Parable of the Lost Sheep

Jan Luyken etching, the Bowyer Bible.

The Parable of the Lost Sheep is a parable told by Jesus in the New Testament of the Christian Bible, Matthew 18:12–14 and Luke 15:3–7. It is the first member of a trilogy, followed by the Parable of the Lost Coin and the Parable of the Prodigal Son.

The parable is also found in the Gospel of Thomas 107. Possible Hebrew Bible parallels are Ez 34:6–12 and Ps 119:176.

From Matthew 18:12–13

¹²How think ye? if a man have a hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? ¹³And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray.

A similar parable can be found in the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas (Patterson-Meyer translation):

107. Jesus said, "The (Father's) kingdom is like a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. One of them, the largest, went astray. He left the ninety-nine and looked for the one until he found it. After he had toiled, he said to the sheep, 'I love you more than the ninety - nine.'"

External links

• The parable in the book of Luke, NIV version
• The Lost Sheeps parable, comments by Dr. Kenneth E. Bailey

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