The Good Shepherd
1“Very truly I tell you, whoever does not enter the sheepfold by the gate, but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a bandit. 2The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3The gatekeeper opens for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4When he has brought out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice. 5A stranger they will never follow; they will run from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6Jesus told them this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. 7So Jesus spoke again: “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8All who came before me are thieves and bandits, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved; he will come in and go out, and he will find pasture. 10The thief comes only to steal, to slaughter, and to destroy. I have come so that they may have life, and have it in abundance. 11I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12The hired hand, who is no shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming, abandons the sheep and runs — and the wolf seizes them and scatters them. 13He runs because he is a hired hand, and the sheep mean nothing to him. 14I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, 15just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16I have other sheep as well, which are not of this fold. Those too I must bring; they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17This is why the Father loves me: because I lay down my life, in order to take it up again. 18No one takes it from me; I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and authority to take it up again. This is the charge I received from my Father.” 19Because of these words the Jews were divided again. 20Many of them said, “He has a demon; he is out of his mind. Why listen to him?” 21Others said, “These are not the words of a man possessed. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”
Jesus and the Father Are One
22Then came the Festival of Dedication in Jerusalem. It was winter, 23and Jesus was walking in the temple, in Solomon’s Colonnade. 24The Jews gathered around him and said, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25Jesus answered them, “I have told you, and you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name — they testify about me. 26But you do not believe, because you are not among my sheep. 27My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30I and the Father are one.” 31Once again the Jews picked up stones to stone him. 32Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of those works are you stoning me?” 33The Jews answered him, “We are not stoning you for a good work, but for blasphemy: because you, a man, make yourself God.” 34Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said: you are gods’? 35If it called them gods — those to whom the word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be undone — 36how can you say of the one the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? 37If I am not doing the works of my Father, do not believe me. 38But if I am doing them, then even if you do not believe me, believe the works — so that you may know, and go on knowing, that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” 39They tried to seize him again, but he slipped out of their hands. 40He went back across the Jordan, to the place where John had first been baptizing, and he stayed there. 41Many came to him, and they said, “John performed no sign, but everything John said about this man was true.” 42And many believed in him there.
