Gospel according to John 10

¹ ‘I tell you most solemnly, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold through the gate, but gets in some other way is a thief and a brigand.

² The one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the flock;

³ the gatekeeper lets him in, the sheep hear his voice, one by one he calls his own sheep and leads them out.

⁴ When he has brought out his flock, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow because they know his voice.

⁵ They never follow a stranger but run away from him: they do not recognise the voice of strangers.’

⁶ Jesus told them[*a] this parable but they failed to understand what he meant by telling it to them.

⁷ So Jesus spoke to them again: ‘I tell you most solemnly, I am the gate of the sheepfold.

⁸ All others who have come are thieves and brigands; but the sheep took no notice of them

⁹ I am the gate. Anyone who enters through me will be safe: he will go freely in and out and be sure of finding pasture.

¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full.

¹¹ I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd is one who lays down his life for his sheep.

¹² The hired man, since he is not the shepherd and the sheep do not belong to him, abandons the sheep and runs away as soon as he sees a wolf coming, and then the wolf attacks and scatters the sheep;

¹³ this is because he is only a hired man and has no concern for 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 my sheep.

¹⁶ And there are other sheep I have that are not of this fold, and these I have to lead as well. They too will listen to my voice, and there will be only one flock, and one shepherd.

¹⁷ The Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.

¹⁸ No one takes it from me; I lay it down of my own free will, and as it is in my power to lay it down, so it is in my power to take it up again; and this is the command I have been given by my Father.’

¹⁹ These words caused disagreement among the Jews.

²⁰ Many said, ‘He is possessed, he is raving; why bother to listen to him?’

²¹ Others said, ‘These are not the words of a man possessed by a devil: could a devil open the eyes of the blind?’

²² It was the time when the feast of Dedication was being celebrated in Jerusalem. It was winter,

²³ and Jesus was in the Temple walking up and down in the Portico of Solomon.

²⁴ The Jews gathered round him and said, ‘How much longer are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.’

²⁵ Jesus replied: ‘I have told you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name are my witness;

²⁶ but you do not believe, because you are no sheep of mine.

²⁷ The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me.

²⁸ I give them eternal life; they will never be lost and no one will ever steal them from me.

²⁹ The Father who gave them to me is greater than anyone, and no one can steal from the Father.

³⁰ The Father and I are one.’

³¹ The Jews fetched stones to stone him,

³² so Jesus said to them, ‘I have done many good works for you to see, works from my Father; for which of these are you stoning me?’

³³ The Jews answered him, ‘We are not stoning you for doing a good work but for blasphemy: you are only a man and you claim to be God.’

³⁴ Jesus answered: ‘Is it not written in your Law: I said, you are gods?[*b]

³⁵ So the Law uses the word gods of those to whom the word of God was addressed, and scripture cannot be rejected.

³⁶ Yet you say to someone the Father has consecrated and sent into the world, “You are blaspheming”, because he says, “I am the son of God”.

³⁷ If I am not doing my Father’s work, there is no need to believe me;

³⁸ but if I am doing it, then even if you refuse to believe in me, at least believe in the work I do; then you will know for sure that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.’

³⁹ They wanted to arrest him then, but he eluded them.

⁴⁰ He went back again to the far side of the Jordan to stay in the district where John had once been baptising.

⁴¹ Many people who came to him there said, ‘John gave no signs, but all he said about this man was true’;

⁴² and many of them believed in him.