April 25th, 2026

The season of Easter continues on for a total of fifty days. And we are near the middle of that season. This Sunday has the title of the Fourth Sunday of Easter, and it also has the title of Good Shepherd Sunday. The picture of Jesus as a good shepherd is within a few places of the four gospel accounts, but it is probably the most clearly given in the Gospel according to John. And the Gospel Reading for this Sunday is John 10:1-10.
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The writings of this website are currently going through the Gospel according to John, and last week’s writing dealt with that text of Jesus saying that he is the good shepherd. And we are close to being halfway through that Gospel account. We translate a little bit of the text at a time, in the order in which it appears in the text. And it is translated in an EXTREMELY literal fashion. The purpose of all of this is to have something from God’s Word to study on a regular basis. And by the end of the church year, at the month of November, the plan is to be close to the end of that Gospel account.

It should be noted that the text below has the Feast of Dedication indicated at its beginning. One could say that this festival is literally at the end of the year for the Jew. The structure of this Gospel account definitely followed the Jewish year, and a number of the prominent festivals were mentioned. At the beginning of the account, the Passover was mentioned, and that happened near the beginning of the year, in the spring. And if you have any familiarity with the life of Jesus, you know that the Passover is mentioned at the end of the account as well. Such a progression is a good reminder that another structure besides chapter and verse divisions may be helpful in understanding both the text and its context.

One more thing to note concerning the text below is that when the Jews lift up stones, in an attempt to kill Jesus, this is described as happening “again”, and it happened all the way back at the end of chapter eight. The feast there was called The Feast of Tabernacles, and it happened in autumn. There are definitely hints of a progression in this Gospel account, and the end is definitely amazing.

Now if you are very familiar with this style of translation, you may bypass the lines before the text which describe such a translation. The first thing to mention regarding the description of this type of translation is that the verse numbers will not be included within the text itself. Hopefully that is not too bothersome. Both the chapter numbers and verse numbers were added quite later after the text was written, and they are certainly helpful when someone is searching for a particular text, but their structure that they give is not always helpful. The chapter and verse numbers remind the reader of the distance from the very beginning of the work, and the writer probably wanted the reader to focus on something else besides his act of writing the book. A MUCH better focus is Jesus.

It should also be noted that the words with hyphens occur when more than one English word is used to describe a single word of the ancient Greek. And some of the words chosen below are meant to point out the close connection that sometimes occurs between the English and Greek languages. It may also be said that the meaning of some words often depends heavily on the context (this may be seen below, somewhat close to the end, with the verb “to squeeze”, that within the context of a society, its meaning is “to seize”). It is also important to mention that the order of the words below is also the same order that is in the ancient Greek. This may help to show the important words, especially when another word besides the verb is first in the sentence; the verb is usually first in Greek. The exception to this translation order is that there are just a small number of words (like “therefore” and “now”; in the text below it is also “on the one hand” and “but on the other hand”) that are usually second in a sentence that are meant to be first when translated. It should be said that repetition of words is sometimes frequent and should be noted as an emphasis. One more thing to mention is that, although this does not happen in the text below, the verbs in capital letters are called HISTORICAL PRESENTS. That is when a verb in a past tense is expected, but a verb in the present tense is given. This special characteristic of some of the verbs has been explained elsewhere in these writings, and it may be helpful to read some of the other writings of this website. With this in mind, it may also be helpful to have another translation or a study bible nearby as you read the text below.

What follows is an EXTREMELY literal translation of some of what is commonly known as the final part of the tenth chapter of the Gospel according to John (10:22-42):

It-happened  then,  the  dedications  in  the  Jerusalems;  winter  it-was.  And  he-was-walking-around,  the  Jesus,  in  the  temple,  in  the  stoa  of-the  Solomon.  Therefore  they-encircled  him,  the  Jews,  and  they-were-saying  to-him,  “Until  when  the  psyche  of-us  you-take-up?  If  you,  you-are  the  Christ,  tell  us  plainly.”

He-answered  them,  the  Jesus,  “I-said  to-you,  and  not  do-you-believe;  the  works  which  I,  I-am-doing  in  the  name  of-the  Father  of-me,  these  are-martyrs  concerning  me;  but-on-the-contrary,  you,  not  do-you-believe,  because  not  you-are  out-of  the  sheep,  the  my.  The  sheep,  the  my,  the  phone  of-me  they-hear;  and-I,  I-know  them,  and  they-follow  me,  and-I,  I-give  to-them  life  eternal,  and  certainly  not  they-will-perish  into  the  age,  and  not  he-will-seize  anyone,  them,  out-of  the  hand  of-me.  The  Father  of-me,  the-one  he-has-given  to-me,  than-all  greater  it-is,  and  no-one  is-able  to-seize  out-of  the  hand  of-the  Father.  I  and  the  Father,  one  we-are.”  They-lifted  again  stones,  the  Jews,  in-order-that  they-might-stone  him. 

He-answered  them,  the  Jesus,  “Many  works,  good-ones,  I-showed  to-you,  out-of  the  Father;  because-of  which  of-them,  work,  me  are-you-stoning?”

They-answered  him,  the  Jews,  “Concerning  a-good  work,  not  are-we-stoning  you,  but-on-the-contrary,  concerning  blasphemy,  and  because  you,  a-man  being,  you-are-making  yourself  God.”

He-answered  them,  the  Jesus,  “Not  is-it  having-been-written  in  the  Law  of-you  that  ‘I,  I-said,  “gods  you-are”’?  If  those  he-said  ‘gods’,  toward  whom  the  word  of-the  God  it-happened,  and  not  it-is-able  to-be-destroyed,  the  graph,  whom  the  Father  sanctified  and  sent-out  into  the  cosmos,  you,  you-say  that  ‘you-are-blaspheming,’  because  I-said  ‘Son  of-the  God  I-am’?  If  not  I-am-doing  the  works  of-the  Father  of-me,  not  do-believe  me;  now  if  I-do,  even-if  me,  not  you-do-believe,  the  works  believe,  in-order-that  you-know  and  you-are-knowing  that  in  me,  the  Father,  and-I  in  the  Father.”  Therefore  they-were-seeking  him,  again,  to-squeeze;  and  he-came-out,  out-of  the  hand  of-them.

And  he-went-away  again  across  the  Jordan,  into  the  place  where  he-was,  John,  the  first  baptizing,  and  he-was-remaining  there.  And  many,  they-came  toward  him,  and  they-were-saying  that  John,  on-the-one-hand,  a-sign  he-did  none,  but-on-the-other-hand,  all-things  as-much-as  he-said,  John,  concerning  this-one,  true  it-was.  And  many  believed  into  him  there.

The two uses of the word “know” near the end of the second-last paragraph may have been a bit confusing. But that is the way with some languages. It may help to picture the first one, “you-know”, as a starting point, and the second one, “you-are-knowing”, as an action that continues on. The timing is not so important in the ancient Greek language; time is EXTREMELY important in the modern era. In the above text, the type of action becomes more the focus. And the focus, once again, is to be Jesus.