The Parable of the Good Shepherd

1“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a robber.

2But he who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.

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

4When he ¹³¹has brought out ¹³²his own sheep, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they recognize his voice.

5They will certainly not follow a stranger, but will flee from him because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.”

6Jesus spoke to them with this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

I Am the Good Shepherd

7So Jesus said ¹³³to them again, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep.

8All who came ¹³⁴previously are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.

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

10The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

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

12But the hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches the sheep and scatters them.

13¹³⁵The hired hand flees, for he is a hired hand and does not care about the sheep.

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

15even as the Father knows me and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep.

16I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them in as well, and they will hear my voice. And ¹³⁶there will be one flock with one shepherd.

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

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

19At these words there was again a division among the Jews.

20Many of them were saying, “He has a demon and is out of his mind; why do you listen to him?”

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

Jesus Is Rejected by the Jews

22¹³⁷Now it was the Feast of the Dedication in Jerusalem. It was winter,

23and Jesus was walking in the temple courts, in Solomon's Portico.

24So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long are yoʋ going to keep us in suspense? If yoʋ are the Christ, tell us plainly.”

25Jesus answered them, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name testify about me,

26but you do not believe because you are not among my ¹³⁸sheep, just as I told you.

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

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

29¹³⁹My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of ¹⁴⁰my Father's hand.

30The Father and I are one.”

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

32In response Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from ¹⁴¹my Father; for which of these works are you going to stone me?”

33The Jews answered him, “We are not going to stone yoʋ for any good work, but for blasphemy, because yoʋ, who are just a man, make yoʋrself out to be 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 of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘Yoʋ are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?

37If I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe me.

38But if I do them, even if you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and ¹⁴²believe that the Father is in me and I in ¹⁴³him.”

39Once again they tried to arrest him, but he eluded their grasp.

40Then Jesus went away again to the other side of the Jordan, to the place where John had been baptizing at first, and he stayed there.

41Many came to him and were saying, “John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.”

42And many of the people there believed in Jesus.