John 10:8 Commentary and Bible Study

Not Moses of course, not the prophets, but anybody who set himself up as Messiah or any party like the party of the Pharisees or the party of the Sadducees that set themselves up as teachers of original truth. As we read that verse we may be thinking of past history – all that ever came before me across the centuries – but actually Christ has in mind those leaders at his time, because he immediately introduces the present tense. ‘All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers.’ He means immediately before him, clearly, so he is referring again to those leaders of the people who said that ceremonies and good works were the key to the kingdom of heaven. ‘All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers’, living off the people. ‘But the sheep did not hear them.’ True sheep, such as John the Baptist and his disciples, and the disciples of Christ, they knew instinctively that all that was wrong.