Hireling who lost sheep: controversy on the interpretation of John 10:12–13 in the Russian biblical studies

The article analyzes the polemic between professors of Moscow and Kiev Theological Academies M.M. Tareev and D.I. Bogdashevsky about the understanding of John 241 10:12-13. M.M. Tareev argued that the Greek text and its theological meaning allows the translation “the wolf snatches sheep, and [hireling] loses them” instead of traditional translation “the wolf snatches sheep and scatters them”, while D.I. Bogdashevsky defended the traditional viewpoint. Polemic demonstrated that in the study of the Gospel philological component should be complemented by an analysis of the theological content of the text.