The Illustration of the Sheepfold

10 “Truly, I tell all of you^[a] emphatically, the person who doesn’t enter the sheepfold through the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a bandit. ² The one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. ³ It’s to him the gatekeeper opens the gate, and it’s his voice the sheep hear. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴ When he has driven out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they recognize his voice. ⁵ They’ll never follow a stranger, but will run away from him because they don’t recognize the voice of strangers.” ⁶ Jesus used this illustration with them, but they didn’t understand what he was saying to them.

Jesus the Good Shepherd

⁷ So again Jesus said, “Truly, I tell all of you^[b] emphatically, I’m the gate for the sheep. ⁸ All who came before me^[c] are thieves and bandits, but the sheep didn’t listen to them. ⁹ I’m the gate. If anyone enters through me, he will be saved. He’ll come in and go out and find pasture. ¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal, slaughter, and destroy. I’ve come that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

¹¹ “I’m the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down^[d] his life for the sheep. ¹² The hired worker, who isn’t the shepherd and doesn’t own the sheep, sees the wolf coming, deserts the sheep, and runs away. So the wolf snatches them and scatters them, ¹³ because he’s a hired worker, and the sheep don’t matter to him.

¹⁴ I’m 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^[e] my life for the sheep. ¹⁶ I have other sheep that don’t belong to this fold. I must lead these also, and they’ll listen to my voice. So there will be one flock and one shepherd. ¹⁷ This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it back again. ¹⁸ No one is taking it from me; I lay it down of my own free will. I have the authority to lay it down, and I have the authority to take it back again. This is what my Father has commanded me.”

¹⁹ Once again there was a division among the Jews^[f] because of what Jesus had been saying. ²⁰ Many of them were saying, “He has a demon and is insane. Why bother listening to him?”

²¹ Others were saying, “These are not the words of a man who is demon-possessed. A demon cannot open the eyes of the blind, can it?”