1 A TABLE OF THE DESCENT of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham.
2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac of Jacob, Jacob of Judah and his brothers, 3 Judah of Perez and Zarah (their mother was Tamar), Perez of Hezron, Hezron of Ram, 4 Ram of Amminadab, Amminadab of Nahshon, Nahshon of Salma, 5 Salma of Boaz (his mother was Rahab), Boaz of Obed (his mother was Ruth), Obed of Jesse; 6 and Jesse was the father of King David.
David was the father of Solomon (his mother had been the wife of Uriah), 7 Solomon of Rehoboam, Rehoboam of Abijah, Abijah of Asa, 8 Asa of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat of Joram, Joram of Azaria, 9 Azariah of Jotham, Jotham of Ahaz, Ahaz of Hezekiah, 10 Hezekiah of Manasseh, Manasseh of Amon, Amon of Josiah; 11 and Josiah was the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon.
12 After the deportation Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel of Zerubbabel, 13 Zerubbabel of Abiud, Abiud of Eliakim, Eliakim of Azor, 14 Azor of Zadok, Zadok of Achim, Achim of Eliud, 15 Eliud of Eleazar, Eleazar of Matthan, Matthan of Jacob, 16 Jacob of Joseph, the husband of Mary, who gave birth to Jesus called Messiah.
17 There were thus fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David until the deportation to Babylon, and fourteen from the deportation until the Messiah.
18 THIS IS THE STORY of the birth of the Messiah. Mary his mother was betrothed to Joseph; before their marriage she found that she was with child by the Holy Spirit. 19 Being a man of principle, and at the same time wanting to save her from exposure, Joseph desired to have the marriage contract set aside quietly. 20 He had resolved on this, when an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. 'Joseph son of David,' said the angel, 'do not be afraid to take Mary home with you as your wife. It is by the Holy Spirit that she has conceived this child. 21 She will bear a son; and you shall give him the name Jesus (Saviour), for he will save his people from their sins.' 22 All this happened in order to fulfil what the Lord declared through the prophet: 23 'The virgin will conceive and bear a son, and he shall be called Emmanuel', a name which means 'God is with us'. 24 Rising from sleep Joseph did as the angel had directed him; he took Mary home to be his wife, 25 but had no intercourse with her until her son was born. And he named the child Jesus.
1 JESUS WAS BORN at Bethlehem in Judaea during the reign of Herod. After his birth astrologers from the east arrived in Jerusalem, asking, 2 'Where is the child who is born to be king of the Jews? We observed the rising of his star, and we have come to pay him homage.' 3 King Herod was greatly perturbed when he heard this; and so was the whole of Jerusalem. 4 He called a meeting of the chief priests and lawyers of the Jewish people, and put before them the question: 'Where is it that the Messiah is to be born?' 5 'At Bethlehem in Judaea', they replied; and they referred him to the prophecy which reads:
9 They set out at the king's bidding; and the star which they had seen at its rising went ahead of them until it stopped above the place where the child lay. 10 At the sight of the star they were overjoyed. 11 Entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and bowed to the ground in homage to him; then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 And being warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned home another way.
13 After they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, and said to him, 'Rise up, take the child and his mother and escape with them to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the child to do away with him. 14 So Joseph rose from sleep, and taking mother and child by night he went away with them to Egypt, 15 and there he stayed till Herod's death. This was to fulfil what the Lord had declared through the prophet: 'I called my son out of Egypt.'
16 When Herod saw how the astrologers had tricked him he fell into a passion, and gave orders for the massacre of all children in Bethlehem and its neighbourhood, of the age of two years or less, corresponding with the time he had ascertained from the astrologers. 17 So the words spoken through Jeremiah the prophet were fulfilled:
1 ABOUT THIS TIME John the Baptist appeared as a preacher in the Judaean wilderness; 2 his theme was: 'Repent; for the kingdom of Heaven is upon you!' 3 It is of him that the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said,
7 When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism he said to them: 'You vipers' brood! Who warned you to escape from the coming retribution? 8 Then prove your repentance by the fruit it bears; 9 and do not presume to say to yourselves, "We have Abraham for our father." I tell you that God can make children for Abraham out of these stones here. 10 Already the axe is laid to the roots of the trees; and every tree that fails to produce good fruit is cut down and thrown on the fire. 11 I baptize you with water, for repentance; but the one who comes after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to take off his shoes; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 12 His shovel is ready in his hand and he will winnow his threshing-floor; the wheat he will gather into his granary, but he will burn the chaff on a fire that can never go out.'
13 Then Jesus arrived at the Jordan from Galilee, and came to John to be baptized by him. 14 John tried to dissuade him. 'Do you come to me?' he said; 'I need rather to be baptized by you.' 15 Jesus replied, 'Let it be so for the present; we do well to conform in this way with all that God requires.' John then allowed him to come. 16 After baptism Jesus came up out of the water at once, and at that moment heaven opened; he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove to alight upon him; 17 and a voice from heaven was heard saying, 'This is my Son, my Beloved, on whom my favour rests.'
1 JESUS WAS THEN led away by the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted by the devil.
2 For forty days and nights he fasted, and at the end of them he was famished. 3 The tempter approached him and said, 'If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.' 4 Jesus answered, 'Scripture says,
8 Once again, the devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their glory. 9 'All these', he said, 'I will give you, if you will only fall down and do me homage.' 10 But Jesus said, 'Begone, Satan; Scripture says,
12 When he heard that John had been arrested, Jesus withdrew to Galilee; 13 and leaving Nazareth he went and settled at Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee, in the district of Zebulun and Naphtali. 14 This was in fulfilment of the passage in the prophet Isaiah which tells of 15 'the land of Zebulun, the land of Naphrali, the road by the sea, the land beyond Jordan, heathen Galilee', and says:
18 JESUS WAS WALKING by the Sea of Galilee when is he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the lake; for they were fishermen. 19 Jesus said to them, 'Come with me, and I will make you fishers of men.' 20 They left their nets at once and followed him.
21 He went on, and saw another pair of brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John; they were in the boat with their father Zebedee, overhauling their nets. He called them, 22 and at once they left the boat and their father, and followed him.
23 He went round the whole of Galilee, teaching in the synagogues, preaching the gospel of the Kingdom, and curing whatever illness or infirmity there was among the people. 24 His fame reached the whole of Syria; and sufferers from every kind of illness, racked with pain, possessed by devils, epileptic, or paralysed, were all brought to him, and he cured them. 25 Great crowds also followed him, from Galilee and the Ten Towns, from Jerusalem and Judaea, and from Trans-jordan.