Gospel of John 10:1–42 Catholic BIble study Lesson 13

The Gospel According to John:
An Encounter with Grace & Truth

Lesson 13 I Am the Good Shepherd
the Gospel According to John 10:1–42

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)*
New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE)*
Catechism of the Catholic Church
ex libris (in our library)
glossary for the Gospel According to John
cross references in the Gospel According to John
next lesson: I Am the Resurrection & the Life

This material coordinates with Lesson 13 on pages 69–73 in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.”—the Gospel According to John 20:30–31

welcome to our in-depth study of the Gospel According to John
We invite interested groups and individuals to check out the sample first lesson from this 25-lesson Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study. These online study pages link to our free lesson videos, as well as to a glossary and cross references in the biblical text. Other study aids include maps, additional commentary, and prayers based on the primary Scripture in each lesson. The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth has been granted an imprimatur and can be purchased from our website shop. If you have a Bible-related question or comment, click on one of the “ask us your question” or “what do you think” buttons on any online study page.

open with prayer
It’s always wise to begin any Bible study with prayer, whether reading the Scriptures alone or meeting with others in a discussion study group. You can pray using your own words or use one of the opening prayers on our website. We especially like the following:

Lord Jesus, you promised to send your Holy Spirit
to teach us all things.
As we read and study your word today,
allow it to touch our hearts and change our lives. Amen.

let’s review—the Gospel According to John 9:1–41
In Lesson 12 A Man Blind from His Birth , Jesus heals a man who was born blind, and Jesus does so on the sabbath, further antagonizing the Jewish leaders. The Evangelist uses the account of the man born blind to demonstrate that the man’s blindness isn’t the result of sin. Jesus teaches that the man’s blindness allows the works of God to be made manifest. In an unusual departure from the norm in the Fourth Gospel, after the man’s healed, he begins defending Jesus, and he does this so well that he’s cast out of Temple. The man continues to profess his faith in Jesus, and Jesus suggests that judgment awaits the Pharisees because they’re refusing to admit they cannot see.

map notes—the feast of the Dedication of the Temple
In the tenth chapter in the Gospel According to John, Jesus delivers a complex teaching while in Jerusalem for the feast of the Dedication of the Temple. This isn’t one of the three feasts that Jews are required to attend in Jerusalem, so it’s probably noteworthy that Jesus is there. What’s Jesus previously indicated to be his attitude toward the Temple? Consider whether Jesus has made a deliberate choice to deliver his Good Shepherd discourse at this site. Read more about the prophetic link between Jesus and the Temple in “Location Matters” on page 71 in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth. Click on the image (right) to enlarge the map, which appears on page 71 in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

a step-by-step look at the discourse (40:57)
In the video for this lesson, Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps talks through each verse of Jesus’ complicated claim to be the Good Shepherd, including that Jesus also claims to be the door to the sheepfold, and that everyone who came before Jesus and attempted to lead the sheep anywhere has been a thief. Although few commentaries dwell on this last point, it poses the alarming question of whether Jesus is referring to such major Old Testament religious figures as the patriarchs, Moses, David, and the prophets. Watch the video to learn how Matthew interprets Jesus’ discourse. For additional information, read “All Who Came Before Jesus” on page 71 in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

The Scripture ranges for the videos that accompany this Catholic Bible study match the Scripture ranges for the sets of questions in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth. You can follow along with the video overview as Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps discusses Lesson 13, “I Am the Good Shepherd,” on pages 69–73 in the study book.

another way the image of the door is used in Scripture
The author of the book of Revelation 4:1 builds on the idea of Jesus being the gate or door by which everyone must pass to enter heaven: “After this I looked, and behold, in heaven an open door!” This echoes the Gospel According to John 10:7, in which Jesus says; “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.” This isn’t entirely surprising, since tradition holds that both the Gospel According to John and the book of Revelation were written by the same author. You can learn more about the door image in Lesson 5 And Behold, in Heaven and Open Door! in the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness.

good, better, best
When Jesus identifies himself as the Good Shepherd, he joins a long line of biblical shepherds—most of whom do a decent job leading God’s people. Jesus isn’t just another shepherd, however, Jesus is the Good Shepherd. He’s better than all of these other shepherds because he’s the only one willing to lay down his life for his sheep. What makes Jesus the best shepherd imaginable is that not only is he willing to lay down his life for his flock, he also has power over life and death. He can choose to lay down his life, which is a decision other shepherds also can conceive of making. Unlike other shepherds, however, Jesus can choose to take up his life again. This is not an option open to any other human person.

pray with the Psalms—God himself is our shepherd
The Second Book of Samuel 24:17 records David’s reaction when he sees the LORD’s angel striking the people: “Behold, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done?” In comparing the people to sheep, David is displaying an understanding of his own protective role as shepherd. In Psalm 23, the LORD himself is described as a shepherd, reinforcing that David’s heart is similar to the LORD’s heart. Psalm 23 also is prophetic, foreshadowing Jesus’ description of himself as the Good Shepherd, found in the tenth chapter in the Gospel According to John. Prayed as part of Sunday Vigils (Week I), Psalm 23 will be included in Lesson 1 He Who Sits in the Heavens Laughs in the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume II: Vigils, Day Prayer & Compline, which is scheduled for publication in 2025.

the popes inspire us—Jesus’ followers
You can learn more about following Jesus by reading the papal quote from Pope Benedict XVI on page 73 in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth. In this reflection, based on the same biblical text used for this lesson, Pope Benedict XVI explains that no matter how many difficulties we may encounter, there are very real benefits if we follow Jesus as our Good Shepherd.

confusing metaphors
In the tenth chapter in the Gospel According to John, Jesus uses metaphors in a way that isn’t immediately clear. If we closely examine the biblical text to try to figure out what Jesus is saying, we discover that his metaphors aren’t exactly in sync unless we delve much deeper into the way we usually look at the language of what Jesus calls “figures of speech.” In the first figure of speech, in the Gospel According to John 10:1–10, Jesus claims to be the door of the sheep, leaving open the role of shepherd in that metaphor. Then in the Gospel According to John 10:11–16, Jesus changes gears and claims to be the Good Shepherd himself. As Christians, we instinctively know what Jesus means, but it’s easy for us to start spinning our wheels when we try to pin down his meaning based solely on the Scripture.

This isn’t unusual. Most of us are so familiar with the parables in the synoptic Gospels According to Matthew, Mark, and Luke that we don’t take time to examine them very closely. When we do, we find that many of these parables introduce questions we’ve never considered. The genius behind Jesus’ teachings seems to be that those who have faith have no trouble getting the points he’s trying to make, and those who have no faith have no idea what he’s talking about. In the tenth chapter in the Gospel According to John, the Evangelist shows us something of how this works. The first metaphor goes completely over the heads of Jesus’ audience. We know this because the Evangelist writes: “This figure Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.” The second metaphor appears to fare only slightly better with its hearers. In the Gospel According to John 10:19, the Evangelist writes that Jesus’ words caused much division among the Jews.

plain talk & a confused audience
What follows Jesus’ metaphors is a request from the Jewish leaders to tell them plainly what they want to know: Is Jesus the Christ (the long-awaited Messiah, the king to come on whom the Jews pinned all of their political hopes)? In the Gospel According to John 10:25, Jesus explains the crux of the problem: “I told you, and you do not believe.” In order to understand Jesus, a person first has to have the faith that comes with trusting God. Only those who are in Jesus’ flock recognize his voice and follow him.

the Jews took up stones
In the Gospel According to John 10:31–32, the Jewish religious leaders admit something that the rest of us have known for some time. They aren’t attempting to do away with Jesus because of his good works, some of which Jesus seems to have intentionally performed on the sabbath. Instead, what’s at the heart of the Jews’ problems with Jesus is that the religious leaders are absolutely certain that he’s blaspheming. The Jews use an interesting choice of words. They don’t say that Jesus claims to be God. They say Jesus “makes himself God.” This strongly suggests a subtle acknowledgment of Jesus’ unusual powers. No one is capable of making himself God. The very idea is ridiculous. Throughout history, however, many people have made unsubstantiated claims to be God. Such claims indeed are blasphemous. A claim to be God isn’t blasphemous, however, if it also happens to be true.

demonic possession—you could look it up in our archives
Some who fail to understand or believe Jesus write him off as possessed by a demon. Even today some people claim that Jesus was mad. To learn more about demonic possession, read Lost in Translation, an online column in which Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps helps readers connect with ideas expressed in the original languages of the Scriptures. New Lost in Translation entries are posted on Mondays, and past entries are archived on our website. Contact us if you’d like to receive Lost in Translation by email every week.

who are some other shepherds who came before Jesus?
When Jesus identifies himself as the Good Shepherd in the Gospel According to John 10:14, he joins a select group of major Old Testament figures. You can learn more in “Many Shepherds,” the commentary on page 73 in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth. The Turning to God’s Word in-depth Catholic Bible study In the Beginning: The Book of Genesis looks at some of the earliest shepherds in Judeo-Christian history, and The United Kingdom of Israel: Saul, David & Solomon Foreshadow Christ the King examines the life of David, the shepherd boy who became a king.

Q&A—where are all the parables in the Fourth Gospel?
A participant in one of our groups has noticed that there are no regular teachings of Jesus classified as parables in the Gospel According to John.

Q: The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible has a chart of Jesus’ parables and where they can be found in the Gospels, but they don’t list any parables for the Gospel According to John. What are your thoughts?

A: The short answer is that Jesus doesn’t tell parables in the Fourth Gospel. There aren’t any instances in which Jesus launches into a story beginning with “There was a man who had two sons,” or “A man was beset by robbers who beat him and left him by the side of the road,” or “A wealthy merchant went on a trip.”

The Evangelist John narrates stories in the Fourth Gospel himself, and all of them are about Jesus—usually fairly intimate encounters with another person or with a group of the Pharisees. In the Gospel According to John, Jesus definitely gives instructions to his disciples and anyone else who wants to listen, but he doesn’t do it with parables. The Evangelist records what Jesus says (his word, if you will), and Jesus is recognized for coming right out and saying what he means, for example: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood you do not have life within you.”

The Evangelist John does record Jesus’ use of the parable form in the Good Shepherd discourse. Like all of Jesus’ parables, what Jesus says in the tenth chapter in the Gospel According to John doesn’t make much sense to his listeners. It only begins to make sense to present-day audiences because we have 2,000 years of Christian teaching under our belts. Even though what Jesus says doesn’t seem to relate to his hearers, Jesus says it anyway—and he doesn’t make people try to read between the lines to try to figure out what some story means. Jesus is the story, which makes sense because he’s the Word of God.

The Evangelist John is more interested in portraying who Jesus is and how Jesus relates to individuals than he is in recording what Jesus taught.

(As an aside, the Ignatius Study Bible is based on the same translation that Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible studies reprint, the Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition [RSV2CE]).

Q: As John is believed to have written the last of the four Gospels and probably had access to the others, I think he may have chosen to include or emphasize different information about Jesus. What do you think?

A: The Gospels According to Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called the synoptic Gospels because they draw from some of the same source material and take an overall similar view to Jesus and his ministry—one that’s fairly different from the view taken by the Evangelist John. The synoptic Gospels often are compared and contrasted in terms of what they do and don’t include. Matthew and I participated in a multi-year project that did exactly this, and while it was academically interesting, it wasn’t the most fruitful Bible study. That project probably led our group to focus too much on the literal sense of Scripture, and we may not have done enough to encourage the spiritual sense at the same time.

But yes, we do agree that the Gospel According to John appears to intentionally focus on different aspects of Jesus’ life that would otherwise be in danger of being lost to us 2,000-plus years later. It’s always surprising that John is the only evangelist who reports the raising of Lazarus, for instance. And while John was present at the Transfiguration (he’s the only Evangelist who was), he’s also the only Evangelist who chooses not to describe his own experience at that rather significant event.

While the Gospel According to John isn’t credited with containing any parables, it does include some of the same pericopae (passages of Scripture intended to be read in public worship services) as the synoptic Gospels—if you look beyond the label of “parable.” Looking at similarities between the synoptic parables and the pericopae in the Gospel According to John results in a fairly lengthy list. If you’re curious, here’s a link to a more complete version of all the pericopae in all four Gospels. It includes material in the Gospel According to John in addition to the parables in the synoptic Gospels.

for additional reflection
It’s unusual for the Evangelist John to record Jesus’ explanation of his Good Shepherd discourse in order to address how Jesus and God relate to humanity. The following questions are designed to help readers begin to form their own thoughts and ideas related to the Gospel According to John 10:1–42. For more reflection questions, refer to the introduction to Lesson 13 on page 69 of The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

? What might explain why the Evangelist avoids parables when the writers of the synoptic Gospels According to Matthew, Mark, and Luke rely so heavily on them?
? What appears to be the main difference in the way that the Evangelist views Jesus and the way that Jesus is viewed by the writers of the synoptic Gospels According to Matthew, Mark, and Luke?
? Which of Jesus’ parables from the synoptic Gospels are most familiar?
? What part of Jesus’ Good Shepherd discourse may be the most difficult for present-day Christians to understand?
? Consider the best way to explain to someone else what’s significant about Jesus’ claim to be the Good Shepherd.

the best Catholic commentary about Scripture
To find out more about how Church teaching is supported by Scripture passages in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth, check out the Index of Citations in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Links to the primary Scripture passages in the lesson (Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition [RSVCE*]) and relevant paragraphs in the Catechism are provided here. Not every passage in the biblical text for this study is referenced in a Catechism paragraph, however.

ways our glossary might prove helpful
In addition to providing extra information about geographical locations, our glossary also points out persons and places mentioned in the biblical text under multiple names or spellings. If you can remember a name but aren’t sure in which lesson it shows up, you can find it in the glossary, which lists every proper noun that appears in the primary biblical text for The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

to learn more, read more Scripture
If you’re having difficulty with a passage of Scripture, it can be helpful to read the relevant cross references—but looking these up can take time. To make that easier, we’ve compiled the cross references from the Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE)—the translation that we reprint in our study books. That list can be found at the top of every online study page accompanying this study, and it includes links to each of the cross references in the primary biblical text for The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

don’t forget about our indexes & extra online material
If you’re trying to locate information about a specific Scripture passage, you can look it up in the index at the back of the study book or sample lesson. If you want to find a particular commentary, you can look up its title in the topics index. To learn more about another book of the Bible for which there’s a Turning to God’s Word study, visit the online study directories to read the commentaries and watch any accompanying videos. Finally, if you have a question or would like to make a comment about any of our studies, you can use one of the “ask us your question” or “what do you think” buttons to email our authors.

ex libris—Church documents & books about religious topics
You can find links to magisterial documents referred to in Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible studies at ex libris—magisterial documents. This page includes a listing of significant recent encyclicals as well as a number of historical Church documents. Recommended books related to Scripture study can be found at ex libris—main bookshelf.

wondering how to pronounce some of these words?
The following link is to a reading from the New International Version (NIV) Bible. To listen, click on the audio icon above the printed text. Although not taken from the translations used in our study materials, the NIV reading provides an audio guide to pronunciation of words in this lesson’s primary biblical text. A close online version of the translation of the Bible used in Catholic liturgy in the United States as well as an audio guide for daily Mass readings for the current month can be found on the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

the Gospel According to John 10:1–42 (NIV)

close with Bible-based prayer related to this lesson
Many of our Catholic study groups like to conclude their discussions with a prayer based on the scriptural focus of their lesson, and some participants include Scripture-specific prayer in their individual study. If you’re uncomfortable composing your own Bible-based prayers, you can follow our four easy steps, or you can use the following prayer based on this lesson’s text from the Gospel According to John.

God our Father, you sent your Son
to care for the flock of humanity.
Help us to recognize Jesus as our personal Good Shepherd
and to follow him in docile obedience.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Lesson 14 I Am the Resurrection & the Life—the Gospel According to John 11:1–57
Lesson 12 A Man Blind from His Birth—the Gospel According to John 9:1–41

you also may like our two-part study of the prophets
Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume I: A Kingdom Divided examines the prophets in their historical context using the First and Second Books of the Kings and other Old Testament passages written before the Babylonian Exile in 586 B.C. Volume II: Restoration & Redemption looks at the post-exilic prophets. This 51-lesson Catholic Bible study builds on The United Kingdom of Israel: Saul, David & Solomon Foreshadow Christ the King. Click on the books’ covers to view a sample lesson from each volume.

start a Turning to God’s Word Bible study
Thank you for your interest in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth. Information about beginning a Turning to God’s Word Bible study can be found at start a Bible study. Tami, Matthew, and I are available to answer questions and offer support. Contact us if you’d like to start one of our studies or have your schedule listed with other TtGW study groups on our website. —Jennifer

*There are seven deuterocanonical books in the Old Testament—the Books of Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and First and Second Maccabees, as well as some passages in the Books of Esther and Daniel. Protestants usually refer to these works as “apocryphal,” a word that means “outside the (Protestant) canon” because they’re excluded from most Protestant Bibles. The word “deuterocanonical” means “second canon”; Catholics use that word to refer to any section of the Catholic Old Testament for which there are no extant, or existing, Hebrew manuscripts. All of the deuterocanonical books appear in the Septuagint, the earliest remaining versions of which date to the 1st century B.C. This Greek translation of the Old Testament was in common use by Jews at the time of Jesus. Learn more by reading How Do Catholic & Protestant Bibles Differ?

Turning to God’s Word printed Bible studies use the 2006 Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE) translation for all Scripture references except those to the Psalms, which are taken from The Abbey Psalms and Canticles, prepared by the Benedictine monks of Conception Abbey and published in 2020 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). All Scripture links for the online study pages for The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth are to the 1966 Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE) translation. The New International Version (NIV) audio recordings follow the same chapter and verse numbering as the RSV Catholic translations, but the NIV translation doesn’t include the deuterocanonical books and passages.

The 1966 RSVCE uses archaic pronouns and verb forms such as “thee,” “thou,” “didst” in the Psalms and in direct quotations attributed to God. The 2006 RSV2CE replaces these with more accessible English. The few significant translation changes in the RSV2CE include rendering almah as “virgin” in the Book of Isaiah 7:14 and restoring the term “begotten” in the Gospel According to John 3:16.

Numbering varies for some passages in this Bible study. Turning to God’s Word studies (print and digital) follow the numbering in the Revised Standard Version Catholic translations (RSV2CE and RSVCE). Discrepancies in the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE) are noted in the Index of Scripture Citations in the study book and the online sample.

You can learn more about the Psalms by viewing a sample lesson from the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume I: Lauds & Vespers. The second part of that study, Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume II: Vigils, Day Prayer & Compline, is scheduled for publication in 2025. Some verse numbers may vary in different translations of the Psalms.