John 10:8

All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. ALL THAT EVER CAME BEFORE ME - the false prophets; not as claiming the prerogatives of Messiah, But as perverters of the people from the way of life leading to Him. So Olshausen. ARE THIEVES AND ROBBERS: BUT THE SHEEP DID NOT HEAR THEM - the instinct of their divinely taught hearts preserving them from seducers, and attaching them to the heaven-sent prophets of whom it is said that "the Spirit of Christ was in them" ()....

8._All who came before me. _The words πάντες ὅσοι may be literally rendered, all as many as _came before me _They who restrict this expression to Judas the Galilean, and such persons, depart widely, in my opinion, from Christ’s meaning; for he contrasts all false doctrine, in general, with the Gospel, and all false prophets with faithful teachers. Nor would it even be unreasonable to extend this statement to the Gentiles, that all who, from the beginning of the world, have professed to be teachers, and have not labored to gather _sheep _to Christ, have abused this title for destroying souls. But this does not at all apply to Moses and the Prophets, who had no other object in view than to establish the kingdom of Christ. For it ought to be observed, that a contrast is here made between the words of Christ and those things which are opposed to them. But so far are we from discovering any c...

6-9 Many who hear the word of Christ, do not understand it, because they will not. But we shall find one scripture expounding another, and the blessed Spirit making known the blessed Jesus. Christ is the Door. And what greater security has the church of God than that the Lord Jesus is between it and all its enemies? He is a door open for passage and communication. Here are plain directions how to come into the fold; we must come in by Jesus Christ as the Door. By faith in him as the great Mediator between God and man. Also, we have precious promises to those that observe this direction. Christ has all that care of his church, and every believer, which a good shepherd has of his flock; and he expects the church, and every believer, to wait on him, and to keep in his pasture....

Verse John 10:8. _ALL THAT EVER CAME BEFORE ME_] Or, as some translate, _all that came instead of me_, προ εμου, i.e. all that came as _the_ _Christ_, or Messiah, such as _Theudas_, and _Judas_ the _Gaulonite_, who are mentioned, Acts 5:36; and who were indeed no other than _thieves_, plundering the country wherever they came; and _murderers_, not only slaying the simple people who resisted them, but leading the multitudes of their followers to the slaughter. But our Lord probably refers to the _scribes and Pharisees_, who pretended to show the way of salvation to the people-who in fact stole into the fold, and clothed themselves with the fleece, and devoured the sheep. The words, προεμου, _before me_, are wanting in EGMS, Mt. BK

ALL THAT EVER CAME BEFORE ME - This does not refer to the prophets, but to those who came pretending to be the pastors or guides of the people. Some have supposed that he referred to those who pretended to be the Messiah before him; but there is not evidence that any such person appeared before the coming of Jesus. It is probable that he rather refers to the scribes and Pharisees, who claimed to be instructors of the people, who claimed the right to regulate the affairs of religion, and whose only aim was to aggrandize themselves and to oppress the people. See the notes at John 1:18. When the Saviour says that “all” were thieves, he speaks in a popular sense, using the word “all” as it is often used in the New Testament, to denote the great mass or the majority. THIEVES AND ROBBERS - See...

EXPOSITION JOHN 10:1 5. _Christ the Shepherd of the flock of God_._ _The discourse which now follows was the Lord's parabolic or allegoric reply to the conduct of the Pharisaic malignants. These men, claiming to be infallible guides of the ignorant, to be veritable shepherds of the flock of God, had ignored the advent of the true and good Shepherd, had opposed the Divine call and supreme claim of the Messiah, had set themselves to disturb and dislocate the relations between him and those who saw his glory and found in him the Consolation of Israel. They had excommunicated the adoring disciple who had passed out of lifelong darkness into marvelous light. They had exaggerated the faint glimmer of light which had broken upon their own blindness into true vision. They had said, "We see," and thus shown themselves to be willfully

ALL THAT EVER CAME BEFORE ME ARE THIEVES AND ROBBERS,.... This must be understood with some restrictions, not of every individual person, nor of every individual prophet or shepherd; not of Moses, nor of the prophets of the Lord, nor of John the Baptist, who came immediately before Christ, was his harbinger, and prepared his way; but of those prophets who came, and were not sent of God, and so did not come in by the door; of the shepherds of Israel, who fed themselves, and not the flock, but lorded it over God's heritage; and of such, as Theudas, and Judas the Galilean, who boasted that they were some great persons, but were only thieves and robbers; and particularly of the three shepherds cut off in one month, Zechariah 11:8, supposed to be the three sects among the Jews, and the leaders of them, the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes, especially the former; who were wolves in sheep's cl...

John 10:1. _Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep._ The true Shepherd cares for the flock, the false ones are thieves and robbers who only care for the flesh or the fleece. John 10:3. _To him the porter openeth and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out._ John the Baptist was the porter who opened the door of Christ's earthly ministry by bearing witness that he was the Son of God. John 10:4. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the

JOHN 10:8 h=lqon @pro. evmou/# {C} It is difficult to decide whether copyists added pro. evmou/, before or after h=lqon, in order to make more sense from a highly compressed statement, or whether they omitted the words in order to lessen the possibility of taking the passage as a blanket condemnation of all Old Testament worthies. Although the external evidence for the shorter text is impressive (î45vid, 75 a* E F G M S U G D 28 892 and most minuscules, ita, b, c, e, ff2, l, q, r1 vg syrs, p, h, pal copsa, boms, ach2 goth _al_), and although the divided testimony reg...

CHAPTER 10 _ 1. The Shepherd of the Sheep. (John 10:1 .)_ 2. The Good Shepherd, His Sheep and His Work. (John 10:6 .) 3. At the Feast of Dedication; the Repeated Testimony. (John 10:22 .) 4. Accused of Blasphemy and His Answer. (John 10:31 .) 5. Beyond Jordan; and Many Believed on Him. (John 10:40 .) The teaching of this chapter is closely linked with the preceding event. It has become evident that the true sheep of Christ, belonging to His flock, would be cast out of the Jewish fold. The healed man cast out had become one of