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.”

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.