to be shepherd to the people.[10] Moses is referred to as a shepherd (Ex 2:16-3:10), along with Joshua (Num 27:6-7) and David (1 Sm 16:11, 2 Sm 7:8). Moses was accepted as a shepherd to be a positive figure to care for and nurture the flock of God.

 

John clearly develops the idea of the good shepherd from the Old Testament biblical tradition. Bultmann claimed that many features of the Johannine picture of the shepherd are to be explained by the Gnostic tradition rather than the Old Testament.[11] However, many Gnostic sources were written after John and therefore it is unlikely that any writings of syncretism of Gnosticism could have influenced John 10.[12]

 

In the Old Testament we also find a negative view of the shepherd. This is not carried through to the New Testament, but in John 10 we hear of those who come to kill and destroy. We must remember the flight of Jewish leadership to Samaria prior to the destruction of Jerusalem prior to AD 70.[13] The Jewish tradition portrays the false leaders of Israel who did not perform their tasks as leaders and left the people prey to the wolves.[14]

 

There is a strong Biblical tradition presenting the unfaithful leaders of Israel as bad shepherds who consign the flock to wolves. The prophets used the term as denouncing political and military shepherds, who failed due to their arrogance and disobedience.[15] Jeremiah says that the flock was “scattered” (23:1) by the shepherds and the “failure to meet their responsibility” (10:21) as they “led people astray” (50:6). The bad shepherds are warned over fulfilling their role as watchmen for God’s people (Jer 16:17, Ezk 3:17, Isa Lxii:1)[16] In later Rabbinic Judaism in a list of thieving occupations we find that of the Shepherd.[17] In late Judaism, after the exile the Pharisaic Rabbis devalued the occupation of shepherd in Palestinian Judaism. Kenneth Bailey has mentioned what an unfavourable title shepherd was at the time of Christ.[18] In Ezekiel chapter 34 the shepherds are condemned for not coming for the sheep. In 2 Baruch we read that the “Shepherds of Israel have perished.” As John’s good shepherd is a thoroughly benign figure these negative connotations are all ignored in his understanding of the term.

 

The title shepherd undergoes a unique, final development in the book of Zechariah. It talks prophetically of the shepherd who “suffers death according to God’s will and who brings a decisive turn.”[19] God takes over the office of shepherd to gather and feed the scattered flock. In Zech 11:7, we read, “So I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to be slain for those who trafficked in the sheep.” John alludes to Zechariah when he talks of the hired man who abandons the sheep when he sees a wolf coming.

 

The shepherd and flock theme is further mentioned in the New Testament. In Luke 2, we have the only literal mention of real Shepherds who were tending their flocks. In the Gospels we read only of metaphorical applications of the shepherd image.[20] The metaphor of the sheep is applied to those who are lost.[21] The shepherd associated with death and strikes down in Mark and Matthew.[22] The Son of Man, like a shepherd, is also to separate the sheep from the goats at the last judgement. The shepherd is applied to Christ as an overseer of the flock.[23] The New Testament clearly has a strong memory of Israel’s Pastoral period (Heb 11:9, 11:13) and this is a theme Jesus also takes up in addressing issues of his age.

 

Jesus speaks in shepherd discourse in allegorical terms against the Pharisees. “The fact that Jesus uses the image of the despised shepherd to illustrate God’s love for sinners reflects particularly visibly his antithesis to the Pharisees despising of sinners.”[24] The terms thieves and bandits clearly refer to the Pharisees and Priests as well as the false messiahs. Given that earlier in John, the Jews attempt to kill Jesus (5:18), persecute him (5:16) especially over the question of Sabbath observance (9:14, 5:9) and accuse him of demonic possession (7:20, 8:48, 8:52), there is clearly an intense conflict going on. “The insistence that Jesus alone is the good shepherd suggests a claim of some other to be the legitimate shepherd.”[25] The continuation of the argument with the Jews from Chapter 9 highly suggests that the thieves and the robbers refer to the Priests and Pharisees (Jn 1:19, 24, 7:32, 45). As it was the feast of dedication, a feast associated with rapacious post Macabean Priests (cf. Brown) this would clearly make sense. Once cannot help but notice the similarity of the work yard (aule) and the same word that is used with the confrontation with the High Priest (Jn 18:12-27).

 

John also emphasizes the mutuality of the sheep and the good shepherd. Jesus’ shepherding flows from the knowledge and love of his father. This is particularly relevant to his time due to the poor leadership of God’s people. Jesus is the “epitome of pastoral commitment.”[26] In John chapter 9 we read how the Jews throw out a socially marginalized person out of the synagogue- perhaps with this they demonstrate that they are incapable of being shepherds. In John 10:14 we hear how Jesus says “I know my own and my own know me.” This is very reflective of Nh 1:7 where it says “I know my own people and they know me.” But the mutuality of knowledge between shepherd and sheep goes beyond Old Testament parallels as Jesus is willing to die for his sheep.[27] Jesus represents the over abundance of God’s love and pastoral commitment for his people, as their guide and supervisor. It is through the gate of Jesus that a person is saved.

 

The readiness of Jesus to give life to his flock is demonstrative of how the passage deeply reflects the paschal mystery. Jesus the Good Shepherd is willing to sacrifice his life in order to receive it once again. In John 10:18 we read “I lay down my life in order to take it up again.” There would otherwise be no logic in a shepherd losing his life to leave his flock abandoned. John insists that Jesus is the only source of salvation and that God is the only one who has given these sheep and no one can take them from him. The expected Davidic Messiah is eclipsed by Jesus as “Only in the Johannine story is the story of the cross linked with the self gift of the Messianic Good Shepherd.”[28] Jesus “explodes and transcends the possibilities of the image of shepherd.”[29] The image of the shepherd laying down his life for his sheep is “unprecedented in Hebrew Scripture.”[30]

 

John chapter 10 is particularly related to the issue of leadership. Although the Good shepherd discourse does not explicitly mention leadership issues, the author may have had in mind the leader or shepherd of the Johannine Churches. There were conflicts over leadership in the early Christian community.[31] The division (schisma) that the Jews experience at the end of the passage is a frequent event in John and is an accurate portrayal of how Jesus was received by his own people.

 

Overall, the Good Shepherd discourse draws heavily from the Old Testament from the large numbers of references to metaphorical pastoral situations. But John goes further in his use of metaphorical language to explain how Jesus the Good Shepherd lays his life down for his flock.    

 

 

 

 

 

Bibliography

 

Crosby, Do you love me? Jesus questions the Church, Maryknoll, 1990.

Diamuied McGann, Journeying within transcendence. Gospel of John through a Jungian perspective, Paulist press, USA, 1988.

Ed Johannes Bentler SJ and Robert T Fortun, Shepherd Discourse of John 10 and its context, Cambridge University Press, Great Britain, 1991.

Ed. Colin Brown, New International Dictionary of NT theology, Devon, Paternoster, 1978.

Ed. Raymond Brown, The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, Prentice Hall, NJ, 1990.

Francis Moloney, Gospel of John, Liturgical press, Minnesota, 1998.

Francis Moloney, Signs and Shadows: Reading John 5-12 , Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 1996.

G Bailie, Violence Unveiled, New York, 1997.

Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard Friedrich, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Erdmans Publishing, Michigan, 1968.

Howard Brook, Becoming children of God, Maryknow, NY, 1994.

Phillipe M.D., Wherever he goes, Laredo, 1991.

R. Bultmann, The Gospel of John, Westminster, London, 1971

Raymond Brown, The Gospel According to John, London, Geoffrey Chapman, 1978.

Schnackenburg, The Gospel according to St John, London, 1980.

Stibbe, John, JSOH Press, Sheffield, 1993.

Thomas Brodie, The Gospel According to John, New York, OUP, 1993