1.
Latter-day Saints are very familiar with John 10:16, which they see as referring to the Book of Mormon peoples in the New World. Intriguingly, as I’ve pointed out elsewhere, that same passage was a particular favorite with Christopher Columbus.
2.
The image of Christ as the “good shepherd” is a gentle one, expressing his love for his people and his willingness, as John 10:11 puts it, to lay down his life for them.
It’s also an age-old political image. In Homer and Hesiod, for example, rulers are called ποιμένες λαῶν (“shepherds of the people”). And the pharaohs of Egypt were commonly depicted holding both a flail and a shepherd’s crook, symbolizing, respectively, the monarch’s capacity to compel and his ability to lead by persuasion, example, and wisdom.
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