Old/New Testament
The good shepherd
10 “I’m telling you the solemn truth,” said Jesus. “Anyone who doesn’t come into the sheepfold by the gate, but gets in by some other way, is a thief and a brigand. 2 But the one who comes in through the gate is the sheep’s own shepherd. 3 The doorkeeper will open up for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all that belong to him, he goes on ahead of them. The sheep follow him, because they know his voice. 5 They won’t follow a stranger; instead, they will run away from him, because they don’t know the stranger’s voice.”
6 Jesus spoke this parable to them, but they didn’t understand what it was he was saying to them.
7 So he spoke to them again.
“I’m telling you the solemn truth,” he said. “I am the gate of the sheep. 8 All the people who came before me were thieves and brigands, but the sheep didn’t listen to them. 9 I am the gate. If anyone comes in by me, they will be safe, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief only comes to steal, and kill, and destroy. I came so that they could have life—yes, and have it full to overflowing.”
The shepherd and the sheep
11 “I am the good shepherd,” Jesus continued. “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 But supposing there’s a hired servant, who isn’t himself the shepherd, and who doesn’t himself own the sheep. He will see the wolf coming, and leave the sheep, and run away. Then the wolf will snatch the sheep and scatter them. 13 He’ll run away because he’s only a hired servant, and doesn’t care about the sheep.
14 “I am the good shepherd. I know my own sheep, and my own know me— 15 just as the father knows me and I know the father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep, too, which don’t belong to this sheepfold. I must bring them, too, and they will hear my voice. Then there will be one flock, and one shepherd.
17 “That’s why the father loves me, because I lay down my life, so that I can take it again. 18 Nobody takes it from me; I lay it down of my own accord. I have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to receive it back again. This is the command I received from my father.”
The Messiah and the father
19 So there was again a division among the Judaeans because of what Jesus had said.
20 “He’s demon-possessed!” some were saying. “He’s raving mad! Why listen to him?”
21 “No,” said some others, “that’s not how demon-possessed people talk. Anyway, how could a demon open a blind man’s eyes?”
22 It was the Feast of the Dedication in Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was walking in the Temple, in Solomon’s Porch.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.