Who Exactly Were The "Other Sheep" That Jesus Spoke About?

John 10:16 · Nephi 15 · John 10

Who are the other sheep that Jesus talks about in the Gospel of John? In John chapter 10, there's a famous text where Jesus is talking about being the good shepherd. He says that when he speaks, his sheep hear his voice. He says that he lays down his life for his sheep. And then in John 10:16, Jesus says this, "And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice." So there will be one flock, one shepherd. Now members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have often appealed to this verse as a prophecy that Jesus would appear to the peoples in the Americas, specifically the Nephites.

In 3rd Nephi 15, a chapter in the Book of Mormon, Jesus specifically says to the Nephites, "You are the people that I was referring to when I said, I have other sheep which are not of this fold." But is the Latter-day Saint interpretation of John 10 and the Book of Mormon's use of John 10 actually what Jesus was communicating here? I don't think so. And one of the reasons I don't think so is because in John 10, Jesus is talking about being the good shepherd. This is actually an illusion to an Old Testament text, specifically a text in Ezekiel 34. Now in Ezekiel 34, God is speaking a message of condemnation to the shepherds of Israel.

The political and religious leaders who are not doing their jobs. God says to them in Ezekiel 34, "Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves, should you not feed the sheep?" He says, "The weak you haven't strengthened. The sick you haven't healed. The injured you haven't bound up." He says, "You're not doing your jobs. You haven't sought the lost. with force and harshness you have ruled them. So God steps into this and he says I will rescue my sheep. In Ezekiel 34:1 he says, "Thus says the Lord God, behold I I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. I will rescue them.

I will bring them. I will gather them. I will feed them." In chapter 34:15, he says, "I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. I will seek the lost. In other words, I will do what you haven't been doing. Now, you have to understand the context in which God speaks this. Ezekiel is writing at the very beginning of the exile of the southern kingdom of Judah. Now, in Israel's history, there were kind of a united kingdom under Saul and David and Solomon. But after Solomon, they split into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah.

A century and a half before this, the northern kingdom of Israel was destroyed by the Assyrian Empire. The Assyrians came, they took Samaria, which was the capital of the northern kingdom. They destroyed the 10 tribes of Israel associated with the northern kingdom. Well, these people were scattered throughout the world. Some of them intermarried with other folks and were brought back. And those people would become the Samaritans of Jesus's day. Now, the southern kingdom lasted a little bit longer. Babylon would take the people into exile and eventually the people would be restored back to the land in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah.

Ezekiel 34

But at this point, this is the very beginning of Judah, the southern kingdom's exile into they're being taken to Babylon. Ezekiel is not in Jerusalem. He's away from the land. And he's telling the people, "Here's what's going on in Jerusalem. Here's what God is going to do." In fact, he says in chapter 34:23, "I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David. He shall feed them. He shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the Lord, will be their God. My servant David will be prince among them. So Jesus is alluding to this text in John 10 when he says, "I am the good shepherd." God says, "I will be the shepherd.

I will seek them out and I will establish David to rule over them." And Jesus says essentially, "I am the Messiah. I am the good shepherd who brings my people out of exile." Not just exile to Babylon, but an even greater exile. An exile to sin. It's slavery to sin. Ezekiel 34 through37 goes on to talk about even grander promises that God gives to his people that would be a part of this restoration. He talks about how he would give them a new heart, a new spirit. He says in chapter 36, I will sprinkle clean water on you. I will clean you. I will cleanse you. I'll give you a new heart. I'll put my spirit within you uh and cause you to walk in my statutes.

So part of the restoration of Israel isn't just that they come back to the land, but that God fixes the problem with their hard hearts. That God would give them a new heart and give them the Holy Spirit. He talks about how he will out of two nations, northern and southern Israel, he will make them one new nation. He will destroy this division between them between them. He'll bring them back to the land and he'll set up David, a king, a messianic king, to rule over them. Here's actually what he says in chapter 37:4. My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. That's the same language Jesus uses in John 10.

One shepherd. They will walk in my rules. He goes on to say, "I will make a covenant of peace with them. It will be an everlasting covenant with them, and I will set them in their land. I'll multiply them. I'll dwell in their midst. They will be my people. So, the promises that God gives to Israel are profound. He essentially says, I'll fix the problem with your sin. I'll give you a new and better covenant. I will be your shepherd who will gather you. I will send a Messiah who will help you. I will give you my Holy Spirit, not just to the southern kingdom of Judah, but to the northern kingdom of Israel.

And actually, if you look at all of the prophetic teachings, not just in Ezekiel, but throughout the prophets, all of these promises are also paired with the promise that God would bring the nations into this, that he will gather the Gentiles into this people. He will even give his holy spirit to the Gentiles, to those who were once restricted from entrance into God's presence. So when Jesus says, "I am the good shepherd," and he alludes to Ezekiel 34 through37, he's essentially saying that all of these promises, the restoration of Israel, the second exodus was beginning to happen, that he was the Messiah who would bring his people back, who would gather north and south and Gentiles, and who would give them the spirit of God.

Acts 1:8 · Acts 8 · Acts 8:14

And actually this is exactly what the book of Acts says began to be fulfilled in the very beginning days of the church. If you look at Acts chapter 1, Jesus right before he ascends is talking with the disciples, the apostles, and his disciples say, "Jesus, you've raised from the dead. You you've been resurrected. When are you going to restore the kingdom? When are all these promises that the prophets were talking about going to be fulfilled?" And Jesus says, "It's not for you to know the specifics, but here's what I will say." Acts 1:8, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you." Now, again, the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the people was one of the promises that were given to Israel through the prophets.

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. So there's this expansion from Jerusalem and Judea where the Jews were, where the southern kingdom had been restored to, to Samaria. Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom, the Samaritans, and even to the ends of the earth. The ends of the earth, especially in the prophets, was the language of the Gentiles. So Jesus is saying, "The kingdom is coming and it's going to begin to be restored through you when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. It's not for you to know all the details, but you will move from Jerusalem out to the Samaritans to the northern kingdom, even out to the Gentiles.

And then the entire book of Acts shows the fulfillment of these things. So Jesus says, "Of the sheep I have, I will gather them too." And then in Acts, he says, "I am going to gather them through you." It's really interesting actually at the very beginning of acts Luke is writing Acts the Luke who wrote the the gospel of Luke and he says in verse one in the first book oh theophilos I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up this is really interesting he says that all that Jesus began to do and teach essentially saying that I'm going to write this second volume about what Jesus continues to do and teach.

And there's this theme that Jesus identifies with the church such that what the church does, Jesus is doing. If you remember when Paul/Saul meets Jesus on the road to Damascus, Jesus says, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" Saul was persecuting the church. And yet Jesus saw that as persecution of him. So there's this motif of Jesus working through the church. So when Jesus says, "I will gather my sheep," and we see the church move to gather the Samaritans and the Gentiles, I think that is the fulfillment of John 10:16, not the Book of Mormon. Just to parse this out a little bit more, in Acts 8, the Samaritans received the Holy Spirit.

Acts 8:14 says that the apostles heard that Samaria had received the word of God. In verse 17, it says they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. The Samaritans, what's left of the northern kingdom, they receive the Holy Spirit. Uh in Acts 10, the Gentiles receive the Holy Spirit. Peter preaches the gospel to them, tells them about the work of Christ, and then while Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. The believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles.

Acts 2 · Acts 15 · Acts 15:15

Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, ends of the earth. The prophetic promises were beginning to be restored right here. In fact, in Acts 2 and in Acts 15, there's these statements about how what was happening in Acts was the fulfillment of all of the prophetic promises. In Acts two, after the Holy Spirit comes upon the disciples, the apostles, Peter preaches a sermon and he quotes from the prophet Joel about the coming of the Holy Spirit, about how the day of the Lord was coming, about the restoration of Israel. And he says, "This that you're seeing, the coming of the Holy Spirit, people speaking in tongues, this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel.

This is the fulfillment of what Joel was saying in Acts 15 at the Jerusalem Council when they're discussing about the inclusion of the Gentiles. They actually say in Acts 15:15, "The words of the prophets agree just as it is written after this, I will return. I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen. I will rebuild its ruins and I will restore it that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old. In Ephesians 2, Paul actually talks about how the Gentiles were once alienated from the commonwealth of Israel.

They were strangers to the covenants of the promise, but now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. He goes on, "He has made us both one, Jew and Gentile, and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility that he might create in himself one new man in place of two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility." Paul is referencing the fulfillment of the prophetic hope, the mystery that has now been revealed that the Gentiles would be brought in to the people of God.

Romans 9 through11 speaks about this exact same thing. He talks about in chapter 11 how there's an olive tree uh that's representative of the people of God. It's its roots are the patriarchs. And this tree had natural branches that were torn off because of unbelief. These are ethnic Jews. Um, Israelites who because of their unbelief were torn out, removed from the true Israel, the true people of God to use his language in in Romans here. And that wild olive shoots, those who were not naturally a part of these branches, they were grafted in to be a part of this tree. And so we see these images paired with citations from the Old Testament that tell us that the promises to which Jesus was alluding have been fulfilled.

They began to be fulfilled in Jesus's ministry. They continue to be fulfilled in the works of the apostles and the establishment of the church in the book of Acts. They are continuing to be worked out to this very day. Jew, Gentile, one new man, prophetic promises fulfilled. All led by one shepherd, one Lord, the God who himself gathers his people, finds those who are far off and who are lost, brings them back into the land, dwells in their midst, and is with them to the very end of the age. Now, one thing that some Latter-day Saints will point to is Jesus also says, "They will hear my voice." And they'll appeal to this idea that Jesus needed to audibly speak to the people in order for this to be fulfilled.

John 5:25 · John 18:37 · Romans 10

But if we just do a survey of how this phrase is used throughout the Bible, we see that the voice of Christ is used even when Christ himself is not bodily present. In John 5:25, uh Jesus speaks about this concerning those who he calls from the dead. Obviously, the dead can't hear his voice. In 5:25, Jesus says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live." He also says it in John 18:37, where Jesus says, "You say, I am a king. For this purpose, I was born, and for this purpose, I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth.

Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice." We also see this used in Romans 10. In Romans 10, Paul has this statement where he says, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." How can they call on him in whom they have not believed? How are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? How are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? Then look at what he says in verse 17. So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. So the word of Christ here is kind of shorthand for the gospel and even for scripture.

So we need not see the voice of Christ, the word of Christ be relegated to the audible voice of Christ. We can see it as truth being proclaimed in the gospel and even in scripture. So when we consider these things, is it the case that Jesus in John 10 was prophesying about going to the Nephites? I don't think so. When we consider what Jesus was alluding to, what all of those promises spoke about, what the rest of the New Testament says, how it references those texts as starting to be fulfilled in the days of Acts, there's no reason for us to conclude that that is what Jesus was referring to. The other sheep that Jesus spoke of were the northern kingdom and the Gentiles that were being brought together with the Jews into one new people of God, the church.