“Amen, amen, I tell you: the man who doesn’t come into the sheep pen through the gate but climbs in some other way — that man is a thief and a bandit.[1] 2 The one who comes in through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 They will never follow a stranger — they’ll run away from him, because they don’t recognize a stranger’s voice.”
6 Jesus told them this figure of speech, but they didn’t understand what he was saying to them.
7 So Jesus spoke again. “Amen, amen, I tell you: I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before me were thieves and bandits, but the sheep didn’t listen to them. 9 I am the gate. Whoever comes in through me will be saved. They’ll come in and go out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they could have life — life overflowing.
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand — who isn’t the shepherd and doesn’t own the sheep — sees the wolf coming, abandons the sheep, and runs. The wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He runs because he’s just a hired hand and doesn’t really care about the sheep.
14 “I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me — 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that aren’t from this pen. I must bring them too, and they will hear my voice. Then there will be one flock and one shepherd.
17 “The Father loves me because I lay down my life — so I can take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me. I lay it down on my own. I have the authority to lay it down, and I have the authority to take it up again. This is the command I received from my Father.”
19 Once again the Jews were divided because of these words. 20 Many of them said, “He has a demon and he’s out of his mind. Why listen to him?” 21 But others said, “These aren’t the words of a demon-possessed man. Can a demon open blind eyes?”
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22 It was now the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem. It was winter,[2] 23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in Solomon’s Porch.[3] 24 The Jews surrounded him and demanded, “How long are you going to keep us hanging? If you are the Anointed One, tell us plainly.”
25 Jesus answered, “I did tell you, and you don’t believe. The works I do in my Father’s name — these testify about me. 26 But you don’t believe, because you’re not my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never be destroyed — no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”
31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus said to them, “I’ve shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these works are you stoning me?”
33 The Jews answered, “We’re not stoning you for a good work, but for blasphemy — because you, a mere man, are making yourself out to be God.”
34 Jesus answered them, “Isn’t it written in your own Law, ‘I said, you are gods’?[4] 35 If he called them gods — the ones the word of God came to — and the Scripture can’t be set aside, 36 how can you say to the one the Father set apart and sent into the world, ‘You’re blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? 37 If I’m not doing my Father’s works, don’t believe me. 38 But if I am doing them, even if you don’t believe me, believe the works — so you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father.”
39 Once more they tried to seize him, but he slipped out of their hands.
40 Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had first been baptizing, and he stayed there.[5] 41 Many people came to him. They said, “John never performed a sign, but everything John said about this man was true.” 42 And many there believed in him.
Notes
Note 1. The word here (αὐλή) points to a walled enclosure — in first-century Judea usually a roofless pen of stacked stone, out on the grazing hillside or beside a house, with a single opening for a door. ↩
Note 2. This is Hanukkah, which marked the rededication of the Temple around 165 BCE after the Maccabees took it back and cleansed it following its desecration by the Greek-Syrian king Antiochus. It was kept for eight days in the depth of winter — which is why the text pauses to note the season. ↩
Note 3. A covered colonnade running along the eastern edge of the Temple’s outer court. The historian Josephus describes it as a double row of columns, and the name tied it back to King Solomon — a sheltered place to walk and talk, useful in winter. ↩
Note 4. The line is Psalm 82:6, where God addresses a group — commonly read as human judges or rulers — as “gods.” ↩
Note 5. The site is traditionally identified as Bethany Beyond the Jordan (Al-Maghtas), on the river’s eastern bank about nine kilometers north of the Dead Sea. ↩