Probaton ('sheep') appears 39 times in the New Testament and ranks among its most theologically loaded animal terms. Rooted in classical Greek where it could denote any four-footed livestock, by the Koine period it had narrowed almost exclusively to sheep. Jesus identifies himself as the Good Shepherd whose sheep 'hear my voice' and 'follow me' (John 10:1-27), and he sends the disciples 'to the lost sheep of the house of Israel' (Matt 10:6; 15:24). The metaphor of vulnerability is equally prominent: 'I send you out as sheep among wolves' (Matt 10:16), and the scattered crowd moves Jesus to compassion because they are 'like sheep without a shepherd' (Matt 9:36, echoing Num 27:17). The eschatological separation of sheep from goats at the final judgment (Matt 25:32-33) gives probaton its ultimate evaluative force. Paul quotes 'we are considered as sheep for the slaughter' (Rom 8:36, from Ps 44:22).