UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament

Sense 1: sheep

Semantic entry: 4.22

Semantic domains: Animals

Subdomains: Animals

Definition: herbivorous domestic mammal with four legs; Ovis ladicaudata - fat-tailed sheep; used for sacrifice, source of meat, milk, hides, wool, and horns

Notes: 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.{N:001} 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: ἐρίφιον / 4.19: ἔριφος), 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.

Further resources: fauna:2.31

Sense 2: a person who is like a sheep

Semantic entry: 11.30

Semantic domains: Groups and Classes of Persons and Members of Such Groups and Classes

Subdomains: Socio-Religious

Definition: (a figurative extension of meaning of πρόβατον[a] ‘sheep,’ 4.22: πρόβατον) a follower of Christ, with the implication of needing care and guidance

Notes: Compare 11.29: ἀρνίον and 11.31: ποίμνη / 11.31: ποίμνιον.