The Good Shepherd παροιμία (John 10:1-21) and John’s Implied Audience: A Thought Experiment in Reading the Fourth Gospel

Abstract

It is often said that the Johannine Jesus never utters a narrative parable like those that are so ubiquitous throughout the Synoptics. However, in John 10, we have the closest parallel in the so-called “Good Shepherd” discourse, where Jesus uses a “figure of speech” (παροιµία) to compare himself to a benevolent or noble shepherd. The present article will explore this παροιµία in light of the unfolding narrative Christology over the first nine chapters. Against that backdrop, we will examine the questions: “What historical information can reasonably be inferred as part of the literary construct known as the implied audience?”, and “How has the implied audience been prepared by the narrator to receive this metaphorical speech?”