John 10:8 “All who came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.”

Who is Jesus referring to?

1. All, without exception?  This is a very sweeping statement.  To be sure, our Lord would be very far from rejecting the witness of Moses, the prophets and John the Baptist, for whom he had the utmost respect (Jn 1:17, 19–36; 5:39, 46; 8:56).

Nevertheless, Klink maintains that the reference is rather broad:

‘There is and has never been access to God other than through Christ. Rather than being a statement about the first century alone, this is a cosmological interpretation of the history of religious teaching. While this need not include as “thieves and robbers” the faithful OT prophets, since they were true heralds of Christ, even the “shepherding” of Moses and the other OT prophets was insufficient in and of itself; they were temporary shepherds who shepherded through a veil which is only removed in the presence of the true shepherd (2 Cor 3:7–18). The “exclusiveness and absoluteness” of Christ not only supplements previous shepherding but fulfills it.’

2. Those who had ill-treated the man born blind?  Kruse favours this interpretation, noting that

‘the man born blind certainly did not listen to them. Those who belong to Jesus, the true shepherd, do not respond to voices such as theirs.’

But if the first option is too broad, then this one is too narrow.

3. Messianic pretenders?  See Mt 24:24; Mk 13:22.  Carson:

‘It sounds…as if reference is being made to messianic pretenders who promise the people freedom but who lead them into war, suffering and slavery.’

Barrett:

‘The thieves and robbers of this verse must be the same as those of v. 1, who climb up ‘some other way’, false messianic claimants and bogus ‘saviours’.’

4. The Jewish religious leaders of the day?  This overlaps with the previous option.  Morris thinks this must be the reference, rather than the OT patriarchs and prophets, for whom he had nothing but respect.  ‘Before me’ belongs to the imagery, in the sense that the shepherd would come first thing in the morning, whereas thieves and robbers would strike at night-time. In fact, Jesus does not say that these ‘were’, but that they ‘are’ thieves and robbers.

Ryle, admitting the difficulty of this statement, says:

‘I can only conjecture that the sentence must be paraphrased in this way: “All who have come into the Church professing to be teachers, claiming honour for themselves instead of Me, or honouring anything in preference to Me, such as you Pharisees,—all such are not true shepherds, but thieves and robbers.”’

Whitacre agrees that, in context, Jesus is referring to the Jewish rulers who claimed to be mediators of salvation, but, unlike Moses, the prophets and John the Baptist, did not witness to Jesus.

Burge:

‘The most likely target of Jesus’ criticism is the Pharisees, who have been the subject of Jesus’ teaching since chapter 9.’

Beasley-Murray:

‘The saying is directed against those who claim to be mediators of salvation. As such it would embrace false messiahs within Judaism and redeemer gods of the pagan world, and in the present context, perhaps even more obviously, Pharisees who claimed to hold the keys of the kingdom (cf. Matt 23:13 = Luke 11:52) and in the perspective of the Gospel their successors in contemporary Judaism.’

Bruner thinks that the sense is of people who ‘put themselves up in front of’ Jesus:

‘These influential religious persons were apparently not open to the one major hope of the people of God: the coming of the promised Messiah. They look straight past him and past his good signs and his healed persons and see only heresy, false teaching, and blasphemy.’

Lincoln:

‘As in v. 1, the primary referent is the Jewish leaders, such as the Pharisees in chapter 9 who have refused Jesus’ witness and whose attempt to gain access to the sheep by unauthorized means entails that the sheep did not listen to them.’