16 And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.
Verse 16 is the fourth segment of the shepherd analogy. There are Jesus’ sheep who currently are not in His sheep pen. He has a mission to reach these people as well.
16 And other sheep I have which are not of this fold [flock];
“Other sheep” are Gentiles. The “fold” is the flock of Israel.
them also I must bring,
Jesus will bring Gentiles to salvation (Isa 56:8).
and they will hear My voice;
Some Gentiles (anyone other than Jews) will turn positive in volition to Jesus. They prove their genuine faith by hearing Jesus’ voice.
and there will be one flock and one shepherd.
The “one shepherd” will have “one flock” of Jews and Gentiles. This was a staggering idea to Jews—that Gentiles would be viewed the same way as them by God. This anticipates the church that will be formed in the future (Eph 2:11-16; 3:6).
PRINCIPLE:
Both Jew and Gentile will become one in relationship in the church.
APPLICATION:
Not everyone is from the same sheepfold but all belong to the one flock because there is only one shepherd.
Mormons read into this text that the “other sheep” refers to the North American Indian ancestors. This is a classic “reading into” the text something that is not there. This is what we call an exegetical error or a hermeneutical violation.
The Watchtower Society teaches that the “other sheep” mentioned in John 10:16 represent Jehovah’s Witnesses with an earthly hope. They believe this same group is the “great crowd” of Rev. 7:9. They have no desire to ever enter heaven; instead, they want to live forever on a paradisiacal earth. The “little flock” in Luke 12:32 are, in JW teaching, those who go to heaven (the 144,000). Similar to Mormonism, they use eisegesis (reading into the text something that is not there) and pretexting by associating other passages not related to the main text. (Thanks to suggestion by JROCK.)
The Watchtower Society use this Scripture to support the two classes doctrine of Little Flock going to Heaven,while The Great Crowd will live on Earth. Neglecting Jesus statement that “There will be one flock and one shepherd.
The Watchtower other sheep (John 10:7-9, 16) was linked to the great crowd who will form the citizen or subject of God,s Kingdom here on Earth. While the little flock (Luke 12:32) was linked to the Book of Revelation 7:4 with limited number of 144,000.
An invented term was: The Other sheep of great Crowd and little flock of 144,000 was introduced.
The current Watchtower concept of Jesus followers having two hopes is at odds with the Bible teaching of the Other Sheep becoming “one flock.”
The LDS use this scripture to support that Jesus went to the Americas and created the nephilites and the kamanites. The light and dark skinned peoples and they warred and the dark skin people won and those became the Indians. And thecLDS say Jospeh Smith says the Bible is corrupt abd the Book of Mormon is correct. FYI.
Cherie, yes I know, but it is just another example of their eisegesis (reading into Scripture something that is not there).