Evidence for Papacy from Ezekiel 34

In St. John's gospel, Christ declares that "I am the good shepherd." This proclamation hearkens back to Ezekiel 34, where similar claims are made by God himself: "I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep" (34:15). There are a number of other parallels between the passages as well which seem to indicate that Christ is ascribing to himself the mantle of Divine Shepherd. 

But here's a further interesting observation: in Ezekiel 34, though God has said that he himself is the shepherd of Israel, he also goes on to say that "I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd" (34:23). Notice the structure: God is shepherd, but God also appoints another shepherd, a human shepherd, over his flock. What's intriguing is that we see the exact same structure in St. John's gospel. In chapter 10, Christ declares that he himself is the good shepherd. But towards the end of the gospel, we get the famous scene between Christ and St. Peter, where the former invests the latter with shepherding authority: "Feed my lambs . . . Tend my sheep . . . Feed my sheep" (21:15-17). So Christ is the good shepherd, but he sets up Peter as a human shepherd of his own flock. The parallel structure, then: God (ultimate shepherd) and David (human "steward" shepherd); Christ (ultimate shepherd) and Peter (human "steward" shepherd). The parallel is strengthened by the fact that, in Ezekiel, God explicitly refers to the Davidic shepherd "feeding" the sheep, which is the exact language Christ uses with Peter.