Good Shepherd

The Good Shepherd is a pericope found in in which Jesus is depicted as the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. Similar imagery is used in Psalm 23. The Good Shepherd is revisited throughout the four Gospels in references to Jesus not letting himself lose any of his sheep. 
The surrounding context of the allegorical story of the Good Shepherd ( and ) shows that the people around Jesus realized that he was asserting that he was God. Biblical scholar Donald Guthrie maintains that the reaction of the Jews (picking up stones to stone him) shows that they understood that Jesus was asserting his own divinity. (Cf. Leviticus chapter 24, verse 16: "He who blasphemes the name of Yahweh, he shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall certainly stone him...." WEB)
==Early Christian art==
The image of the Good Shepherd, adopting the form of the classical Kriophoros, is the most common of the symbolic representations of Christ found in Early Christian art in the Catacombs of Rome, before Christian imagery could be made explicit. The image continued to be used in the centuries after Christianity was legalized in 313. Initially it was probably not understood as a portrait of Jesus, but a symbol like others used in Early Christian art,Eduard Syndicus; Early Christian Art; pp. 21-3, Burns & Oates, London, 1962 and in some cases may also represent the Shepherd of Hermas, a popular Christian literary work of the 2nd century.The Two Faces of Jesus by Robin M. Jensen, Bible Review, 17.8, October 2002Understanding Early Christian Art by Robin M. Jensen, Routledge, 2000 However, by about the 5th century the figure more often took on the appearance of the conventional depiction of Christ, as it had developed by this time, and was given a halo and rich robes,Syndicus, 130-131 as on the apse mosaic in the church of Santi Cosma e Damiano in Rome, or at Ravenna (right).
==Text==
From (WEB):
==Parable==
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia article on Parables: "There are no parables in St. John's Gospel" and the Encyclopædia Britannica article on Gospel of St. John: "Here Jesus' teaching contains no parables and but three allegories, the Synoptists present it as parabolic through and through." is potentially a stand-alone parable of Jesus, which UBS calls "Parable of the Sheepfold", calls it a "figure of speech", Strong's G3942, however, states I am the gate, which makes it a metaphor. Several authors such as Barbara Reid, Arland Hultgren or Donald Griggs comment that "parables are noticeably absent from the Gospel of John".Barbara Reid, 2001 Parables for Preachers ISBN 0814625509 page 3Arland J. Hultgren, 2002 The Parables of Jesus ISBN 080286077X page 2Donald L. Griggs, 2003 The Bible from scratch ISBN 0664225772 page 52According to the Catholic Encyclopedia article on Parables: "There are no parables in St. John's Gospel" and the Encyclopædia Britannica article on Gospel of St. John: "Here Jesus' teaching contains no parables and but three allegories, the Synoptists present it as parabolic through and through."
==Notes==
==External links==
*Holman Bible Dictionary - "Shepherd" for other Biblical references.
Good Shepherd
Category:New Testament words and phrases
Category:Iconography of Jesus