From the third millennium BCE onwards in the ancient Near East, the monarch was

thought of as the 'shepherd of his people'. King David began his life as a shepherd looking

after sheep (1 Sam. 16: 11, 17: 20, 34-35), and was later given the task of shepherding the

people of Israel: '... and the Lord said to you: "You shall shepherd My people Israel; you

shall be ruler of Israel"' (2 Sam. 5: 2). David became the ideal ruler and the eternal type

of the true shepherd of Israel. God is also described as a shepherd: 'The Lord is my

shepherd; I shall not want' (Ps. 23: 1). These two metaphors unite in the Christian image

of Jesus as the good shepherd:  'I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down his

life for the sheep' (John 10: 11). The allegorical figure of Jesus as the good shepherd

appears early in Christian literature (John 10: 1-16 and Luke 15: 3-7) and was elaborated

by the early Church Fathers, such as Clemens of Alexandria.

Although this metaphor developed in the ancient Near East, the corresponding

iconographic motif evolved in the classical world. In classical art, the god Hermes appears

as a young shepherd carrying a lamb, or less often an ewe, on his shoulders, and it is this

pagan image that was assimilated to the biblically-derived metaphor describing Jesus.

The earliest example of the adoption by the Christians of the Good Shepherd motif seems

to be the third-century clay lamps and in Rome, the Good Shepherd appears in funerary

contexts late in the third century. The motif occurs in the mosaics of the cemetery under

St Peter's, in the wall paintings of the Tomb of the Aurelii, and in the Catacombs of Via

Latina, of Domitilla, and of Callixtus. The popularity of this motif continued after the

reign of Constantine (306-337), when Christianity became the official faith of the

imperial court.