4. I Am the Good Shepherd

Question 1

1. Context

Answer 1

• Jesus uses imagery that is very familiar to 1st century Jews.
• Shepherds were the lowest-paid farm workers, with little incentive to risk their lives to protect someone else’s flock from “thieves and robbers”.

Question 2

2. Symbolism

Answer 2

• Sheep represent Jewish people
• “lost sheep of Israel” – Matthew
• Jesus being “the gate” is symbolic of him being the path to Eternal Life
• Brown: suggests “thieves and robbers” are the Pharisees
• They claim to offer way to God through legalism, but ordinary people can’t keep all the rules the Pharisees lay down.
• But they can believe in Jesus.

Question 3

3. Davidic

Answer 3

• Idea of the heroic shepherd goes back to King David (who was a shepherd)

• David thought off lions to defend his father’s flock
• Jesus also defends his father’s flock but his father is God.

• While David fought lions, Jesus faces religious groups and the Roman Empire.

Question 4

4. Implications

Answer 4

• Earliest Christian leaders were called pastors (Latin for ‘shepherd’)
• Brown: proposes that Johannine Community accepted Jesus as the true ‘pastor’

Question 5

Summary

Answer 5

1. Context
2. Symbolism
3. Davidic
4. Implications