On "fold" I'd say he did not check the range of meaning of the word -- one of which is "a flock of sheep."
Glenn Conjurske would acknowledge and affirm that words may have a range of meanings. How a word is used in context could limit that range of a word's meaning, sometimes possibly to one meaning.
At John 10:16 in the KJV, two different Greek words are translated "fold" which removes the clear distinction between them. Were there any important, essential, or necessary reasons why one English word was used to translate these two different Greek words?
A. T. Robertson pointed out the distinction here by Jesus between
aule (fold) and
poimne (flock) (
Word Pictures, V, p. 181). Concerning John 10:16, J. B. Lightfoot observed: "The point of our Lord's teaching depends mainly on the distinction between the many folds and the one flock" (
The Revision, p. 73). A. T. Robertson observed that the Latin Vulgate's use of one Latin word for these two Greek words "confused this distinction" and "helped Roman Catholic assumptions" (
Word Pictures, V, p. 181).
William Tyndale kept this difference of meaning between the two Greek words by translating the second Greek word (
poimne) as "flock," as it is also translated in Jay Green's
Interlinear Greek-English New Testament and Berry's
Interlinear Greek-English New Testament. The 1535 Coverdale’s Bible and 1537 Matthew’s Bible also have “flock” in agreement with Tyndale. It was Coverdale's 1538 English NT translation of the Latin Vulgate that introduced "fold" into the English Bible in place of Tyndale's "flock," and it was likely the influence of the Latin Vulgate that caused Coverdale to use "fold" instead of "flock" in the 1539 Great Bible.
The KJV translators themselves translated
poimne as "flock" at Matthew 26:31, Luke 2:8, and 1 Corinthians 9:7. The KJV translators also translated another form of this word
poimnion as “flock” at Luke 12:32, Acts 20:28, 29, and 1 Peter 5:2, 3.
Luther’s 1534 German Bible distinguished between the two Greek words, using
Stalle for
aule and
Herd or
Herde for
poimne. The 1657 English translation of the authorized Dutch Bible also has “one flock” in agreement with Tyndale’s and Luther‘s.