4.22 · Animals · Animals

sheep herbivorous domestic mammal with four legs; Ovis ladicaudata - fat-tailed sheep; used for sacrifice, source of meat, milk, hides, wool, and horns Since the distribution of sheep throughout the world is somewhat less than that of goats, there may be more difficulties involved in finding an adequate term. In some instances terms for sheep are actually based upon a term for goat. For example, among Eskimos goats are well known because there are wild goats in the mountains, and sheep are accordingly called in some dialects ‘woolly goats’ or ‘goats that have wool.’ Among the Maya in Yucatan sheep were introduced by the Spanish and were first described as being ‘cotton deer,’ and the name still persists. In some areas where sheep are not known at all, the meat of sheep is known, and accordingly sheep may be called by the name of the meat, for example, ‘mutton animals.’ But in most places where sheep are not indigenous, there is nevertheless some term for them, usually based upon a borrowing from a dominant language.
For the translator, however, there are often problems involving the connotations of the term for sheep and for related expressions concerning their behavior and the ways in which they are ‘led.’ As already noted under the discussion of goats (4.19), sheep are frequently less prized than goats, and therefore it may seem strange in biblical texts to find sheep being given a preferential rating. What may appear even more difficult to understand is the suggestion that sheep are led by a shepherd rather than being driven. This fact may require some type of marginal note to accompany the text if people are to understand the basis for a number of similes and metaphors of the Scriptures. Furthermore, if the experience which people have of sheep is only their knowledge about wild sheep, then obviously references to the helplessness of sheep will be either meaningless or even contradictory. Again, a marginal note is in order.

MAT 7:15 · MAT 9:36 · MAT 10:6 · MAT 10:16 · MAT 12:11 · MAT 12:12 · MAT 15:24 · MAT 18:12 · MAT 25:32 · MAT 25:33 · MAT 26:31 · MRK 6:34 · MRK 14:27 · LUK 15:4 · LUK 15:6 · JHN 2:14 · JHN 2:15 · JHN 10:1 · JHN 10:2 · JHN 10:3 · JHN 10:3 · JHN 10:4 · ACT 8:32 · ROM 8:36 · HEB 13:20 · 1PE 2:25 · REV 18:13

11.30 · Groups and Classes of Persons and Members of Such Groups and Classes · Socio-Religious

a person who is like a sheep (a figurative extension of meaning of πρόβατον[a] ‘sheep,’ 4.22) a follower of Christ, with the implication of needing care and guidance Compare 11.29 and 11.31.

JHN 10:7 · JHN 10:8 · JHN 10:11 · JHN 10:12 · JHN 10:12 · JHN 10:13 · JHN 10:15 · JHN 10:16 · JHN 10:26 · JHN 10:27 · JHN 21:16 · JHN 21:17