Shepherds show up throughout the
mythology of Western culture. In the
Old Testament,
JHVH appears to
Moses (as the
burning bush) when Moses is out tending the sheep. In the
New Testament, shepherds are the first people to see the
baby Jesus, and (in some accounts) the first people he appears to after his
resurrection. In the epic of
Gilgamesh,
Shamhat takes
Enkidu to the shepherds after she persuades him to leave the wilderness.
While the humility,
isolation, and low
status of shepherds is important to all these stories, it's also vital to realize that at the time these stories were told, shepherds were not
obscure, serene, primitive individuals. Shepherding was a very common occupation, and probably used because the audience would be familiar with it. Today Jesus might appear to the
janitorial staff.