Beginning

Jesus is born

2 At that time, Caesar Augustus made a law. He told his men to count everyone who lived in the countries that he ruled.^{[a] 2} This was the first time that the Romans had made a list of everyone's names. Quirinius was the Roman ruler of Syria when it happened.

³ Everyone went to his own home town for the Romans to count them. ⁴ So Joseph went to his home town, Bethlehem. He was living in the town of Nazareth, in Galilee. Bethlehem was in Judea. King David had been born there, so Bethlehem was called the town of David. Joseph belonged to the family of David. That is why he went to Bethlehem.

⁵ Joseph took Mary with him so that the Romans could count them. She went because she had promised to marry him. She was pregnant.

⁶ While they were in Bethlehem, the time came for her baby to be born. ⁷ This was her first baby, and it was a boy. She put cloths around him. Then she put him in an animal's food box. She did this because the rooms for visitors were full of people.^[b]

Some shepherds leave their sheep to go and see Jesus

⁸ That night some shepherds were living out in the fields near Bethlehem. They were keeping their sheep safe. ⁹ Then an angel of the Lord appeared to them. A bright light from God shone all around them. That frightened them very much. ¹⁰ The angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. Listen! I bring you good news. This news will make everyone very happy. ¹¹ Something happened today in the town of David. Someone special was born. He is the one who will save you. He is the Messiah. He is the Lord. ¹² I will tell you how you will know this baby. You will find him with cloths around him. He is lying in an animal's food box.’

¹³ At that moment, a great crowd of angels appeared. They were praising God. They said:

¹⁵ After that, the angels went away and returned to heaven. Then the shepherds said to each other, ‘We should leave the sheep and go to Bethlehem immediately! The Lord God has sent his angels to tell us what has happened. We want to see this baby.’

¹⁶ So they went quickly to Bethlehem. When they got there, they found Mary and Joseph with the baby. The baby really was lying in a food box. ¹⁷ After they had seen the baby, they told everybody about him. They told them what the angel had said to them about him. ¹⁸ Many people heard what the shepherds said. They were very surprised. ¹⁹ Mary remembered everything that the shepherds had said. She thought about it all for a long time. ²⁰ The shepherds then went back to their sheep. As they went they praised God. ‘How great you are!’ they said to him. ‘How good you are! Everything that the angel told us was true! We have heard good news. We have seen very special things!’

Mary and Joseph take Jesus to the temple

²¹ When the baby was eight days old, it was time for the priest to circumcise him. His parents gave him the name ‘Jesus’. The angel had told Mary that they must give him that name. He told her that before she had the baby inside her.

²² Long ago, God gave Moses rules for his people to obey. One rule told people how to become clean after a baby was born. The time came for Mary and Joseph to do this. So they took the baby Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem to show him to the Lord.

²³ This is the rule which the Lord gave to his people: ‘The first male baby born to a woman belongs to me. So you must bring him to me. ²⁴ When you do this, also bring two special birds for the priest to kill.’ So that is what Mary and Joseph did.^[c]

²⁵ At this time, a man called Simeon was living in Jerusalem. He was a good man and he obeyed God. He had waited a long time to see the special person who would save Israel's people. The Holy Spirit was with him. ²⁶ The Holy Spirit had told him, ‘You will not die yet. You know that the Lord God has promised to send his Messiah. You will see him before you die.’ ²⁷ Now the day had come. The Holy Spirit told Simeon that he should go to the temple. Mary and Joseph were bringing the baby Jesus to do what God's rule said. ²⁸ Simeon went to them. He took Jesus and he held him in his arms. Then he thanked God. He said:

³⁴ Then Simeon asked God to be good and kind to Mary and to Joseph. After that, he spoke to Mary, the mother of Jesus. He said to her, ‘God has chosen this baby. Many people in Israel will become worse because of him. And many of them will become better again because of him. He will be like a sign that points to God. But many people will speak against him. ³⁵ This will show their secret thoughts about God. This will make you very sad, too. It will seem like a sharp knife is cutting into you. That is how sad you will be’.

³⁶ A very old woman called Anna was also there in the temple. She spoke messages that the Holy Spirit gave to her. She was the daughter of Phanuel, who belonged to the tribe of Asher.^[d] She had lived with her husband for seven years and then he had died.

³⁷ After that, she had lived alone until she was 84 years old. Now she never left the temple. She stayed there day and night to worship God. She fasted and she prayed.

³⁸ At that moment, Anna came to where Mary and Joseph were standing in the temple. When she saw the baby, she thanked God for him. Then she began to speak about him to other people there. Many people were waiting for God to make Jerusalem free. These were the people that she spoke to about the child, Jesus.

³⁹ When Mary and Joseph had done everything that God's rules said, they returned home. That was in the town of Nazareth in Galilee. ⁴⁰ There the child grew up. God was good and kind to him and he became strong. He learned many things and he could understand them well.

Jesus visits the temple as a young boy

⁴¹ Every year, Mary and Joseph went to Jerusalem for the Passover festival.^[e]

⁴² When Jesus was 12 years old, his parents took him with them to Jerusalem. They went as usual for the festival. ⁴³ When the week finished, Mary and Joseph left Jerusalem to return home. But Jesus stayed behind and his parents did not know this. ⁴⁴ They thought that he was with their group on the way home. They travelled for a whole day. Then they began to look for him among their family and friends.

⁴⁵ They could not find him, so they went back to Jerusalem. They looked for him there. ⁴⁶ After three days, they found him in the temple. He was sitting there among the teachers. He was listening to what they were saying. He was also asking them questions. ⁴⁷ Everyone who heard Jesus was very surprised. He understood so many things and he could answer difficult questions. ⁴⁸ When his parents saw him there, they were also very surprised. His mother said to him, ‘My son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have looked everywhere for you. We have had a lot of troubles in our mind.’

⁴⁹ Jesus answered them, ‘You should not have needed to look for me. I must be doing what my Father wants me to do. You should have known that.’ ⁵⁰ But his parents did not understand what he was saying to them.

⁵¹ Then Jesus returned to Nazareth with them. He did what they wanted. His mother, Mary, was careful to remember all the special things that had happened. She thought about them a lot. ⁵² Jesus grew up into a man. He became strong and he could understand more and more things. God was pleased with him, and people were pleased with him too.

John the Baptist prepares people to meet Jesus

3 This report is about John, the son of Zechariah. It happened when Tiberius Caesar had been the Roman ruler for 15 years.^[f] Pontius Pilate was the Roman ruler of Judea. Herod had authority over the region of Galilee. Herod's brother Philip had authority over Iturea and Trachonitis. Lysanias had authority over Abilene.^{[g] 2} At this time, the leaders of the priests were Annas and Caiaphas. John was living in the wilderness. While he was there, God spoke to him.

³ John went to many places near the Jordan River and spoke a message from God. ‘You have done many wrong things,’ he taught everybody. ‘You must turn away from them and change how you live. Then God will forgive you and I will baptize you.’

⁴ The prophet Isaiah wrote this message from God in his book:

⁵ Fill in every valley and make every mountain and hill flat.

⁶ Then everyone will see how God can save them.” ’^[h]

⁷ Crowds of people were going out into the wilderness. They wanted John to baptize them. He told them, ‘You are like dangerous snakes! God is angry. You are trying to run away from him. But he will soon punish people like you. ⁸ You have to show that you are sorry. Change how you live. Stop doing things that God does not like. Do not begin to say to yourselves, “We are in the family of Abraham. God will surely not punish us.”^[i] Listen! God can take these stones and make children for Abraham out of them!^{[j] 9} You are like trees that have bad fruit. God has an axe ready to use. He will cut down every tree that does not make good fruit. He will throw those trees into the fire.’

¹⁰ ‘So what should we do?’ the crowd asked.

¹¹ John answered, ‘If you have two shirts, give one away. Give it to someone who does not have even one shirt. If you have some food, give some of it away. Give some to someone who has no food.’

¹² In the crowd, there were men who took taxes from people. These men also wanted John to baptize them. They asked him, ‘Teacher, what should we do?’ ¹³ John told them, ‘You must take the right amount of money from people. You must not take more money than the rules say you should take.’

¹⁴ Then some soldiers asked John, ‘What about us? What should we do?’

John replied, ‘Do not rob people of their money. Do not say that a person is guilty if he has not done anything wrong. You must not take money for yourself in that way. You should be happy with the money that you receive for your work.’^[k]

¹⁵ At this time people were thinking, ‘Is John the Messiah that God has promised?’ They were all hoping that he might be. ¹⁶ John knew what they were thinking. He said to them, ‘I baptize you with water. But someone else is coming soon. He is much greater than I am. I am not good enough even to undo his shoes for him. This other person will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. ¹⁷ He is like a farmer that brings the wheat home from his field. He uses a special tool to throw the wheat up in the air. He does this to make the wheat seeds separate from what remains. Then he cleans his yard. He carefully stores all the seeds to keep them safe. But he burns everything else in a great fire that nobody can put out.’

¹⁸ John said many more things to the people. He was telling them the good news about how God could change their lives. ¹⁹ One day John told Herod, the ruler, that it was wrong for him to marry Herodias. Before that, she had been the wife of Herod's brother.^[l] John also told Herod that he had done many other bad things. ²⁰ So then Herod did an even worse thing; he locked John up in prison.

John baptizes Jesus

²¹ While John was still baptizing all the people, he also baptized Jesus. While Jesus was praying, the sky opened. ²² The Holy Spirit came down onto Jesus. When he came down like that, he looked like a dove. Then a voice spoke from heaven, ‘You are my Son and I love you. You make me very happy.’^[m]

The ancestors of Jesus

²³ Jesus was about 30 years old when he began his work. People thought that he was the son of Joseph.