The Virgin Mary

^26-27 During Elizabeth’s sixth month of pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to a virgin who lived in Nazareth, a town in Galilee. She was engaged to marry a man named Joseph from the family of David. Her name was Mary. ²⁸ The angel came to her and said, “Greetings! The Lord has blessed you and is with you.”

²⁹ But Mary was very confused by what the angel said. Mary wondered, “What does this mean?”

³⁰ The angel said to her, “Don’t be afraid, Mary, because God is pleased with you. ³¹ Listen! You will become pregnant. You will give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. ³² He will be great, and people will call him the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of King David, his ancestor. ³³ He will rule over the people of Jacob forever. His kingdom will never end.”

³⁴ Mary said to the angel, “How will this happen? I am a virgin!”

³⁵ The angel said to Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will cover you. The baby will be holy. He will be called the Son of God. ³⁶ Now listen! Elizabeth, your relative, is very old. But she is also pregnant with a son. Everyone thought she could not have a baby, but she has been pregnant for six months. ³⁷ God can do everything!”

³⁸ Mary said, “I am the servant girl of the Lord. Let this happen to me as you say!” Then the angel went away.

The Birth of Jesus Christ

¹⁸ The mother of Jesus Christ was Mary. And this is how the birth of Jesus came about. Mary was engaged to marry Joseph. But before they married, she learned that she was going to have a baby. She was pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ Mary’s husband, Joseph, was a good man. He did not want to disgrace her in public, so he planned to divorce her secretly.

²⁰ While Joseph thought about this, an angel of the Lord came to him in a dream. The angel said, “Joseph, descendant of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife. The baby in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹ She will give birth to a son. You will name the son Jesus.^[a] Give him that name because he will save his people from their sins.”

²² All this happened to make clear the full meaning of what the Lord had said through the prophet: ²³ “The virgin will be pregnant. She will have a son, and they will name him Immanuel.”^[b] This name means “God is with us.”

²⁴ When Joseph woke up, he did what the Lord’s angel had told him to do. Joseph married Mary. ²⁵ But he did not have intimate relations with her until she gave birth to the son. And Joseph named the son Jesus.