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Genesis 1

The Story of Creation

   created the heavens

   and the earth. ^{[a] 2}The earth was barren,

   with no form of life; ^[b] it was under a roaring ocean

   covered with darkness.

   But the Spirit of God ^[c] was moving over the water.

The First Day

The Second Day

The Third Day

    ¹¹God said, "I command the earth to produce all kinds of plants, including fruit trees and grain." And that's what happened. ¹²The earth produced all kinds of vegetation. God looked at what he had done, and it was good. ¹³Evening came and then morning--that was the third day.

The Fourth Day

The Fifth Day

The Sixth Day

    ²⁶God said, "Now we will make humans, and they will be like us. We will let them rule the fish, the birds, and all other living creatures."

    ²⁷So God created humans to be like himself; he made men and women. ²⁸God gave them his blessing and said:

   Have a lot of children! Fill the earth with people and bring it under your control. Rule over the fish in the ocean, the birds in the sky, and every animal on the earth.

    ²⁹I have provided all kinds of fruit and grain for you to eat. ³⁰And I have given the green plants as food for everything else that breathes. These will be food for animals, both wild and tame, and for birds.

    ³¹God looked at what he had done. All of it was very good! Evening came and then morning--that 1was the sixth day.

Genesis 2

The Seventh Day

    ⁴That's how God created the heavens and the earth.

   When the LORD God made the heavens and the earth,

The Garden of Eden

    ¹⁰From Eden a river flowed out to water the garden, then it divided into four rivers. ¹¹The first one is the Pishon River that flows through the land of Havilah, ¹²where pure gold, rare perfumes, and precious stones are found. ¹³The second is the Gihon River that winds through Ethiopia. ^{[h] 14}The Tigris River that flows east of Assyria is the third, and the fourth is the Euphrates River. ¹⁵The LORD God put the man in the Garden of Eden to take care of it and to look after it. ¹⁶But the LORD told him, "You may eat fruit from any tree in the garden, ¹⁷except the one that has the power to let you know the difference between right and wrong. If you eat any fruit from that tree, you will die before the day is over!"

    ¹⁸The LORD God said, "It isn't good for the man to live alone. I need to make a suitable partner for him." ^19-20So the LORD took some soil and made animals and birds. He brought them to the man to see what names he would give each of them. Then the man named the tame animals and the birds and the wild animals. That's how they got their names.

   None of these was the right kind of partner for the man. ²¹So the LORD God made him fall into a deep sleep, and he took out one of the man's ribs. Then after closing the man's side, ²²the LORD made a woman out of the rib.

   The LORD God brought her to the man, ²³and the man exclaimed,

   "Here is someone like me!

   She is part of my body,

   my own flesh and bones.

   She came from me, a man.

   So I will name her Woman!" ^{[i] 24}That's why a man will leave his own father and mother. He marries a woman, and the two of them become like one person.

    ²⁵Although the man and his wife were both naked, they were not ashamed.

Genesis 3

The First Sin

    ²The woman answered, "God said we could eat fruit from any tree in the garden, ³except the one in the middle. He told us not to eat fruit from that tree or even to touch it. If we do, we will die."

    ⁴"No, you won't!" the snake replied. ⁵"God understands what will happen on the day you eat fruit from that tree. You will see what you have done, and you will know the difference between right and wrong, just as God does."

    ⁶The woman stared at the fruit. It looked beautiful and tasty. She wanted the wisdom that it would give her, and she ate some of the fruit. Her husband was there with her, so she gave some to him, and he ate it too. ⁷Right away they saw what they had done, and they realized they were naked. Then they sewed fig leaves together to make something to cover themselves.

    ⁸Late in the afternoon a breeze began to blow, and the man and woman heard the LORD God walking in the garden. They were frightened and hid behind some trees.

The Trouble with Sin

    ¹⁰The man answered, "I was naked, and when I heard you walking through the garden, I was frightened and hid!"

    ¹¹"How did you know you were naked?" God asked. "Did you eat any fruit from that tree in the middle of the garden?"

    ¹²"It was the woman you put here with me," the man said. "She gave me some of the fruit, and I ate it."

    ¹³The LORD God then asked the woman, "What have you done?"

   "The snake tricked me," she answered. "And I ate some of that fruit."

    ¹⁴So the LORD God said to the snake:

   "Because of what you have done,

   you will be the only animal

   to suffer this curse--

   For as long as you live,

   you will crawl on your stomach

   and eat dirt.

    ¹⁵You and this woman

   will hate each other;

   your descendants and hers

   will always be enemies.

   One of hers will strike you

   on the head,

   and you will strike him

   on the heel."

    ¹⁶Then the LORD said to the woman,

   "You will suffer terribly

   when you give birth.

   But you will still desire

   your husband,

   and he will rule over you."

    ¹⁷The LORD said to the man,

   "You listened to your wife

   and ate fruit from that tree.

   And so, the ground

   will be under a curse

   because of what you did.

   As long as you live,

   you will have to struggle

   to grow enough food.

    ¹⁸Your food will be plants,

   but the ground

   will produce

   thorns and thistles.

    ¹⁹You will have to sweat

   to earn a living;

   you were made out of soil,

   and you will once again

   turn into soil."

    ²⁰The man Adam ^[j] named his wife Eve ^[k] because she would become the mother of all who live. ²¹Then the LORD God made clothes out of animal skins for the man and his wife.

    ²²The LORD said, "These people now know the difference between right and wrong, just as we do. But they must not be allowed to eat fruit from the tree that lets them live forever." ²³So the LORD God sent them out of the Garden of Eden, where they would have to work the ground from which the man had been made. ²⁴Then God put winged creatures at the entrance to the garden and a flaming, flashing sword to guard the way to the life-giving tree.

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Matthew 1

The Ancestors of Jesus

(Luke 3.23-38)

   Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah and his brothers (Judah's sons were Perez and Zerah, and their mother was Tamar), Hezron;

   Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon, Salmon, Boaz (his mother was Rahab), Obed (his mother was Ruth), Jesse, and King David.

    From David to the time of the exile in Babylonia, the ancestors of Jesus were:

   David, Solomon (his mother had been Uriah's wife), Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Jehoram;

   Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, and Jehoiachin and his brothers.

    ^12-16From the exile to the birth of Jesus, his ancestors were:

   Jehoiachin, Shealtiel, Zerubbabel, Abiud, Eliakim, Azor, Zadok, Achim;

   Eliud, Eleazar, Matthan, Jacob, and Joseph, the husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus, who is called the Messiah.

    ¹⁷There were fourteen generations from Abraham to David. There were also fourteen from David to the exile in Babylonia and fourteen more to the birth of the Messiah.

The Birth of Jesus

(Luke 2.1-7)

    ²⁴After Joseph woke up, he and Mary were soon married, just as the Lord's angel had told him to do. ²⁵But they did not sleep together before her baby was born. Then Joseph named him Jesus.