Matthew 1-4 (Contemporary English Version)

Matthew 1

The Ancestors of Jesus

(Luke 3.23-38)

 ¹Jesus Christ came from the family of King David and also from the family of Abraham. And this is a list of his ancestors. From Abraham to King David, his ancestors were:

   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)

 ¹⁸This is how Jesus Christ was born. A young woman named Mary was engaged to Joseph from King David's family. But before they were married, she learned that she was going to have a baby by God's Holy Spirit. ¹⁹Joseph was a good man ^[a] and did not want to embarrass Mary in front of everyone. So he decided to quietly call off the wedding. ²⁰While Joseph was thinking about this, an angel from the Lord came to him in a dream. The angel said, "Joseph, the baby that Mary will have is from the Holy Spirit. Go ahead and marry her. ²¹Then after her baby is born, name him Jesus, ^[b] because he will save his people from their sins." ²²So the Lord's promise came true, just as the prophet had said, ²³"A virgin will have a baby boy, and he will be called Immanuel," which means "God is with us."

    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.

   

Matthew 2

The Wise Men

 ¹When Jesus was born in the village of Bethlehem in Judea, Herod was king. During this time some wise men ^[c] from the east came to Jerusalem ²and said, "Where is the child born to be king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east ^[d] and have come to worship him." ³When King Herod heard about this, he was worried, and so was everyone else in Jerusalem. ⁴Herod brought together the chief priests and the teachers of the Law of Moses and asked them, "Where will the Messiah be born?"

    ⁵They told him, "He will be born in Bethlehem, just as the prophet wrote,

    ⁶'Bethlehem in the land

   of Judea,

   you are very important

   among the towns of Judea.

   From your town

   will come a leader,

   who will be like a shepherd

   for my people Israel.' "

    ⁷Herod secretly called in the wise men and asked them when they had first seen the star. ⁸He told them, "Go to Bethlehem and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, let me know. I want to go and worship him too."

    ⁹The wise men listened to what the king said and then left. And the star they had seen in the east went on ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰They were thrilled and excited to see the star.

    ¹¹When the men went into the house and saw the child with Mary, his mother, they knelt down and worshiped him. They took out their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh ^[e] and gave them to him. ¹²Later they were warned in a dream not to return to Herod, and they went back home by another road.

The Escape to Egypt

 ¹³After the wise men had gone, an angel from the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Get up! Hurry and take the child and his mother to Egypt! Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is looking for the child and wants to kill him."

    ¹⁴That night, Joseph got up and took his wife and the child to Egypt, ¹⁵where they stayed until Herod died. So the Lord's promise came true, just as the prophet had said, "I called my son out of Egypt."

   

The Killing of the Children

 ¹⁶When Herod found out that the wise men from the east had tricked him, he was very angry. He gave orders for his men to kill all the boys who lived in or near Bethlehem and were two years old and younger. This was based on what he had learned from the wise men.

    ¹⁷So the Lord's promise came true, just as the prophet Jeremiah had said,

    ¹⁸"In Ramah a voice was heard

   crying and weeping loudly.

   Rachel was mourning

   for her children,

   and she refused

   to be comforted,

   because they were dead."

   

The Return from Egypt

 ¹⁹After King Herod died, an angel from the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph while he was still in Egypt. ²⁰The angel said, "Get up and take the child and his mother back to Israel. The people who wanted to kill him are now dead."

    ²¹Joseph got up and left with them for Israel. ²²But when he heard that Herod's son Archelaus was now ruler of Judea, he was afraid to go there. Then in a dream he was told to go to Galilee, ²³and they went to live there in the town of Nazareth. So the Lord's promise came true, just as the prophet had said, "He will be called a Nazarene." ^[f]

Matthew 3

The Preaching of John the Baptist

(Mark 1.1-8; Luke 3.1-18; John 1.19-28)

 ¹Years later, John the Baptist started preaching in the desert of Judea. ²He said, "Turn back to God! The kingdom of heaven ^[g] will soon be here." ^{[h] 3}John was the one the prophet Isaiah was talking about, when he said,

   "In the desert someone

   is shouting,

   `Get the road ready

   for the Lord!

   Make a straight path

   for him.' "

    ⁴John wore clothes made of camel's hair. He had a leather strap around his waist and ate grasshoppers and wild honey.

    ⁵From Jerusalem and all Judea and from the Jordan River Valley crowds of people went to John. ⁶They told how sorry they were for their sins, and he baptized them in the river.

    ⁷Many Pharisees and Sadducees also came to be baptized. But John said to them:

   You bunch of snakes! Who warned you to run from the coming judgment? ⁸Do something to show that you have really given up your sins. ⁹And don't start telling yourselves that you belong to Abraham's family. I tell you that God can turn these stones into children for Abraham. ¹⁰An ax is ready to cut the trees down at their roots. Any tree that doesn't produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into a fire.

    ¹¹I baptize you with water so that you will give up your sins. ^[i] But someone more powerful is going to come, and I am not good enough even to carry his sandals. ^[j] He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. ¹²His threshing fork is in his hand, and he is ready to separate the wheat from the husks. ^[k] He will store the wheat in a barn and burn the husks in a fire that never goes out.

The Baptism of Jesus

(Mark 1.9-11; Luke 3.21,22)

 ¹³Jesus left Galilee and went to the Jordan River to be baptized by John. ¹⁴But John kept objecting and said, "I ought to be baptized by you. Why have you come to me?"

    ¹⁵Jesus answered, "For now this is how it should be, because we must do all that God wants us to do." Then John agreed.

    ¹⁶So Jesus was baptized. And as soon as he came out of the water, the sky opened, and he saw the Spirit of God coming down on him like a dove. ¹⁷Then a voice from heaven said, "This is my own dear Son, and I am pleased with him."

   

Matthew 4

Jesus and the Devil

(Mark 1.12,13; Luke 4.1-13)

 ¹The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the desert, so that the devil could test him. ²After Jesus had gone without eating ^[l] for forty days and nights, he was very hungry. ³Then the devil came to him and said, "If you are God's Son, tell these stones to turn into bread." ⁴Jesus answered, "The Scriptures say:

   `No one can live only on food.

   People need every word

   that God has spoken.' "

    ⁵Next, the devil took Jesus to the holy city and had him stand on the highest part of the temple. ⁶The devil said, "If you are God's Son, jump off. The Scriptures say:

   `God will give his angels

   orders about you.

   They will catch you

   in their arms,

   and you won't hurt

   your feet on the stones.' "

    ⁷Jesus answered, "The Scriptures also say, `Don't try to test the Lord your God!' "

    ⁸Finally, the devil took Jesus up on a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms on earth and their power. ⁹The devil said to him, "I will give all this to you, if you will bow down and worship me."

    ¹⁰Jesus answered, "Go away Satan! The Scriptures say:

   `Worship the Lord your God

   and serve only him.' "

    ¹¹Then the devil left Jesus, and angels came to help him.

   

Jesus Begins His Work

(Mark 1.14,15; Luke 4.14,15)

 ¹²When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he went to Galilee. ¹³But instead of staying in Nazareth, Jesus moved to Capernaum. This town was beside Lake Galilee in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali. ^{[m] 14}So God's promise came true, just as the prophet Isaiah had said, ¹⁵"Listen, lands of Zebulun

   and Naphtali,

   lands along the road

   to the sea

   and east

   of the Jordan!

   Listen Galilee,

   land of the Gentiles!

    ¹⁶Although your people

   live in darkness,

   they will see

   a bright light.

   Although they live

   in the shadow of death,

   a light will shine

   on them."

    ¹⁷Then Jesus started preaching, "Turn back to God! The kingdom of heaven will soon be here." ^[n]

Jesus Chooses Four Fishermen

(Mark 1.16-20; Luke 5.1-11)

 ¹⁸While Jesus was walking along the shore of Lake Galilee, he saw two brothers. One was Simon, also known as Peter, and the other was Andrew. They were fishermen, and they were casting their net into the lake. ¹⁹Jesus said to them, "Come with me! I will teach you how to bring in people instead of fish." ²⁰Right then the two brothers dropped their nets and went with him.

    ²¹Jesus walked on until he saw James and John, the sons of Zebedee. They were in a boat with their father, mending their nets. Jesus asked them to come with him too. ²²Right away they left the boat and their father and went with Jesus.

   

Jesus Teaches, Preaches, and Heals

(Luke 6.17-19)

 ²³Jesus went all over Galilee, teaching in the Jewish meeting places and preaching the good news about God's kingdom. He also healed every kind of disease and sickness. ²⁴News about him spread all over Syria, and people with every kind of sickness or disease were brought to him. Some of them had a lot of demons in them, others were thought to be crazy, ^[o] and still others could not walk. But Jesus healed them all. ²⁵Large crowds followed Jesus from Galilee and the region around the ten cities known as Decapolis. ^[p] They also came from Jerusalem, Judea, and from across the Jordan River.