Shepherdless sheep motif
St. Matthew calls to mind a number of Scriptural allusions to πρόβατα μὴ ἔχοντα ποιμένα (probata mē echonta poimena = "sheep without a shepherd") or similar, as does St. Mark in the parallel in Mark 6:34, where the Good Shepherd imagery from Psalm 22(23) is connected to the Eucharist.
- Numbers 27:17 — πρόβατα οἷς οὐκ ἔστι ποιμήν (probata hois ouk esti poimēn) == "sheep without a shepherd"
- 3 Kingdoms (1 Kings) 22:17 — ποίμνιον ᾧ οὐκ ἔστι ποιμήν (poimnion hō ouk esti poimēn) == "a flock without a shepherd"
- 2 Supplements (Chronicles) 18:16 — πρόβατα οἷς οὐκ ἔστι ποιμήν (probata hois ouk esti poimēn) == "sheep without a shepherd"
- Judith 11:19 — πρόβατα οἷς οὐκ ἔστιν ποιμήν (probata hois ouk estin poimēn) == "sheep for whom there is no shepherd"
- Zechariah 10:2 — ἐξηράνθησαν ὡς πρόβατα (exēranthēsan hōs probata) == "they have withered like sheep"
- Ezekiel 34:5 — διεσπάρη τὰ πρόβατά μου, διὰ τὸ μὴ εἶναι ποιμένας (diesparē ta probata mou, dia to mē einai poimenas) == "my sheep were scattered, because there were no shepherds"
See also:
- 2 Baruch 77:13 — "the shepherds of Israel have perished"1
The evangelist has already asserted, on the basis of OT texts, that the Messiah will 'shepherd' Israel (2:6), and there is some evidence that ‘shepherd’ carried messianic connotations in Judaism (Jer 3:15; 23:4; Ezek 34:23–4; 37:24; Ps. Sol. 17:40; Midr. Ps. on 29:1). Is not Jesus the messianic shepherd, whose responsibility it is to gather eschatological Israel?
Is there also a Mosaic typology in the background of 9:36? Moses was a shepherd (Exod 3:1; Philo, Vit. Mos. 1:60–6;2 Josephus, Ant. 2:263–4;3 LAB 19:3, 94); and in Num 27:17 it is the departure of Moses which occasions the concern that Israel might become 'like sheep which have no shepherd'. When one also recalls that there are certainly places in Matthew where Jesus is one like Moses and that some Jews no doubt expected the last redeemer (Messiah) to be like the first redeemer (Moses), the reader should perhaps think that Jesus the shepherd is taking up a Mosaic office when he seeks out the lost sheep of the house of Israel.5
- 1I don't read Syriac so only the English translation is provided for this pseudepigraphal work. Translation from R.H. Charles, The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament in English, ed. George Lyons, vol. 2 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1913), 481–524. Adaptation © 2000 for the Wesley Center for Applied Theology at Northwest Nazarene University. Retrieved from https://www.pseudepigrapha.com/pseudepigrapha/2Baruch.html#C77.13
- 2You can read this online under Book I, XI, 60 at https://earlychristianwritings.com/yonge/book24.html
- 3You can read this online and 263–264 corresponds to the end of chapter 11 and beginning of chapter 12 at https://ccel.org/ccel/josephus/complete/complete.ii.iii.xi.html
- 4You can read this portion of Pseudo-Philo online at https://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/bap/bap35.htm (the reference is consistent with the numbering at this website).
- 5W. D. Davies and Dale C. Allison Jr., A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel according to Saint Matthew, vol. 2, International Critical Commentary (London; New York: T&T Clark International, 2004), 148.