This coming Sunday is the 4th Sunday of Easter for Year C of the Lectionary Cycle. The gospel is taken from John 10:27-30.  In yesterday’s post we focused on the idea that if Jesus is the Good Shepherd – then what/who constitutes the flock? Who are the sheep that follow the promised Messiah? And in the course, we spend some time nuancing some of the language used in the text.

²⁷ My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸ I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. ²⁹ My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. 

John makes a connection between the sheep who hear the voice of Jesus and believing.  Brian Stoffregen notes that Jesus makes the following statements about his sheep in John 10:27-29 (in a more literal translation of the Greek)

• My sheep are listening to my voice.
• I am knowing them
• They (the sheep) are following me
• I am giving them eternal life.
• They will not perish for eternity.
• No one will snatch them from my hand
• My father has given [them] to me [the word “them” is implied and not stated]
• The middle of v.29 is difficult to translate and can be rendered “My father is greater than all things”, or “what my father has given is greater than all things.”  In other words, is the context taken to be God or what God has given Jesus. Almost all translators opt for the first meaning as the affirmation of God’s greatness seems more appropriate.
• No one is able to snatch from the hand of the father

Listening and Knowing. There are numerous shades of meaning to “knowing” (ginosko) from no direct personal involvement in what/who is known, e.g., “to know about” someone to knowledge gained through an ongoing direct personal relationship with the person. In contrast to the question, “Do you know the Lord?”, the issue in this verse is Jesus’ knowledge of us. Frequently John talks about Jesus’ knowledge (ginosko) of people:

• he knows Nathanael (1:48)
• he knows all people and what’s in them (2:24-25)
• he knows what the Pharisees have heard (4:1)
• he knows that the ill man has been at the pool for many years (5:6)
• he knows that “the Jews” do not have the love of God in them (5:42)
• he knows that the crowd is about to come and make him king (6:15)
• he knows the Father (8:55; 10:15; 17:25)
• he knows his own [sheep] (10:14, 27)
• he knows what his disciples want to ask him (16:19)

With this word (ginosko) and with a synonymous word (oida, e.g., knowing the betrayer, 13:11), John indicates that Jesus (supernaturally) knows what is in people, but this may not necessarily indicate the close, personal relationship that can be implied by this word, which is meant when it is used in reference to “knowing” his own sheep (see also 10:4-5 where oida is used concerning the sheep “knowing” the shepherd’s voice).

Both of these words are used in last week’s text: Does Jesus know (oida 21:15, 16, ginosko v. 17) that Peter loves him, as Peter declares? Does Jesus know (oida 21:17) everything as Peter declares? If so, what is our response to this knowledge that Jesus has about us? Perhaps it is easier to think about not believing that Jesus knows us, then we would believe that we can keep our evil deeds hidden in the dark (3:19-20). Perhaps like the question to Peter, they are not asked for the benefit of Jesus’ knowledge (who already knows the truth), but so that we may know the answer within us.

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