THE HIDDEN CENTER OF JOHN 10

I recently heard an excellent lesson on John 10, Jesus' teaching regarding the Good Shepherd. But one little verse was skipped over that seemed to be somewhat extraneous to the overall thrust of the chapter – John 10:16. In the NRSV, it reads:

    “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.”

I would like to make the modest proposal that this one verse is actually the center point of the whole chapter. And I base this opinion on the way the whole chapter is organized so as to highlight it, as diagrammed below.

Organization of John 10

    A. Jesus is the Good Shepherd (10:1-14)

            B. The Father and Jesus know one another (10:15)

                    C. Another flock (10:16)

            B'. The Father loves Jesus (10:18)

    A'. Jesus and God are one (10:19-42)

As justification of the above proposal, first consider how the indicated parallel verses echo one another.

Sections A and A' have in common the following words, phrases and concepts:

    In v. 6 the Jews do not understand Jesus' figurative way of speaking, and in v. 24 they ask Him for a plain answer.

    “I know my own” appears in vv. 14 and 27.

    There is a contrast between Jesus saying that he knows his own (v. 14) and the Jews who “do not belong to my sheep” (v. 26).

    “The sheep hear his/my voice” (vv. 3,4,27)

    “The sheep follow him/me (vv. 4,27)

The parallelism between B and B' is indicated in two ways: Two of the grand pronouncements of Jesus regarding his identity appear in v. 15 (“The Father knows me and I know the Father) and 17 (“The Father loves me”). Secondly, both sections stress the voluntary nature of Jesus' upcoming sacrifice through the repeated phrase “(I) lay (it) down” at John 10:15,17,18(2x).

Next, one can look at the internal literary structure that exists within the two longer units A and A'. The first of these sections presents us with an extended back-and-forth contrast between the Good Shepherd Jesus and those who do not care for the sheep:

Organization of John 10:1-14

    Thief and bandit (v. 1)

        Shepherd (vv. 2-4)

    Stranger (v. 5)

            Conclusion: The people do not understand (v. 6)

        “I am the gate” (v. 7)

    Thieves and bandits (v. 8)

        “I am the gate” (v. 9)

    Thief (v. 10a)

            Conclusion: “I came that they might have life” (v. 10b)

        “I am the good shepherd” (v. 11)

    Hired Hand (vv. 12-13)

        “I am the good shepherd” (v. 14)

Then we come to Section A' in which some of Jesus' listeners are prepared to accept that Jesus is who he says he is while others turn against him.

Organization of John 10:19-42

    Divided reactions of the Jews (v. 19)

        Negative (v. 20)

            Positive (v. 21)

                “The Father and I are one” (vv. 22-30)

    Divided reactions of the Jews (vv. 31-42)*

        Negative (vv. 31-39)

            Positive (vv. 40-42)

*This unit is bracketed by two similar statements at the start and end:

    “The Jews took up stones again to stone him” (v. 31)

    “Then they tried to arrest him again” (v. 42)

Getting back to my contention that verse 16 is the “hidden” center of John 10, let us assume (as do most scholars) that it refers to the eventual forming of one people of God from the Jews and Gentiles united under the banner of Christ. Then that theme is certainly an important enough one for John to highlight in his Gospel. After all, Paul devoted three chapters (Romans 9-11) to an elaboration of that same concept.

Unfortunately, that idea alone has not served to unite Christians together and has actually provided us with yet another secondary issue to divide Christendom. For the two main views concerning the eventual role of the Jews in God's kingdom, a very helpful resource to consult on this and other issues is the excellent book by Carl Amerding and Ward Gasque titled The Layman's Guide to Biblical Prophecy.” Chapter 14 of that book presents a debate of sorts between Clowny and Leonard on the relationship between Israel and the Church.

And, in closing, I would be remiss if I didn't note that there are other views concerning what John 10:16 is hinting at. For those interested, see my post titled “Are American Indians the 'Other Sheep' of John 10:16?”