John 10:14-15 - Exposition

The Lord resumes: I am the good Shepherd . He now makes his discourse more explicit. He almost drops the allegory, and merely adopts the sacred metaphor. His self-revelation becomes more full of promise and suggestion for all time. He takes up one of the characteristics of the shepherd which discriminated him from "hireling," "thief," or "robber." And I know mine own, and my £ own know me, even as the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father. This more accurate text, translation, and punctuation of the Revised version brings into living comparison the mutual knowledge of Christ and his own sheep, with the mutual knowledge of Christ and the Father. Christ's personal knowledge of his people is that which comes into their religious consciousness. They know his knowledge of them. They know him to be what he is—to be their Lord God, as they realize his personal recognition and care. The one involves the other (see Galatians 4:9 ; 1 Corinthians 8:3 ). The particle of transition is more than a mere illustration ( καθώς is more than ὥσπερ ; κἀθώς introduces not infrequently an explanation, sometimes a causal consideration, or an illustration which accounts for the previous statement; see John 15:12 ; John 17:21 , John 17:23 ). The knowledge which the sheep have of the Shepherd corresponds with the Son's knowledge of the Father, and the Shepherd's knowledge of the sheep answers to the Father's knowledge of the Son; but more than this, the relation of the Son to the Father, thus expressed, is the real ground of the Divine intimacies between the sheep and the Shepherd (cf. John 15:10 ; John 17:8 ). Then the Lord repeats and renews the solemn statement made at the commencement of the sentence, And I lay down my life for the sheep. Such knowledge of the peril of "his own" involves him in sacrifice. Whereas in John 10:11 this is attributed to the "good Shepherd," now he drops the first part of the figure, and says, "I am laying down my life."