Discovery BoxJohn 10:8-12 
Context10:8 All who came before me were 1 thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 2 10:9 I am the door. If anyone enters through me, he will be saved, and will come in and go out, 3 and find pasture. 4 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill 5 and destroy; I have come so that they may have life, and may have it abundantly. 6
10:11 “I am the good 7 shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life 8 for the sheep. 10:12 The hired hand, 9 who is not a shepherd and does not own sheep, sees the wolf coming and abandons 10 the sheep and runs away. 11 So the wolf attacks 12 the sheep and scatters them.
1 tn Grk “are” (present tense).
2 tn Or “the sheep did not hear them.”
3 tn Since the Greek phrase εἰσέρχομαι καὶ ἐξέρχομαι (eisercomai kai exercomai, “come in and go out”) is in some places an idiom for living or conducting oneself in relationship to some community (“to live with, to live among” [cf. Acts 1:21; see also Num 27:17; 2 Chr 1:10]), it may well be that Jesus’ words here look forward to the new covenant community of believers. Another significant NT text is Luke 9:4, where both these verbs occur in the context of the safety and security provided by a given household for the disciples. See also BDAG 294 s.v. εἰσέρχομαι 1.b.β.
4 sn That is, pasture land in contrast to cultivated land.
5 tn That is, “to slaughter” (in reference to animals).
6 tn That is, more than one would normally expect or anticipate.
7 tn Or “model” (see R. E. Brown, John [AB], 1:386, who argues that “model” is a more exact translation of καλός [kalos] here).
8 tn Or “The good shepherd dies willingly.”
sn Jesus speaks openly of his vicarious death twice in this section (John 10:11, 15). Note the contrast: The thief takes the life of the sheep (10:10), the good shepherd lays down his own life for the sheep. Jesus is not speaking generally here, but specifically: He has his own substitutionary death on the cross in view. For a literal shepherd with a literal flock, the shepherd’s death would have spelled disaster for the sheep; in this instance it spells life for them (Compare the worthless shepherd of Zech 11:17, by contrast).
9 sn Jesus contrasts the behavior of the shepherd with that of the hired hand. This is a worker who is simply paid to do a job; he has no other interest in the sheep and is certainly not about to risk his life for them. When they are threatened, he simply runs away.
10 tn Grk “leaves.”
11 tn Or “flees.”
12 tn Or “seizes.” The more traditional rendering, “snatches,” has the idea of seizing something by force and carrying it off, which is certainly possible here. However, in the sequence in John 10:12, this action precedes the scattering of the flock of sheep, so “attacks” is preferable.
