{All the nations} (panta ta ethn(8829). Not just Gentiles, but
Jews also. Christians and non-Christians. This program for the
general judgment has been challenged by some scholars who regard
it as a composition by the evangelist to exalt Christ. But why
should not Christ say this if he is the Son of Man and the Son of
God and realized it? A "reduced" Christ has trouble with all the
Gospels, not merely with the Fourth Gospel, and no less with Q
and Mark than with Matthew and Luke. This is a majestic picture
with which to close the series of parables about readiness for
the second coming. Here is the program when he does come. "I am
aware that doubt is thrown on this passage by some critics. But
the doubt is most wanton. Where is the second brain that could
have invented anything so original and so sublime as vv.
 35-40,42-45 ?" (Sanday, _Life of Christ in Recent Research_, p.
128). {As the shepherd separates} (h(9373)per ho poim(886e) aphorizei).
A common figure in Palestine. The sheep are usually white and the
goats black. There are kids (eriph(936e), eriphia) which have
grazed together. The goats devastate a field of all herbage.
"Indeed they have extirpated many species of trees which once
covered the hills" (Tristram, _Natural History of the Bible_, pp.
89f.). The shepherd stands at the gate and taps the sheep to go
to the right and the goats to the left.