32‐38. *He defends his language by a quotation from their own Psaltery.* 39‐42. *When they sought to take Him prisoner, He escaped from them, and crossed over to the east side of the Jordan, where many believed in him.* 1. Amen, amen dico vobis: qui 1. Amen, amen, I say to you: non intrat per ostium in ovile he that entereth not by the ovium, sed ascendit aliunde, door into the sheepfold, but ille fur est, et latro. climbeth up another way, the same is a thief and a robber. 1. This verse and those that follow down to the end of verse 18, are a continuation of the discourse directed to the Pharisees, and begun in ix. 39, with which verse this tenth chapter might more correctly have been commenced. The logical connection of the following parable with the close of the preceding chapter is not clear. Some, as St. Aug., say that Christ is proving that the Pharisees were _blind_, else they would recognise Him as the _door_ through which the true fold must be entered, and as the _true Shepherd_. Others, as St. Chrys., think that He is replying to a tacit objection of the Pharisees, to the effect that they refused to recognise Him, not because they were blind, but because He was an impostor. The parable, taken strictly, is a narrative of a probable but fictitious _event_, like that relating to the Prodigal Son (Luke xv. 11‐32). Where, as in the present instance, there is continued or prolonged metaphor, without the description of any event, some would call it an allegory and not a parable; but we prefer not to interfere with a phrase so familiar as “the parable of the good Shepherd.” It will be noted that we speak of parables, and not merely of one parable, for we hold that the parable of Christ as _door_ of the fold is distinct from that of Christ as Shepherd. Our reasons for this will appear as we proceed. To understand the grammatical sense of these two parables, we must bear in mind what were the relations of the shepherd to his sheep in eastern countries, and especially in Palestine.