John 10:16

Other sheep. These were the Gentiles, Isaiah had predicted that the Messiah would be “a light of the Gentiles” (Isa. 42:6; cf. Isa. 49:6). Jesus declared Himself to be that light (Matt. 12:16-21). He was the light not of the Jewish nation only but of the world (John 8:12). “God so loved the world, that He gave” Jesus (ch. 3:16). At the time the Gentiles would take their place in the spiritual kingdom many of the Jews would be rejected (Matt. 8:11, 12; Rom. 11:1—26). The teaching of Jesus was explicit on this subject though it was not distinctly understood. The true position of the Gentile in the early church was a point much discussed (see on Acts 15:1).

Hear my voice. As do the other sheep (v. 3).

One fold. Literally, “one flock.” The reading “fold” has no support in any Greek manuscript and was introduced by Jerome, who translated both aule (fold) and poimne (flock) by the Latin ovile (fold). Jerome’s reading accords with the Roman Catholic assumption that that church is the one true fold. On the other hand the interpretation given to this passage by many Protestant commentators that there are many folds in which the one flock is housed is not hinted at in this passage.