John 10:10

The tenth verse introduces a new contrast, between the good shepherd and the thieves and hirelings. ὁ κλέπτης … ἀπολέσῃ. The thief has but one reason for his coming to the fold: he comes to steal and kill and destroy; to aggrandise himself at the expense of the sheep. θύσῃ has probably the simple meaning of “kill,” as in Acts 10:13; Matthew 22:4; cf. Deuteronomy 22:1. With quite other intent has Christ come: ἐγὼ ἦλθον … ἔχωσιν, that instead of being killed and perishing the sheep “may have life and may have abundance”. This may mean abundance of life, but more probably abundance of all that sustains life. περιττὸν ἔχειν in Xen., Anab., vii. 6, 31, means “to have a surplus”. “The repetition of ἔχωσιν gives the second point a more independent position than it would have had if καί alone had been used. Cf. John 10:18; Xen., Anab., i. 10, 3, καὶ ταύτην ἔσωσαν καὶ ἄλλα … ἔσωσαν,” Meyer. Cf. Psalms 23:1.