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Chronological

Read the Bible in the chronological order in which its stories and events occurred.

Duration: 365 days

Matthew 1

Prologue: The Birth of the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth^[a]

Chapter 1

The Genealogy of Jesus.^[b] ¹The account of the genealogy of Jesus Christ,^[c] the son of David, the son of Abraham.

²Abraham was the father of Isaac,

Isaac the father of Jacob,

Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.

³Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah, with Tamar^[d] being their mother.

Perez was the father of Hezron,

Hezron the father of Ram,

⁴Ram the father of Amminadab.

Amminadab was the father of Nahshon,

Nahshon the father of Salmon,

⁵Salmon the father of Boaz, with Rahab being his mother.

Boaz was the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth.

Obed was the father of Jesse,

⁶and Jesse was the father of King David.

David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been the wife of Uriah.

⁷Solomon was the father of Rehoboam,

Rehoboam the father of Abijah,

Abijah the father of Asa.

⁸Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat,

Jehoshaphat the father of Joram,

Joram the father of Uzziah.

⁹Uzziah was the father of Jotham,

Jotham the father of Ahaz,

Ahaz the father of Hezekiah.

¹⁰Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh,

Manasseh the father of Amos,

Amos the father of Josiah.

¹¹Josiah was the father of Jechoniah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

¹²After the deportation to Babylon,

Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel,

Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,

¹³Zerubabbel the father of Abiud.

Abiud was the father of Eliakim,

Eliakim the father of Azor,

¹⁴Azor the father of Zadok.

Zadok was the father of Achim,

Achim the father of Eliud,

¹⁵Eliud the father of Eleazar.

Eleazar was the father of Matthan,

Matthan the father of Jacob.

¹⁶Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, who gave birth to Jesus who is called the Christ.^[e]

¹⁷Therefore, in total there were fourteen generations from Abraham to David, another fourteen generations from David to the deportation to Babylon, and another fourteen generations from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ.

¹⁸The Birth of Jesus.^[f] The birth of Jesus Christ occurred in this way. When his mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they came to live together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹Her husband Joseph was a just man and did not wish to expose her to the ordeal of public disgrace; therefore, he resolved to divorce her quietly.

²⁰After he had decided to follow this course of action, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to receive Mary into your home as your wife. For this child has been conceived in her womb through the Holy Spirit. ²¹She will give birth to a son, and you shall name him Jesus,^[g] for he will save his people from their sins.”

²²All this took place in order to fulfill what the Lord had announced through the prophet:

²³“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and give birth to a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,”

a name that means “God is with us.”^[h]

²⁴When Joseph rose from sleep, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him. He took Mary into his home as his wife, ²⁵but he engaged in no marital relations^[i] with her until she gave birth to a son, whom he named Jesus.

Footnotes

Matthew 1:1 Who was Jesus? Where did he come from? The prologue of Matthew’s Gospel immediately confronts us with this question. The author has not simply gathered up some scattered recollections to complete his album on the life of Christ; rather, from the very first moment he is transmitting the Church’s testimony of faith.
Matthew 1:1 To the ancients a genealogical tree was not only a set of data on one’s civil status but also a manifestation of one’s membership in a community and the importance of ancestry (Gen 5:1-11; Ex 6:14-24; 1 Chr 1–9; Ezr 2:59-63). The genealogy of Jesus is drawn up with special care; it is perhaps somewhat artificial, but it is quite solemn. In bringing Jesus on the scene, the entire history of the nation is recapitulated. He is the son of Abraham, in whom all the nations shall be blessed (Gen 18:18); he is the son of David, to whom the future of the people was entrusted (2 Sam 7:13-14); in other words, he is the one who will carry out God’s plan for Israel and the entire human race; he is the One Sent, the consecrated of God (Messiah, Christ).
The opening sentences of the Gospel are thus a “Book of Genesis,” an account of the new beginning of humanity and the world (Gen 2:4; 5:1). Luke will carry the genealogy of Jesus back to Adam himself (Lk 3:23-38). In Matthew’s list Joseph plays a well-defined part: it is by means of him that Jesus is given a de jure place in history. But at this point the Gospel unexpectedly avoids the phrase “the father of” (“begot”), and Joseph is simply the husband of Mary. The entire mystery of Jesus’ origin is already stated in these few words.
Matthew 1:1 Christ: is the Greek translation of the Hebrew “Messiah,” which means “anointed,” that is, consecrated. Priests were anointed (Lev 4:3, 5; 16:15); so were kings (1 Sam 10:1 [Saul]; 16:11 [David], etc.), so much so that the reigning monarch was sometimes given the title of “Messiah,” or “Anointed One” (see Pss 2:2; 89:38; etc.). The name “Jesus Christ,” which at this point was still an alternative for or associated with “Jesus of Nazareth,” is already to be found in the initial preaching of the apostles (see Acts 3:6).
Matthew 1:3 The genealogy names four women: Tamar (see Gen 38; 1 Chr 2:4), Rahab (see Jos 2; 6:17), the wife of Uriah, i.e., Bathsheba (see 2 Sam 11; 12:24), and Ruth (see Book of Ruth). These four women were foreigners who in some way became part of the history of Israel. They symbolize the salvation that God intends for all peoples.
Matthew 1:16 It is important to note that in the case of Christ’s birth, the text uses a formula that is far different from the one used for the other persons in the genealogy. In doing so, the evangelist is paving the way for the teaching of Christ’s virginal conception, which took place without the intervention of any man.
Matthew 1:18 At the beginning of creation the Spirit made the waters fruitful (Gen 1:2; Ps 33:6-7); the Spirit restored life to a people who had been destroyed and were in exile (Ezek 37:1-14; Isa 44:2-4). Now the Spirit creates the new human being, the new Israel, in the womb of the Virgin. How mysterious the interventions of God that turn upside down the course of events and the ways of human beings! Joseph, who is irrevocably bound to Mary because at that time an espousal was a definitive act, is witness to the incomprehensible; he has too much trust in his wife to abandon her to the sentence imposed by the Law if she were to be thought an adulteress. But who will show him the way out of this impossible situation? A revelation of heaven makes his mission known to him in a dream, as the announcement of angels and messengers had to the patriarchs. Joseph obeys, and through him Jesus finds a place publicly in the dynasty of David.
What will this son become, whose name “Jesus” is already a program, since it means “God saves”? The prophecy of Isaiah, which had remained mysterious to the minds of believers, is now fulfilled. Such is the main message of this text that was originally addressed to Jews, namely, that God is in our midst to give us victory and to live the covenant to the full. “Emmanuel” means “God is with us” (Lk 1:31; Jn 1:14). That is the ultimate message.
Matthew 1:21 Jesus: is a transcription of the Greek Iêsous, which in turn is a transcription of the Hebrew Jehoshuah (“Joshua” in translations) or Jeshua in its later form. It means “God saves.”
Matthew 1:23 See Isa 7:14. God’s promise of salvation to Judah in the time of Isaiah is seen to be fulfilled in the birth of Jesus. This is the first of some 60 citations, most of them Messianic, that Matthew takes from the Old Testament.
Matthew 1:25 Engaged in no marital relations: literally, “did not know,” “know” being the usual word for conjugal relations (see Gen 4:1). The meaning of “he engaged in no marital relations with her . . . ” is: “without his knowing her, she bore a son.” The Hebrew word “until” neither implies nor excludes marital conduct after Jesus’ birth.

Luke 2:1-38

Chapter 2

The Birth of Jesus.^[a] ¹In those days, a decree was issued by Caesar Augustus that a census should be taken throughout the entire world. ²This was the first such registration, and it took place when Quirinius^[b] was governor of Syria.

³Everyone traveled to his own town to be enrolled. ⁴Joseph therefore went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David. ⁵He went to be registered together with Mary, his betrothed, who was expecting a child. ⁶While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, ⁷and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger,^[c] because there was no room for them in the inn.

⁸In the nearby countryside there were shepherds living in the fields and keeping watch over their flock throughout the night. ⁹Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them. They were terror-stricken, ¹⁰but the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for I bring you good news of great joy for all the people. ¹¹For this day in the city of David there has been born to you a Savior who is Christ, the Lord.

¹²“This will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” ¹³And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,

¹⁴“Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to all those on whom his favor rests.”^[d]

¹⁵The Visit of the Shepherds. After the angels had departed from them to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Come, let us go to Bethlehem to see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” ¹⁶And so they set off in haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.

¹⁷When they saw the child, they recounted the message that had been told them about him. ¹⁸All who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. ¹⁹As for Mary, she treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰And the shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as they had been told.

²¹The Circumcision and Naming of Jesus.^[e]On the eighth day, when the time for the child’s circumcision had arrived, he was given the name Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he had been conceived in the womb.

²²Jesus Is Presented in the Temple. When the days for their purification were completed according to the Law of Moses, they brought the child up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, ²³as it is prescribed in the Law of the Lord: “Every firstborn male shall be consecrated to the Lord,” ²⁴and to offer a sacrifice in accordance with what is stated in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”

²⁵The Prophecy of Simeon. At that time, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This upright and devout man was awaiting the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. ²⁶It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not experience death before he had seen the Christ of the Lord.

²⁷Prompted by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what was required by the Law, ²⁸he took him in his arms and praised God, saying:

²⁹“Now, Lord, you may dismiss your servant in peace,
    according to your word;
³⁰for my eyes have seen your salvation,
³¹    which you have prepared in the sight of all the peoples,
³²a light of revelation to the Gentiles
    and glory for your people Israel.”

³³The child’s father and mother marveled at what was being said about him. ³⁴Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother: “This child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed, ³⁵so that the secret thoughts of many will be revealed, and you yourself a sword will pierce.”

³⁶The Witness of Anna. There was also present a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very advanced in years, having lived with her husband for seven years after their marriage, ³⁷and then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple, but worshiped with fasting and prayer night and day. ³⁸At that moment, she came forward and began to praise God, while she spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the deliverance of Jerusalem.

Footnotes

Luke 2:1 The Gospel of Jesus’ birth is perhaps the best known passage of the Bible.
The birth of Jesus is described both as parallel to and in contrast with the birth of John. For lack of room in the inn, the young mother looks to a stable for an unobtrusive retreat in which to give birth to her son. Beginning in the 2nd century, the place was said to be a cave close to Bethlehem. She had a manger in which to lay the child.
Apart from Mary and Joseph, there were no relatives or friends present to welcome this child: only a few shepherds, people who lived on the margins of society and whose trade was at that time severely criticized and despised by the teachers of the Law.
The passage is full of grand ideas about faith; we may say also that it is rich in theology. The birth is described as the coming of the Messianic child. We are in Bethlehem, the native city of David who founded a royal and Messianic dynasty and who marked, as it were, a new beginning (1 Sam 16:1f; Mic 5:1). God bursts into the midst of the poor, proclaiming joy and peace for the whole world.
The event went unnoticed by the chroniclers of the age, and yet it changed the destiny of the human race. In order to bring out its universal significance, Luke locates it in relation to the history of the world: Herod the Great (37–4 B.C.) is still in power; Augustus (29 B.C.–A.D. 14) has imposed Roman rule on the entire Mediterranean world, “the entire world” (Greek: oikumenê) known at the time (v. 1). But the general census that Augustus has ordered is the instrument of providence for fulfilling the prophecies, since it leads to Mary’s journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem (v. 4).
A 6th-century monk, Dionysius Exiguus (“Little Denis”), wanted to mark the beginning of the Christian year, but he miscalculated and dated the birth of Jesus as occurring in the year 754 from the foundation of Rome (instead of 6–7 years earlier). But the mistake is of little importance, for Dionysius’ insight was correct: this event, more than any other, deserves to date the history of humanity, for it is the hinge on which all of history turns.
Luke 2:2 Quirinius: Publius Quirinius, legate of Syria, conducted a census of Palestine in A.D. 6, ten years after the death of Herod the Great. The information we have does not allow us to decide whether Luke is referring to this census or to another.
Luke 2:7 Manger: the legend of the ass and the cattle at the manger was perhaps suggested by Isa 1:3.
Luke 2:14 On whom his favor rests: some read “to men of goodwill,” but it seems better not to contrast God’s peace and human goodwill.
Luke 2:21 This section describes the Jewish rites associated with a birth. In addition to circumcision, forty days after the birth Jewish parents celebrated the rites of purification and ransoming, which in the context of the ancient religion represented a respect for life and a sense of the sacred (see Ex 13:2; Lev 12:2-8; Num 18:15-16). This child, who is bought back with the offering of the poor, is the Messiah and has come to carry out the mission entrusted to the Servant as foretold in the great prophetic songs of Isaiah (42:6; 49:6; 52:10): to save all of humankind, to bring light to all peoples.
Some hearts are already drawn by the joyous conviction that the prophecies are fulfilled, and the hymn of the elderly prophet Simeon is, despite its brevity, among the richest of Christian canticles. But who can recognize the mission of the Messiah unless they accept the light of God? That mission elicits hostility; and Mary will experience the repercussions of the Savior’s painful lot, because faith in the Savior will bring to light the deep religion of hearts and put an end to the legalism of Judaism.

New Catholic Bible (NCB)

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Chronological

Prologue: The Birth of the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth[a]

Chapter 1

Footnotes

Chapter 2

Footnotes

Prologue: The Birth of the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth^[a]