In Greek this verse begins with an absolute statement “the hired man…,” which Good News Translation has changed to a dependent clause (when the hired man…) for stylistic reasons.

The hired man may be rendered as “the man who is just paid to take care of the sheep” or “the man who is paid to care of other people’s sheep.”

Who is not a shepherd may be translated “whose real work is not that of taking care of sheep” or “who is not a shepherd by profession.”

The phrase does not own the sheep must be translated in some languages “the sheep do not belong to him.”

So the wolf snatches the sheep and scatters them is translated “Then the wolf harries the flock and scatters the sheep” by New English Bible; Jerusalem Bible translates “and then the wolf attacks and scatters the sheep.” The verb translated snatches in Good News Translation is used frequently n Greek to refer to wild animals carrying away their prey. It may be awkward in some languages to speak of both snatching and scattering the sheep, as though the two activities affect all the sheep in the same way. What happens is that the wolf grabs one of the sheep and causes the rest of them to scatter. This meaning may be expressed as “pounces upon one of the sheep and scatters the rest.”

In languages that have no indigenous term for wolf, some translators prefer a term identifying another kind of animal which may attack sheep, for example, a “leopard.” Others prefer to use a term which would designate an animal either resembling or belonging to the dog family, for example, “hyena” or “wild dog.” Translators sometimes use a generic term, such as “dog,” but qualify it as “fierce.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .