Today is the Good Shepherd gospel. "Good" comes from the Greek meaning "beautiful" and, of course with the Greek, "true."
In North America, herds and flocks are driven; hence the "drover." In the world of the Old Testament, flocks were led. This was true even in the 1930s when H. V. Morton wrote of Middle Eastern shepherd who led his sheep up and down the hills with a sort of sing-song talk, "an animal sound," the flock specifically responded to and recognized.
This is the basis of Christ's shepherd imagery in the gospel today. It implies an internal recognition within man of Christ's voice, a Socratic-like innate knowledge of The Good. (New Testament towns held all sheep in a common pen at night and every morning each shepherd would come and call out his sheep. One wonders who the other shepherds--and their sheep--are.)
The great "Good Shepherd" imagery of the New Testament appears frequently in Christ's teaching, but in the Old Testament as well. There is a famous discussion in Isaiah in the Old Testament and an earlier, less famous but pointed and cautionary prophesy in Ezekiel, 34, that might serve as warning for all self-appointed leaders:
In North America, herds and flocks are driven; hence the "drover." In the world of the Old Testament, flocks were led. This was true even in the 1930s when H. V. Morton wrote of Middle Eastern shepherd who led his sheep up and down the hills with a sort of sing-song talk, "an animal sound," the flock specifically responded to and recognized.
This is the basis of Christ's shepherd imagery in the gospel today. It implies an internal recognition within man of Christ's voice, a Socratic-like innate knowledge of The Good. (New Testament towns held all sheep in a common pen at night and every morning each shepherd would come and call out his sheep. One wonders who the other shepherds--and their sheep--are.)
The great "Good Shepherd" imagery of the New Testament appears frequently in Christ's teaching, but in the Old Testament as well. There is a famous discussion in Isaiah in the Old Testament and an earlier, less famous but pointed and cautionary prophesy in Ezekiel, 34, that might serve as warning for all self-appointed leaders:
"The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.
“‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, because my flock lacks a shepherd and so has been plundered and has become food for all the wild animals, and because my shepherds did not search for my flock but cared for themselves rather than for my flock, therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them."
“‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, because my flock lacks a shepherd and so has been plundered and has become food for all the wild animals, and because my shepherds did not search for my flock but cared for themselves rather than for my flock, therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them."
(redux)
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