John 10:8
New International Version
All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them.

New Living Translation
All who came before me were thieves and robbers. But the true sheep did not listen to them.

English Standard Version
All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.

Berean Standard Bible
All who came before Me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.

Berean Literal Bible
All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.

King James Bible
All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them.

New King James Version
All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.

New American Standard Bible
All those who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.

NASB 1995
“All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.

NASB 1977
“All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.

Legacy Standard Bible
All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.

Amplified Bible
All who came before Me [as false messiahs and self-appointed leaders] are thieves and robbers, but the [true] sheep did not hear them.

Christian Standard Bible
All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them.

American Standard Version
All that came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
“And all who had come were thieves and robbers, but the flock did not hear them.”

Contemporary English Version
Everyone who came before me was a thief or a robber, and the sheep did not listen to any of them.

Douay-Rheims Bible
All others, as many as have come, are thieves and robbers: and the sheep heard them not.

English Revised Version
All that came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
All who came before I did were thieves or robbers. However, the sheep didn't respond to them.

Good News Translation
All others who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.

International Standard Version
All who came before me are thieves and bandits, but the sheep didn't listen to them.

Literal Standard Version
all, as many as came before Me, are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them;

Majority Standard Bible
All who came [[before Me]] were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.

New American Bible
All who came [before me] are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.

NET Bible
All who came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.

New Revised Standard Version
All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them.

New Heart English Bible
All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.

Webster's Bible Translation
All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them.

Weymouth New Testament
All who have come before me are thieves and robbers; but the sheep would not listen to them.

World English Bible
All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them.

Young's Literal Translation
all, as many as came before me, are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them;

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Jesus the Good Shepherd
7So He said to them again, “Truly, truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8All who came before Me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9I am the gate. If anyone enters through Me, he will be saved. He will come in and go out and find pasture.…

Cross References
Jeremiah 23:1
"Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!" declares the LORD.

Ezekiel 34:2
"Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: 'Woe to the shepherds of Israel, who only feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed their flock?

John 10:1
"Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever does not enter the sheepfold by the gate, but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber.


Treasury of Scripture

All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them.

came.

John 10:1
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.

Isaiah 56:10-12
His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber…

Ezekiel 22:25-28
There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof…

but.

John 10:5,27
And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers…

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John 10
1. Jesus is the door, and the good shepherd.
19. Diverse opinions of him.
23. He proves by his works that he is Jesus the Son of God;
31. escapes the Jews;
39. and goes again beyond Jordan, where many believe on him.














(8) All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers.--Comp. Note on John 10:1. The Sinaitic MS. and several of the early versions read this verse without the words translated "before Me," but the balance of authority is strongly in their favour; and the fact of their being hard to understand, or having been misunderstood, is the probable reason of their omission. Retaining them, as we seem bound to do, we are also bound to give them their ordinary temporal meaning. There can be but one rendering which suggests itself to the unbiassed mind, and that is the rendering of our version. The Greek words and the English words are equally plain, and other renderings are due to the exigencies of interpretation.

What, then, do the words mean? Their force seems to be all-inclusive; and yet they cannot contradict Christ's own words, which have excluded Abraham, Moses, the prophets, John the Baptist, from any possibility of such thoughts. (See John 4:22; John 5:33; John 5:39; John 5:45; John 7:19.) They cannot, on the other hand, be limited to false Christs, who did not come before but after our Lord. (Comp. Note on John 5:43.) Here, as often, the true meaning seems for the most part to have been overlooked because men have sought it elsewhere than in the words themselves, and in their place among other words. The thought which precedes and which follows is that Jesus is Himself "the door." "All that ever came before Me" is in immediate contrast to this thought, and the sense is, "all professing to be themselves the door, to be the means by which men enter the fold, to be the Mediator between man and God." The Old Testament teachers cannot be meant, because they witnessed to the true door. But there had been growing up since the return from the Captivity, and the close of the Old Testament canon, a priestly caste in the place of the prophetic schools, and these men had been in practice, if not in word, claiming for themselves the position of door to the kingdom of God. There were Hillels and Shammais, heads of parties and of factions, whose word was to their followers as the word of God; there were Pharisees then standing round Him who had solemnly decreed that any one who should confess Him to be the Messiah should be shut out from Temple and from synagogue, and that they themselves would in God's name pronounce a curse upon his head (John 9:22). As "thieves" were they, and as "robbers;" wolves in sheep's clothing, stealing into the flock of Christ and rending those who were the true sheep. (Comp. the analogous language of Luke 11:52.) The lawyers closed the door and plundered and oppressed those whom they kept outside. . . .

Verse 8. - All that came before me are thieves and robbers. Great difficulty has been felt by commentators in understanding "before me." The words clearly gave the early Gnostic heretics a text on which they established their dualistic rejection of the old dispensation. Their absence from certain texts led Augustine and others to emphasize the word "came." "All who came," i.e. in their own strength or wisdom, when not "sent" or authorized by God. Other endeavors have been made (see Meyer and Lunge) to give it a non-temporal meaning, such as χωρίς, "independently of me." Wolf and Olshausen make πρὸ equivalent to ὐπὲρ, "in the place" or "in the stead of me" (so Lunge, Lampe, Schleusner). De Wette and others accept the temporal meaning, "before," i.e. in point of time, and include under it the entire corpus of Old Testament saints and teachers, and therefore regard the saying as inconsistent with the gentleness of Christ. But with John 5:39, 45-47, and many other passages in this Gospel, it is certain the words could not mean to denounce all who came as teachers or shepherds before him in mere point of time as "thieves and robbers," whom the sheep did not hear. Therefore the πρὸ must be to some extent modified in meaning. We agree with Westcott and Godet in limiting πρὸ ἐμού, by throwing the emphasis on the "came," and by adding, moreover, to it the essential point, "came making themselves doors of the sheep" - claiming to have the "key of knowledge," professing vainly to open or shut the door of heaven. That is, no other has ever had the right or claim to be such "a door." The Baptist, the prophets, one by one, Abraham and Moses, in their day made no such profession. The dignity belongs to Christ alone. The language may receive accentuation from the pressing urgency of false Christs, as well as the hopeless system of Pharisaic pride. Theme sees here the mere dressing out of St. Paul's language, condemnatory of false prophets and ravening wolves who would not spare the flock of Christ (Acts 20:29), and Christ's own words in the synoptists (Matthew 7:15; Matthew 23:13, etc.). Special reference is made to the ceremonial superstitions, to "the hedge about the Law," to the cruel slavery of modern Pharisaism, which had done what neither prophets nor priests of old had attempted. Archdeacon Watkins emphasizes the present tense, "are thieves," etc., making Christ's reference obvious to the lawyers and scribes of his own day, who were closing the door, and plundering those whom they kept out of the kingdom. But the sheep did not hear them. The true sheep have not been seduced by them. The teaching of these Pharisees has not prevailed over susceptible souls.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
All
πάντες (pantes)
Adjective - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 3956: All, the whole, every kind of. Including all the forms of declension; apparently a primary word; all, any, every, the whole.

who
ὅσοι (hosoi)
Personal / Relative Pronoun - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 3745: How much, how great, how many, as great as, as much. By reduplication from hos; as As.

came
ἦλθον (ēlthon)
Verb - Aorist Indicative Active - 3rd Person Plural
Strong's 2064: To come, go.

before
πρὸ (pro)
Preposition
Strong's 4253: A primary preposition; 'fore', i.e. In front of, prior to.

Me
ἐμοῦ (emou)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Genitive 1st Person Singular
Strong's 1473: I, the first-person pronoun. A primary pronoun of the first person I.

were
εἰσὶν (eisin)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 3rd Person Plural
Strong's 1510: I am, exist. The first person singular present indicative; a prolonged form of a primary and defective verb; I exist.

thieves
κλέπται (kleptai)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 2812: A thief. From klepto; a stealer.

and
καὶ (kai)
Conjunction
Strong's 2532: And, even, also, namely.

robbers,
λῃσταί (lēstai)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 3027: A robber, brigand, bandit. From leizomai; a brigand.

but
ἀλλ’ (all’)
Conjunction
Strong's 235: But, except, however. Neuter plural of allos; properly, other things, i.e. contrariwise.

the
τὰ (ta)
Article - Nominative Neuter Plural
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

sheep
πρόβατα (probata)
Noun - Nominative Neuter Plural
Strong's 4263: A sheep. Probably neuter of a presumed derivative of probaino; something that walks forward, i.e., a sheep.

did not listen to
ἤκουσαν (ēkousan)
Verb - Aorist Indicative Active - 3rd Person Plural
Strong's 191: To hear, listen, comprehend by hearing; pass: is heard, reported. A primary verb; to hear.

them.
αὐτῶν (autōn)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Genitive Masculine 3rd Person Plural
Strong's 846: He, she, it, they, them, same. From the particle au; the reflexive pronoun self, used of the third person, and of the other persons.


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NT Gospels: John 10:8 All who came before me are thieves (Jhn Jo Jn)
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