João 10

BLIVRE · Chapter 10/21

1Em verdade, em verdade vos digo, que aquele que no curral das ovelhas não entra pela porta, mas sobe por outra parte, é ladrão, e assaltante.

2Mas aquele que entra pela porta é o pastor de ovelhas.

3A este o porteiro abre, e as ovelhas ouvem sua voz, e a suas ovelhas chama nome por nome, e as leva fora.

4E quando tira fora suas ovelhas, vai adiante delas, e as ovelhas o seguem, porque conhecem sua voz.

5Mas ao estranho em maneira nenhuma seguirão, ao invés disso dele fugirão; porque não conhecem a voz dos estranhos.

6Esta parábola Jesus lhes disse; porém eles não entenderam que era o que lhes falava.

7Voltou pois Jesus a lhes dizer: Em verdade, em verdade vos digo, que sou a porta das ovelhas.

8Todos quantos vieram antes de mim, são ladrões e assaltantes; mas as ovelhas não os ouviram.

9Eu sou a porta; se alguém entrar por mim, será salvo; e entrará, e sairá, e achará pasto.

10O ladrão não vem, senão para roubar, matar, e destruir; eu vim para que tenham vida, e [a] tenham em abundância.

11Eu sou o bom Pastor; o bom Pastor dá sua vida pelas ovelhas.

12Mas o contratado a dinheiro, e que não é o pastor, a quem as ovelhas não pertencem, vê o lobo vir, deixa as ovelhas, e foge; o lobo as captura, e dispersa as ovelhas.

13E o contratado foge, porque é contratado, e não tem cuidado das ovelhas.

14Eu sou o bom Pastor, e conheço as minhas, e pelas minhas sou conhecido.

15Como o Pai me conhece, assim também também eu conheço o Pai; e dou a minha vida pelas ovelhas.

16Ainda tenho outras ovelhas que não são deste curral; a estas também me convém trazer, e ouvirão minha voz, e haverá um rebanho, [e] um pastor.

17Por isso o Pai me ama, porque dou a minha vida para tomá-la de volta.

18Ninguém a tira de mim, mas eu de mim mesmo a dou; tenho poder para a dar, e tenho poder para tomá-la de volta. Este mandamento recebi de meu Pai.

19Voltou, pois, a haver divisão entre os judeus, por causa dessas palavras.

20E muitos deles diziam: Ele tem demônio, e está fora de si; para que o ouvis?

21Outros diziam: Estas palavras não são de um endemoninhado; por acaso pode um demônio dar vista aos cegos?

22E era a festa da renovação [do Templo] em Jerusalém, e era inverno.

23E andava Jesus passeando no Templo, na entrada de Salomão.

24Rodearam-no, então, os Judeus, e lhe disseram: Até quando farás nossa alma em dúvida? Se tu és o Cristo, dize-nos abertamente.

25Respondeu-lhes Jesus: Já vos tenho dito, e não credes. As obras que eu faço em nome de meu Pai, essas testemunham de mim.

26Mas vós não credes, porque não sois de minhas ovelhas, como já vos tenho dito.

27Minhas ovelhas ouvem minha voz, e eu as conheço, e elas me seguem.

28E eu lhes dou a vida eterna, e para sempre não perecerão, e ninguém as arrancará de minha mão.

29Meu Pai, que [as] deu para mim, é maior que todos; e ninguém pode arrancá-las da mão de meu Pai.

30Eu e o Pai somos um.

31Voltaram pois os Judeus a tomar pedras para o apedrejarem.

32Respondeu-lhes Jesus: Muitas boas obras de meu Pai vos tenho mostrado; por qual obra destas me apedrejais?

33Responderam-lhe os judeus dizendo: Por boa obra não te apedrejamos, mas pela blasfêmia; e porque sendo tu homem, a ti mesmo te fazes Deus.

34Respondeu-lhes Jesus: Não está escrito em vossa Lei: Eu disse: Sois deuses?

35Pois se [a Lei] chamou deuses a aqueles, para quem a palavra de Deus foi feita, (e a Escritura não pode ser quebrada);

36[A mim] ,a quem o Pai santificou, e ao mundo enviou, dizeis vós: Blasfemas; porque disse: Sou Filho de Deus?

37Se não faço as obras de meu Pai, não creiais em mim.

38Porém se eu as faço, e não credes em mim, crede nas obras; para que conheçais e creiais que o Pai está em mim, e eu nele.

39Então procuravam outra vez prendê-lo; e ele saiu de suas mãos.

40E voltou a ir para o outro lado do Jordão, ao lugar onde João primeiro batizava; e ficou ali.

41E muitos vinham a ele, e diziam: Em verdade que nenhum sinal fez João; mas tudo quanto João disse deste era verdade.

42E muitos ali creram nele.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Jesus declares himself the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep, in contrast to false shepherds and hired hands. He affirms his oneness with the Father, which provokes another attempt by the Jews to stone him for blasphemy.

Explanation

The metaphor of the shepherd and the sheep was familiar to the agricultural culture of the time: a good shepherd knows each sheep by name and risks his life for them, unlike the hired hand who flees in the face of danger. Jesus applies this to himself, promising to lay down his life voluntarily for the sheep—a clear allusion to the approaching cross. The statement 'I and the Father are one' (v.30) provokes an immediate attempt to stone him, showing that the listeners fully understood the implication of full divinity. The mention of 'other sheep that are not of this fold' (v.16) anticipates the inclusion of Gentiles in the church. The application today is the security that comes from belonging to the flock of a shepherd who truly cares, to the point of laying down his life.

Fun facts

  • The Feast of Dedication (Hanukkah), mentioned in v.22, commemorates the purification of the temple in 164 BC after its desecration by Antiochus Epiphanes, and is the only Jewish feast not instituted in the Law of Moses, but arising during the period between the Testaments.
  • The reference to 'I said, you are gods' (v.34) quotes Psalm 82:6, a common rabbinic argument (called 'qal wa-chomer,' from the lesser to the greater) used to show that if Scripture could call human leaders 'gods' in a figurative sense, it was not blasphemy for Jesus to declare himself the Son of God.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. João 10:1Jesus begins an image about shepherds and sheep: whoever enters the sheepfold some other way than through the door, climbing in some irregular way, reveals bad intentions, like a thief.
  2. João 10:2In contrast, whoever enters through the door, the right and expected way, is recognized as the legitimate shepherd of those sheep.
  3. João 10:3Shepherds of the time knew each sheep in the flock and called them by name, and the sheep learned to recognize their own shepherd’s voice even mixed in with other flocks in the same fold. It’s this day-to-day relationship of trust that Jesus uses as an image to describe how He and His followers recognize each other.
  4. João 10:4Unlike someone who drives the flock from behind, the shepherd goes ahead, and the sheep follow him because they already recognize his voice — an actual practice among shepherds of the time.
  5. João 10:5The sheep flee from strange voices, because they only recognize and trust their own shepherd’s voice, reinforcing the idea of a relationship built over time.
  6. João 10:6The narrator clarifies that this was a figure of speech, a parable, and that the listeners didn’t understand what Jesus meant by it.
  7. João 10:7Jesus shifts the image and identifies Himself directly with another element of the scene: now He isn’t just the shepherd, He is the very door of the sheepfold.
  8. João 10:8Probably a criticism of false religious leaders or earlier messianic figures who exploited the people: Jesus calls them thieves, and says the true sheep didn’t follow them.
  9. João 10:9As the door, Jesus offers both security and freedom: whoever enters through Him is protected, but can also go in and out, finding pasture.
  10. João 10:10He contrasts two opposite intentions: the thief only wants to steal, kill, and destroy, while Jesus came to give life, and life in abundance — the central verse of this part of the discourse.
  11. João 10:11Jesus presents Himself with another title: the good shepherd, defined precisely by being willing to lay down His own life for the sheep, not just care for them.
  12. João 10:12Unlike the good shepherd, the hired hand flees when danger appears, because the sheep aren’t really his — he doesn’t have the same commitment as the flock’s owner.
  13. João 10:13He explains why the hired hand flees: he works only for wages, without truly caring about the sheep he tends.
  14. João 10:14Jesus repeats the title of good shepherd, now emphasizing a relationship of mutual knowledge: He knows His own sheep, and they know Him too.
  15. João 10:15He compares this relationship of knowledge between shepherd and sheep with the relationship between Himself and the Father, and reaffirms that He will lay down His own life for this flock.
  16. João 10:16Jesus mentions other sheep outside this particular fold, an allusion to people outside the Jewish nation who will also become part of the same flock, united under one shepherd.
  17. João 10:17He explains why the Father loves Him in a special way: because of His willingness to lay down His own life, knowing He will take it up again afterward.
  18. João 10:18Jesus makes it clear that no one takes His life by force; He lays it down of His own accord, with authority both to lay it down and to take it up again, following a command received from the Father.
  19. João 10:19These strong claims about Himself again cause a division of opinion among the Jews, repeating a pattern that has already appeared earlier in the gospel.
  20. João 10:20Some dismiss Jesus completely, saying He has a demon and is out of His mind, with no reason to be heard.
  21. João 10:21Others disagree, pointing out that a demon-possessed man couldn’t open a blind man’s eyes — a direct reference to the miracle in the previous chapter as evidence against that accusation.
  22. João 10:22The Feast of Dedication is what’s known today as Hanukkah, created to commemorate when the temple was purified after being desecrated by a foreign king, centuries before Jesus’ time. Unlike Passover, it didn’t come from the law of Moses — it was a more recent feast in Jewish history — and it fell in winter, which explains why Jesus is walking in a covered area of the temple.
  23. João 10:23Solomon’s Porch was a covered area of the temple, a colonnaded walkway that offered shelter from the cold — which explains why Jesus was walking there during the winter mentioned in the previous verse.
  24. João 10:24The Jews surround Jesus and demand a direct answer, no more parables or half-words: is He the Christ or not?
  25. João 10:25Jesus answers that He has already told them this before, in various ways, and that the works He does in the Father’s name already serve as proof — but even so they don’t believe.
  26. João 10:26He explains their refusal using the same shepherd image: they don’t believe because, in His words, they aren’t even part of His flock.
  27. João 10:27He describes what His true sheep are like: they recognize His voice, are known by Him, and truly follow Him.
  28. João 10:28He promises these sheep eternal life and total security: they will never perish, and no one can snatch them out of His hand.
  29. João 10:29He reinforces this security with a second layer of protection: the Father Himself, greater than all, also guarantees that no one can snatch these sheep out of His hand.
  30. João 10:30This statement is the direct cause of the Jews’ furious reaction right afterward, since they understand Jesus to be placing Himself on the same level as God. It isn’t a claim about number — one single being, one single person — but about a unity of will and purpose between the two, even though scholars still debate today exactly how far the statement goes.
  31. João 10:31After Jesus affirms His unity with the Father in the previous verse, the Jews react by picking up stones again, taking it as blasphemy deserving of stoning.
  32. João 10:32Jesus challenges them to be specific: since He has done many good works from the Father, for which one exactly do they intend to stone Him?
  33. João 10:33They clarify the real reason: it isn’t because of any good work, it’s because, being a man, He makes Himself God — that’s the charge of blasphemy.
  34. João 10:34Jesus is quoting an ancient psalm, in which God calls the human judges who were supposed to judge justly in His name ‘gods,’ a way of saying that these people exercised authority that came from God. He uses this quotation to argue: if even Scripture calls people like that, who only received a word from God, by that name, why would it be blasphemy for Him to say He is the Son of God?
  35. João 10:35Jesus continues the argument begun in the previous verse, citing Psalm 82: if Scripture itself, which cannot be broken, already called people who received the word of God ‘gods’...
  36. João 10:36...then why would it be blasphemy for Him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, to declare Himself the Son of God? It’s an argument from the lesser to the greater.
  37. João 10:37Jesus proposes a concrete standard for judging Him: if He isn’t really doing the Father’s works, then they have no reason to believe Him.
  38. João 10:38But if He really does them, He asks that they at least believe the works, even without fully trusting His words, so they may recognize the union between Him and the Father.
  39. João 10:39Again they try to arrest Him, and again He escapes — the same repeated pattern of protection until the right moment, set earlier in the gospel, arrives.
  40. João 10:40Jesus goes back across the Jordan River, to the exact place where John the Baptist had first begun baptizing, closing a geographical loop with the beginning of the gospel.
  41. João 10:41The people who come to Him there remark that, although John never performed a single miraculous sign, everything he said about Jesus proved true.
  42. João 10:42Far from the hostility of Jerusalem, many people in this quieter place end up believing in Jesus.

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