John

¹ In truth I tell you, whoever does not go into the sheepfold through the door, but climbs up at some other place, that person is a thief and a robber;

² but the person who goes in through the door is shepherd to the sheep.

³ For him the watchman opens the door; and the sheep listen to his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out.

⁴ When he has brought them all out, he walks in front of them, and his sheep follow him, because they know his voice.

⁵ They will not follow a stranger, but will run away from him; because they do not know a stranger’s voice.”

⁶ This was the allegory that Jesus told them, but they did not understand of what he was speaking.

⁷ So he continued, “In truth I tell you, I am the door for the sheep.

⁸ All who came before me were thieves and robbers; but the sheep did not listen to them.

⁹ I am the door; he who goes in through me will be safe, and he will go in and out and find pasture.

¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal, to kill, and to destroy; I have come so that they may have life, and may have it in greater fullness.

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

¹² The hired man who is not a shepherd, and who does not own the sheep, when he sees a wolf coming, leaves them and runs away; then the wolf seizes them, and scatters the flock.

¹³ He does this because he is only a hired man and does not care about the sheep.

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

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

¹⁶ I have other sheep besides, which do not belong to this fold; I must lead them also, and they will listen to my voice; and they will become one flock under one shepherd.

¹⁷ This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life – to receive it again.

¹⁸ No one took it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to receive it again. This is the command which I received from my Father.”

¹⁹ In consequence of these words a difference of opinion again arose among the people.

²⁰ Many of them said, “He is possessed by a demon and is mad; why do you listen to him?”

²¹ Others said, “This is not the teaching of one who is possessed by a demon. Can a demon give sight to the blind?”

²² Soon after this the Festival of the Rededication was held at Jerusalem.

²³ It was winter; and Jesus was walking in the Temple Courts, in the Colonnade of Solomon,

²⁴ when the people gathered around him, and said, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us so frankly.”

²⁵ “I have told you so,” replied Jesus, “and you do not believe me. The work that I am doing in my Father’s name bears testimony to me.

²⁶ But you do not believe me, because you are not of my flock.

²⁷ My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me;

²⁸ and I give them eternal life, and they will not be lost; nor will anyone snatch them out of my hands.

²⁹ What my Father has entrusted to me is more than all else; and no one can snatch anything out of the Father’s hands.

³⁰ The Father and I are one.”

³¹ Some of the people again brought stones to throw at him;

³² and seeing this, Jesus said, “I have done before your eyes many good actions, inspired by the Father; for which of them would you stone me?”

³³ “It is not for any good action that we would stone you,” they answered, “but for blasphemy; and because you, who are only a man, make yourself out to be God.”

³⁴ “Are there not,” replied Jesus, “these words in your Law – ‘I said, You are gods’?

³⁵ If those to whom God’s word were addressed were said to be ‘gods’ – and scripture cannot be set aside –

³⁶ do you say of one whom the Father has consecrated and sent as his messenger to the world ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said ‘I am God’s Son’?

³⁷ If I am not doing the work that my Father is doing, do not believe me;

³⁸ if I am doing it, even though you do not believe me, believe what that work shows; so that you may understand, and understand more and more clearly, that the Father is in union with me, and I with the Father.”

³⁹ The authorities again sought to arrest him; but he escaped their hands.

⁴⁰ Then Jesus again crossed the Jordan to the place where John used to baptize at first, and stayed there some time, during which many people came to see him.

⁴¹ “John gave no sign of his mission,” they said. “But everything that he said about this man was true.”

⁴² And many learned to believe in Jesus there.