Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that enters not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.
All Commentaries on John 10:1 Go To John 10
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
Verily, verily (that is in truth, most truly and most assuredly), I say unto you, He that entereth not, &c. He puts forth this parable to show who He Isaiah , and who are His rivals and adversaries. The occasion for it was because the Pharisees had cast out of the synagogue for his confession of Christ the blind man whom He had healed. By doing this they signified that Jesus was not the Messiah, but a false prophet; and consequently that they who believed in Him, as the blind man who had been cured did, erred in their belief, and wandered away from the synagogue, and were apostates from their own Church. Christ therefore puts forth the parable of the door of the sheepfold; to show by it, that so far from His being a false prophet, all others who enter not by Him as the door of the sheepfold into the Church of God, are deceivers and counterfeits. And that consequently the synagogue of the Pharisees was not the synagogue of God, but of Satan. Whereas the true Church of God is the Christian Church which Christ founded and substituted for the Jewish Church, and consequently the blind man when excommunicated from the synagogue, entered by faith in Christ into the true, i.e, the Christian Church.
In order that the reader may easily comprehend the whole parable, I will here give a summary of it. (1.) The sheepfold is the Church of God. (2.) The owner is God the Father. (3.) The door is Christ, or faith in Him, who is inclosed by the Scriptures of the Law and the Prophets as by a door firm-fastened with its bolts. (4.) The porter is the Holy Spirit. (5.) The sheep are not merely the predestinated, as S. Augustine held, but all the faithful that are within the Church. (6.) The true Pastors and Prelates are those who enter through Christ. (7.) To these the porter, i.e, the Holy Spirit, openeth, because faith in Christ, by the which they enter, is the gift of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit gives them true and lawful power, so that what they do is ratified by God. (8.) They lead out the sheep, i.e, the faithful, into the pastures of sound doctrine, grace, and virtues, go before them by their own example of a good life, and call them by their names, because they have a care for them severally, and exhort, stimulate, and compel them one by one to better things. (9.) He who enters not into the sheepfold through Christ, but by leaping over the wall, or breaking through a window or wall, is a thief and robber of the sheep, that Isaiah , of the faithful: for he is busy in killing and destroying them. The other matters are mere ornamental additions, and are not to be applied in illustration of the subject.
Let us consider these points one by one, and review them again.
He that entereth not by the door, &c. Such were Judas of Galilee and Theudas ( Acts 5:36-37), and others who pretended that they were the Messiah, or endeavoured to arrogate to themselves that which specially belonged to the Messiah. And such, too, the Scribes and Pharisees were beginning to be, who before this had received legitimate authority from God through the merits of Christ, to teach and govern His people; and were therefore His true Pastors and Teachers. But by opposing themselves to Christ, now present among them, and by turning away the people from Him, they became wolves, nay thieves and robbers of the faithful. So S. Augustine, and from him the Gloss. Against the arrogance of the Pharisees, who boasted they could see, He brings forward this similitude, which shows that neither wisdom nor a good life can avail aught except through Him. And S. Chrysostom says: "By the phrase, another way, He signifies the Scribes who taught the doctrines and commandments of men, and transgressed the law." Such were the false prophets of old, and heretics now, of whom Jeremiah writes ( Jeremiah 23:21). Hear S. Augustine, "Let pagans, or heretics, or Jews say, "We live well;" if they enter not by the door, what does it profit them? And they are to be said not to live well who either know not the end of good living through blindness, or else contemn it through pride of heart."
Tropologically:—S. Augustine, "Lowly is the door, even Christ. He who enters by this door must needs be humble, in order that he may be able to enter without hurting his head by striking it against the lintel But he who humbleth not himself, but wishes to climb up by the wall, is exalted only that he may fall." And the same S. Augustine (Serm. xlix, de Verb. Dom.) says, "He enters by the door who imitates Christ and His humility. He is a "thief" who strives to steal away the sheep from Christ, and claim them for himself. He is also a "robber," because he kills the souls of the faithful, and hands them over to hell." And so S, Augustine (in loc.), "He is a thief who calls "his own" that which is another"s." "By making the sheep of God his own," says the Gloss. "He is a "robber" because he kills what he has stolen," says S. Augustine.
Tropologically:—Salmeron says humorously (Tract, p88), "Men enter ecclesiastical benefices by various means. (1.) By the royal gate, courtiers as recommended by great men. (2.) By the golden gate. (3.) By the gate of consanguinity. (4.) By the gate of gifts (simony). (5.) By the gate of doing service, those who by their obsequiousness are promoted by bishops to benefices. They lie in sickness and wait for the moving of the waters, that is for the vacant post. For he who is first gains favour with the successor, and obtains the benefice."
