Beginning

2 Around this time, Emperor Augustus issued an order for a census to be taken throughout the Empire. ² This registration, the first of its kind, took place when Quirinius was governing in Syria. ³ Everyone went to be registered, each to his own town. ⁴ So Yosef, because he was a descendant of David, went up from the town of Natzeret in the Galil to the town of David, called Beit-Lechem, in Y’hudah, ⁵ to be registered, with Miryam, to whom he was engaged, and who was pregnant. ⁶ While they were there, the time came for her to give birth; ⁷ and she gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him in cloth and laid him down in a feeding trough, because there was no space for them in the living-quarters.

⁸ In the countryside nearby were some shepherds spending the night in the fields, guarding their flocks, ⁹ when an angel of Adonai appeared to them, and the Sh’khinah of Adonai shone around them. They were terrified; ¹⁰ but the angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid, because I am here announcing to you Good News that will bring great joy to all the people. ¹¹ This very day, in the town of David, there was born for you a Deliverer who is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² Here is how you will know: you will find a baby wrapped in cloth and lying in a feeding trough.” ¹³ Suddenly, along with the angel was a vast army from heaven praising God:

¹⁵ No sooner had the angels left them and gone back into heaven than the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go over to Beit-Lechem and see this thing that has happened, that Adonai has told us about.” ¹⁶ Hurrying off, they came and found Miryam and Yosef, and the baby lying in the feeding trough. ¹⁷ Upon seeing this, they made known what they had been told about this child; ¹⁸ and all who heard were amazed by what the shepherds said to them. ¹⁹ Miryam treasured all these things and kept mulling them over in her heart. ²⁰ Meanwhile, the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for everything they had heard and seen; it had been just as they had been told.

²¹ On the eighth day, when it was time for his b’rit-milah, he was given the name Yeshua, which is what the angel had called him before his conception.

²² When the time came for their purification according to the Torah of Moshe, they took him up to Yerushalayim to present him to Adonai ²³ (as it is written in the Torah of Adonai, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to Adonai”^[a]) ²⁴ and also to offer a sacrifice of a pair of doves or two young pigeons,^[b] as required by the Torah of Adonai.

²⁵ There was in Yerushalayim a man named Shim‘on. This man was a tzaddik, he was devout, he waited eagerly for God to comfort Isra’el, and the Ruach HaKodesh was upon him. ²⁶ It had been revealed to him by the Ruach HaKodesh that he would not die before he had seen the Messiah of Adonai. ²⁷ Prompted by the Spirit, he went into the Temple courts; and when the parents brought in the child Yeshua to do for him what the Torah required, ²⁸ Shim‘on took him in his arms, made a b’rakhah to God, and said,

³³ Yeshua’s father and mother were marvelling at the things Shim‘on was saying about him. ³⁴ Shim‘on blessed them and said to the child’s mother, Miryam,

³⁶ There was also a prophet named Hannah Bat-P’nu’el, of the tribe of Asher. She was a very old woman — she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage ³⁷ and had remained a widow ever since; now she was eighty-four. She never left the Temple grounds but worshipped there night and day, fasting and praying. ³⁸ She came by at that moment and began thanking God and speaking about the child to everyone who was waiting for Yerushalayim to be liberated.

³⁹ When Yosef and Miryam had finished doing everything required by the Torah of Adonai, they returned to the Galil, to their town Natzeret.

⁴⁰ The child grew and became strong and filled with wisdom — God’s favor was upon him.

⁴¹ Every year Yeshua’s parents went to Yerushalayim for the festival of Pesach. ⁴² When he was twelve years old, they went up for the festival, as custom required. ⁴³ But after the festival was over, when his parents returned, Yeshua remained in Yerushalayim. They didn’t realize this; ⁴⁴ supposing that he was somewhere in the caravan, they spent a whole day on the road before they began searching for him among their relatives and friends. ⁴⁵ Failing to find him, they returned to Yerushalayim to look for him. ⁴⁶ On the third day they found him — he was sitting in the Temple court among the rabbis, not only listening to them but questioning what they said; ⁴⁷ and everyone who heard him was astonished at his insight and his responses. ⁴⁸ When his parents saw him, they were shocked; and his mother said to him, “Son! Why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been terribly worried looking for you!” ⁴⁹ He said to them, “Why did you have to look for me? Didn’t you know that I had to be concerning myself with my Father’s affairs?” ⁵⁰ But they didn’t understand what he meant.

⁵¹ So he went with them to Natzeret and was obedient to them. But his mother stored up all these things in her heart.

⁵² And Yeshua grew both in wisdom and in stature, gaining favor both with other people and with God.

3 In the fifteenth year of Emperor Tiberius’ rule; when Pontius Pilate was governor of Y’hudah, Herod ruler of the Galil, his brother Philip ruler of Iturea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, ² with ‘Anan and Kayafa being the cohanim g’dolim; the word of God came to Yochanan Ben-Z’kharyah in the desert. ³ He went all through the Yarden region proclaiming an immersion involving turning to God from sin in order to be forgiven. ⁴ It was just as had been written in the book of the sayings of the prophet Yesha‘yahu,

⁷ Therefore, Yochanan said to the crowds who came out to be immersed by him, “You snakes! Who warned you to escape the coming punishment? ⁸ If you have really turned from your sins, produce fruit that will prove it! And don’t start saying to yourselves, ‘Avraham is our father’! For I tell you that God can raise up for Avraham sons from these stones! ⁹ Already the axe is at the root of the trees, ready to strike; every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown in the fire!”

¹⁰ The crowds asked Yochanan, “So then, what should we do?” ¹¹ He answered, “Whoever has two coats should share with somebody who has none, and whoever has food should do the same.” ¹² Tax-collectors also came to be immersed; and they asked him, “Rabbi, what should we do?” ¹³ “Collect no more than the government assesses,” he told them. ¹⁴ Some soldiers asked him, “What about us? What should we do?” To them he said, “Don’t intimidate anyone, don’t accuse people falsely, and be satisfied with your pay.”

¹⁵ The people were in a state of great expectancy, and everyone was wondering whether perhaps Yochanan himself might be the Messiah; ¹⁶ so Yochanan answered them all, “I am immersing you in water, but he who is coming is more powerful than I — I’m not worthy to untie his sandals! He will immerse you in the Ruach HaKodesh and in fire. ¹⁷ He has with him his winnowing fork to clear out his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the straw with unquenchable fire!”

¹⁸ And with many other warnings besides these he announced the Good News to the people.

¹⁹ But Yochanan also denounced Herod the regional governor for taking as his own wife Herodias, the wife of his brother, and for all the other wicked things Herod had done; ²⁰ whereupon Herod added this to the rest: he locked up Yochanan in prison.

²¹ While all the people were being immersed, Yeshua too was immersed. As he was praying, heaven was opened; ²² the Ruach HaKodesh came down on him in physical form like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, whom I love; I am well pleased with you.”

²³ Yeshua was about thirty years old when he began his public ministry. It was supposed that he was a son of Yosef who was of Eli,

²⁴ of Mattat, of Levi, of Malki, of Yannai, of Yosef,

²⁵ of Mattityahu, of Amotz, of Nachum, of Hesli, of Naggai,

²⁶ of Machat, of Mattityahu, of Shim‘i, of Yosef, of Yodah,

²⁷ of Yochanan, of Reisha, of Z’rubavel, of Sh’altiel, of Neri,

²⁸ of Malki, of Addi, of Kosam, of Elmadan, of Er,

²⁹ of Yeshua, of Eli‘ezer, of Yoram, of Mattat, of Levi,

³⁰ of Shim‘on, of Y’hudah, of Yosef, of Yonam, of Elyakim,

³¹ of Mal’ah, of Manah, of Mattatah, of Natan, of David,

³² of Yishai, of ‘Oved, of Bo‘az, of Salmon, of Nachshon,

³³ of Amminadav, of Admin, of Arni, of Hetzron, of Peretz, of Y’hudah,

³⁴ of Ya‘akov, of Yitz’chak, of Avraham, of Terach, of Nachor,

³⁵ of S’rug, of Re‘u, of Peleg, of ‘Ever, of Shelah,

³⁶ of Keinan, of Arpakhshad, of Shem, of Noach, of Lemekh,

³⁷ of Metushelach, of Hanokh, of Yered, of Mahalal’el, of Keinan,

³⁸ of Enosh, of Shet, of Adam, of God.