John 10:11-18
10:11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
10:12 The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away–and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.
10:13 The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep.
10:14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,
10:15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.
10:16 I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.
10:17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.
10:18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”
[11]ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ποιμὴν ὁ καλός. ὁ ποιμὴν ὁ καλὸς τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ τίθησιν ὑπὲρ τῶν προβάτων·
[12] ὁ μισθωτὸς δὲ καὶ οὐκ ὢν ποιμήν, οὗ οὐκ εἰσὶ τὰ πρόβατα ἴδια, θεωρεῖ τὸν λύκον ἐρχόμενον καὶ ἀφίησι τὰ πρόβατα καὶ φεύγει· καὶ ὁ λύκος ἁρπάζει αὐτὰ καὶ σκορπίζει τὰ πρόβατα.
[13]ὁ δὲ μισθωτὸς φεύγει, ὅτι μισθωτός ἐστι καὶ οὐ μέλει αὐτῷ περὶ τῶν προβάτων.
[14]ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ποιμὴν ὁ καλός, καὶ γινώσκω τὰ ἐμὰ καὶ γινώσκομαι ὑπὸ τῶν ἐμῶν,
[15]καθὼς γινώσκει με ὁ πατὴρ κἀγὼ γινώσκω τὸν πατέρα, καὶ τὴν ψυχήν μου τίθημι ὑπὲρ τῶν προβάτων.
[16]καὶ ἄλλα πρόβατα ἔχω, ἃ οὐκ ἔστιν ἐκ τῆς αὐλῆς ταύτης· κἀκεῖνά με δεῖ ἀγαγεῖν, καὶ τῆς φωνῆς μου ἀκούσουσι, καὶ γενήσεται μία ποίμνη, εἷς ποιμήν.
[17]διὰ τοῦτο ὁ πατήρ με ἀγαπᾷ, ὅτι ἐγὼ τίθημι τὴν ψυχήν μου, ἵνα πάλιν λάβω αὐτήν.
[18]οὐδεὶς αἴρει αὐτὴν ἀπ᾽ ἐμοῦ, ἀλλ᾽ ἐγὼ τίθημι αὐτὴν ἀπ᾽ ἐμαυτοῦ· ἐξουσίαν ἔχω θεῖναι αὐτήν, καὶ ἐξουσίαν ἔχω πάλιν λαβεῖν αὐτήν· ταύτην τὴν ἐντολὴν ἔλαβον παρὰ τοῦ πατρός μου.
Comments
As others have remarked, the ‘good shepherd’ is connected to the shepherd-king, ‘the shepherd of peoples’ metaphor traceable in Sumer and Akkad in the 3rd millennium (M. L. West, The east face of Helicon, Oxford, 1997, p. 227). In Homer λαῶν ποιμήν is used of Agamemnon, Nestor, Hector, etc. and in the OT. One of the questions asked in the Iliad is ‘what constitutes a good shepherd of the peoples, and does Agamemnon qualify as such?’ Cf. I Kings xxii 17; Jer x 21, xxiii 1-2, and esp. Ezek xxxiv 5-6 on wicked, insouciant shepherd kings (and further, R. E. Brown, The Gospel according to St John, 1966, p. 397). The metaphor of the shepherd-leader was natural in pastoral societies, as is the vicious wolf. The wolf in v. 12 would have been either the Arabian wolf or its larger counterpart, the Iranian wolf (both smaller and less muscular than the Eurasian grey wolf known in the ancient Mediterranean). On ancient wolves, see S. Lewis & L. Llewellyn-Jones, The culture of animals in antiquity, 2018, p. 352.
[11]ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ποιμὴν ὁ καλός. ὁ ποιμὴν ὁ καλὸς τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ τίθησιν ὑπὲρ τῶν προβάτων:
ἐγώ is not necessary in Greek; and coming at it does at the beginning of the sentence, it lends emphasis.
καλός: ‘good, fine, genuine’ (already in Homer & cl. Gk: LSJ s.v. II).
τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ τίθησιν: τίθησιν, fig., ‘lay aside’ (Muraoka s.v. τίθημι, act. Ib.) his life; τίθημι here means fig. ‘take off, doff’ (as of a garment). Cf. vv. 15, 17 & 18 (θεῖναι αὐτήν).
τῶν προβάτων: : πρόβατον, τό, usu. in pl., ‘cattle’ (in archaic & cl. Gk); but in cl. Attic Gk (Athenian), almost always, ‘sheep’, as here (LSJ s.v.). Cf. the vb προ-βαίνω, ‘step forward’.
[12] ὁ μισθωτὸς δὲ καὶ οὐκ ὢν ποιμήν:
ὁ μισθωτὸς: a substantive, ‘hireling, hired servant’ (cl. Gk: LSJ s.v. II), freq. of mercenaries (in cl. Gk). Here, ‘hired hand’.
οὐκ ὢν, ‘the not being’ is a substantival participle; the negative οὐκ signals a specific person, ‘the man who is not a shepherd’. (If μή were used with the participle, the meaning would be generic, ‘whoever is not a shepherd’.)
14]ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ποιμὴν ὁ καλός, καὶ γινώσκω τὰ ἐμὰ καὶ γινώσκομαι ὑπὸ τῶν ἐμῶν: γινώσκω, koine for γιγνώσκω, connotes knowing through perceiving, The good shepherd knows his sheep by sight and probably by name.
Insights into Biblical Greek Grammar and Syntax 