The reason we
are tackling this parable is that the Watchtower organization uses
it in order to convince us that there are two orders of Christians,
each with a different inclination, the one being celestial and the
other terrestrial: an assertion totally contradictory to the
Christian Gospel.
We shall see
further down, how the Watchtower assertions are lacking in sobriety,
and how they basically mislead the ignorant reader into another
gospel, different to the one that Christ and His Apostles preached,
regarding the one and only Christian inclination.
(Galatians
1: 8,9, Ephesians 4: 4).
The
misinterpretation of the parable
Following the
various changes to the interpretation of this parable, the
Watchtower preaches the following today:
It
splits the parable into two parables,
which –they assert– speak of different things. The first
part is apparently analyzed in verses
1-6
of John 10,
and the second, in verses
7-16.
The first
parable apparently describes the sheep pen of the Mosaic Law, from
which the Lord Jesus Christ extracted the first Christians, like
sheep (Watchtower, 15-5-1984 page
29). But the
second parable –according to their assertions– describes the Church
in which we find the Saints, who number only 144.000.
(Book: “Lord of
Peace”, page 81).
Outside of the pen of the (supposedly) second parable, we find the “other
sheep”, which, according to Watchtower, are the millions of
“Christians” who have a different hope to the celestial one that the
Lord and His Apostles had.
Further along,
we shall prove beyond any doubt the lameness of this interpretation,
as we proceed to explain the true meaning of this parable of the
Lord.
The parable
and the content of the pen
Let’s look
briefly at what this parable says, from the first verse:
The Lord speaks
of a courtyard (pen) with sheep, where certain thieves try to break
in secretly (verse1).
But the shepherd of that pen enters through the door
(verse 2).
The shepherd is allowed by the doorman to enter; he then calls out
to his sheep by their name, and they listen to his voice, and he
takes them out of the pen.
(verse
3).
In this third
verse, it appears that this pen also has sheep that belong
to other shepherds, because it says that “he calls out
to his sheep by their name”, and that “he
takes his sheep out of the pen”.
The fact is, that
the Lord Jesus Christ extracted His sheep from the Mosaic Law – these were the Israelites, who became Christians. According to
Galatians 4: 4,5,
the Lord became an incarnate man, “in order to buy those who were
subject to the Law, so that they might receive the adoption”.
When He brings
out His sheep, they follow Him, because they recognize His voice,
(verse 3),
and they don’t follow any stranger (verse
4). “Jesus narrated this proverb to
them, but they did not know what it was that He was telling them”
(verse
6).
It appears here
that the Lord’s audience didn’t understand what the parable that He was narrating to them
meant. “Jesus therefore spoke to them again: “Verily, verily I say unto you, that I am the
doorway of those sheep”. Seeing that they didn’t understand
Him, “Jesus therefore spoke to them again” (=repeated)
THE SAME PARABLE,
in another way, so that they would understand it!
If He had narrated another parable –as Watchtower asserts- not only
would they NOT understand Him, but He would have confused
them even more!
But verse
7
is perfectly clear. It says: “He therefore
spoke to them again” (=repeated). This signifies that “He
therefore spoke again” The word “therefore” is an elucidatory
one; it signifies that the words that follow it, are an elucidation
of the words spoken previously. It doesn’t signify another
parable! The word “again”
also signifies the same thing. Jesus
repeated
the same
parable! He didn’t narrate a new one, in order to accommodate the
Watchtower dogmas!
From verse
7
therefore, we have an analysis of
the same parable, and not another, new one, with other symbolisms.
We can see this, from the following:
Time and
function of the flock
In
verse 8, it says the
following: “all those who came before Me were thieves and
robbers, but the sheep did not heed them”.
If the
courtyard mentioned here is indeed the Church, as the Watchtower
asserts, then how did thieves and robbers
come BEFORE Christ? Wasn’t the Christian Church established
(in earthly
time) by Christ Himself, on the Day of the Pentecost, 33
years AFTER the Birth of Christ.??
It is obvious
here, that the pen (courtyard) is NOT the Christian
Church, but the Judean one, just as it likewise is, in the first
part of the parable, prior to
verse 6.
The same thing
also appears in the Holy Bible, in
Acts 5: 36,37.
In that passage, mention is made of a certain Teudas and also a
certain Galilean, Judas, who each attempted to appear as the
Messiah. They didn’t accomplish anything though, because neither of
them was the true shepherd.
In
verse 9, we can see the basic function of
a shepherd with his flock. The sheep need two things from the
shepherd: 1.
shelter,
and
2.
food. Thus, in this verse, the
Lord clarifies that He is the doorway. Should any of His
sheep “enter”´
under His shelter and protection, they will be
saved. “And it shall enter and it shall exit and find
pasture”. It shall enter (the
shelter) and it shall come out
(to graze) and shall find
food. The “food” here, is the spiritual sustenance of the
Church. (Corinthians
I, 10: 3). The verse doesn’t imply that
the sheep will be coming and going from the pen! It is indicating
the two functions of the shepherd for his flock. The sheep –as we
saw in verses 3 and
4-
EXIT from the Mosaic Law,
and they ENTER into the protection of the shepherd Jesus,
into His Church. This is also apparent, in verses:
John 14: 6
and
Ephesians 18:
“No-one comes to the Father, except only through Me”. It
is through Him (as the doorway), that we are led... to the Father.
The origin
of the sheep
The same
appears in verse 16,
where it says: “I have other sheep
also, which are not OF this pen. I must lead them also, and they
(too) shall hear my voice, and it shall be as one flock, one
shepherd.”
This verse says
that, apart from those sheep of Israel of which He speaks, He has
other sheep also, which are not OF this courtyard (pen); in other
words, they don’t originate from the pen of the Mosaic Law.
The word “of”
signifies ORIGIN.
The origin of the sheep of the first group is “of” the Mosaic
Law, and they
are not,
but were,
of this same pen. They were in the
Mosaic Law, but now the Lord has led them out of it. So,
there also exist other sheep, which do not originate from the
Mosaic Law (the
Gentiles),
who would one day join the Israelites – they too would be
gathered into the Church of the Lord – and would thus become one
flock under one shepherd.
“…for
He is our peace, Who made both into one, and Who dissolved
the dividing wall - the enmity within His body - Who abolished
the Law of the Commandments through (His) dogmas, so that in Him, He
might create one new man out of the two, and (thus) making peace and
restituting both of them in one single body for God, through the
Cross…” (Ephesians
2:14-16).
In this
passage, it is as though we are reading the parable, worded in
another way!!
It speaks of the dividing wall (the pen) of the Law that was
torn down, in order for Him to join both groups into one flock:
the Judeans and those of the (other) nations. Thus, they become
“….. one flock, one shepherd..”.
The Watchtower
organization, in its desire to disorient its (non-Greek) readers of
this parable, did not hesitate to alter the text of
John
10 : 16. In its publications (prior to the
official circulation of the NWT in Greek), as is their habit,
it has replaced the word “of”; thus, instead of stating that the sheep
were not “of” that pen, they wrote “in” that pen. In
this way, they give the non-Greek readers of this mutilated passage
the impression that Jesus Christ did not lead the sheep out; that
those sheep are inside the pen, and that other sheep are not.
This is how they attempt to support that the ones “inside” are
inside the Church, and the ones who are outside are
another order, which is outside (!!!) the Church, and who
supposedly have another hope: not a celestial one. But: in their
Greek translation of this text, they didn’t dare make this change,
so what it actually says in there is: “...who are not of this pen”. The Greek reader
therefore can – if he so desires – understand what has been done.
This
interpretation by the Watchtower is improvable and arbitrary, and is
furthermore proved erroneous, as it has resorted to forging the
text of the Holy Bible. But according to Greek syntax, the
fact that the (Greek) text contains the word "of" (or "from")
signifies that the sheep who were in the courtyard not only
originated from that pen, but also that they DO NOT
REMAIN INSIDE IT, and neither does the text in any way say that sheep outside are
placed inside the pen.
Ezekiel’s
prophecy
This parable of
Jesus is directly related to
Ezekiel’s
prophecy, chapter 34. This is a
prophecy that was given to the shepherds of Israel, warning them
that the true shepherd of the Israelites would be coming to free
them from the oppression and the irresponsibility of their religious
leaders. This shepherd would pick out His own sheep from among
Israel and would free them, and would provide them with shelter
and food:
Ezekiel 34:
(2)...Prophesy
thus to the shepherds of Israel…(8)
that: the shepherds have been grazing for themselves, and were not
grazing my sheep,...(10)
behold, I am opposed to those shepherds, and I shall demand my sheep
from their hands, and I shall cease them from herding sheep…...(11)
For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I shall seek out my sheep, and
I shall visit them,
(12)
just as a shepherd visits his flock on the day that he finds he is
amongst scattered sheep, thus shall I visit my sheep, and I shall
muster them from every place that they were scattered….
(13)
And I shall bring them away from the people, and shall congregate
them…(14)
I shall graze them in a good place, and their pen shall be atop the
high mountains of Israel. There they shall rest in a fine pen, and
they shall graze in a lush pasture….(17)
Behold, I shall judge between a sheep and a sheep ...(23)
and I shall render them under one shepherd, and he shall herd them,
my servant David...(25)
And I shall prepare for them a testament..
(28)
and they shall reside in safety.”
In the above
passage, the parallels with the Lord’s parable are more than
obvious. In it, it is evident that the Lord takes the sheep
away from the oppression of the shepherds of the (Mosaic) Law, in
order to bring them into His Church, where they will find
shelter and safety.
Thus, with the
assistance of this passage, it is positively clear that the “pen”
of the parable is the Mosaic Law, and not the Church of Christ.
Every other assertion about two different callings is entirely
groundless.