There is another approach we should take. So the overall context, moving from John 9-10, down to the discourse, and then down to the parable in John 10:7-10, makes it clear that the thief is a reference to the failed leaders of Israel. Within a single parable, we expect the symbols to stay the same, so there is no reason to think that Jesus has started to talk about Satan. There is no hint that he has switched topics. Third, within this particular parable – only one short paragraph! – Jesus is clear that “all who came before me are thieves and bandits… the thief comes only to kill and steal and destroy” (John 10:8-10). Finally, they are the hired hands who abandon the sheep at the first sign of danger, while Jesus is the good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep (John 10:11-18). Then they are thieves who bring death, while Jesus is the sheepfold gate that brings life (John 10:7-10). They are foolish gatekeepers who cannot tell the difference between a thief and a shepherd (John 10:1-6). Second, each of the three parables is about a contrast between Jesus and the failed leaders. Thomas Cajetan commented in the early 1500s that “the person who divided the text of the Gospel into chapters was not very judicious in beginning John 10 here.” Jesus goes directly from condemning the Pharisees in John 9:39-40 to a set of parables that contrasted his own leadership with that of the Pharisees. There is no natural break between John 9 and 10 in fact, that particular chapter break was probably improperly placed. Once we look at the whole discourse, it becomes clear that the thief does not refer to Satan, but to Jesus’ opponents, the self-serving human leaders of Israel.įirst, the entire shepherd discourse is a direct response to the Pharisees’ mistreatment of one of Jesus’ sheep, the blind man (John 9). So if we want to understand what Jesus meant by thief, we need to (surprise!) look at the context. But is that what Jesus meant?Īll of John 10:1-18 hangs together as a single discourse, split up into three connected shepherd parables. In Jesus’ Shepherd Discourse in John 10, Jesus contrasts himself with “the thief.” “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy I came that they may have life and have it in abundance.” If you hear this verse quoted in a sermon, or see how people use this verse online, you will usually hear that the thief is Satan.

He will come like a thief in the night