Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
John 10:11
There are 29 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 84, footnote 20 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Ignatius (HTML)
Epistle to the Philadelphians: Shorter and Longer Versions (HTML)
Chapter IX.—The Old Testament is good: the New Testament is better. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 961 (In-Text, Margin)
The priests indeed, and the ministers of the word, are good; but the High Priest is better, to whom the holy of holies has been committed, and who alone has been entrusted with the secrets of God. The ministering powers of God are good. The Comforter is holy, and the Word is holy, the Son of the Father, by whom He made all things, and exercises a providence over them all. This is the Way which leads to the Father, the Rock, the Defence, the Key, the Shepherd,[John 10:11] the Sacrifice, the Door of knowledge, through which have entered Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, Moses and all the company of the prophets, and these pillars of the world, the apostles, and the spouse of Christ, on whose account He poured out His own blood, as her ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 222, footnote 6 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Instructor (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
Chapter VII.—Who the Instructor Is, and Respecting His Instruction. (HTML)
He is called Jesus. Sometimes He calls Himself a shepherd, and says, “I am the good Shepherd.”[John 10:11] According to a metaphor drawn from shepherds, who lead the sheep, is hereby understood the Instructor, who leads the children—the Shepherd who tends the babes. For the babes are simple, being figuratively described as sheep. “And they shall all,” it is said, “be one flock, and one shepherd.” The Word, then, who leads the children to salvation, is appropriately called the Instructor (Pædagogue).
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 234, footnote 6 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Instructor (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
Chapter XI.—That the Word Instructed by the Law and the Prophets. (HTML)
... The divine Instructor is trustworthy, adorned as He is with three of the fairest ornament”—knowledge, benevolence, and authority of utterance;—with knowledge, for He is the paternal wisdom: “All Wisdom is from the Lord, and with Him for evermore;”—with authority of utterance, for He is God and Creator: “For all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made;” —and with benevolence, for He alone gave Himself a sacrifice for us: “For the good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep;”[John 10:11] and He has so given it. Now, benevolence is nothing but wishing to do good to one’s neighbour for his sake.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 339, footnote 1 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
Chapter XXVI.—Moses Rightly Called a Divine Legislator, And, Though Inferior to Christ, Far Superior to the Great Legislators of the Greeks, Minos and Lycurgus. (HTML)
It is the wise man, therefore, alone whom the philosophers proclaim king, legislator, general, just, holy, God-beloved. And if we discover these qualities in Moses, as shown from the Scriptures themselves, we may, with the most assured persuasion, pronounce Moses to be truly wise. As then we say that it belongs to the shepherd’s art to care for the sheep; for so “the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep;”[John 10:11] so also we shall say that legislation, inasmuch as it presides over and cares for the flock of men, establishes the virtue of men, by fanning into flame, as far as it can, what good there is in humanity.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 80, footnote 9 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
On Modesty. (HTML)
Of the Parables of the Lost Ewe and the Lost Drachma. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 783 (In-Text, Margin)
... credible that he configured it but to the lost heathen, about whom the question was then in hand,—not about a Christian, who up to that time had no existence? Else, what kind of (hypothesis) is it that the Lord, like a quibbler in answering, omitting the present subject-matter which it was His duty to refute, should spend His labour about one yet future? “But a ‘sheep’ properly means a Christian, and the Lord’s ‘flock’ is the people of the Church, and the ‘good shepherd’ is Christ;[John 10:11] and hence in the ‘sheep’ we must understand a Christian who has erred from the Church’s ‘flock.’” In that case, you make the Lord to have given no answer to the Pharisees’ muttering, but to your presumption. And yet you will be bound so to defend ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 280, footnote 6 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Epistles of Cyprian. (HTML)
From the Roman Clergy to the Carthaginian Clergy, About the Retirement of the Blessed Cyprian. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2131 (In-Text, Margin)
... that “we have not sought for that which was lost, and have not corrected the wanderer, and have not bound up that which was broken, but have eaten their milk, and been clothed with their wool;” and then also the Lord Himself, fulfilling what had been written in the law and the prophets, teaches, saying, “I am the good shepherd, who lay down my life for the sheep. But the hireling, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth, and the wolf scattereth them.”[John 10:11-12] To Simon, too, He speaks thus: “Lovest thou me? He answered, I do love Thee. He saith to him, Feed my sheep.” We know that this saying arose out of the very circumstance of his withdrawal, and the rest of the disciples did likewise.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 265, footnote 3 (Image)
Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius
Peter of Alexandria. (HTML)
The Genuine Acts of Peter. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2260 (In-Text, Margin)
This most sagacious pontiff then, perceiving the cruel device of the tribunes, who, in order to bring about his death, were willing to put to the sword the whole Christian multitude that was present, was unwilling that they should together with him taste the bitterness of death, but as a faithful servant imitating his Lord and Saviour, whose acts were even as his words, “The good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep,”[John 10:11] prompted by his piety, called to him an elder of those who there waited on his words, and said to him: “Go to the tribunes who seek to kill me, and say to them, Cease ye from all your anxiety, lo! I am ready and willing of mine own accord to give myself to them.” Bid them come this ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 405, footnote 2 (Image)
Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies
Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)
Book II. Of Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons (HTML)
Sec. III.—How the Bishop is to Treat the Innocent, the Guilty, and the Penitent (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2690 (In-Text, Margin)
... away in them; how shall we then live?” As far as possible, therefore, let the bishop make the offence his own, and say to the sinner, Do thou but return, and I will undertake to suffer death for thee, as our Lord suffered death for me, and for all men. For “the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep; but he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, that is, the devil, and he leaveth the sheep, and fleeth, and the wolf seizes upon them.”[John 10:11-12] We must know, therefore, that God is very merciful to those who have offended, and hath promised repentance with an oath. But he who has offended, and is unacquainted with this promise of God concerning repentance, and does not understand His ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 100, footnote 19 (Image)
Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen
The Diatessaron of Tatian. (HTML)
The Diatessaron. (HTML)
Section XXXVII. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2533 (In-Text, Margin)
[10] Jesus said unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the [11] sheep. And all that came are thieves and stealers: but the sheep heard them not. [12] I am the door: and if a man enter by me, he shall live, and shall go in and go out, [13] and shall find pasture. And the stealer cometh not, save that he may steal, and kill, and destroy: but I came that they might have life, and that they might have [14] the thing that is better.[John 10:11] I am the good shepherd; and the good shepherd giveth [15] himself for his sheep. But the hireling, who is not a shepherd, and whose the sheep are not, when he seeth the wolf as it cometh, leaveth the sheep, and fleeth, [16] and the wolf cometh, and snatcheth away ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 518, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)
The tenth chapter of the Gospel of John. Of the shepherd, and the hireling, and the thief. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4073 (In-Text, Margin)
3. When our Lord then was speaking on this occasion, He said, that He is “the Shepherd,” He said also that He is “the Door.” You find them both in that place, both “I am the Door” and “I am the Shepherd.”[John 10:11] In the Head He is the Door, the Shepherd in the Body. For He saith to Peter, in whom singly He formeth the Church; “Peter, lovest thou Me?” He answered, “Lord, I do love Thee.” “Feed My sheep.” And a third time, “Peter, lovest thou Me?” “Peter was grieved because He asked him the third time;” as though He who saw the conscience of the denier, saw not the confessor’s faith. He had known him ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 519, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)
The tenth chapter of the Gospel of John. Of the shepherd, and the hireling, and the thief. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4082 (In-Text, Margin)
5. But the Lord mentioned three characters, and our duty is to search them out in the Gospel, that of the shepherd, the hireling, and the thief. I suppose you took notice when the lesson was being read, that He marked out the shepherd, the hireling, and the thief. “The Shepherd,” said He, “layeth down His life for the sheep,”[John 10:11] and entereth in by the door. The thief and the robber, said He, go up by another way. “The hireling,” He said, if he seeth a wolf or even a thief, “fleeth; because he careth not for the sheep;” for he is an hireling, not a shepherd. The one entereth in by the door, because he is the shepherd; the second goeth up another way, because ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 523, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)
On the words of the Gospel, John x. 14, ‘I am the good shepherd,’ etc. Against the Donatists. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4124 (In-Text, Margin)
1. have heard the Lord Jesus setting forth to us the office of a good shepherd. And herein He hath doubtless given us to know, as we may understand it, that there are good shepherds. And yet that the multitude of shepherds might not be understood in a wrong sense; He saith, “I am the good Shepherd.”[John 10:11] And wherein He is the good Shepherd, He showeth in the words following; “The good Shepherd,” saith He, “layeth down His life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, seeth the wolf coming, and fleeth; because he careth not for the sheep, for he is an hireling.” Christ then is the good Shepherd. What was Peter? was he not a ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 420, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXXVII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4036 (In-Text, Margin)
... and not being any of these things in external properties, It can be everything in figure. Is Christ a door, in the same sense as the doors we see made by carpenters? Surely not; and yet He said, “I am the door.” Or a shepherd, in the same capacity as those who guard sheep? though He said, “I am the Shepherd.” Both these names occur in the same passage: in the Gospel, He said, that the shepherd enters by the door: the words are, “I am the good Shepherd;” and in the same passage, “I am the door:”[John 10:11] and who is the shepherd who enters by the door? “I am the good Shepherd:” and what is the door by which Thou, Good Shepherd, enterest? How then art Thou all things? In the sense in which everything is through Me. To explain: when Paul enters by the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 516, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CIV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4748 (In-Text, Margin)
... beasts of the forest shall move” (ver. 20).…Here the beasts of the forest are used in different ways: for these things are always understood in varying senses; as our Lord Himself is at one time termed a lion, at another a lamb. What is so different as a lion and a lamb? But what sort of lamb? One that could overcome the wolf, overcome the lion. He is the Rock, He the Shepherd, He the Gate. The Shepherd entereth by the gate: and He saith, “I am the good Shepherd:” and, “I am the Door of the Sheep.”[John 10:11] …Learn thus to understand, when these things are spoken figuratively; lest perchance when ye have read that the Rock signifieth Christ, ye may understand it to mean Him in every passage. In one place it meaneth one thing, another in another, just as ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 553, footnote 9 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CXV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5072 (In-Text, Margin)
10. For the great ones, of the house of Aaron, have said, “May the Lord increase you more and more, you and your children” (ver. 14). And thus it hath happened. For children that have been raised even from the stones have flocked unto Abraham: sheep which were not of this fold, have flocked unto him, that there might be one flock, and one shepherd;[John 10:1-16] the faith of all nations was added, and the number grew, not only of wise priests, but of obedient peoples; the Lord increasing not only their fathers more and more, who in Christ might show the way to the rest who should imitate them, but also their children, who should follow their fathers’ pious footsteps.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 650, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CXLII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5803 (In-Text, Margin)
... because he is caught, or because he is brave. For both from him that is caught flight hath perished, and from him that is brave flight hath perished. What flight then is to be avoided? what flight shall we allow to perish from us? That whereof the Lord speaketh in the Gospel, “The Good Shepherd layeth down his life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, when he seeth the wolf coming, fleeth.” When he seeth the ravager, why fleeth he? “Because he careth not for the sheep.”[John 10:11] …In two ways a man’s life is sought, either by his persecutors or by his lovers. So then “there is none to seek my life,” he said of them; verily they persecute my life, and they seek not my life. But if they seek my life, they will find it clinging ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 136, footnote 1 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
Homilies on S. Ignatius and S. Babylas. (HTML)
Eulogy. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 368 (In-Text, Margin)
... not knowing to which we are first to give our consideration, as each of the things we see draws us away from its neighbours, and entices the eye of the soul to the sight of its own beauty. For see, he presided over the Church among us nobly, and with such carefulness as Christ desires. For that which Christ declared to be the highest standard and rule of the Episcopal office, did this man display by his deeds. For having heard Christ saying, the good shepherd layeth down his life for the sheep,[John 10:11] with all courage he did lay it down for the sheep.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 203, footnote 6 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
Homily on the Passage (Matt. xxvi. 19), 'Father If It Be Possible Let This Cup Pass from Me,' Etc., and Against Marcionists and Manichæans. (HTML)
Against Marcionists and Manichæans. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 655 (In-Text, Margin)
... vituperated the disciple, and poured such an invective upon him as actually to call him Satan (after having bestowed such great praise on him), because he said “avoid crucifixion,” how could He desire not to be crucified? and how after these things when drawing the picture of the good shepherd could He declare this to be the special proof of his virtue, that he should be sacrificed for the sake of the sheep, thus saying, “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd layeth down his life for the sheep?”[John 10:11] Nor did He even stop there, but also added, “but he that is an hireling and not the shepherd seeth the wolf coming and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth.” If then it is the sign of the good shepherd to sacrifice himself, and of the hireling to be ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 354, footnote 4 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch. (HTML)
Homily III (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1126 (In-Text, Margin)
... because I see not our father with us! but I rejoice that he hath set out on a journey for our preservation; that he is gone to snatch so great a multitude from the wrath of the Emperor! Here is both an ornament to you, and a crown to him! An ornament to you, that such a father hath been allotted to you; a crown to him, because he is so affectionate towards his children, and hath confirmed by actual deeds what Christ said. For having learnt that “the good shepherd layeth down his life for the sheep,”[John 10:11] he took his departure; venturing his own life for us all, notwithstanding there were many things to hinder his absence, and enforce his stay. And first, his time of life, extended as it is to the utmost limits of old age; next, his bodily infirmity, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 272, footnote 10 (Image)
Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome
The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret. (HTML)
Letters of the Blessed Theodoret, Bishop of Cyprus. (HTML)
To Eulalius, Bishop of Persian Armenia. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1730 (In-Text, Margin)
... having the Lord Christ for head.” Yet one consolation I have in my anxiety, when I bethink me of your holiness. For brought up as you have been in the divine oracles, and taught by the arch-shepherd what are the good shepherd’s marks, there is no doubt that you will lay down your life for the sheep. For, as the Lord says, “he that is an hireling” when he sees “the wolf coming,” “fleeth because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep,” but “the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.”[John 10:11] Just so it is not in peace that the best general shews his inborn valour, but in time of war, by at once stimulating others and himself exposing himself to peril for his men. For it would be preposterous that he should enjoy the dignity of his ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 330, footnote 7 (Image)
Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome
The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret. (HTML)
Letters of the Blessed Theodoret, Bishop of Cyprus. (HTML)
Letter or Address of Theodoret to the Monks of the Euphratensian, the Osrhoene, Syria, Phœnicia, and Cilicia. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2212 (In-Text, Margin)
... tongues. But, O Lord our God, give us Thy peace which we have lost by setting Thy commandments at naught. O Lord we know none other than Thee. We call Thee by Thy name. ‘Make both one and break down the middle wall of the partition,’ namely the iniquity that has sprung up. Gather us one by one, Thy new Israel, building up Jerusalem and gathering together the outcasts of Israel. Let us be made once more one flock and all be fed by Thee; for Thou art the good Shepherd ‘Who giveth His life for the sheep ’[John 10:11] ‘Awake, why sleepest Thou O Lord, arise cast us not off forever.’ Rebuke the winds and the sea; give Thy Church calm and safety from the waves.”
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 172, footnote 3 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2515 (In-Text, Margin)
... of the earth.” He maintained his forty-years’ supremacy because he tempered the insolence of office with gentleness and meekness. When he was being stoned by the people he made intercession for them; nay more he wished to be blotted out of God’s book sooner than that the flock committed to him should perish. He sought to imitate the Shepherd who would, he knew, carry on his shoulders even the wandering sheep. “The good Shepherd”—they are the Lord’s own words—“layeth down his life for the sheep.”[John 10:11] One of his disciples can wish to be anathema from Christ for his brethren’s sake, his kinsmen according to the flesh who were Israelites. If then Paul can desire to perish that the lost may not be lost, how much should good parents not provoke their ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 57, footnote 13 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
On the Clause, and in One Lord Jesus Christ, with a Reading from the First Epistle to the Corinthians. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1126 (In-Text, Margin)
... many sons. For He is called a Door; but take not the name literally for a thing of wood, but a spiritual, a living Door, discriminating those who enter in. He is called a Way, not one trodden by feet, but leading to the Father in heaven; He is called a Sheep, not an irrational one, but the one which through its precious blood cleanses the world from its sins, which is led before the shearers, and knows when to be silent. This Sheep again is called a Shepherd, who says, I am the Good Shepherd[John 10:11]: a Sheep because of His manhood, a Shepherd because of the loving-kindness of His Godhead. And wouldst thou know that there are rational sheep? the Saviour says to the Apostles, Behold, I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves. Again, He is ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 255, footnote 13 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
On the Death of His Father. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3198 (In-Text, Margin)
4. Thus might you console us; but what of the flock? Would you first promise the oversight and leadership of yourself, a man under whose wings we all would gladly repose, and for whose words we thirst more eagerly than men suffering from thirst for the purest fountain? Secondly, persuade us that the good shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep[John 10:11] has not even now left us; but is present, and tends and guides, and knows his own, and is known of his own, and, though bodily invisible, is spiritually recognized, and defends his flock against the wolves, and allows no one to climb over into the fold as a robber and traitor; to pervert and steal away, by the voice of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 349, footnote 6 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
On the Theophany, or Birthday of Christ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3876 (In-Text, Margin)
XIV. To this what have those cavillers to say, those bitter reasoners about Godhead, those detractors of all that is praiseworthy, those darkeners of light, uncultured in respect of wisdom, for whom Christ died in vain, those unthankful creatures, the work of the Evil One? Do you turn this benefit into a reproach to God? Wilt thou deem Him little on this account, that He humbled Himself for thee; because the Good Shepherd,[John 10:11] He who lays down His life for His sheep, came to seek for that which had strayed upon the mountains and the hills, on which thou wast then sacrificing, and found the wanderer; and having found it, took it upon His shoulders—on which He also took the Wood of the Cross; and having taken ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 432, footnote 17 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
The Second Oration on Easter. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4680 (In-Text, Margin)
... what will those cavillers say, those bitter reasoners about Godhead, those detractors of all things that are praiseworthy, those darkeners of Light, uncultured in respect of Wisdom, for whom Christ died in vain, unthankful creatures, the work of the Evil One. Do you turn this benefit into a reproach to God? Will you deem Him little on this account, that He humbled Himself for your sake, and because to seek for that which had wandered the Good Shepherd, He who layeth down His life for the sheep,[John 10:11] came upon the mountains and hills upon which you used to sacrifice, and found the wandering one; and having found it, took it upon His shoulders, on which He also bore the wood; and having borne it, brought it back to the life above; and having ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 227, footnote 1 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
Exposition of the Christian Faith. (HTML)
Book II. (HTML)
Chapter II. The goodness of the Son of God is proved from His works, namely, His benefits that He showed towards the people of Israel under the Old Covenant, and to Christians under the New. It is to one's own interest to believe in the goodness of Him Who is one's Lord and Judge. The Father's testimony to the Son. No small number of the Jewish people bear witness to the Son; the Arians therefore are plainly worse than the Jews. The words of the Bride, declaring the same goodness of Christ. (HTML)
25. Not only, then, is He good, but He is more. He is a good Shepherd, not only for Himself, but to His sheep also, “for the good shepherd layeth down his life for his sheep.” Aye, He laid down His life to exalt ours—but it was in the power of His Godhead that He laid it down and took it again: “I have power to lay down My life, and I have power to take it. No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself.”[John 10:11]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 13, page 383, footnote 2 (Image)
Gregory the Great II, Ephriam Syrus, Aphrahat
Selections from the Hymns and Homilies of Ephraim the Syrian and from the Demonstrations of Aphrahat the Persian Sage. (HTML)
Aphrahat: Select Demonstrations. (HTML)
Of Pastors. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1017 (In-Text, Margin)
1. Pastors are set over the flock, and give the sheep the food of life. Whosoever is watchful, and toils in behalf of his sheep, is careful for his flock, and is the disciple of our Good Shepherd, who gave Himself in behalf of His sheep.[John 10:11] And whosoever brings not back his flock carefully, is likened to the hireling who has no care for the sheep. Be ye like, O Pastors, to those righteous Pastors of old. Jacob fed the sheep of Laban, and guarded them and toiled and was watchful, and so received the reward. For Jacob said to Laban:— Lo! twenty years am I with thee. Thy sheep and thy flocks I have not robbed and ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 13, page 384, footnote 7 (Image)
Gregory the Great II, Ephriam Syrus, Aphrahat
Selections from the Hymns and Homilies of Ephraim the Syrian and from the Demonstrations of Aphrahat the Persian Sage. (HTML)
Aphrahat: Select Demonstrations. (HTML)
Of Pastors. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1026 (In-Text, Margin)
4. The good shepherd giveth himself for the sake of his sheep.[John 10:11] And again He said:— I have other sheep and I must bring them also hither. And the whole flock shall be one, and one shepherd, and My Father because of this loveth Me; that I give Myself for the sake of the sheep. And again He said;— I am the door of the sheep. Every one that entereth by Me shall live and shall go in and go out and find pasture. O ye pastors, be ye made like unto that diligent pastor, the chief of the whole flock, who cared so ...