The chapter
Simply Jesus talks about sheep, a fold and a shepherd, and says he is both the door and the good shepherd, the one who lays down his life rather than running. His hearers are divided again, some saying he is out of his mind. Later, at a winter feast, they ask him to say plainly whether he is the Christ. His answer makes them pick up stones, and he leaves the city for the place where John had been baptizing.
Context The chapter names itself a parable at verse 6 and then says the hearers did not understand it, which is the only time in this Gospel that a saying is labelled and its failure reported in the same breath. What follows is Jesus explaining it twice, in two different directions: at verse 7 he is the door, at verse 11 he is the shepherd. Verse 16 opens the fold to sheep that are not in it, and the sentence at verse 30 is the one the rest of the chapter reacts to.
Verses 1-21
Simply A shepherd comes in by the door and the sheep know his voice; a thief climbs in another way. Jesus says he is the door, and then that he is the good shepherd, who lays down his life for the sheep, unlike a hired man who runs when the wolf comes. He says he has other sheep in another fold and that they will become one flock. The listeners split: some say he has a demon, others point out that a demon does not open blind eyes.
Context The comparison at verse 12 turns on ownership rather than courage: the hired man runs because the sheep are not his, and the text says so rather than calling him a coward. Verse 18 is the strongest claim in the section and it is made twice in one sentence, that nobody takes his life from him and that he has power to take it up again. The objection at verse 21 is the strongest thing said in his favour in the whole chapter, and it comes from the crowd rather than from him: it refers back to the blind man of chapter 9, so the argument of that chapter is still running here.
Verses 22-30
Simply It is winter, the Feast of the Dedication, and Jesus is walking in a covered part of the temple. People gather round and ask him to stop keeping them in suspense and say plainly whether he is the Christ. He answers that he has told them and that his works say it too, and that his sheep hear his voice and can never be taken from him. Then he says that he and the Father are one.
Context Verse 22 is the only place in the New Testament that names this feast, and it is the only date this Gospel gives for a scene that is not Passover or Booths. The book that recounts how the feast began is in this app's corpus: 1 Maccabees says the altar was rededicated with eight days of celebration and that Judas and the assembly of Israel ordained it be kept every year from the twenty-fifth of Chislev. Whether a reader can open that book here depends on their canon, because only three of the thirteen offered editions carry it. Verse 29 is one of the few in this chapter where the editions differ: twelve say the Father who gave them is greater than all, while the Petrus Canisiusvertaling says instead that what the Father has given is the most precious of all. The difference moves the greatness from the giver to the gift.
Verses 31-42
Simply They pick up stones. He asks which of his good works they are stoning him for, and they answer that it is not for a work but for blasphemy, because he is a man making himself God. He replies by quoting their own scripture, where God says to certain people, you are gods, and asks why the word is blasphemy in his mouth. They try to seize him and he gets away, going back across the Jordan, where many believe.
Context The quotation at verse 34 is Psalm 82:6, and it can be opened in this app: I said, you are gods, all of you are sons of the Most High. The argument built on it is an argument from the lesser to the greater and it is left unfinished, because they reach for him again before it lands. Verse 33 is worth reading slowly, because it is the clearest statement in the Gospel of what his opponents think he is claiming, and it is put in their mouths rather than his. The chapter ends with a comparison in John the Baptist's favour and against him at once: John did no sign, and everything John said was true.