The passage
      v1-5. In chapter 9 of John's gospel, Jesus heals a man born blind. The miracle provokes the authorities because they are at a loss to explain how Jesus, "a sinner", could give sight to a person who has always been blind. The blind man argues the point with the authorities and ends up excommunicated for his troubles. In the end, the blind man sees and believes, while those who see "become blind." Jesus then makes his little agricultural observation. Sheep follow their shepherd. The shepherd comes to the sheep fold, calls to his sheep and out they come, while a stranger, a thief or a robber, has to sneak into the sheepfold and when the sheep hear his voice, they scatter. This story is really not a parable with a hidden meaning, it's just an illustration, an observation that can be applied to the situation that Jesus has just faced; a man has decided to follow Jesus rather than Israel's religious authorities - sheep follow their shepherd, not a stranger.
      v6. We are not told the identify of those who react to Jesus "cryptic observations", but probably it's the same Pharisees referred to in 9:40. They don't really get what Jesus is saying, and seeing his point is not earth-shattering, Jesus moves on to say something that is.
      v7. Using his agricultural observations, Jesus makes a messianic claim about himself. Jesus is like the entrance-way that sheep use to enter the security of a sheepfold, or to move out to pasture. For those with ears to hear, Jesus is saying "I am the gateway through whom the scattered flock of Israel may enter the kingdom of heaven and be saved."
      v8-9. All the false messiah's and prophets, the corrupted leaders of Israel, right down to the "blind" religious authorities of Jesus' own day, are like those thieves and robbers. The flock is scattered before them, but now, Jesus, like a gateway for sheep, provides a way to salvation and eternal provision for God's scattered flock.
      v10. So, God's special people have had to put up with leaders who have brought nothing but destruction, but for no longer. Now there is one in their midst who is the way to an abundant life, a life that is eternal.

"I am the Door"
      My wife would often make the comment "you clergy will have a lot to answer for." She was right, of course; the more we have the more is expected of us. We get up in the pulpit and tell people how they should live, but often struggle to live honoring lives ourselves. We pontificate on the truth, often our own version of truth, since we are infected by the virus of modernism - "I think and therefore, it is true." We manage by manipulation. I well remember a colleague explaining how to guide a committee to an "appropriate" conclusion - pose the problem and wait for someone to come up with the desired solution, congratulate them and adopt it. Oh dear, "thieves and robbers."
      Of course, in the end, the clergy are no different to the people they minister to. We are all flawed, our "righteousness is but filthy rags." Still, there is one flaw that every minister fears, and it is that somehow, by something we do or say, we hide the narrow gateway that leads into the presence of God - we scatter rather than gather, we fail to point to Christ. I know in my own life that the flaws are many, and I fear that, at times, my sin has blurred the gateway, has stood between the lost and their view of Jesus. How will I answer my Lord in that terrible day of his coming?
      It's easy to identify the failings of others, but in reality, everyone us is potentially a "blind guide." It's not hard to stand with the Pharisees who denounced the blind man's faith and who failed to understand why a lost sheep of Israel would follow a shepherd like Jesus, a "sinner" even. Israel had a long tradition of leaders who were little more than "thieves and robbers" and that tradition didn't stop with Jesus. Every one of us has the potential of scattering God's sheep, rather than pointing them to the gateway of heaven.
      So then, we must make this truth central in our lives, such that it permeates all that we do and say. Jesus is the gateway to heaven, the way to be "saved" from eternal death. The whole purpose of his coming was that we "may have life, and have it to the full", that we might have eternal life, a life lived eternally in the presence of God. May we never cloud this truth, either in what we say, or in what we do.

v1
      The intensity of Jesus' confrontation with the Pharisees at the end of chapter 9 is picked up in the parable by first mentioning "that one who is both thief and robber." It is possible that Ezekiel 34 lies behind this parable. Ezekiel describes the religious leaders of Israel as those who destroy the Lord's flock, and speaks of the day when the Lord "will rescue my flock" and "tend my sheep."
      amhn amhn legw uJmin "I tell you the truth" - amen, amen, I say to you. Indicating that the following words should be given weight. "In very truth I tell you", REB.
      oJ mh eisercomenoV (eisercomomai) pres. part. "the man who does not enter" - the one not entering. The participle as a substantive. Referring to the thief/robber (= the Pharisees?).
      thn aulhn twn probatwn "the sheep pen" - the courtyard/fold of the sheep. dia + gen. "by" - through.
      thV quraV "the gate" - door. Here the entrance of a stone enclosure usually capped with thorn bush for security; "gate".
      anabainwn (anabainw) pres. part. "climbs in" - going up, rising up, advancing. Participle as a substantive, "the one climbing over from some other quarter" = "gets into the sheep pen by some other means", TH.
      ekeinoV pro. "-" - that one/he [is a thief and robber]. A single person who is both thief and robber.
      kai "and" - Possibly "or", "a thief or a bandit."
      lhsthV (hV ou) "a robber" - thief. Usually understood as a thief who willingly uses violence to steal, so "bandit", Brown; "marauder, NAB.

v2
      Note how later Jesus is both "the gate", v7 and "the good shepherd", v11. Such has prompted the theory that the parable, as it exists, results from the blending of two separate parables.
      poimhn (hn enoV) "the shepherd [of the sheep]" - a shepherd. Possibly not definite, "is shepherd of the sheep", NAB.

v3
      In the Gk. the sentence covers the whole verse, so: "and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out."
      oJ qurwroV (oV) "the watchman" - doorkeeper, porter, watchman.
      toutw/ pro. "for him" - In the Gk. sentence this pronoun takes an emphatic position, "to him the watchman opens the gate", cf. RSV.
      akouei (akouw) pres. "listen [to his voice]" - hear. "They are attentive to his voice", Cassirer.
      thV fwnhV (h) gen. "[to his] voice" - the voice [of him]. Schnackenburg notes that this construction, the indicative + the genitive of "hear the voice [of him]", rather than the infinitive + the accusative, is used by John of "a believing and obedient listening."
      ta idia "his own [sheep]" - one's own. It would be typical for a number of shepherds to pound their sheep together. The good shepherd knows "his own" sheep, and they know his voice.
      kata onoma "by name" - according to name. Not that he has named each of them, although this was sometimes the case, but he knows them "individually", Dodd.
      exagei auta "leads them out" - Possible allusion to Numbers 27:15-17, Ezekiel 34:13. "Leads them out of the fold", Phillips.

v4
      oJtan + subj. "when [he has brought out]" - Forming an indefinite temporal clause.
      ekbalh/ (ekballw) aor. subj. "brought out" - cast out, driven out. Obviously here a softer sense is intended, as NIV.
      panta "all" - all, every [his own]. Not found in all texts. "When he has brought all his sheep outside", Moffatt.
      emprosqen "on ahead" - [he goes] before, in front [of them]. The shepherd leads his sheep to pasture, the butcher drives them.
      akolouqei (akolouqw) pres. "follow" - follow [to him]. There is the implication that for those who follow Jesus, there are those who don't. It is unclear if Jesus is making a point about those who don't follow him. He has certainly not underlined the point, and as a general rule we are best to look for a single teaching point in an "illustration" like this. The sheep follow the shepherd because they recognize his voice.
      oJti "because" - that. Here introducing a causal clause, "because".

v5
      ou mh "never" - Double negative for emphasis, "never ever."
      allotriw/ (oV) dat. "a stranger" - stranger. Taking the dative of direct object after the verb "follow". The position in the Gk. sentence is emphatic. This "stranger" is probably to be identified with the thief/robber. A general sense seems best; "they will not follow someone else", TEV.
      alla "in fact" - but. Best taken as adversative; "they will not follow a stranger, but run away from him", TNT.
      oJti "because" - Here introducing a causal clause, as NIV.
      ouk oidasin (oida) perf. "they do not recognize" - they do not know. A dramatic perfect translated as a present. "Know" is best rendered "recognize", as NIV. Possibly, "they do not recognize strange voices", Phillips.

v6
      eipen (eipon) aor. "[Jesus] used" - [Jesus] said [to them].
      thn paroimian (a) "figure of speech" - proverb, cryptic saying. Some suggest "parable" (a narrative with symbolic meaning), but the NIV is probably on the right track since v1-5 are but "pastoral observations", Carson, which Jesus will now use to proclaim the gospel. None-the-less, given that John makes the comment that they (presumably the unbelieving Jews, Barrett) did not understand the point that Jesus was making, implies that there is a point to his "cryptic discourse, veiled discourse", Schnackenburg. "Figure of speech", Kostenberger; "Illustration", Phillips.
      de "but" - Here obviously functioning as an adversative.
      ouk egnwsan (ginwskw) aor. "they did not understand" - they did not understand [what things they were which he was speaking to them]. "They did not understand the meaning of what he said to them", Cassirer.

v7
      That Jesus should now identify himself as "the gate" is particularly disturbing for those who have approached the "parable" allegorically. A variant oJ poimhn "the shepherd" exists in the Sahidic text, replacing hJ qura "the gate", but it is obviously not original. The message is simple enough; Jesus is the messiah, providing access into the coming kingdom of God. "Jesus is the gate through whom people may enter and be saved", Kostenberger.
      oun "therefore" - so, therefore. Jesus is now making a point from the illustration.
      palin "again" - again, in so far as. "He explained the figure of speech he had used", Junkins.
      amhn amhn legw uJmin - "I tell you for certain", CEV.
      oJti - that. Here introducing direct speech.
      egw eimi "I am [the gate for the sheep]" - The "I am" statements (pro. + verb to-be + predicate noun) do seemingly take on a self-declamatory status - "I am the messiah [for those with eyes to see]."
      hJ qura (a) "the gate" - the door. Noting that an Eastern shepherd would often sleep in the gateway of his sheep-fold, it is possible to argue that the image Jesus is conveying here is one of protection, but v9 seems to describe the gateway itself, of Jesus being the way in to security, the way out to pasture/plenty. As such the image is messianic, of Jesus the redeemer providing access to the kingdom of God. He "is the gate of the Lord and the righteous shall enter through it", Ps.118:20. Of course, other interpretations are possible, eg. Jesus is the door by which shepherds/teachers approach the flock, "the gate to the sheep"; "I am the gate leading to where the sheep are", Cassirer. Best to go with: "I am the entrance-way for the sheep."
      twn probatwn (on) gen. "for the sheep" - of the sheep. Objective genitive where the genitive substantive, "of the sheep", receives the action of the (verbal) noun, "gate/door", so "for the sheep", NIV, RSV, etc. Possibly, "I am like an entrance-way for sheep to use."

v8
      Drawing on the imagery of Ezekiel 34 Jesus alludes to the thieves/robbers of his "illustration", using the image to describe those who came before him, presumably "the shepherds" of Israel. Given the context (ch. 9) this obviously includes the Pharisees, but in the end, extends to all who have led Israel apart from God's word - messianic pretenders, false prophets, ..... to "their successors in contemporary Judaism", Schnackenburg.
      panteV "all" - Dropped in some texts. Presumably "all" was a bit strong for some copyists. "All others who have come pretending to take care of the sheep", TH.
      pro emou "before me" - Another variant missing in a number of important texts. Barrett suggests that it may have been added to explain the past tense "came".
      ouk hkousan (akouw) aor. "did not listen [to them]" - "The sheep paid no heed to", REB.

v9
      The "I am" self disclosures have a touch of the divine about them, a reminder of Moses and the burning bush, but is this what Jesus intends, or would a simile better express what he is saying? "I am just like the gate for the sheep", TH. Barrett notes the distinction between this verse, "I am the door to the sheep", as opposed to "I am the door for the sheep", v7. An unlikely distinction.
      ean + subj. "whoever" - if [anyone enters]. Conditional sentence 3rd class, where the condition stated in the "if" clause has the possibility of becoming a reality.
      dia emou "through me" - The position in the Gk. is emphatic. Jesus is the "way" to salvation; a person enters the kingdom through him. "By means of which the sheep enter into the fold", Barrett.
      swqhsetai (swzw) fut. pas. "will be saved" - he will be saved, rescued. Naturally, we lean toward "saved", in the sense of eternally saved, but of course "kept safe and secure" behind the gate may be intended. What image is Jesus promoting here? Is it his providential care, or eschatological salvation ("salvation [in judgment] and [eternal] pasture", Haenchen)? Jesus as "the door of heaven", Barrett, seems more likely, cf. Gen.28.17, Ps.78:23, .... Morris allows both ideas here in that salvation entails "delivered from the consequences of their sin and brought into the blessing of God. Here the blessing is described in terms of secure pasturage."
      eiseleusetai kai exeleusetai "he will come in and go out" - Morris suggests that the image here is of free access, "he will come and go at will", Knox.