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The Life of ChristSection 69 / 113
Section 069 · The Later Judean Ministry

The Good Shepherd

Still standing in front of the men who have just excommunicated a healed beggar, he describes a fold with a door, a shepherd whose sheep know his voice, hirelings who run when the wolf comes, and other sheep, not of this fold, that he intends to visit.

John 10:1–211 of 4 accountsReading: CCE
ProvenanceJSTJoseph Smith TranslationCCECovenant Christian EditionDeleted text shown struck, attributed
Study: reading text with parallel accounts; changes available.

Note. The Joseph Smith Translation makes two corrections that change who is being condemned, and transposes two verses so the shepherd is described before the hireling. The Covenant Christian Edition follows the transposition, so verse 14 is printed before verse 13.

? How to read this edition

The reading is the Joseph Smith Translation, in the text of the Covenant Christian Edition, carried beside each Gospel and set against the King James baseline. Headers give both numbering systems: the CCE chapter and verse, and the traditional KJV reference.

JST
Green: Joseph Smith Translation. Where the Covenant Christian Edition departs in substance from the King James text and the change is in the JST (confirmed against the parallel-column edition). Modernized English (“has” for “hath,” “you” for “thou”) is not marked.
CCE
Burgundy: Covenant Christian Edition. Where the CCE’s reading departs from the King James but the change is not in the Joseph Smith Translation manuscript (e.g. “this day I have begotten you” at the baptism). Some are Joseph’s own readings from his sermons; the section’s Joseph Smith commentary then gives the sermon.
JohnKJVJohn 10:1–21CCEJohn 6:24–28NT 2

1Truly, truly I say unto you, he that enters not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. 2But he that enters in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3To him, the porter opens and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4And when he puts forth his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him for they know his voice. 5And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers. 6This parable spoke Jesus unto them, but they understood not what things they were which he spoke unto them.

7Then said Jesus unto them again, Truly, truly I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep sheepfold. 8All that ever came before me who testified not of me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. 9I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. 10The thief comes not but to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

11I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for his sheep. 12But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, And the shepherd is not as a hired hand, whose own the sheep are not, who sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep, and flees, and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.14For I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. 13But he who is a hired hand flees because he is a hired hand and cares not for the sheep. 15As the Father knows me, even so know I the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. 16And other sheep I have which are not of this fold. Them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.

17For this reason does my Father love me — because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. 18No man takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.

19There was a division therefore again among the Jews for these sayings, 20and many of them said, He has a devil and is mad. Why do you hear him? 21Others said, These are not the words of him that has a devil, can a devil open the eyes of the blind?

Cross-references · other works
3 Nephi 15:21 (CCE 7:3) · other sheep I have↗Ezekiel 34:2–6 (CCE 17:5) · woe to the shepherds that feed themselves↗John 9:34 (CCE 6:21) · and they cast him out↗
Joseph Smith on the Good Shepherd

Power to Lay It Down and to Take It Again

The Good Shepherd Will Put Forth His Own Sheep

Joseph Smith is not expounding this chapter here. Writing to a New York newspaper editor in January 1833 about the gathering of Israel, he borrowed its language (“he putteth forth his own sheep,” verse 4, and the other sheep of verse 16) to sum up the prophecies he had just cited. It is shown for that reason, as an echo rather than an explanation.

Letter to Noah C. Saxton, 4 January 1833, Kirtland, Ohio · Joseph Smith Letterbook 1, p. 17 (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 17) · Joseph Smith Papers ↗

By it we learn that our western tribes of Indians are desendants from that Joseph that was sold into Egypt, and that the Land of America is a promised land unto them, and unto it all the tribes of Israel will come. with as many of the gentiles as shall comply with the requesitions of the new co[v]enant. But the tribe of Judah will return to old Jerusalem, The City, of Zion, spoken of by David in the 102 Psalm will be built upon the Land of America and the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to it with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads, and then they will be delivered from the overflowing scourge that shall pass through the Land But Juda shall obtain deliverence at Jerusalem see Joel 2. 32. Isaiah 26, 20 & 21, Jer. 31, 12, Psalm 50. 5, Ezekiel 34, 11, 12 & 13, These are testamonies that the good Shepherd will put forth his own sheep and Lead them out from all nations where they have been scattered in a cloudy and dark day, to Zion and to Jerusalem beside many more testamonies which might be brought

He Laid Down His Life and Took It Up Again, and Then Was Committed unto Him the Keys

In the Sermon in the Grove, eleven days before Carthage, Joseph Smith read verses 17 and 18 (“I lay down my life, that I might take it again… This commandment have I received of my Father”) together with John 5:19: the Son did what he had seen the Father do before him, laid down his life and took it up again as he was sent, and then received the keys. Thomas Bullock, William P. McIntire and George Laub each recorded the passage; switch to Scribal accounts to compare them with the History’s reading.

Discourse, 16 June 1844 (Sunday morning), Grove east of the Temple, Nauvoo, Illinois · History, 1838–1856, vol. F-1, p. 103 (History of the Church 6:475–476; Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 373) · Joseph Smith Papers ↗

If Abraham reasoned thus— if Jesus Christ was the son of God, and John discovered that God the Father of Jesus Christ had a Father, you may suppose that he had a Father also. Where was there ever a son without a father? and where was there ever a father without first being a son? Whenever did a tree or anything spring into existence without a progenitor? And every thing comes in this way. Paul says that which is earthly is in the likeness of that which is Heavenly; hence if Jesus had a father, can we not believe that he had a father also? I despise the idea of being scared to death at such doctrine, for the bible is full of it.

I want you all to pay particular attention to what I am saying. Jesus said that the Father wrought precisely in the same way as his Father had done before him— as the Father had done before, he laid down his life and took it up same as his Father had done before; he did as he was sent, to lay down his life and take it up again, and then was committed unto him the Keys &c. I know it is good reasoning.

Hugh Nibley on the shepherd-king

The King Is the Good Shepherd

“Good shepherd” was not a pastoral sentiment in the ancient world; it was a title of office. Nibley traced it through Egypt, where the king’s whole claim to kingship and priesthood was that he existed to serve everyone beneath him, which is why the image of a herdsman carrying a frightened calf could stand for the god who preserves the world.

Eloquent Witness: Nibley on Himself, Others, and the Temple“The Genesis of the Written Word” and related essays · Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 17
The king is the Good Shepherd, and the purpose of his kingship and priesthood is to serve all the others. Thus in the Fifth Dynasty tomb of Ti we see “a kind herdsman has lifted onto his shoulder a frightened calf that is looking round for its mother. The other herdsman seems to be quieting another animal. . . . This pastoral mood” expresses the religious doctrine of “the sun-god, as a good shepherd [who] takes care of mankind . . . and as the Great Preserver, makes the plants and beasts flourish.”

Nibley is writing about the ancient office rather than this chapter; the entry is given as background to a title John assumes his readers already understand.