10:1 “Very truly I tell you, that anyone who does not come into the sheep pen through the gate but by some other means is a thief and a robber.

10:2 But the one entering through the gate is the shepherd.

10:3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for this one and the sheep listen to the shepherd’s voice.

10:4 Whenever the shepherd leads them out, the sheep follow because they know their own shepherd’s voice.

10:5 An outsider, on the other hand, they would not follow under any circumstances; they will run away from anyone whose voice they don’t recognize.”

10:6 Jesus gave them this illustration, yet they didn’t know what he was talking about.

10:7 So he told them again, “I tell you very truly that I am the gateway for the sheep.

10:8 All who came before me were thieves and robbers but the sheep did not listen to them.

10:9 I am the gateway; if anyone enters through me they will be saved, and will come and go freely and find pasture.

10:10 The thief only comes to steal and execute and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it to the extreme!

10:11 “I am the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep.

10:12 But the hired hand, who isn’t the shepherd and doesn’t own the sheep, abandons them and runs away, leaving the wolf to snatch them up and scatter them.

10:13 The hired hand runs away because, since it’s only a job, there is no concern for the sheep.

10:14 But I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and they know me,

10:15 just as the Father knows me and I know him. So I lay down my life for the sheep.

10:16 “Also, I have other sheep that are not of this pen. I must lead them as well, and they will recognize my voice. Then there will be one flock, one shepherd.

10:17 “Therefore the Father loves me because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.

10:18 No one takes it from me; I lay it down of my own accord. I have the right to lay it down and the right to take it back. This is the ruling I got from my Father.”

10:19 Once again a rift developed among the Judeans because of these sayings.

10:20 Now many of them said, “He’s possessed and out of his mind! Why do you listen to him?”

10:21 But others said, “These pronouncements are not what we’d expect from the demon-possessed. No demon can open up the eyes of the blind.”

10:22 Now it was time for the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem. It was winter,

10:23 and Jesus walked in Solomon’s Portico inside the temple compound.

10:24 Then the Judeans surrounded him and said, “How long will you keep us guessing? If you are the Anointed, say so boldly and publicly!”

10:25 “I told you but you don’t believe me,” Jesus replied. “The things I do on behalf of my Father serve as my witnesses.

10:26 But you don’t believe me because you’re not my sheep— just as I told you.

10:27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me.

10:28 And I give them eternal life, so that in no way will they ever die; no one will be able to snatch them out of my hand.

10:29 My Father who has given them to me is the greatest of all, and no one can snatch them out of his hand.

10:30 I and the Father are one!”

10:31 Once again the Judeans picked up stones in order to stone him,

10:32 but Jesus asked them, “I have shown you many good deeds from my Father. For which one are you stoning me?”

10:33 “We’re not stoning you for any good deed,” they answered, “but for maligning the name of God, because you, a mere human, equate yourself with God!”

10:34 Jesus responded, “Isn’t it written in your law, ‘I said you are gods’?

10:35 If he told those to whom the word of God came that they are gods— and the scripture cannot be undone—

10:36 then how can you say to the one the Father set apart and commissioned, ‘You are maligning the name of God’, just because I said ‘I am the God-Man’?

10:37 “If I am not doing my Father’s actions then don’t believe me.

10:38 Yet if I am doing them and you still don’t believe me, then at least believe what I do, so that you will know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”

10:39 So they tried to arrest him again but he escaped.

10:40 Then he went back to the other side of the Jordan, to the place where John had been immersing, and stayed there.

10:41 Many came to him and said, “John did no miracles, but everything he said about this one has come true.”

10:42 And many put their trust in him there.