1“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter through the gate into the sheep pen, but climbs up some other way, that man is a thief and a robber.

2He who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.

3The gatekeeper opens for him. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

4When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.

5They will not follow a stranger but instead they will avoid him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”

6Jesus spoke this parable to them, but they did not understand what these things were that he was saying to them.

7Then Jesus said to them again, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the gate of the sheep.

8Everyone who came before me is a thief and a robber, but the sheep did not listen to them.

9I am the gate. If anyone enters in through me, he will be saved; he will go in and out and will find pasture.

10The thief does not come if he would not steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they will have life and have it abundantly.

11I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

12The hired servant is not a shepherd and does not own the sheep. He sees the wolf coming and abandons the sheep and escapes, and the wolf carries them off and scatters them.

13He runs away because he is a hired servant and does not care for the sheep.

14I am the good shepherd, and I know my own, and my own know me.

15The Father knows me, and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep.

16I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice so that there will be one flock and one shepherd.

17This is why the Father loves me: I lay down my life so that I may take it again.

18No one takes it away from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”

19A division again occurred among the Jews because of these words.

20Many of them said, “He has a demon and is insane. Why do you listen to him?”

21Others said, “These are not the words of a demon-possessed man. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

22Then it was time for the Festival of the Dedication in Jerusalem.

23It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the porch of Solomon.

24Then the Jews surrounded him and said to him, “How long will you hold us doubting? If you are the Christ, tell us openly.”

25Jesus replied to them, “I told you, but you do not believe. The works that I do in the name of my Father, these testify concerning me.

26Yet you do not believe because you are not my sheep.

27My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.

28I give them eternal life; they will never die, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

29My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all others, and no one is able to snatch them out of the hand of the Father.

30I and the Father are one.”

31Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.

32Jesus answered 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 any good work, but for blasphemy, because you, a man, are making yourself God.”

34Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, 'I said, “You are gods”'?

35If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the scripture cannot be broken),

36do you say to him whom the Father set apart 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, even if you do not believe me, believe in the works so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and that I am in the Father.”

39They tried to seize him again, but he went away out of their hand.

40He went away again beyond the Jordan to the place where John had first been baptizing, and he stayed there.

41Many people came to him and they said, “John indeed did no signs, but all the things that John has said about this man are true.”

42Many people believed in him there.