John 10, The Quality Shepherd, Revised from "The Practice of the Way"

 

“Amen amen I tell you, that person who doesn’t enter through the gate into the sheep pen, but climbs up from another place is a thief and pirate; yet the person entering through the gate is the sheep’s shepherd. The gatekeeper opens to this person, and the sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out [of the sheep pen]. When he’s done tossing out all of his own [sheep], he goes in front of them, and his sheep follow, because they know his voice. Yet they will not follow another at all, but will flee from him, because they don’t know the voice of others.” Yeshua told them this proverb, but those people didn’t recognize what it was He was saying to them.

Yeshua then spoke again, “Amen amen I tell you that I Myself am the gate for the sheep. Everyone as many as came before Me are thieves and pirates, but the sheep didn’t listen to them. I Myself am the gate. If any person should enter through Me he will be rescued and will go in and go out and will find pasture. The thief doesn’t come except that he should steal, and slaughter, and destroy. I came so that they should possess life and should possess an overflow of it. I Myself am the quality shepherd. The quality shepherd lays down His soul on behalf of the sheep. The hired man, not being the shepherd, and of whom the sheep are not his own, watches the wolf coming and lets the sheep go and runs for it—and the wolf plunders and scatters them—because he is a hired man and it isn’t concerning to him about the sheep. I Myself am the quality shepherd and I am familiar with what is Mine and what is Mine is familiar with Me just like the Father is familiar with Me and I Myself am familiar with the Father, and I lay down My soul on behalf of the sheep. But I also possess other sheep which aren’t from this sheep pen; and there is a need for Me to lead them and they will hear My voice, and they will be a single flock, there will be a single shepherd. Because of this, My Father cares for and has compassion for Me because I am laying down My soul, so that I should receive it again. No one takes it away from Me, but I lay it down from Myself. I hold the authority to lay it down, and I hold the authority to take it again. I received this command from the side of My Father.”

A schism again happened among the Iudaeans because of these words. Yet a lot of them were saying, “He is demon possessed and is a raging lunatic; what are you listening to Him for?” Others were saying, “These aren’t the words of one who is demonized; no demoniac can open the eyes of the blind, can he?”

Then Khanukkah¹ happened among the people of Hierosoluma, it was winter, and Yeshua was walking within the Temple among the colonnade of Solomon. The Iudaeans then circled Him and were telling Him, “Until what point in time will you take our breath? If you are the Christ, tell us openly.” Yeshua answered them, “I told you and you didn’t believe it. These works which I am doing in the name of My Father testify about Me, but you don’t trust [their testimony] because you aren’t from the sheep which are Mine. The sheep which are Mine listen to My voice, and I recognize them and they follow Me, and I am giving them the life of the Eternal One and they will not be destroyed into the eon at all, and not a single person will plunder them from My hand. My Father who gave them to Me is greater than everything, and no one can plunder anything from the hand of My Father. I and the Father are one thing.”

The Iudaeans then brought stones again so that they might stone Him. Yeshua responded to them, “I showed you a lot of quality works from the Father; for which of these deeds are you stoning Me?” The Iudaeans answered Him, “We aren’t stoning You about a quality work but about blasphemy, and that You, being human, are making Yourself a god.” Yeshua answered them, “Isn’t it written in your Torah that, “I said, you are gods”²? If the Scripture said those to be gods to whom the Logos of God happened, and the Scripture can’t be undone, then you are saying to the One whom the Father consecrated and sent out into the universe, “You are blaspheming,” because I said, “I am the Son of God”? If I’m not doing the works of My Father, then don’t believe Me; but if I am doing them, and you won’t believe Me, at least believe the works, so that you recognize and might recognize that the Father is within Me and I am within the Father.” They sought to grab Him again, and He went out of their hand.

And He came out again to the other side of the Yordan into the place where Yohanan was first baptizing and stayed put there. And many came to Him and were saying that Yohanan on the one hand didn’t do a single sign, yet everything as much as Yohanan said about this guy was true. And many put their trust into Him there.

1The Festival of Lights, December 17^th through the 24^th of 32 CE

2Psalm 81:6, LXX (82:6) “I said, ‘you are gods, and are all sons of the Highest.’” The context of the psalm is Yahweh sitting at the head of a council of the gods in judgment of them.