¹⁴ Therefore the Lord himself will give you^[a] a sign:^(A) The virgin^[b](B) will conceive and give birth to a son,^(C) and^[c] will call him Immanuel.^[d](D)

² After fasting forty days and forty nights,^(A) he was hungry.

The Birth of Jesus Foretold

²⁶ In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel^(A) to Nazareth,^(B) a town in Galilee, ²⁷ to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph,^(C) a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸ The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

²⁹ Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. ³⁰ But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid,^(D) Mary; you have found favor with God.^{(E) 31} You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.^{(F) 32} He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.^(G) The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David,^{(H) 33} and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom^(I) will never end.”^(J)

³⁴ “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

³⁵ The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you,^(K) and the power of the Most High^(L) will overshadow you. So the holy one^(M) to be born will be called^[a] the Son of God.^(N)

³⁹ Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see;^(A) a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”

⁴⁰ When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. ⁴¹ And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” ⁴² They gave him a piece of broiled fish, ⁴³ and he took it and ate it in their presence.^(B)

¹⁴ The Word became flesh^(A) and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory,^(B) the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace^(C) and truth.^(D)

³ For what the law was powerless^(A) to do because it was weakened by the flesh,^[a](B) God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh^(C) to be a sin offering.^[b](D) And so he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ in order that the righteous requirement^(E) of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.^(F)

¹⁶ Beyond all question, the mystery^(A) from which true godliness^(B) springs is great:

¹⁴ Since the children have flesh and blood,^(A) he too shared in their humanity^(B) so that by his death he might break the power^(C) of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil^(D)— ¹⁵ and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear^(E) of death.