John 10

¹Truly, truly I tell you: the one who does not enter through the door into the sheepfold but climbs in some other way—that one is a thief and a bandit. ²But the one who enters through the door is the shepherd of the sheep. ³The doorkeeper 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 goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. ⁵But they will never follow a stranger; instead they will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.

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

⁷So Jesus said to them again: Truly, truly I tell you, I am the door of the sheep. ⁸All who came before me are thieves and bandits, but the sheep did not listen to them. ⁹I am the door. If anyone enters through me, he will be saved—he will come in and go out and find pasture. ¹⁰The thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy. I have come so that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

¹¹I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ¹²The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and abandons the sheep and flees—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them— ¹³because he is a hired hand and does not care about the sheep.

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 that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice. Then there will be one flock, 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. This command I received from my Father.

¹⁹A division occurred again among the Judeans because of these words. ²⁰Many of them were saying, "He has a demon and is out of his mind. Why are you listening to him?" ²¹Others were saying, "These are not the words of someone demon-possessed. A demon cannot open the eyes of the blind, can it?"

²²At that time the Festival of Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, ²³and Jesus was walking in the temple, in Solomon's Colonnade. ²⁴The Judeans gathered around him and said to him, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly."

²⁵Jesus answered them, "I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name—these testify about me. ²⁶But you do not believe because you are not of my sheep. ²⁷My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. ²⁹My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. ³⁰I and the Father are one."

³¹The Judeans picked up stones again to stone him. ³²Jesus answered them, "I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these works are you stoning me?"

³³The Judeans answered him, "We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy—because you, being a man, make yourself God."

³⁴Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law, 'I said, you are gods'? ³⁵If he called them 'gods'—those to whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken— ³⁶do you say of the one whom 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, even if you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may come to know and continue to know that the Father is in me and I am in the Father."

³⁹Then they tried again to seize him, but he escaped from their hands.

⁴⁰He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at first, and he remained there. ⁴¹Many came to him and were saying, "John performed no sign, but everything John said about this man was true." ⁴²And many believed in him there.